The Case For Santa Clara Football
Football: True or False?

One of the challenges in promoting the restoration of football is in dealing with the misinformation surrounding the subject. Here are a few points to note.

MYTH: "Football is not played at serious universities like Santa Clara anymore."

FACT: Of the top 25 schools in the U.S. News annual surveys of competitive universities, 23 play intercollegiate football--including very "serious" schools like the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Johns Hopkins, and the University of Chicago. "MIT is always looking for outstanding scholar-athletes who can excel both in the classroom and on the football field," reads the institute's web site. (In fact, more MIT football players come from California than any other state.)

MYTH: "Santa Clara does not have the endowment to support a team."

FACT: A university's endowment is not designed to support athletic teams. However, consider that there are approximately 600 four-year schools with endowments smaller than Santa Clara playing football, including most major college teams. Of the 123 teams currently in Division I-AA, only 15 have endowments larger than what Santa Clara already has.

MYTH: "It would cost millions to support a team."

FACT: A recent University statement concluded football expenses would result in a $5 million annual cost at Santa Clara . This exaggerated figure is more than Pac 10 programs at Oregon State and Washington State, and twice that spent at Fresno State!

Some schools spend less and still compete mightily. Yale University, for instance, spends about half that of some other Ivy schools, thanks to a fundraising effort that permanently endowed the head coach's salary.

MYTH: "Adding football would be against Title IX."

FACT: Title IX does not prohibit adding men's sports. In fact, adding football could actually improve SCU's gender equity by enrolling more male students to a campus which is now disproportionately female. For more discussion on Title IX, link here. For outside links on Title IX and its effects elsewhere, link here.

MYTH: "Santa Clara could not afford to give football scholarships."

FACT: We believe that SCU should field an NCAA Division I-AA team along the lines of St. Mary's College. The rest of the team would enroll without scholarships. Across all four class years, a group of 60-70 students paying tuition, room, and board means as much as $2.4 million annually in revenues to the University.

MYTH: "Schools are not looking to add football."

FACT: Since Santa Clara dropped the sport, a total of 40 colleges and universities have added football, with another 10 scheduled to join the ranks within the next two years. Over 700 colleges now play the sport.

MYTH: "Adding football would hurt other SCU sports."

FACT: Adding one sport should not affect the success of other sports. Our basketball and soccer teams were successful before football was dropped, have been successful since, and there is no reason to suggest it would not remain so in the future.

MYTH: "Football would not bring good students to Santa Clara."

FACT: The return of football would bring to SCU talented, motivated student-athletes that would add to the diversity of the campus population. The same type of football recruits that once considered Santa Clara are now targets for Ivy League and other prominent schools. Columbia University, for example, has 29 Californians on its 2002 football roster.

MYTH: "There are not enough California teams to have a schedule."

FACT: Santa Clara's core opponents would include colleges with similar academic missions and athletic traditions

MYTH: "Santa Clara fans would not support football."

FACT: In the five years prior to 1993, SCU averaged around 6,000 fans a game. This would place it right in the middle of attendance averages for Division I-AA, and would be twice the average attendance for St. Mary's or San Diego.

And here's one statement that's no myth: Only the University's willingness to play football stands in the way of the successful return of football to Santa Clara.

© 2008, Let Them Play Foundation, Inc., a 501(c)(3) charitable organization incorporated in the state of California. Not affiliated with Santa Clara University. Use of the words 'Santa Clara', 'Broncos', or other descriptions and accounts of Santa Clara Football are used solely within a fair use of same and is provided solely as a means of historical information and context to the public domain. All rights reserved.