Philly.com
INTERNET RADIO


Inside philly.com
Sports
Phillies
Eagles
Flyers
Sixers
Money

Looking for?
Archives
Black History
Campaign 2000
Chats
Comics
The Daily News
Death notices
Flower Show
Food (Cooking Show)
Freebies
Games
Horoscope
Kids (Headbone Zone)
Law
Lottery
Miss America 2K
Personals
Restaurants
Travel Planner
TV listings
Weddings
Zoo
Education Guide
More


Thursday, March 1, 2001 Go to: S M T W T F S
E-mail the story | Plain-text for printing

Temple: Football program is going to remain big-time

Related Links


  • sports.philly.com
  • On the Net | www.owlsports.com
  • Owls overcome Explorers' lead and keep tourney hopes alive
    By James M. O'Neill
    INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

    Temple University officials yesterday declared their unwavering commitment to maintaining an NCAA Division I-A football program, despite the Big East's decision this week to bump Temple from the conference.

    Howard Gittis, chairman of Temple's board of trustees, guaranteed that the university would sell 25,000 tickets to each of its team's home games next fall - a Big East benchmark that the Owls have not come close to reaching in past seasons.

    Despite their bold words, Gittis and Temple president David Adamany provided no details of how they expect to boost fan turnout for football games.

    "Let's just leave it that you'll see 25,000 people buying tickets for every one of our conference games," Adamany said yesterday, after a closed briefing with trustees and key members of the alumni booster club.

    Tom McElroy, the Big East's senior associate commissioner, announced after a meeting in Boston on Wednesday that Temple had been informed of its ouster, but that the league had not yet decided when to give the Owls the boot.

    Gittis said today that Temple had received no official word from the league and that he fully expected that Temple would play its Big East schedule this fall.

    There had been speculation that Temple would drop its football program if it could not find a suitable home in another league with Division I-A status.

    Gittis said that maintaining a Division I-A football program is necessary to ensure that Temple's students get the complete package of experiences that mark life at a major university. He said that the lack of a major football program would harm the school's efforts to recruit students.

    Temple has recently reversed years of enrollment decline, rolling out an aggressive marketing campaign that has paid off. Freshman enrollment has grown by 42 percent in two years.

    "It's very difficult for us to represent to our students that this is a first-rate university without providing the experiences that are offered elsewhere," Gittis said.

    A big-time football program, he said, is one of the elements that goes into "building a great university."

    That runs counter to the findings in a new study of college sports by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The findings, outlined in a book by Mellon president William Bowen, refute the principal rationales used by defenders of college sports - that winning teams generate increased alumni giving, for instance or that recruiting athletes enhances the racial or socioeconomic diversity of the student body.

    Despite the dismay of Temple administrators over the Big East's decision to cut the Owls adrift, the news generated barely a ripple among many students on the school's Broad Street campus yesterday. Near day's end, more than a few said that they had not even heard about the Big East's move.

    Typical were the comments of sophomore Greg Gillin of Broomall.

    "I guess it matters to the football players," he said, "but if you're not a player, most students don't care that much.

    "Around here, people are more preoccupied with other things. I'm trying to juggle classes and work, so football is not exactly a major preoccupation."

    Tom Maxey, Temple's vice president for enrollment management, said that he did not think that losing Big East football status would affect the school's recruitment of students because it would not be what students would base their college choices on.

    Many Temple faculty members, meanwhile, have long viewed the football program as a big money-loser and a drain on financial and other resources. They saw the Big East's action as a potential winner for Temple academically.

    Art Hochner, head of Temple's faculty union, said that he hoped the school would now consider downsizing the football program and redirecting scarce financial resources to academic areas.

    "We've been losing a lot of money on sports for years," he said. "I don't see much student support for the football program or much concern about it. I wish the administration would make a decision to focus on students, faculty and facilities."

    Donald L. Walters, former president of Temple's faculty senate, said he thought that the Big East decision might give Temple an opportunity to scale back its football program and start playing teams nearby, in smaller venues, which might add excitement.

    Walters, a 35-year faculty veteran, said he remembered the days when Temple played such small-time football schools as Bucknell and Delaware at its old stadium on Cheltenham Avenue.

    "They were more competitive and exciting games," he said.

    Attending a Temple game at Veterans Stadium or Franklin Field, where the crowds sometimes are under 10,000 - leaves a sense of emptiness and saps excitement from the event, Walters said.

    Though Temple has gotten money from the Big East as part of the conference's revenue-sharing practice, its football program has been a money-loser. The school received $1.8 million from the Big East in 1999 but still ran up an $800,000 deficit for football. Overall, Temple athletics lost $6.2 million on a total budget of $11.7 million that year.

    A big-time football program was a pet project of Peter Liacouras, the former Temple president, for years. In 1982, Liacouras famously predicted that Temple would make a return appearance to the Sugar Bowl by 1985. But a once proud program that had made it to that game in 1935, when it was guided by legendary coach Glenn "Pop" Warner, has enjoyed only two winning seasons since 1979.

    Liacouras retired last summer, and some wondered whether Adamany would show the same commitment to maintaining a big-time football program.

    Yesterday, when asked whether he was committed to keeping Temple football at the Division I-A level, Adamany abruptly shot back: "Absolutely."


    James M. O'Neill's e-mail address is joneill@phillynews.com.