Hopefully better late than never, D3football.com welcomes Pacific University to the Division III football-playing fold. In a year where D-III football was dealt a few blows, losing Blackburn, Principia, and most surprisingly, Colorado College, it’s good to see administrations are still seeing the value of football at their schools.
I was contacted by an AP reporter in Oregon for my take on why Pacific added football — she said it was added as a revenue generator. And while that sounds odd at the Division III level, for a sport that costs a lot of money to sponsor, it can still make sense. I wrote a piece about schools adding football several years ago and there are a few basic reasons, one of which is increased enrollment.
This isn’t to say that Pacific will bring in 200 extra new freshmen when it holds its first football camp, the way Mary Hardin-Baylor did, but football is about the biggest driver of undergraduate enrollment a school can add.
Here’s hoping Pacific, and Hendrix too, find success in Division III football.
good luck Pacific wish we could get more schools in E8 will there be a kickoff 2009 last years was great
I played for Pacific in the 70s. A major reason for attending Pacific was to play football and baseball for a good small college. I graduated and went on to law school. I’ll never forget my experiences at Pacific and the life lessons I’ve learned there. I was sad when Pacific dropped football in 1992 but it is good to see the sport back. Go, Boxers!