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.

This letter was sent to the Colorado College administrators named below and later posted to the Save CC football mailing list:

Richard Celeste, President
Ken Ralph, Director of Athletics
Susan Ashley, Head of Faculty
Colorado College

Dear Mr. Celeste, Mr. Ralph, and Ms. Ashley,

My name is Ray Urban and I am the father of Luke Urban, CC class of
2012 and starting linebacker this past season for the CC Tigers. I am
writing this letter not to argue whether or not football should be in
CC’s future but to outline a road map that is more in the spirit of
what CC is (or should be) about.

PERCEPTION

Let’s face it, canceling an 0-9 program is much easier than canceling
a 9-0 program. To the casual observer and general public, the team was
uncompetitive. Even with living in Boston I managed to attend three
games and watched video feeds of all of the rest. This is a team that
with a few breaks, a few less injuries, and offensive play calling
that better matched the players skills could easily have been 4-5.
From the DePauw overtime loss to the final game against Centre College
we saw a team that deserved to be on the field.

PROCESS

Yes, the fiscal crisis demanded attention and football is a relatively
expensive sport. What should have happened is an open, transparent,
frank discussion amongst all stake holders including the players,
alumni, and the larger CC community as to the best course of action.
What actually took place was the exact opposite; closed, opaque,
dictatorial.

SCHEDULE

The proposed three year time frame is right; it just needs to be
implemented 180 degrees from the way proposed. Commit to playing for
three more seasons while the future of the program is discussed and a
plan is implemented to either continue or end the 124 year tradition.
That allows CC to honor the commitments made to the football players
in the classes of 2010, 2011, and 2012 and builds on the strong
athletic and football core represented by those players. Discontinuing
the program for three years guarantees its death.

SUPPORT

The talk of requiring the football program to raise a sufficiently
large endowment to would allow CC to not support it at all is patently
unfair. Surely the 124 year old program should receive at least the
level of financial support from CC that the average CC Division Three
sport at CC receives.

Football is indeed old fashioned. It rewards teamwork more than
individual excellence. It is complicated, rewarding studiousness. It
demands practice. It is never easy. Colorado College owes to the
history of the program, the players, and the integrity of the College
to make this important decision the right way.

Sincerely yours,

Ray Urban

There are professional football leagues in many European countries, and Division III football players often play professionally for a few years, earn a living and see the world.

Consider it an extension of the liberal arts education.

I recently stumbled across the blog of one of those players, former Grinnell wide receiver Nick Merklin. He’s playing for the Kragujevac Wild Boars and paints an interesting picture of what it’s like as a Division III football player in Europe.

The blog can be found at http://footballinserbia.wordpress.com/