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And what better place to start than the website of your old college where I found lots of information. Sort of. Saint Mary's College of California in Moraga: Press and President's Open Letter about dropping football (if you're really interested in reading it)
Apparently, after an 18 member task force reviewed the athletics program for the last few months, they decided that it would be better to drop football than to try and get the team in a position to participate in Division I-AA ball. Apparently, they would have to divert significant funding from the other 14 sports that the college participates in to be able to achieve participation in Division I.
While I think that this may be part of the greater good (goodness knows, when I was playing co-ed rugby we didn't have ANY money), I wonder what the other teams might be thinking. Or feeling about this change of fortune - it's going to better allow them to compete as a WCC (West Coast Conference) team.
I remember when I was attending the school, and shortly after, we had a stellar basketball team. At one point we were in competition that would have brought us to the Final Four - but all the campus was focused on was football. I knew some very frustrated basketball players at that time.
The Board of Regents of the school has decided to agree with the Athletic Review Task Force's recommendation that all the monies be reinvested into the 14 other sports teams that the college has. Goodness knows, I bet the rugby team is suffering a great hangover about this one already. I know when I played on the co-ed team for that 8 week season (co-ed was always a short season) that the rugby team was in need of new jerseys, new equipment, and was at the mercy of the football team as to when they could use the gym.
Heck, I had to borrow someone's jersey to play those 8 weeks. It's really interesting trying to find something that you can wear among of a team of guys that have at least 6 inches on you in height, 100 pounds minimum on you in weight, and their shoulders are 8 inches wider than yours. Thankfully, I was good friends with one of the smaller guys on the team who was about my size and was able to borrow one of his spare jerseys. It fit so perfectly as if it were made for me and thus began my love of rugby shirts. I digress... this isn't about me and my attempts to keep my collarbone from being broken in a scrum.
This is about a college dropping a football team. It makes me wonder if someone on that Task Force said something to the effect of "what's the point? We won the Bell, Santa Clara doesn't have football anymore either, and thus, we have no great rivals anymore." The Bell, for those who don't know (and I suspect the numbers are great), was the bell-shaped trophy that was awarded to the winner of the Little Big Game - the yearly matchup between the Santa Clara Broncos and the Saint Mary's Gaels (actually, we were the Galloping Gaels, but that was just embarrasing).
Being the permanent winner of The Bell was a great source of pride for many a Gael when Santa Clara announced they were dropping football. Their excuse back then was that they couldn't afford to keep the team going anymore. I don't think that that's the real reason behind SMC dropping their team, but it is something that's crossed my mind considering the vast amounts of donor forms that I've gotten in the last two years. Then again, maybe I'm finally at the age that they figure I've become a wealthy woman and can afford to donate to the school.
Anyway, I'm going to miss hearing about the Gaels playing college ball. I won't be able to take my kids to a Homecoming football game - I was looking forward to doing that. *shrug* Oh well. I should be happy about this, in a time where the football program of a college is the centerpiece of everything and academics goes by the wayside. Where the football players can get away with almost anything but don't get the same punishments as every other person because they have to play in the big game that weekend... or every weekend because they may be the lynchpin of the team. Yeah, whatever.
I should be happy, but I'm not. I'm wondering where the money for the academic programs is coming from... I know, drop one athletic team and the others should benefit from the windfall - but this was a place that used to be the best West Coast college for business and finance majors (in the late 80s and early 90s). Where's the funding for the students - more scholarships? An updated lab - yes, they built an entire science building a few years back, but I hear the labs are stocked with all the old equipment they brought over from Galileo Hall (which used to be the business and science majors main classrooms). I know the computer lab in the library has been updated, but I think the computers there are at least 3 years old - I think they expect all the freshmen to bring in their own computers now.
They built new dorms and updated the old ones to be able to house more students on campus and to house more students as the population of the college grows. That's great - but where's the funding to support all these new students' academic needs...
... it's probably still in the pockets of those folks paying off the student loans to have been able to go there in the first place.
On a personal aside... it's my 9th wedding anniversary.
Happy Anniversary DH. 
