The Pacific University Newspaper, The Pacific Index, has been covering the possible revival of Boxer Football and most recently posted up the video report above. The report gets some sound bites from students both pro and con and we get to hear from the man himself, Athletic Director Ken Schumann.
One concern expressed a couple times is the worry that brining football back would “take away” from other sports on campus. Since football is played during the fall I guess people are worried that football back on campus would take away from the droves of Boxer fans attending volleyball, men’s and women’s soccer games. Just look at these attendance numbers for the 2008 season: Pacific Men’s Soccer averaged 221 spectators a match, Pacific Women’s Soccer brought in 174 spectators a match, and Volleyball pulled in 200 fans a match. I too would be worried about football eroding this fan base. (Where is an eye roll emotioncon when I need one?)
Obviously, I’m in Ken Schumann’s camp that football back on campus for our NWC neighbor would be a positive not only for their university but for the entire conference. Yeah, that means another body to recruit against but Linfield seemed to do OK when both Pacific and OIT still had football (won 3 NAIA titles) . ‘Ol Wildcat11 will stay on top of this story as it will have a huge impact on the NWC in the future.
BTW, mark it down now. SOU will shut down their football program within 3 years if they can’t jump to Division II.
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