WICHITA, Kansas -- A hundred miles up I-35, the colors black and gold remain but this time there's no Shocker in sight.
"It brings a lot to the campus atmosphere. It really anchors us as a residential campus, I think," says Emporia State University Athletic Director, Kent Weiser.
It's Emporia State University's annual inter-squad spring game where alumni fill the president's box to watch, to catch up, to stay connected.
Right in the mix is athletic director Kent Weiser. The first to admit a football program isn't cheap, Wiser says it's the extended benefits that outweigh the cost.
"I think even across the board, more than just athletic, student athlete recruiting, I think it plays an important part in just overall student recruitment," says Weiser.
It's that issue of student recruitment that Wichita attorney, Fred Marrs, points to as the biggest injustice that WSU's loss of football has created.
At the time of football's suspension, Wichita State's enrollment was 16,843, just about 800 students less than K-State.
Enrollment slightly rose the following three years, and then began to steadily drop.
Today’s head count sits at 14,806; more than 2,000 less than in 1986 and almost 9,000 less than K-State today (23,588).
"Every other university has gone up 15, 20, 30 percent. Wichita State has gone the other way," said former WSU quarterback, Hank Schichtle. "Our enrollment is less than it was in 1986. It's remarkably coincidental that's the year that they dropped football too."
"Now be careful. We don't have lower enrollment, we have lower head count," says WSU President Donald Beggs.
Beggs says student head count is not the same as student enrollment.
Although WSU's head count is down, classroom hours are up. 146,480 in 1986. 156,807 today. But compared to K-State today (588,421), it's still not close.
"I don't care what he gets per credit hour, it's still the total number of students that dictates what's happening," says Schichtle.
Studies by the NCAA and sport management journal, Smart, show direct correlations between the sport and student enrollment.
The Empirical Effects of Collegiate Athletics finds that dropping football can have measurable, negative effects on enrollments, even for second-tier schools.
"When I look at those kinds of studies, they're not the type of school that Wichita State is," said Beggs. "When we had football, a large portion of our students were part time. Today the majority of our students are full time students. We have a very different situation." [Of 113 Div. I NCAA universities at the time of the study, the majority were urban universities in population bases of 100,000 or more. And, the majority of that majority were situated in population bases greater than WSU's population base. "A large portion"... , defined as what percentage? Even then, the majority of the WSU students were full time students. Nor is it explained why that fact has anything to do with football. But for Beggs, he needs excuses for his lack of leadership and why he can't do anything, so he just makes negative things up about the university he is suppose to represent and disrespects and damns the alumni and students of the university in the process.]
Says former QB Schichtle: "You look at University of Louisville, you look at University of Cincinnati, they're Division One programs, they're nationally ranked programs. They put guys into the pros. We played in the Missouri Valley against Cincinnati, against Louisville back in the 70’s and 80’s, so that's hog wash."
Whatever the argument, Beggs sees a university that isn't missing out on anything, including its sports program, which brought home the NIT basketball title this year. [Lets see, no football marching band. The associated degradation of the music school. 9000 less students than we could have reasonably expected to have otherwise had. Loss of traditional Wichita students that now go to KU, K-State, and Butler. Loss of fraternities and sororities. No traditional home coming - Beggs has even tried to project a false home coming without football this past year because of the total lack of campus activities for students.] [Moreover, Beggs makes a Freudian slip when he gives away his personal view that football doesn't matter as long as there is quality baseball, quality basketball, and more women sports than men sports. We should be satisfied as the only University in the state that doesn't have football, not to mention 22 community colleges. All of which have gained students since we "suspended" football. We are the only school in the state to lose students since we suspended football. Beggs is satisfied if we have some sports; and more importantly, he doesn't have to provide any leadership or worry about football. You see, Beggs has too much on his plate what with his desire for the third best campus "art" collection in the country including a 4' high 5' wide and 20' long Beggs' millipede worm that he had installed, that is all lit up at night like the statue of liberty, that has nothing to do with anything except to trash the campus green at great expense. Then there are the 3 ladies of the night gowns and the fat couple under the umbrella, well rotund probably is a more descriptive word than fat, well maybe humongous Michelin tire couple is the best word description, or just plain ugly. Does anyone suspect that a campus art collection is part of the Board of Regents priorities and mission statement for WSU? These expensive campus eye sores have clearly never recruited a single student to the university, but they make Beggs and his close circle of the self anointed intellectual crowd feel good about themselves.] [Like Nero, they fiddle while Rome burns. Fort Hays State and Butler will in the not too distant future surpass WSU in enrollment, if nothing is done to re-instate football and thereby again appeal to traditional Wichita students who want a traditional college experience.] [We have suffered president Beggs intransigence for too long. It is time to suggest that he have the common decency to resign and let a committee of WSU alumni - not KU alumni that selected Beggs - select a new president who will work for the best benefit of WSU and this community.]
"(Football) is not a program that's critical of us to be a quality athletic program," said Beggs. [Hence, Beggs quick to take credit for any success, cutting down the nets in Madison Square Garden, pretending as if he had anything substantively to do with it, other than as a free trip for him and his wife to New York City.]
But is football a program that's critical for WSU to get back its student head count?
There's no sure way to tell. Only strong opinions that hit harder than any linebacker could.
"You get the right president, the right football coach, the right chemistry, the players, and magic can happen," said Schichtle.
[Brackets and hi-liting added by Fred Marrs]
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