Western Washington kills football
by John Berkowitz on Jan 8, 2009 3:36 PM PST
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PrintIn what I would call a surprise move Western Washington University killed it's football program today. The reason they gave was increased costs and the inability to schedule opponents close to home.
I guess dropping down to the same level as Pacific Lutheran and other Northwest schools was never considered an option since they wanted to remain a Division II member rather than slide down to Division III.
I think it was stupid on their part since Division III football in Washington state is alive an healthy. If it is a matter of cutting scholarships and going with grants in aid that was probably the best way to go to maintain the tradition that Western has had over the past 100 years.
The decision will put a lot of pressure on Central Washington to keep their program going. They have a strong program over there with an eye of joining Eastern Washington in the Big Sky some day.
This decision will force them one direction or another.
A couple years ago we all wondered why former Husky Rob Smith would quit with the program on the upswing and now we have our answer. He had to know it was headed in this direction.
Football began at Western in 1903 with the only stoppages being four years during World War I from 1917 to 1920 and three years during World War II from 1943 to 1945.
This is a sad day for football in Washington.
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That Sucks!
What a horrible horrible decision. They need a Stadium on campus that the students can walk to. There program was not that bad and they usually had winning seasons. The president should be fired immediately for letting that happen.
I didn't know they had FB
but I’ve only lived here 30 years. Dane Looker is the only player I heard of that went there, and he played BB.
Not Good
It’s never good to have any program shut down. The more football programs in Washington the better the spotlight on football in general. I really wonder why they didn’t just step down to DIII.
"Bow Down to Washington"
"Kick the tires and light the fires!"
As an alumnus
And longtime resident of Bellingham, I am saddened by this news. I don’t even know what to say.
I guess I’ll always be able to remember this (the link won’t work correctly… you’ll have to copy and paste into browser… its worth it).
As much as I hate to say it
I completely understand where the school is coming from though. Travel costs for Western had to be extremely high. Here in PA we have 14 Div 2 state schools, furtherest two are Philly to right outside Pitt next to Ohio (5-6 hour drive) and even then travel costs a lot.
Still there had to another way….
I agree with bigdave ...
… I’m not sure what the basis is for calling the decision “stupid”. Since the operations of the WWU athletic department cannot self-fund all of the sports, and given the fact that the economic conditions have led to losses on capital invested out of their endowment (they need gains to fund extracurricular activities), I’m not sure what choices were available to preserve football AND every other sport. Its too bad. However, in the grand scheme of all the other tragedies that are unfolding in the wake of this recession (unemployment announced at 7.1%; aggregate unemployment now in double digits), I can’t say I’m going to shed too many tears over this rational decision.
"Greed is Good."
So is Rudy.
Rational?
I don’t know how rational it is to cut a program without trying to raise outside funds to support it.
The costs of running the Western football program was around $150,000 per year.
Bellevue HS spends more running their football program and it is funded by boosters.
It could have been done differently.
The difference between Division II and Division III competition isnt that great.
John
That is so far from the truth it hurts. Div III and Div II have more distance than Div II and the former Div 1AA. Top to bottom not even close. Mt Union couldnt hold Grand Valley’s jock strap or any other top 10-15 team for that matter and they are the best Div III has to offer. I realize that its not the best players in the world but there is a world of difference between Div III and Div II.
PLU
The main difference between Division II and III is scholarships.
I guess what I am trying to say if you are trying to preserve your football program drop down to Division III rather tna eliminate the program because the fan base doesn’t really care anyway.
How many Div III team are within driving distance?
Because if the number is still under 10 you still are paying for travel expenses which i believe is the most expensive part for Western.
WWU says that their football operation was $450k annually
… that’s a lot of coin when the University’s endowment is down 35-50% and there are efforts to raise outside funds for academic programs as well as the other sports. It’s sad, but certainly not irrational.
"Greed is Good."
So is Rudy.
The actual figure Gecko
The actual figure is they can save that much over the next three years.
by John Berkowitz on Jan 9, 2009 3:41 PM PST up reply actions
Division III teams within driving distance
Pacific Lutheran
Puget Sound
Whitworth
Linfield
Willamette
Lewis and Clark
Eastern Oregon
Carroll College
Rocky Mountain College
Western Montana
Montana Tech
Northern Montana
Montana?
Montana Tech is an 11 hour drive in a car…over 700 miles.
Flying distance is anything over 450 miles (this is the milage that NCAA will pay to fly teams during the playoffs). Pretty much it would equal a 7+ hour drive. Driving to all those games will cost a pretty penny too. Buses aren’t cheap and you would need two of them. We had a team drop football and they were 3-4 hours from every game. If people dont go and boosters dont pay, something has to go. I am againist dropping football but i can understand their situation. You cant play Div III football and keep everything else Div II. Pretty sure the only sport where you can play up is wrestling.
Dave
I played Division III football in the Northwest and we did these type of bus rides. I can remember the two day trip on the bus from Montana to Oregon to play games. There were more teams back then but we still played some teams twice and that was the early 1970’s.
I guess my point is that Western was always Dvision III until a few years ago and they should have stayed that way. They have never had the same committment and support toward athletics that Central and Eastern have had.
We both agree that this is horrible for the school and for the players.
I feel extremely bad for the alumni and the players who have bled Western football throughout the years. I don’t know enough about the expenses and budget to understand fully what went into the decision. I would assume it wasn’t an easy one though. Either way, its a shame to cut football for any reason but I guess I can understand why it happened. Maybe they can bring it back later like New Haven did a couple years back…
Scholarships
When Western started offering scholarships I knew it was a mistake because they were going to have trouble maintaining it. The reason they did it was to stay on the same level of Central.
Central on the other hand would like to be at the same level as Eastern.
Grass is always greener...
reality is that its expensive.
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