Wichita State releases study on feasibility of adding football

Wichita State dropped football in 1986. Starting in 1987, it studied reviving the program eight times, most recently in 2007, and all came to largely the same conclusion — football costs a lot of money.

On Tuesday, Wichita State released its latest look at the football issue, a 69-page “Football Benchmarking Analysis” prepared by College Sports Solutions at a cost of around $60,000. Interim athletic director Darron Boatright will discuss the report Tuesday.

Football remains expensive and the report details start-up facility costs of more than $40 million and football budgets that start around $6 million annually.

As Boatright said recently, the release of the report is not considered a “confetti cannons” moment. The purpose of the report is not to make recommendations. It provides Wichita State with information regarding the steps necessary to start a football program, both at the lower-level Championship Subdivision and highest-level Bowl Subdivision, including cost, manpower, facilities and gender-equity compliance.

WSU views the report as a marker in the longer process of evaluating the athletic department. In December, president John Bardo said the evaluation of the athletic department could last a year. Although College Sports Solutions also gathered information on options should WSU want to leave the Missouri Valley Conference, that issue was largely ignored by the report released Monday, likely due to the confidential and sensitive nature of discussions with people in other conferences.

“This is just going to be information and it’s the type of information people on a college campus generally get excited about because there’s research that’s been done and there’s up-to-date information,” Boatright said earlier this month.

Student Government Association president Joseph Shepard hadn’t read the report as of late Monday afternoon. He is well-aware of the discussion on campus, which alternates between excitement about the possibilities of fun on fall afternoons and nervousness regarding paying for salaries, scholarships, facilities, travel, equipment and all the other expenses which make the sport such a handful to consider.

He said the SGA took an informal online survey recently and the majority of those who chose to respond favor Shocker football. A majority, he said, also don’t want to see tuition or fees raised.

“A football team contributes so much to student life,” Shepard said. “Every student is concerned when we hear that tuition or student fees might increase. A football program isn’t necessarily enhancing the quality of education.”

The “Football Benchmarking Analysis” is full of the type of information that can shape decisions on the sports. It summarizes the steps necessary to revive the sport and gain NCAA compliance.

▪  One of the report’s few recommendations is that WSU must join a conference if it wants to play football. Pursuing FBS membership as an independent results in “operational difficulties, particularly with scheduling, present additional issues that can become problematic both as to management and resources.” The report is written with the presumption WSU operates in a conference, although no recommendations are made for a home should FBS football exist.

▪  For FCS (formerly Division I-AA) football, the study estimates first-year expenses of $238,500 for coaches salaries and recruiting. After a year of preparation and one of practice, expenses rise to $5.8 million for the first season of play and $6.5 million for the second season.

Coaches salaries, for example, account for $1 million of that $6.5 million total.

By the fifth year, the report projects revenue of $1.2 million.

WSU could play at the FCS level immediately. A two-year reclassification period is required to join FBS, a level that also requires conference membership.

▪  For FBS football, the costs increase from $585,451 after the sport is announced to $10.5 million five years later.

In that scenario, salary for coaches account for $2.5 million of the fifth-year budget. By the fifth year, the report projects revenue of $2.5 million.

▪  The report said WSU would likely need to add one or more women’s sports and lists soccer, swimming and diving, rowing and bowling (both currently non-NCAA sports at WSU) as examples. The women’s additions would be to satisfy Title IX, the 1972 law enacted to ensure gender equity at publicly-funded schools.

“The addition of from 100 to 120 male student-athletes will of course change considerably the female to male ratios of the current student-athlete population,” the report states. “The addition of that number of males will likely necessitate the addition of one or more additional women’s intercollegiate sports in the future. This will require further study and a definitive strategic plan.”

▪  WSU’s institutional and financial profile is closer in some cases to FCS schools than it is to FBS schools.

Its undergraduate enrollment of 8,690 (Fall 2014) ranks below the 25th percentile for FBS schools in conferences such as the American, Mountain West, Sun Belt, Mid-American and Conference USA. WSU’s institutional expenditures of $292 million (2015) are more comparable to FCS schools and again ranks in the bottom 25 percent of FBS schools from those conferences.

WSU’s athletic budget of $25 million ranks in the 75th percentile of FCS schools and in the 25th percentile of similar FBS schools. Football, of course, accounts for much of that disparity.

▪  WSU athletics relies significantly less on institutional support, student fees and government support than similar FCS and FBS schools. Its allocated revenue of $7.4 million below the 25th percentile for all FCS and FBS schools in those five conferences.

▪  Through fund-raising, ticket sales, broadcast rights, advertising and other sources, WSU athletics generated $19 million in 2015. That ranks above the 75th percentile for FCS schools and FBS schools in those five conferences. With that revenue, WSU compares favorably to schools in the American and Mountain West conferences, whose members bring in between $14 and $29 million in revenue.

▪  The report cited a study done by GLMV Architecture that estimates costs of $21-28 million for Cessna Stadium improvements and $21 million for a practice facility.

For $28 million, for example, Cessna Stadium would receive a new press box and suites, in addition to artificial turf, new scoreboard with video, lights, four elevators and a new concourse on the west side. In two of the options, the east stands are razed and rebuilt.

This story was originally published June 27, 2016 at 5:15 PM with the headline "Wichita State releases study on feasibility of adding football."