49er Football continues to get press coverage across the state. In an article about smaller schools considering football “Small Colleges Adopt Football” News and Observer reporter Jane Stancill talks about football at schools across the state of North Carolina, but when talking about the addition of a college football program there is no one better to talk about than Charlotte!
That’s the question an advisory committee is pondering. Annual costs could reach $10 million, said UNCC Chancellor Philip Dubois, a former University of Wyoming president who is very familiar with big football. Dubois goes into the debate somewhat skeptically, though he says he will keep an open mind until he gets hard data from the study next year.”I certainly know how expensive they can be,” he said. “They’re great for alumni support and school spirit when you win, not so good when you lose.”UNCC doesn’t need football to attract students. The university had 15,000 applications this year for the freshman class. And the recruiting advantage appears to be a myth. “When you survey people about picking a school,” Dubois said, “football really isn’t on the list.”But the customers want it, according to a recent poll of 8,300 students by the UNCC student government association. Seventy-eight percent said they would support a fee increase to pay for football, though the level of support varied depending on how big the fee would be.”It just reinforced the view that students leave on the weekends and go to other schools that have football,” said Justin Ritchie of Salisbury, student body president. He said many of his high school friends chose N.C. State partly because of football.
