Irvine Should Just Say No to Starting Football Team

They’re already working on helmet logos at UC Irvine, which is a shame since the school needs a football program like Imelda Marcos needs another trip to New York.

For reasons not entirely clear, a coalition of Irvine students, with the implicit support of certain athletic department members, are trying to bring football to the campus in time for the 1990 season. And Division III football, at that.

Imagine the excitement.

“Honey, hurry up or we’ll be late for the big game against Occidental.”

Zot-boom-bah? Even the Anteater, that likable mascot, is sticking out his tongue on this one.

Proponents of the plan say the university and its students deserve such a program, that 2 decades of waiting for football is long enough. They argue that Irvine is a growing campus, with enrollment expected to exceed 16,000 by 1990, and thus, able to support the added weight of the sport. They say this is a natural progression, the next step.

Sure it is . . . backwards.

According to the proposal, which is expected to be voted on in January by the UCI student body, a $12 quarterly surcharge would be added to each student’s bill to fund the budding football program. That’s enough for about a $300,000 operating budget, which pays for part-time coaches, supplies, travel, equipment, locker room facilities and home-field arrangements.

Oh, you hadn’t heard? Irvine doesn’t have a stadium. It has the weather. It has the practice field. It has the dreams. It just doesn’t have a stadium.

“That really hasn’t been worked out,” said Rob Halvaks, Irvine’s senior associate athletic director.

Here are the options:

--Irvine could play at an off-campus site, such as a local high school or Santa Ana Stadium.

--It could alter the existing track and field facility for football.

--It could convert the existing soccer area into a makeshift stadium.

--It could forget the whole thing.

I vote for Option No. 4.

Has anyone noticed that our football neighbors to the north, Cal State Fullerton, a Division I program, no less, doesn’t have an on-campus playing site? Anyone notice the attendance figures for its home games, that is, when Fullerton has home games? Anyone notice how that program is dying a slow death partly because of its stadium-less status?

If Fullerton, a member of the big-time Division I, can’t draw, what makes anyone at Irvine, with a Division III schedule, think they can do any better? And would you want $300,000 spent on an opponents’ list that probably will include UC Santa Barbara, Redlands and Whittier? Does your heart go pitter-patter or does your mind go zzzzzzz? Would you want to spend gas money on a drive like this?

And just a friendly reminder that the Division I Irvine basketball program, housed in the new Bren Center and led by the personable Bill Mulligan, can’t even find enough people to fill its 5,000 seats.

Supporters of the initiative say this is simply football for football’s sake. Twelve lousy bucks a quarter. A low-pressure alternative with non-scholarship rosters. If that’s the case, why not stick with intramural football; it’s cheaper and everyone can play. Why not try to emulate programs such as Marquette’s or DePaul’s, universities that have invested their energies and money into basketball . . . and benefitted from their efforts.

Or turn the argument around. Say that Irvine is using the Division III status as a starting point, that it hopes to carefully move up to Division II, then Division I. Good luck.

Need reasons why it won’t work? Look no further than Fullerton or Long Beach, where two well-intentioned football programs cling to solvency. The communities don’t support them. They struggle for an identity in an area where the Rams, Angels, Dodgers, Lakers, Clippers, Bruins and Trojans reside. They struggle for funding. They are an example of what happens when ambition doesn’t match commitment.

Switch to Division I and suddenly that $300,000 doesn’t cover much of anything. The 95 scholarships needed to start the program would cost about $600,000--and that’s if every player qualified for in-state tuition. Out-of-state tuition, thus out-of-state players, would cost an additional $4,500 per scholarship.

Who pays for that? If you stick the students with the bill, that 12 lousy bucks becomes $36 a quarter. Try to find money from the university and I guarantee that faculty types will raise their slide rules in protest. After all, Irvine considers itself a research institution first, an athletic playground a distant second.

Nothing against football--it’s a wonderful sport--it just doesn’t belong at Irvine. Not on the Division III level. Not without a stadium. Not without another way to pay for it. Not when Occidental is the homecoming-game opponent.

As for those helmet logo choices, I liked the one with the gold shield and the block I inset. Save it for the new basketball uniforms.