IRVINE : Football Scores Poorly With Faculty

A small group of UC Irvine faculty members Thursday sacked a proposal for starting a football program.

The 12-6 vote against recommending the program followed a good-humored debate in which speakers on both sides stressed they were sports fans, regardless of what they thought about seeing football at UCI.

Opponents claimed that college football is destined to fail in Orange County, where fans have myriad sports attractions. Proponents said that having football at UC Irvine would be pleasant for the students and bring the school national recognition.

But English professor Stephen Barney claimed the program would lose money and be a misallocation of resources at a time when many school programs are in great need.

The pro-football side, which proposed charging students $8 per quarter to fund a team, said that strong support of high school football teams in Orange County proves such a program could work at UCI.