[NU Sports] talk of leaving the league

[Dennis W. Brandt]

> But in both swimmings, wrestling -- where this could
> be a VERY special season -- men's soccer, and softball
> NU does just fine or better in the conference. Men's
> swimming, softball, wrestling, men's soccer and
> (non-BT) sport women's lacrosse have been nationally
> competitive or better.

I guess it's left to me to ask the question most of you want to ask but lack 
the courage in this PC world.

Who cares about these sports?  The participants?  Sure.  Their families?  Of 
course.  A tiny number of fans?  Yep.  Feminists on women's sports?  No 
question.  The other 95% of college sports fans could not care less.  Go to 
the next Penn State football game and ask the 110,000 fans there if they 
regularly follow any of the above sports, and 105,000 will likely say no. 
Or do you really think that fans would fill Beaver Stadium to watch Penn 
State's soccer or women's lacrosse teams play?  (Would 1,000 even show up?) 
Those fans will probably agree with me in the abstract that second tier 
sports are just fine, but they truly care only about football and men's 
basketball.  Keep in mind that those two sports pay the expenses for all the 
others - or should in Northwestern's case.

You're whistling in the dark if you excuse Northwestern's basketball 
futility and football mediocrity by pointing to sports successes of interest 
to a small fraction of the nation.  Congratulations to those other programs 
and keep up the good work, but give me championships in basketball and 
football.