[NU Sports] final thoughts RE: 4th Quarter

[Arthur Miller]

Eric, I’m not insta-panicking.  I am going to offer some final thoughts, and then shut up and return to Lurker Mode (“at last!”, they said):
 
I don’t like the idea of reducing academic standards; it’s just not the culture at NU, and agree that something seems wrong about it.  I’d love to see NU form a football-only conference with like-minded schools: Duke, Stanford, Wake Forest, Notre Dame, Vanderbilt, Rice, BC, Army, Navy, and Air Force.  I think such a conference would be a lot of fun to follow, and could send the right message to the rest of the country about the ideal of the student-athlete by imposing high standards around academic eligibility, academic progress, graduation rates, etc.  The member programs would compete on a more equal footing, which should result in parity over the long term (ask yourself: is there a perennial doormat or superpower in the list above?)  The benefits would IMHO more than make up for the reduced TV and bowl revenue of such a conference.  It would allow us to gracefully opt out of our present arms race against large state universities, some of whom have only minimal academic expectations of themselves.
 
Barring this pipe dream, we must accept that the economics of college football & men’s hoops have changed dramatically in the past 20 years.  If NU doesn’t pull our weight in the Big Ten (as defined by our ability to attract fan interest, relative to the others) then our days are numbered.  Oh, they won’t boot us out anytime soon, but it is delusional to ignore economic reality, because economic reality ALWAYS catches up with you eventually.  Ask the USSR.
 
I agree that we have done fairly well in football over the past 10 years.  But economic reality says that we have to accomplish much more than just being competitive--we have to attract lots of fans.  This is where NU is failing miserably, as recent Ryan Field attendance figures will attest.  The odds are stacked against us, due to our small size and the fact that we don’t represent an entire state, so in order to attract as many football fans as even a mediocre Indiana or Illinois, we’re going to have to do much, MUCH better than going 26-35 in the past 5 years.
 
“They can’t kick us out--we’re a charter member of the Big Ten!”  Yeah, but what if the conference disbanded in favor of some TBD super-conference?  If this happened, it is almost a certainty that we would be left behind, just as Rice was when the once-great Southwest Conference disintegrated in the face of--you guessed it--economic reality.  It could happen to NU.  Something’s gotta give, eventually.
 
Cheers,
Art Miller
 
 
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