While I feel bad for the students who'd like to play it, I think that the nature of the sport – at
least the way it's played today – makes it impractical for many schools in today's environment.
Football requires a disproportionate number of players.  It should require no more than, say, 40
players but that's based on a 1950's model in which players could play more than one position and
could play offense and defense.  Today it's highly specialized, so that even in high school,
players play only one position, and only on offense or defense

Somebody correct me if I'm wrong, but I assume that, at Michigan Tech, football wasn't the sacred
cow it is at some schools.  The football team's record didn't correlate with alumni donations,
and it wasn't the focal point for student activity during the season.  It was just a student
activity that cost an inordinate amount of money; so the school made a rational decision.

With regard to graduation rates, football has another disadvantage.  Because the season ends for
most teams before the end of the first semester, there' s no incentive for marginal students to
even make a pretense of being students during the second  semester.

Clay


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