(05-07-2009 01:12 PM)arkstfan Wrote:  I live just over 2 hours from ASU. I don't go to the plays, concerts and cultural events the school sponsors. Going to basketball on anything other than a Saturday isn't practical on a regular basis, but I go to football games and in turn I've stayed connected and give money to the school for academic purposes.

We are small fish in the FBS pond but having an event that can get 25,000 people on campus many coming in from a couple hours away or out-of-state has value to the university.

If the only value of athletics is high achievement then the majority of the 300 plus Division I institutions ought drop basketball. In say the last 20 years how many teams have advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament one or more times? If Sun Belt schools shouldn't be playing football because they can't win the championship or aren't likely to make a BCS bowl game, then what are we doing playing Division I basketball? The only Final Four was WKU's and it was vacated for rule violations. When has one of the current Sun Belt members made the Great 8? Making the Sweet 16 every 15 years isn't exactly being a first class citizen in Division I basketball. To my recollection, no current Sun Belt team has been ranked in the Top 25 since UNO in 1991 and that was in the American South.

The second or third class citizen argument against Sun Belt football isn't a very good one when it also describes the state of basketball.

Basketball makes money. Also, any school in the SBC is only one player away from making the sweet 16 in any year. In football you can sign the best player in the nation and still not win a game with SBC talent at every other position.