Two years into Division I play, pigskin on Owls horizon
Sunday, March 11, 2007 4:14 AM EDT
By David Brandt | MDJ Assistant News Editor
KENNESAW - Several universities across the country often have their names immediately associated with their athletic teams.
Especially football.
Especially in Georgia.
Especially when it comes to UGA.
In the coming years, Kennesaw State University hopes to share the Georgia college football limelight with similar symmetry between its name and what officials hope will become a successful football program, often considered a right of passage for most NCAA Division I schools. KSU entered Division I in its 2005-06 year.
"We are sitting here without a football program, but we should have one," said KSU Athletic Director Dave Waples, who helped create the football program at Valdosta State University in south Georgia in the late 1970s. "I've been trying for 20 years to get one here."
Despite the lack of a timeline for a program to begin, a first down in planning might be more than just 10 yards away. It's several millions of dollars away from even being a reality.
There's also the matter of finding room on the tight, pedestrian-friendly campus - located just west of Interstate 75 off the Chastain Road exit - that already consists of 240 acres but needs of more, according to KSU President Dan Papp.
"It's no secret that we've squeezed all the land on campus we can," he said, adding that he has "no idea" how long it would be before the university will see its Owls dressed out in football jerseys.
"It's not so much a ripple effect as it is a tsunami," Papp said in describing the interest and possible plans for a football program.
But he hopes the tide will turn in KSU's favor after officials learn the findings of a fundraising feasibility study conducted by Greg Turner of the consulting firm Turner and Associates. KSU officials asked Turner to survey donors and trustees about a potential capital campaign for the school's athletics department.
Though football was not part of the original survey, university officials expected it to be a hot topic among respondents.
Turner would not comment on specific details of the feasibility study per a contract agreement with KSU. Papp said that Turner is expected to present a first draft late this week, with a final report due to KSU officials early in April.
Meanwhile, ideas are plentiful about what a KSU football program could become down the road and what it could mean for the university's future.
Stadium seating
Papp and Waples agree that initiating KSU football would require a founding investment between $20 million and $40 million. But several factors play into that amount.
The most significant is where the team would play.
"We want a stadium that's either on campus or across from campus," Waples said.
Two spots he considers "available" on campus are a wooded lot across from the baseball field along Kennesaw State University Road in the southern portion of campus, or the campus' East Parking Lot behind a Shell gas station and a Waffle House on Frey Road in the adjacent southeast corner.
Waples said no architect has completed a design of a football stadium, but available room on campus could push the number of people a facility may be able to hold. He said initial construction could fit as many as 35,000 people. It's more likely, however, that KSU would start with fewer seats.
For the Owls to maintain Division I status in college football, Waples said there would need to be a rolling average attendance of at least 15,000 spectators over the first two years.
"A stadium made to hold 16,000 would be enough," he said. "We'd already have the available seating."
Outside of stadium plans, personnel, uniforms, equipment and additional athletic facilities also must be accounted for to start a football program. A startup fund of $1 million, Waples said, would likely cover a new weight room, uniforms, protective player equipment and video equipment to record and catalog games.
The first million dollars, he said, likely would not be able to pay for new personnel or athletic offices, although Waples said the school could save some money by including offices in stadium plans. Such design is found in many college stadiums around the country.
Another planning factor for a football program is what level of Division I that KSU can maintain. Annual operating costs for a Division I non-scholarship football team - which Waples and Papp expect to start with - are estimated to be around $1 million.
He went on to say Division I-AA schools like Georgia Southern University in Statesboro operate with an annual football budget of about $1.5 million, while Division I-A programs, such as Georgia Tech and UGA, operate between $5 million and $7 million, but even that amount varies program to program.
According to department records, KSU's 2006-07 athletic budget is about $5.7 million, an almost $2.5 million increase from its last budget as a Division II school in 2004-05. Just more than $2 million covers salaries and benefits, while $1.8 million is devoted to athletic scholarships, including summer school.
Based on Waples estimates, the first few years of a football program would force that budget to be at least $7.5 million, even higher with a stadium attached.
But "we are still about $4 million behind D-I schools with no football," Waples said.
Morale boost
Approval of football for KSU surely would swell up anticipation from students, faculty and the Kennesaw community alike, but Waples still urges all to not hold their breath.
"Once football is announced, it will take three years before you see a team play," he said, adding that about 18 months to two years would be under the management of the first KSU football coach. There's also the need to hire additional coaching staff, recruiting players and training the team in time for a scheduled first season.
"These things can't be rushed," Waples said. "But we won't have any trouble finding coaches and players. High school players would jump at the chance to attend a school like KSU."
He said the idea of KSU football alone is enough to make waves in various aspects of the university outside of the athletics department.
He also said football could help draw more spectators to other KSU sporting events. As of this year, according university data, average attendance per game among KSU's teams is estimated at 1,100 for men's basketball; 350 for women's basketball; 400 for volleyball; 350 for baseball; 300 for softball; and 650 for women's soccer.
But with the addition of football, free student admission to sports events might have to go, Waples said. KSU students might only have to chip in $2 or $3 a ticket, however, since at least 77 percent of the athletics budget is derived from student activity fees.
Papp sees the addition of football as a chance for KSU to become a better draw for students. With student enrollment fast approaching 20,000, now is the time to build on opportunity.
"The level of campus camaraderie goes way up," Papp said. "If you're going to have a football program at all, you've got to make sure it's a successful one. And all sorts of advantages come with that."
Even without a firm plan to add football, Papp said the school already is making plans for new dorms and academic buildings. Combined with the prospect of football, growth will continue to pay off.
"I would expect to see increased student retention and increased graduation rates," Papp said. "It should also increase students' ties to KSU and enhance the campus relationship with the community."
Players market
If or when KSU football kicks off, don't expect it to play Georgia and Georgia Tech right away or be equally popular from a national perspective.
But a chance for a spot in one of the major NCAA conferences isn't impossible, Waples said, and would help in a pursuit of building a college sports franchise.
"Do you know what the No. 1 major is at UGA? I don't, but I can tell you how the football team did last year," he said. "For anyone to have a big-time program, they'd have to get in one of those conferences."
Waples has his eyes on the Big East, which is made up of eight schools including Connecticut, Syracuse, and Louisville. He credits KSU's location near a sports town like Atlanta as being key to the school's entry into the conference.
"We've got the metro Atlanta market on our side," he said. "Most conferences would love to get into this market."
It competes in the Atlantic Sun Conference among schools - some smaller - that include East Tennessee State University, University of North Florida and Mercer, located in Macon.
Roy Martin and Fred Stillwell, longtime KSU sports fans and donors to the school, are delighted at the chance for football on campus. Martin, a former president of the KSU athletics booster club, said football would mark a new era for the school.
"It's quite an undertaking, but it could be very helpful. It helps unite the student body and draws in the community, as well," he said, adding that fellow church members often ask him about the status of KSU's program.
Stillwell, a trustee emeritus who KSU awarded a honorary doctorate in 2002, said the timing of the school's move to Division I seemed fast-paced.
"I thought we went to Division I a little early," he said. "We weren't ready with the right facilities. Now, we've outgrown our current fields."
While Stillwell thinks a football program "would be wonderful," he hopes that the other sports programs are able to benefit from the excitement.
"I hope (football) doesn't drain all the money from the other teams," he said.
KSU isn't the only metro-Atlanta institution considering a future in football. Georgia State University released its finding of a football program feasibility study last fall.
According to the results, moving into Division I-AA football would cost Georgia State between $6 million and nearly $25 million. About $20 million would be needed to replace its Sports Arena with a stadium arena, and build a football practice facility in downtown Atlanta.
Georgia State officials have yet to announce the start of a football program.
But regardless of the means by which KSU's program is born, Martin said he looks forward to the day Owls football takes the field.
"I'm 75," he said. "I hope to see the football team play."
This article appeared in the Marietta Daily Journal on Sunday, March 11, 2007.
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