(07-13-2017 11:21 AM)arkstfan Wrote:  

(07-13-2017 10:49 AM)DawgNBama Wrote:  

(07-12-2017 10:40 AM)arkstfan Wrote:  http://lrtrojans.com/sports/2017/7/11/fo...study.aspx

There are three types of studies.

1. School wants to add and hires someone to prove they are right to do it.

2. School doesn't want to add and hires someone to prove it is a bad idea.

3. School is getting some gruff about needing to add it, and they want someone to price tag on it to see where the chips may fall.

Reality is UALR sponsors 14 sports and only awards the NCAA limit of scholarships in Men's Basketball, Women's Basketball, Baseball, and Women's Volleyball.

They would have to award all allowed aid in the other 10 sports plus two more sports in order to be FBS.

While I have to agree with you that the $$ and the interest may not be there for FBS right now, I do believe that they might seriously look into starting an FCS program with an eye towards FBS in the future. I have been a student at a commuter school (Troy University @ Dothan, which is so small, it doesn't even have an athletic department, nor does it really need one right now) and at a predominantly female college, although I am male (having lacked a lot of social skills earlier in life, I was hoping to tip the odds of me getting a girlfriend in my favor by going to a predominantly female school), and I can say without a doubt, it is extremely hard to get students to take interests in campus activities at a commuter college in general, let alone a commuter college in which males are greatly outnumbered. Life at a predominantly female school wasn't bad for me as a guy at all. I had a good time, made lots of friends, and definitely look back fondly at time I spent back there. However, other than a passing interest in soccer (which I played back in high school), had I not had made a lot of friends on the baseball team, I probably would have never went to any of my alma mater's baseball games, and didn't go to any basketball games either. Why? Nobody really acted like it was all that important except for the athletes on those teams. And if your fellow students are not going to care, why should you? Now, when I made friends with the athletes on the baseball team, then I started to care and have more interest in the games, because a friend was playing on them.
That being said, one thing that always intrigued me about my alma mater was Homecoming, which, even though we had no football team, we still had a big event to draw the alumni back to campus and bring all the students together. There would be two sides, purple & gold, my school's colors, who would compete in intramurals for a week, then would put on a musical production (think along the lines of "Oklahoma!" but more modern and up to date), making the props and the costumes themselves!! I went to Homecoming(AKA College Night) at the University of Montevallo, and I'm extremely glad I did, because it was huge, and everyone on the campus cared about it and not everyone there was big into theater, but it was a well known and liked campus tradition!!! FYI, there is an exhibit about the University of Montevallo's College Night at the Smithsonian Institution. Keep in mind, that the University of Montevallo is a residential university and definitely not your traditional commuter school, although we had a significant number of students who did choose to commute.

My point is this: if you can't get the average student to care about getting a football team, then the whole idea is a non-starter. But, if you have the support of the student body behind it, then it's much easier, and it's easier to get athletic teams started at a residential university because you have a built-in audience. At a commuter school, that doesn't really exist, and so you have to create the audience through a lot of PR, that would take up a lot of time and $$'s.

Thing is, if you are interested in football as a part of the college experience, you aren't at UALR. You are 32 miles down the road at UCA or 48 miles away at UAPB, 61 miles away at Henderson State, 77 miles away at Arkansas Tech, 95 miles away at UA-Monticello, 133 miles at Southern Arkansas, 138 miles away at AState or 188 miles to UArk, not to mention the privates.

Selling football when the student body had football options nearby, three that can even be closer depending on where you live in the Little Rock metro area, won't be easy.

Privates:
Harding -Searcy
Ouachita Baptist- Arkadelphia
Hendrix-Conway
Lyon-Batesville
Arkansas Baptist-Little Rock

You left the other public school off the list. University of Arkansas-Monticello

John Brown is also thinking of adding football.

UAFS, Crowley's Ridge, University of the Ozarks, Central Baptist, Philander Smith and Williams Baptist do not have football. Those are all four year schools.

Arkansas at Morrilton and University of the Ozarks still have their football stadiums. Morrilton do not sponsor sports anymore.