(06-27-2019 04:23 PM)SoCalBobcat78 Wrote:  I don't really see Portland State dropping football. Their 2017-2018 budget was a total of $12.2 million. They spent $3.6 million on football and $1.3 million on basketball. That is not much being spent on athletics. Eastern Washington had a budget of $16.3 million for athletics, $5 million on football and $1.6 million on basketball. That is probably where Portland State needs to be.

If PSU were to drop football (hypothetically), you almost wonder why they would remain a D1 program. With no football, men's soccer and baseball, what would be the point? The Big Sky Conference is a football league that also plays basketball. The BSC does not have men's soccer or baseball. The whole point of being in the league is to play football.

If PSU were to drop football, saving $3.6 million, the better move might be to stay D1 and add men's soccer and baseball. Then join the WAC. Baseball and men's soccer will cost at least $1 million to add. When UNM dropped men's soccer, they said it would save $540,000 annually. When North Dakota dropped baseball, they saved $600,000 annually. The combination of the two sports would probably cost in the neighborhood of $1.2 million to $1.4 million. That would make more sense than dropping to D2.

PSU averaged 3,799 in football attendance in 2018. They look like a school that either needs to drop football or go all in and build a multi-purpose stadium on or near the campus. They need some Nike money.

The real chance to drop football was 5 years ago, and the momentum existed to do it then. It's not like I'm going to fully disagree with you here.

The main thing: Portland State spent/is spending $50 million on an arena and Phys Ed building (I'd say arena upgrade, but that flatters the old Stott Center). In theory, attendance has gone up and helps part of the equation. It's not had a sellout yet, and that's frustrating, but now they can draw a few more donor inducements.

Meanwhile, football is living completely on two body bag games a year, is now committed to playing on a "home field" 14 miles away in a suburban sort-of-high-school football stadium/sport complex with a couple more amenities (although many say Hillsboro is better than, say, Northern Colorado or Southern Utah), and most people in the area are really asking "what's the point of keeping football" about now. Even with a few wins at the end of last year, the program is very much out-of-sight and out-of-mind in Portland.

The funky part: if PSU were to add baseball, they'd play in the same complex in Hillsboro. That's where the Hillsboro Hops ("single A short season, so the Hops don't start until mid-June) play, that's the only reason some of the amenities are a bit better than a high school stadium, and it's still 14 miles away. Soccer could happen in town... and maybe on the community field on campus, unless they accidentally caught fire and merited a few games in Providence Park.