Claire McCullough wrote:

> I very strongly agree that football (and other sports) are very important to
> the campus, not in terms of revenue, but in terms of tying students together
> and contributing to a campus identity....


If athletics are important as a contributor to school spirit and
identity, it doesn't necessarily follow that football (the most
expensive sport) must be one of the sports offered.

Case in point:  I grew up in Mobile, Alabama not far from the campus of
the University of South Alabama.  Mobile is a city comparable in size to
Chattanooga and USA is a metropolitan university similar in mission to
UTC.  USA didn't have a football team then and doesn't have one now,
although it is strongly competitive in baseball, basketball, and other
sports.  The sense of campus identity and school spirit there is at
least as strong, and probably stronger, than UTC's.  So IMHO football is
probably something we could live without.

Joe

P.S.  Check out South's athletic page at
http://www.southalabama.edu/athletics/
if you want to see how a school without football does in other sports.