VCU Football Still Undefeated

You may have seen someone on campus with a shirt that says “VCU Football, Still Undefeated” and wondered why you’ve never gone to see one of the games or why you have not had a football player in one of your classes.

Well, the reason the Rams have not been beaten in football is because VCU does not have a football team.

Why doesn’t VCU have a team? The school is big enough to support one. Based upon last year’s enrollment statistics VCU has the second most students among universities in Virginia, topping the University of Virginia and Virginia Tech, which have National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I perennial top-25 teams.

Football creates a lot of revenue for those universities and brings the school community together every Saturday during the fall.

VCU could always use some extra money and it would only increase the unity of the school community.

However, a football program costs a lot of money to start and maintain. It requires more players, more staff and more equipment. The cost of building a stadium for a team to play in would cost millions of dollars alone.

But let’s forget about the stadium issue for a minute. Who cares that we do not have a football stadium? Just imagine tailgating before a VCU football game. Food, soda, beer (for people 21 and up of course) and chants of “let’s go Rams.” It would be exciting.

Until the game begins that is. Because it usually takes a few years before a new football team is competitive.

Do you really want to be watching the Rams get trounced on a cold November day? Not really.

Another reason why a football team at this moment is not a plausible idea is because of Title IX, which states that equality of opportunity in athletics will be guaranteed by the university based upon student body interest, geographic influence, budget restraints and gender ratio.

That means if VCU were to add football to its athletic program they would also have to spend an equal amount of money on a women’s sport or they would have to subtract a men’s sport or two.

Sure more athletics would be cool, but is it feasible? Probably not.

Would you be willing to trade the men’s soccer team, which is currently nationally ranked, or the baseball team, which has won three of the past four conference championships, for a football team that would be lousy for at least the first few years?

I know some people are such die-hard football fans that they would do anything to have a football team here, but I would rather watch one of the nation’s best soccer teams than suffer through a lousy football game, especially after my buzz has worn off.

I enjoy it when the Rams win games and conference championships. I also enjoy being able to say to people, “VCU football, still undefeated.”

“I think that there should definitely be a football team here. I think it could bring the VCU community even closer together than it is now.”

Adrienne Van Lear

Sophomore

3 Comments

  1. We have lost, I saw it. Now it was a club team as is returned but a win is a win and a loss is a loss. It was way back in the earliest days of VCU.

  2. If one does not start the program, then it can not grow to acheive any measure of success. If its tough to have a sport, maybe it should eliminate some to free up resources to the core education focus.

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