Major Schools Sports Teams Go the Way of the Dinosaur ....
First the Pee Dee Pride, now the Hofstra Pride. That is our tip of the day - don't name your team 'Pride', unless you want it to go defunct..... Whew! I didn't think I'd find a way to do a NY-SC tie-in on this one.......
As the economy continues to ride the shit rails , the strain on the budgets on even the most stable institutions are beginning to show. Hofstra University, probably the best college on Long Island, ended it's 73 year old football program this week. It wasn't D-I, but it had been a pretty strong I-AA program for a long time. They had done much better when they were called the Dutchmen, rather than the Pride, but I digress........This was a solid program that touts a number of current and recent NFL players: Marques Colston, Wayne Chrebet, Lance Schulters, Willie Colon and Tampa Bay coach Raheem Morris.
But, the team was always a very small fish in a very big pond. Games were rarely attended, and the program was losing $4.5 million a year. It's times like this when the actual value and importance of football to a school really have to be evaluated. This will be done all over America, and definitely on the local basis on the high school and junior high levels. It would not surprise us to see a few divisions shrink by a team or two next year. Yeah, football is an important part of keeping a school motivated, but the real purpose is to educate the kids. When the budgets are done for next year - especially when the one shot influxes of Obama cash are gone - many districts are going to be doing some major chopping, and sports will be the first to go.
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