Cal State San Marcos has a wide variety of sports like cross country, soccer and basketball. However, students often define their school’s worth by the presence of a football team, which CSUSM does not have. The questions remains: should we?

Freshman Steven Farmer said he is sure a football team will raise school spirit.

“[A] football team will boost the school spirit, establish campus-wide enthusiasm, increase recruitment and create a positive environment for students to get involved,” Farmer said. “A team for CSUSM will be a success so long as it is done in an honest and proper manner that keeps its focus solely on the spirit of the sport and the achievements of the student-athletes.”

Senior Rayna Bohac said she is interested in the idea of CSUSM creating a football team, but does have some concerns.

“I think a football team would be great for CSUSM to have since it might bring more people to our school [who] might want to play, and games could be used as fundraisers. My only concern is where the funding would come from because students probably won’t want to pay more fees in their tuition.”

Despite some students enthusiasm for a football team there are those who oppose it.

Junior Ana Pena is not sold on the idea of a football team.

“No, [there shouldn’t be a team] because they would probably include … in our tuition any extra expenses that they need to spend on the football team, and I don’t want to pay more for tuition.”

According to Bennett Cherry, a Management and Marketing department associate professor, as well as a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Faculty Athletics Representative, having a football team would not benefit CSUSM.

“While it might seem reasonable that any university with 15,000 students could have a football team, the reality is that football is an incredibly expensive sport (the most expensive, in fact) and many of the football programs in the country run with a loss, not a profit,” Cherry said. “Yes, football can and does generate revenues from ticket sales, season ticket packages and sponsorships. Those revenues don’t offset the significant expenses of a stadium, large roster sizes, travel, etc.”

Despite not having a football team, CSUSM still has a lot of school spirit and many hard-working and dedicated athletes.

As Professor Cherry said, “Our CSUSM Athletics program is top notch and we are very proud of the quality student-athletes we have recruited … As new members in the CCAA, you can be sure that we have made the other teams in the conference take notice of us. When the day comes, it will be great to host our first NCAA Championship, even if it’s not in football.”