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Schools that have been struggling in the admissions department have found that adding a football team is one of the most cost effective and successful ways of bringing up the admissions numbers. Crazy, isn't it?
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It's true that there are many students who want the rah-rah school spirit a football team can bring. A friend's D left one perfectly fine Uni largely because of her perceived lack of school spirit (no football team), went to a CC for a year, then transferred to UCLA - all largely due to the football team.</p>
<p>Conversely, my D at UCSD is happy that there isn't a football team there because she thinks a Uni should be mostly about academics and doesn't want to see the money spent on the football team or athletes and also doesn't want her fees to go up which would happen if they established a football team.</p>