OUR VIEW: Administrators should rethink the importance of academics versus sports. Recruitment should not depend on baseball but academic programs.
Baseball may be on its way back to MSU, but there are still a few obstacles in its way.
The university has $2 million saved towards bringing the program back, with $1 million coming from the Bridwell Foundation and $1 million from fundraising done by President Jesse Rogers and Howard Farrell, vice president of university advancement and public affairs.
4B Board gave the university $300,000. The remainder of the money will be raised within the next two or three months. If unsuccessful, the university will move on from trying to resurrect the sport, but administrators remain optimistic we will be getting baseball back on campus in the near future.
There are several benefits to the resurrection of the baseball program, the most touted being enrollment would increase and having a baseball program would help with recruitment.
Athletic Director Charlie Carr said research done by the university guarantees schools that add baseball programs see an improvement in enrollment.
Along with this, it is estimated bringing baseball back to campus would bring $11 million a year to the city of Wichita Falls, meaning more families could potentially move here, raise their children here and send them to MSU for college.
While all this sounds fine on paper, it’s hard not to see where problems can arise if baseball returns to campus.
First of all, the university’s current budget cutting situation and lack of funding for several departments deserves much more attention than the possibility of bringing a sport back to campus.
While those involved have guaranteed that the money has and will be raised through private funding, meaning that none of the baseball program’s funds will take away from another sport or university department, it will be hard for most to swallow the fact that the university can nearly deplete a department of its resources due to budget cuts while frivolously spending nearly $3 million on a new team.
Another angle from the financial realm is the fact that baseball has come and gone from this university – twice. While outside factors such as a majority of the team getting seriously injured in a car accident or scheduling conflicts and a move from the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics to the National Collegiate Athletics Association have been cited as reasons for the discontinuation of baseball in the past, underneath it’s clear to see that financial issues played a role in the decision to get rid of the sport. The old saying may be if at first you do not succeed, try, try again, but at what point will we realize it may not be worth the hassle?
The fact that donors are supposedly being begged to donate to make this team a possibility does not help support the supposed overwhelming community support for the team.
If all this effort is being done for a sport, why is not the same done for academics?
If the campaign to get baseball back is successful, maybe the university should take this aggressive approach when asking for donations for the science department or the English department or the entirety of the Fain Fine Arts.
No matter what your view is on this subject, one thing is certain – a decision is coming. The university will look not only for a quick fix to some of our campus’ current issues, but also to the lasting effects the decision will have for years to come.