Nothing To See Here

It's been awhile since there was much to talk about on the blog, but there hasn't been much on the front burner of football to awake from hibernation (or basketball season, whichever applies). I had planned to talk this week about Villanova's big decision whether or not to join the Big East, but the Big East (read= Pitt) is making things a little more difficuly on the Main Line, essentially telling the Wildcats that an 18,000 seat soccer stadium isn't good enough for them. Some of the ACC media wags in Boston suggest this is the first step towards kicking all the non-IA schools out of the Big East. (Don't think so.)

As Georgetown goes, when it's the off-season, it's really the off-season. Recruits won't be announced until May (whatever rules apply which do not allow GU football to announce recruits doesn't apply at the five other PL schools which have already posted theirs). As far as we know all the coaches are back for 2011, and if there are transfers or attrition from the 2010 season, it may take a while to know more about it.

The 2012 schedule was announced earlier this year, adding the first meeting with Princeton since 1923, and a return series with Brown. The Hoyas travel to Old Nassau on Sept. 28, 2012. (Red Line to Union Station, Amtrak to Princeton Junction, one stop on the famous "Dinky" line, and you're right there.) For 2011, only four home games but a road game at Howard keeps one close.

If it's been quiet off the field, it's been quiet on the field as well.

Unlike the interest that predominates I-A spring football and finds its way to I-AA teams as well, Georgetown wraps up its spring practice with nary an article written on it. A brief blurb at GUHoyas.com noted that sQB Scott Darby threw a touchdown pass and three interceptions last week, but without further clarification of how the scrimmage was set up, it's impossible to determine what that means. If you're looking for a spring roster, stop looking: GU did not release one.

Kevin Kelly's degree in college wasn't marketing, but you have to think he would like to promote this program better than what has shown to the public these last five years. Outside of an interview with Bernard in the New York Times in 2007, there may not be five articles in the off-campus press about Georgetown Football. That Kelly and his staff is back for a sixth year after dropping six of its final seven games may be enough for now; like some other smaller sports, staying off the campus radar may have its advantages when the win-loss record isn't there.

We are also not hearing from Georgetown on either of the two pressing issues circling the program: funding and facilities.

The avoidance approach by the Patriot League presidents to the "fight or flight" posed by Fordham will continue through 2012, whereupon the Rams will have signed 60 on full scholarship athletes and the rest of the league will not. One of three outcomes await:

1. The league will deny Fordham's plan for scholarships, and the Rams will leave the league after 2012.
2. The league will accept Fordham's plan for schoalrships, a mad dash to match Fordham's 60 grants ensue, whereupon Georgetown is left far, far behind or eventually asked to leave; or
3. The league will stall again, and Fordham will leave anyway.

Georgetown is not in the driver's seat on this matter but it wouldn't hurt to check out its safety belt. Does Georgetown need to start soliciting funds for schoalrship support, however one defines it? Should it be up front and let everyone know it won't play scholarship football even if the rest of the PL does? With new leadership at the Gridiron Club (Bruce Simmons '69), there are a lot of opportunities to energize the base.  And that's important--with materially less to offer than every other PL school, when does Georgetown University start the process of stepping up its financial support, whether to be a truly competitive PL program in a scholarship scenario, or finding a soft landing elsewhere if the league becomes untenable?

The time to act is not in 2013. It starts in 2011.

Of similar and growing concern--heard much of late about the Multi-Sport Facility, "the most important project in the history of Georgetown Athletics"? Me neither.

On the front page of the HoyaSaxa.com football site, a clock ticks away the days since construction was stopped on the Field With No Name--as of this writing, 2,035 days and counting. Those temporary stands hastily constructed before the home opener in 2005 weren't put up to withstand the tests of time, and a FieldTurf surface meant to withstand 10 seasons of football games is approaching some real maintenance concerns with 12-16 hours of usage a day among various teams.

The fundraising model that started with this project is broke. The efforts to focus on a name donor before any movement forward isn't there, either. Further complicating the situation is the idea of timing--Georgetown cannot seem to do more than one construction project at a time, which put the MSF behind the Southwest Quad...then the business school...then the science building...and soon, the inertia for building the Athletic Training Facility (ATF), delayed now for 4+ years, will soon overtake the MSF as the top project for Athletics. Meanwhile, the gravel will wash away, the field will wear out, and recruits will find other places to go.

If the decision comes down to building the ATF or the MSF, well, no question. But with technology in the area of modular stadiums, a concept at its infancy when the MSF make-do began, maybe there's a middle ground between doing nothing and waiting for Godot.

A modular stadium is a means to construct a facility which is not intended to be a permanent facility, but has all the acoutrements of a permanent facility but without the foundations and the building materials that would add to the cost. Modular building is the new buzzword in soccer circles, particularly for countries bidding on world events. Rather than spend billions on dozens of World Cup facilities, build what you need and keep only that which you want to keep after the event.

In theory, the temporary grandstands at MSF were a crude form of a modular stadium. "Georgetown had the idea in motion to build a multi purpose stadium on campus and initially thought that their need would be for a two season rental of our Ultimate seating," wrote the 2006 press release at Seatingsolutions.com. "When the larger project stalled, the University then purchased the Ultimate bench seating system... and the three press boxes with the intent to move the entire modular system to various sports fields on campus once the new stadium is built."

But the technology is so much more developed than 2005. So it was with some interest that I read about the efforts un Vancouver, BC to solve a real problem with facilities.

In 2010-11, Vancouver will be converting its downtown domed stadium, BC Place, from a inflatable roof to a retractable one, which moved the Lions (CFL) and the Whitecaps (MLS) out of the building for a season. With no good options anywhere nearby to handle such crowds, an RFP was posted for what they were looking for:

"Pavco, the crown corporation responsible for BC Place, is seeking proposals for the construction of temporary grandstands to facilitate the formation of a stadium suitable for the playing of Canadian football or soccer. Specific requirements are:
- Capacity of 30,000 to 32,000 with at least 75% of the seats covered
- Individual and seating preferred (to at least 85% of capacity)
- Other facilities required include:
- 24 private boxes
- Media facilities (press box)
- Broadcast boxes"

The winning bid was a European company called Nussli AG, and I'll share three amazing numbers from their bid:

• Capacity: 27,500 seats
• Cost: $14.5 million
• Construction time: 111 days

OK, it's not BC Place, but it's not a half-bleacher across from Harbin Hall, either. Take a look at the photos below (courtesy the Nussli site) and ask yourself: do we wait another 10 years for the MSF, or get something in the ground sooner? If $14.5 million bought all this, what would a 7,500 or 10,000 seat facility cost?



And what's a 111 day construction schedule? To meet a September 1 deadline, it would have to start by what, May 13? Amazing.

"The temporary stadium matches the quality of a permanently built stadium in many respects," reads the Nussli web site. "In time for the BC Lions to host their first home game of the 2010 CFL season, Nussli has concluded construction of the Empire Fields temporary football and soccer stadium in only three month[s] time. Capacity is 27,500 seats, including two roofed main grandstands and twelve VIP suites. 20,500 seats have been equipped with seat shells, 7,000 with bench seating for the balance. The Nussli contract also included responsibility for supplying complete power supply systems, flood and area lighting, stadium and emergency lighting, the sound system, and the construction of a VIP zone with turnkey suites, media and press rooms, as well as the installation of external cladding...The timeframe for construction of this stadium is unprecedented in the history of modular construction in North America."

Ok, It's a discussion starter, nothing more. But if the MSF falls behind yet another project (or two), someone is going to ask the question, "What's the point?" We can't let it come to that.

So if there's not much to see in Hilltop Football this time of year, know that there is still plenty to do. This is the challenge that faces Bruce Simmons and the Gridiron Club, and I look forward to their efforts.

The Alarm Clock

It's been one week since the Patriot League presidents met in their showdown over scholarship football, a defining issue over a conference once called "The Last Amateurs". Except that some of them don’t want to be amateurs anymore.

The collective hand of the league was called by Fordham University, which announced nearly two years ago that they would offer football scholarships whether the league liked it or not, and the PL leadership made the mistake of choosing compromise over principle. The league has been clear about football scholarships from the start--it's the reason the league is there in the first place. And amidst a challenge to the fundamental  principle of the league, the PL simply wavered, and followed the precedent a decade earlier when Holy Cross threatened to leave the PL unless it offered basketball scholarships. (The day Columbia walks into the Ivy League and announces it is going full scholarship in basketball, rest assured the Ivies will not make an accommodation.)

Which is, of course, what the Patriot League did. In exchange for making the Rams ineligible for the league title (for whatever that is worth), Fordham was allowed to add scholarships, with the understanding that this would be settled one way or another by the end of the 2010 calendar year, allowing Fordham a chance to stay in the league, or make plans to go elsewhere when it reaches 60 scholarships in 2012. However one viewed the compromise, the understanding was that a decision would be reached, and it would either be to Fordham's benefit or its detriment.

The presidents arrived last week to make a decision, and they decided, well, not to decide at all.  There’s a old saying that “not to decide is to decide.” But in this case, it is not a decision as much as a stalemate, for as Samuel Johnson observed centuries earlier, "Present opportunities are neglected, and attainable good is slighted, by minds busied in extensive ranges and intent upon future advantages."  In football terms, the scholarship issue was on the 20-yard line. The league could go in for the score, or punt. Instead, it took a knee and ran out the clock. What does this mean (or in this case, not mean) for Georgetown?

Aside from the obvious financial issues, there are program-wide issues to be settled for Georgetown over this issue, and it’s not clear if Georgetown will settle them itself or have it settled for them.

Every twenty years or so, Georgetown has one of those “fork in the road” decisions which, by its decision, has charted the course of the program:

• 1930-31: In the midst of the Great Depression, Georgetown quietly dropped scholarship support for football. While alumni were driving Tommy Mills out of his job with his 11-13-1 record, the decision set back the Hoyas for half a decade. Jack Hagerty got scholarship support returned in 1934, but it wasn’t until 1938 that the impact was truly seen: an undefeated season.
• 1950-51: In the midst of the Korean War, Hunter Guthrie S.J. saw athletic scholarships as a luxury not matched by the Hoyas’ indifferent attendance patterns. With no alumni that stepped up to support the program or build the stadium that was sitting on the drawing board since the 1920’s, Guthrie unilaterally cut the program and no one was there to say otherwise.
• 1969-70: The club program had taken hold at Georgetown, but the national club movement was faltering. Georgetown could have stood pat as schools like Marquette and St. Louis did with their club programs, but otherwise made the decision to step up to the NCAA College Division. It allowed the program not only to grow, but ultimately survive as the club level vanished.
• 1990-91: With an NCAA decision that forced Division III schools to move to Division I, the likelihood of Georgetown football after the 1992 season was no given. Various alternatives were on the table—a return to club football, for one, or dropping it altogether. With consensus and support, Georgetown took the leap forward, and we’re all the better for it.

And now it’s 2010. The scholarship issue, either way, will define the direction of the Georgetown program for another decade or more. Publicly, Georgetown doesn’t talk about it but scholarships (merit and/or need) have to be actively pursued if Georgetown is going to be able to stay on the field with its peers, much less anyone else.  Yes, there are some “endowed” scholarships, but those are fractional gifts and nothing more.  If ten years of getting its collective hat handed to it hasn’t got the message through to Georgetown that you can’t bring a knife to a gunfight, a scholarship Patriot League surely will pound it to them, and will the program be strong enough to stand on its own two feet thereafter?

Georgetown doesn’t have to make a decision today, but it needs a direction. There are any of five different ways this could all shake out in the PL, and the presidential non-decision increasingly points to a league splitting along financial lines. A $5 million Fordham program is, eventually, going to distance itself from the $1.4 million Georgetowns of the world just as Georgetown distanced itself from the MAAC schools, and
before that, the Catholic and Washington and Lee programs of its past. Maybe schools like Georgetown, Holy Cross, and Bucknell can stick together. Maybe not.

The Patriot League faces this brave new world: for all intents and purposes, it has lost Fordham. If even one of the all-sports  members (Bucknell, Colgate, Holy Cross, Lafayette, Lehigh) leaves the conference, the PL drops football as a sponsored sport and Georgetown is cast adrift. Think it can’t happen? At least two of these schools (Colgate, Lehigh) will give full scholarships a hard look next season and may be tempted to pull the same trump card Fordham pulled—‘we’re going scholarship, what are you going to do about it?” And what will the PL do, if anything? At that point, what can they do, short of disbanding the conference?

Lafayette is on the record in the Allentown and Easton press—it won’t support a 63 scholarship league, the source of considerable consternation in the only media market that really follows the PL anymore. Maybe the PL can’t stomach 63, but it needs a compromise.

Resolved: “In the sport of football, the League shall allow member schools to offer not more than 15 equivalent grants-in-aid that do  not involve financial need.”

Why only fifteen? Six of the seven PL schools already field teams of 40 or more equivalencies. A 15 scholarship addition elevates every PL school but Georgetown to the status of a “counter” to get I-A opponents to schedule them for “body bag” guarantee games, which is what most coaches and fans want anyway. Colgate can schedule Syracuse and pick up a check for $400,000 because it’s at or near counter status. That pays bills, and presidents like paying bills. Fans like the thought of Lehigh and Penn State, regardless of the score. From a financial perspective, this gives them the opportunity to show "improvement" to the alumni without committing $2-3 million to do it.

Fifteen scholarships makes the remaining PL schools immediately better, and, by force of sheer movement, gives them a reason to hang together, rather than, as Benjamin Franklin put it , “to hang separately” and have to commit the capital to add 60 full scholarships, meet Title IX, and face an uncertain competitive climate in conferences like the Big South or CAA. It also keeps them close enough competitively where the Ivy League will continue to play them.

Georgetown can’t be a counter under its current funding formula, but the impact of 15 scholarships  raised directly from the Gridiron Club could become a powerful ally in recruiting. Partnered with the 1789 Scholarship Imperative, $750,000 a year in annual fundraising brings forth 30 new half-scholarships, opening the doors to Georgetown that a lot of recruits aren’t getting near right now. No, Syracuse won’t be calling, but it allows GU to continue to pursue a need-based quotient as it does, or mix in some athletic-based grants as well.

Fifteen scholarships won’t win the Patriot League on its own, but it’s the same 15 that everyone else would have, and at least make Georgetown a more competitive entity in a league where they have mostly been anything but.

It’s clear that there was not the consensus within the league presidents to move to 60 scholarships. Was any other number discussed? No one is saying, but for this argument 15 is a number that may be more palatable; without it, no number will ever be.

The PL's decision merited not one article in the Washington Post, the Washington Examiner, The HOYA, or the Voice. Like a tree in some Pennsylvania forest, it fell down and no one heard it, but listen closely: this is an alarm clock ringing on the future of the Patriot League and of Georgetown’s options within it. Georgetown can use this as a clarion call to reengage a increasingly distant alumni population which has grown tired in the Kevin Kelly era, to build a culture of sustained giving, one which men’s basketball and rowing has successfully maintained for two decades, but which football has never mustered the cause to develop. Brining in $650,000 would only be the start of a wave of philanthropy from football alumni--some of the most successful alumni at this institution came through the football program and their support remains untapped. Give them a reason for giving, and you can see the results in winning, and you will see the foundation built for a home in Division I-AA for generations to come.

Or, Georgetown can hit the snooze button and wake up in two years, and found that the house has burned down.

A House Divided

The cold weather of December heralds the traditional end of news on Georgetown football for the year

MSF? No change. Coaches? No comment. Recruits? Not yet. Schedule? Wait until the spring.

Elsewhere in the Patriot League, it's a winter of rising discontent over the issue that seemingly has captivated the league (sans one school, that is): whether the league ought to allow (or, to some minds, mandate) up to 63 athletic scholarships as a means to better compete in NCAA Division I-AA football. Thanks to a dare by Fordham University, the league has a central question before it, the one that founded the group in the first place: can a conference built on the principle of not offering athletic aid for football now embrace it... and what does it do if everyone is not on board?

"Suffice it to say that the Ivy League has become non-competitive outside of the league to the point of being unable to even fill their stadiums," wrote former Colgate beat writer Tom Lazzaro in 1985. "Rather than bring back spring football or institute various other reforms to raise this sad level of competition, the Ivy League presidents looked around for schools which shared, as Brown University president Howard Swearer announced 'our philosophy of sports, and our view of the role of athletics in higher education .'" Such was the aegis of what was originally called the Colonial League, a view that grew from a football-only model to an all-sports league by the early 1990's.

Numbers were the the problem then, as well as today. The Ivy had a stable eight to work with--no one was leaving, no one needed an invitation. The Patriot League had a founding four (Lehigh, Lafayette, Bucknell, Colgate), adding a reluctant Holy Cross fan base when the Crusaders let the Big East bandwagon pass it by. For the most part, then as well as now, the five agreed on matters and funded its progams at a similar scale. Getting to seven, much less eight, has never quite worked out.

In is earliest days, the league presidents sought out the likes of William & Mary, Delaware, and VMI, according to reports. None were willing to trade football competitiveness (e.g., scholarships) for being able to hobnob around New Haven and Old Nassau. The PL sought out Davidson, in its sunset years as a football power in the Southern Conference, who found the transition so rough (1-20) they got up and moved down to Division III. When the president of the University of Richmond suggested his Spiders join the PL, they ran him out of town, literally. Towson joined as a bridge back to the CAA, and left soon after the league had added an eager but underfunded addition in Georgetown.

The scholarship issue was instigated by Fordham, another school that has never quite bought into the PL's model of Ivy proximity at the expense of a reduced athletic emphasis. The Rams' insistence in the mid-1990's to add basketball schoalrships led them ultimately to leave the PL in sports other than football, and led Holy Cross to threaten the same if the PL did not change its ways. At the risk of losing the league, the PL presidents reluctantly agreed to basketball schoalrships a decade ago, and all have eventually followed. Football is the only PL sport where scholarships are expessly prohibited.

And in 2009, Fordham called the question again. Accept 63 schoalrships or they walk, destination unknown. Surely, most PL presidents would concur, the conventional wisdom held, and if Georgetown didn't, well, who needs 'em. Other Eastern schools would see the wisdom and join the league. Happy days are here again, at least north of Washington.

If this was still the 1990's, with $1.10 a gallon gas and a budget surplus at most schools, maybe this would be a plausible argument. Instead, the fianncial and Title IX logjam between the pros and cons of this situation gets its hearing Monday and Tuesday at the league meetings, with a resolution many will find unpalatable in any form--because there really won't be a true resolution.

---

A decade after joining the Patriot League, most Georgetown fans don't give it much thought, and are as unaware of the rest of the PL as the PL fans are, frankly, unaware of Georgetown. Some Big East comparisons for the PL football configuration may help:

• Lehigh and Lafayette are the Pitt and West Virginia of the Patriot League. To them, separated by mere miles and not time zones, the Backyard Brawl means everything, and the schools value the need for fierce competition, if regardless of the other rivalries in the league. Recent comments by Lafayette President Daniel Weiss that he wasn't supportive of football scholarships had more comments asking what would happen to the rivalry game than what it would do to the league.
• Think of Colgate as Syracuse: a really strong program with a long-time coach, whose fan base doesn't accept falling behind. They've played for a national championship, they know they can compete outside the Ivy League sphere, and if scholarships makes them better, well, sign them up.
• Bucknell is the Providence of the Patriot League--a founding member, its size and location have made it a tougher sell to compete in the league, but they always find a away to do so. No one can underrate Bucknell in a game, because they always fight hard. Its recent run of second division finishes, however, have led some among the league to ask if the Bison can still find a way to stay with the leaders, or will they remain a permanent step behind.
• Holy Cross shares a number of comparisons with St. John's--a storied program, a demonstrated commitment to the sport, but a constant battle with its past to avoid those who wish "the good old days" were back. Granted, Holy Cross has been more successful on the gridiron than the Redmen have been on the court of late, but neither can be dismissed as the kind of program that could be nationally relevant again with the right ingredients. "If Villanova can do it, why can't we?", both schools might ask, albeit for different reasons. But let's ask it--if Holy Cross had 63 schoalrships, would they be playing Appalachian State on a Saturday afternoon in December?
• By comparison, Fordham is a little like Rutgers--a sleeping giant in the big media market who has enjoyed some recent success but certainly not enough of it for their expectations. And much like Rutgers doesn't mind the whsipers that the Big Ten could be a future suitor, Fordham fans have bigger dreams than the Patriot League, realistic or not. Fordham could get its 63 grants and still leave, and the league knows it.
• As for the last member, Georgetown, think a school on the edge of the Big East conference, a recent addition to the league, a recognizable name in a big media market with next to no success since joining the league (okay, none), and a general lack of interest in its program by many recruits. Sounds a lot like DePaul, doesn't it? Unfortunately.

---

Problem is, the Big East is not the Patriot League. The Big East is the best basketball conference of its kind in the nation--teams are fully funded, nationally competitive, and there's a waiting list of interested schools who would join. The PL has none of these, and with its declining out of conference performance (the PL has won one I-AA playoff game since 2003, and a sub-.500 record versus the Northeast Conference this season), scholarships are seen by some as the means to turn around the league before it slides into the ditch of irrelevance.

Turnarounds cost money, though. And commitment. Does the Patriot League have this commitment, or is it becoming more of a scheduling arrangement across schools who want to spend $5 million a year to be the next Appalachian State, and those who don't? Will the seven schools fall in line and spend the money, or will the league devolve into three that do, three would like to, and one that doesn't seem motivated to follow? Does the Patriot League want to be more closely associated with the style of competition at Dartmouth, or Delaware? Cornell, or Old Dominion? Georgetown, or Georgia State?

The Patriot League can reject Fordham's motion Monday and lose a school in the process. They can accept the motion, and risk whatver purpose the 1985 agreement provided it. That's the price of progress sometimes. But if they are not united moving forward, this league is adrift and, ultimately, divided.

A house divided against itself cannot stand. Nor a league.

Where The East Begins

Georgetown fans of a certain age remember the story. In his first week of practices in the fall of 1972, 30 year old John Thompson pointed to the empty wall on the southern side of McDonough Gymnasium and told his players a national championship banner would hang there. For a team coming off a 3-23 season, it must have sounded crazy.

About as crazy as someone telling his friends, “someday, Texas Christian University will play in the Rose Bowl and play Big East basketball.”

(And even less likely than winning the national championship.)

Monday’s announcement of TCU joining the Big East conference has spun off more than its share of “Why?” from the working press as well as the blogosphere. A world where TCU and Providence College are partners seems as incongruous as a cattle drive down Kennedy Plaza. But a better question is not “Why?” (read=it’s football) but “How?”. That’s a question Georgetown and its football constituents ought to think about.

Much like the Big East in its earliest days, the eight team Southwest Conference was the place where everybody knew each other and almost everyone was a winner. Four private schools (Rice, SMU, TCU, Baylor) stood side by side with four public schools (Texas, Texas A&M, Arkansas, Texas Tech) and, as often as any, the private schools held the upper hand. From 1941 to 1980, Texas A&M qualified for just one Cotton Bowl, but TCU went to five. Indeed, the late 1950’s saw four straight years where the private school team won the conference title.

Soon, things changed. Pro football siphons away fans. State schools began to offer unlimited scholarships, and suddenly Texas and Arkansas were picking off kids to sit on the fifth string that could start at Rice or TCU. And the losses mounted. And mounted. Beginning in 1966, TCU had 25 losing seasons of its next 27, amidst a run where the Horned Frogs were 28-100 over a ten year stretch from 1972-1982.

And it didn’t get any better. From 1971 through 1990, TCU was 5-55 in games against conference heavyweights Texas, Texas A&M, and Arkansas (three of those wins were against Arkansas). It was possible for someone to go through four years at TCU, marry, have a kid, and have that child go to TCU, graduate…and still have not seen a win over Texas in the intervening years. So it was no great surprise when, upon the first major realignment of the modern era, the public schools kicked the private schools to the curb, (with Baylor added only upon the severe arm-twisting of the then-Governor, a Baylor grad.) TCU, the home of Slingin Sammy Baugh, Davey O’Brien and Bob Lilly, was left with poor talent, declining attendance and no real direction for its future.

If left to the vagaries of a university financial analyst after 1994, TCU football would have drifted into the back roads of college football, maybe even Division I-AA. Instead, it discovered the difference between charity and philanthropy, and the upward trajectory was in place.

Former Georgetown vice president Jim Langley isn’t mentioned much anymore in Hilltop circles since his departure from GU last year. At a school which focuses so much on the annual use dollar, Langley tried to make a distinction between the ask (at GU, common) and the give (less so), and was keen on the concept of philanthropy. “Philanthropy provides the margin of excellence; charity provides the margin for survival,” says Langley in his post-GU blog. And in 1994, TCU was a charity case.

It was also about that time that a local Fort Worth businessman, Roger Williams, decided to change that. Instead of waiting around for someone at the school to start find a shovel to pour dirt over the program, he organized a committee of local business and civic leaders, later known as the “Committee of 100”, to buy season tickets to show support for the program. The Committee sold over 12,000 season tickets in one year, effectively improving attendance by 42% in 1995 and flipping on a light inside the school. Instead of trying to be just TCU’s team, this could be Fort Worth’s team. And it could compete in the future.

It was. And it is.

TCU moved to the Western Athletic Conference but were short-timers there—TCU wanted to distinguish its program against the other Southwest Conference jetsam, and then moved to Conference USA. When C-USA expanded in the ACC/Big East realignment, welcoming in the likes of Rice, SMU, and Houston, TCU upgraded to the Mountain West, all with a growing base of philanthropic support, which manifested itself in things like a new football practice facility, an indoor training area, new facilities for baseball, soccer, and track.

Two years ago, with TCU’s star climbing into national polls, local leaders and alumni asked themselves what two steps were needed to get to the next level. Answer? Better facilities and a BCS conference. A call was made with those who could make a difference to raise funds for a $104 million renovation of aging Amon Carter Stadium, built about the time Georgetown built Copley Hall on top of the old football field.

Thirty four people put up the money.

Let me repeat that. Thirty-four people, $104 million.

Without a five year discernment process, without a “Phase 1B”, without a “let’s wait until the next campaign” answer, TCU boldly started construction a week after the end of the season on the project, which will be finished in the 2012 season, not coincidentally, the season where TCU will find a BCS home in the Big East. It has risen from being one of the four or five worst programs in major college football to the #3 program in the nation, playing in the 2011 Rose Bowl, for cryin’ out loud, and now a member of an elite conference trying to figure out how 17 teams are going to play in Madison Square Garden in two years.

"It is a great scenario for us,” said TCU coach Gary Patterson, about the best college coach in America most people have never heard of. “It has been a hard road, an interesting road. But the last two seasons we have gone to BCS games, and I have been proud of how the DFW community has embraced us, becoming Frog fans. It should be interesting, we certainly don't seem to be getting bored."

I mean, think about it. What were the odds a decade ago that Notre Dame, Syracuse, UConn, and even Georgetown (a school that has played all of three basketball games ever in the second most populous state in the Union), is going to make semi-regular stops in Ft. Worth, Texas?

As the late TCU coach Jim Wacker might have said, “Un-belieeevable.”

For those who dismiss the soaring success of TCU as having no relationship whatsoever to the water-logged Georgetown football program, this thought. The ability of a school in Fort Worth Texas to join the Big East Conference is not an accident, but a process cast in motion by the efforts of those businessmen 16 years ago. They stepped up when the school did not. They gave the school institutional confidence that if it invested in football (and all the other sports which have grown and flourished in the interim), that investment would not be in vain. It also allowed the school to be proactive and to defy conventional wisdom by finding a home for its teams even if it, at first, it didn’t seem to fit. TCU in the Big East? Does it make any less sense for to have been in something called the Mountain West Conference?

Paul Tagliabue said it best Monday--if the Dallas Cowboys can compete in the NFC East, TCU can compete in the Big East.
TCU and Georgetown don’t share much in common but each had a point in its history where it had to change the direction. For TCU, it was that moment in 1994. For Georgetown basketball, it was that moment in 1979 when Frank Rienzo understood that if Georgetown did not build a new conference for its basketball team and its up and coming coach, two generations of Hoya athletics would be spent aside teams like UNC-Wilmington and Virginia Commonwealth before friends and family at aging McDonough Gym.

For Georgetown football, that moment is approaching. It needs its own Committee of 100. With the coming fissures in the Patriot League and a University stuck in institutional inertia over numerous competing priorities and fundraising, if Georgetown football continues to wait for the Red Sea to part, all it will do is get is wet. There is no full time fundraising effort for football, the head coach does not make fundraising a public priority, and more people than not give to the Gridiron Club as a charity than as a movement.

Today marks 1,900 days since the debut of the unnamed Multi-Sport Field and the “temporary” halt in construction. Georgetown should ashamed of this, but absent a true effort to get the dirt flying and resist temptation of "manana" that overshadows athletics projects, what changes? Is Kevin Kelly going to walk into Lee Reed and say “Build it, or I’m walking”? Is the Patriot League going to say “Build it, or go elsewhere?” Are students going to stage rallies and protest? No.

Instead of waiting for the one donor that is going to solve all its problems, reach out to the 100 that can do the heavy lifting. Reach out to a community who hears that “D.C. Is Our Playground” but don’t see enough ties that bind beyond the basketball court. Reach out to alumni who trade more securities in a day than the University has in its bank account and make them true partners in this process. Before Georgetown football moves from a charity to a charity case, make it something people are willing to commit their time, talent, and treasure towards. Or Georgetown can sit quiet, heap praise on a troubled four win season, and wait for things to change.

Those who wait for change often have no control over it. TCU understood this. Does Georgetown?

“A lot of great things are happening,” said TCU athletic director Chris Del Conte. “We have a chancellor that allowed us to dream. If you don’t dream, you’re living in a memory.”

A dream? Of course, dreams without support is like faith without works. But look where that got them, a school of 7,000 in a city whose motto is “Where The West Begins”. Now, it’s where the East begins.

Week 11 Thoughts

Some brief thoughts from Saturday's win over Marist (or scattershooting as to whatever happened to Peter Carbonara...)

A recent scattershooting for former RB Keion Wade has turned him up in Garden City, KS, a redshirt sophomore for Garden City Community College. Wade was leading the Broncbusters in rushing before suffering a torn pectoral muscle, and will be back on the recruiting mix this season with two years eligibility remaining, and we wish him the best of luck at the next stop on his journey.

A Win Is A Win...Congratulations to the team for Saturday's win. Okay, so Marist isn't Richmond and it's not even Bucknell, but a seventh straight loss to end the season would have been tragic given the 3-1 start, though six losses wasn't great either.The offense showed some improvement but the Hoyas really should have dominated this game offensively and didn't, and it took some big defensive stops (and a tackle from Scott Darby) from turning this one into some serious indigestion.

Another plus: Sticking with Scott Darby. For those that have been following this column, I've grown weary of quarterback by committee, and it would not have worked Saturday, anyway. With Keerome Lawrence graduating, maybe GU needs to consider not a wildcat, but placing two QB's back there and use them to variously run or pass (whereas the Wildcat was nearly always a Lawrence run play). Call it the "bulldog" and see where it goes...

I'm not sure if Marist returns to the 2011 schedule but they are a competitive foe (which you can take however you'd like) and until Georgetown gets better, it beats getting run off the field for Senior Day.

Home Crowd: Congratulations as well to the 2010 attendance average, 2,489  a game, a mere 110th of 117 schools but a more significant 103% of capacity at unnamed Multi-Sport Field. Now, it was clear that not all of the visitors side was filled ina  couple of games, but we continue to see people sitting on top of each other at the weather-worn aluminum stands to the west, and students don't seem to gravitate west. Can someone take the time to consider moving students to the east side stands? Next year's home games (tentatively Lafayette, Colgate, Fordham, Sacred Heart and two schools to be named later) aren't going to bring huge crowds anyway, and a little bit of excitement from across the field wouldn't hurt.

Some Very Unofficial Award Talk: With the Gridiron Club banquet now well into the spring, here are some unsolicited and very unofficial nominations for the team awards. While the season is still fresh, it bears remembering some remarkable efforts by the team this year:

• MVP: Andrew Schaetzke. Did it all this year, and stands to be the defensive leader heading into 2011.
• Outstanding Back: Jeremy Moore. A great season on defense and special teams.
• Outstanding Lineman: One of the offensive line seniors, they all did their part.
• Coaches Award: Nick Parrish. An outstanding four years in the Georegetown uniform.

A Tighter Budget: Without fanfare, Georgetown updated its disclosures to the Department of Education for the school year ending 6/30/2010. The football budget (as defined by expenses) shrank from from $1.5 million in 2009 to $1.4 million in 2010, likely a result of declines in Gridiron Club support. The school did not do a good job this season keeping people informed, and the coaching record, I think, keeps some donors on the sidelines. 4-7 is not something to be terribly excited about, either.

How does Georgetown's budget fare against the Patriot League? Uh-oh, here goes:

Fordham University: $4,809,131 (up 0.8% from 2008-09)
Colgate University: $4,514524 (up 1.9%)
Lafayette College: $4,198,351 (up 1.6%)
College of the Holy Cross: $3,920,294 (up 7.7%)
Lehigh University: $3,671,791 (up 6.6%)
Bucknell University: $3,008,262 (up 3.0%)
Georgetown University: $1,430,512 (down 7.6%)

Some food for thought as the PL presidents meet on Dec. 13 to debate...more likely, approve, athletic scholarships in football. The rich get richer, and Georgetown stays hungry.

Time Marches On...: Someday to debut on the front page, the "MSF Clock", or the number of days since construction was "temporarily" halted on the Field With No Name. As of today, (Nov. 23, 2010)...1,894 days. Are we any closer to a resolution in this institutional inertia?

Last Call

The days grow short in the middle of November, when the optimism of two-a-days and the bright sun of August has given way to the inevitable enemy of every football player: time. From a pee-wee kicker to the likes of Bret Favre, time takes its toll, and walking away from the game that so many have put their heart, mind, and soul into for so long is no easy task.

Saturday's game with Marist concludes another season of Georgetown Football, another down year for what was (and otherwise should be) a storied program. But it's more than that for the 15 seniors who moved onto campus together in the summer of 2007, who suffered through good times (a few) and bad (more than enough), who sat on bus trips to Worcester and Hamilton and Easton, who kept their heads up high after the losses, and who never quit on themselves or their team.

As fans, there's always next year. For these young men, this is the end of the line.

OK, maybe Nick Parrish will get a tryout somewhere, or a call to play in Europe. Even with his career tackle record, he's one of the more underrated players you will see at linebacker, and with the right amount of luck could be at the right place at the right time for someone to give him a look. For the other 14, perhaps not. But it doesn't diminish the impact of one, just one more afternoon to get out there any play the game they love, because it'll never be the same again. It won't be for an axe or a bell or an old oaken bucket, and it even won't be against a school many of their classmates even have heard of. It's still a game, and it's worth playing.

A season ago, staring at an 0-11 season, senior lettermen offered their thoughts to GUHoyas.com on what it would mean to play that last game. Three are worth repeating.

"It has been 21-straight games since I have seen the field. But yet, I haven't missed a practice unless I was in the hospital," wrote linebacker Jon Cassidy (C'10). "I have this one game to finish my career on a high note, but I may only have a few plays or maybe even one depending on what my shoulder allows. However, what I can tell you is that no matter what I will make that play represent what these other guys mean to me. It has been a rough four years, but they have been there through it all and it demonstrates their character. They dedicated every waking minute to football (20 hours a week does not scrape the surface of what they put in). Football envelops your life whether you want it to or not, and without my teammates I was blessed with it wouldn't have been possible for me to keep coming back. I know I speak for everyone when I say I love football and the way it makes people show their true self. My teammates have shown over these past four years that they are committed, hardworking, and relentless individuals no matter the result. I will miss this game greatly, but I will miss most of all the opportunity to be involved with my friends. I wish everyone nothing but the best."

"The way I feel about playing at Georgetown and this being our last game is that I love playing football and wish I could play it for the rest of my life," wrote lineman Rich Hussey (C'10). "In other sports like basketball baseball and soccer you can always pick up a ball or bat and play again, but with football you're never going to suit up again and be able to go full tilt. I've been playing football since I was 6-years-old and ever since then, I've seen myself as a football player. So now that its almost over it's kind of depressing considering for most of us, it is all we've known and how we've described ourselves for so long as `a football player.' It's the greatest sport on earth since you can go out and act with controlled violence for 60 minutes without being arrested. Not many people can play college football, but many would die to play so you can't take it for granted. Overall I've made a lot of lifelong friends playing here and especially being part of such a big class with 22 seniors. I loved playing with these guys and I'm sad that it's over but I'm grateful I had the experience."

And then there was Dan Matheny (B'10), who gave it his all for four seasons in that most difficult of positions, the offensive line.

"This game means everything to me. Being able to put on my uniform one more time is going to be bittersweet. Playing football has been amazing. I would not trade it in for anything. When high school was over I was not even close to ready to hang it up. It is one of the best decisions and most challenging experiences of my life. The last practice has sunk in. My roommates and I have been talking a lot about it. I have been playing football since I was 8-years-old. August is now [just] a part of summer."

Of course, there's another finality to this game as well. For a number of people beyond the seniors, it's their last game at Georgetown as well; some know it, some don't. last season, 18 underclassmen suited up for the finale with Fordham and didn't come back; they didn't get a Senior Day and it was gone just the same. We never saw Dishon Hughes or Brandon Floyd become the stars they could have been, we never saw Charlie Houghton come back to finish his career. Promising linemen like Chris Bisanzo and Robert Watson probably expected a senior year of great memories, and those summarily ended a year ago.

And it wasn't just the players. Assistant Coaches Dassin Blackwell, Frank Colaprete, and Jim Miceli made the walk back to McDonough Gym that day as well, and a chapter of their professional lives ended that day as well. Ten coaches left the field at MSF after a humbling loss to Colgate to end the 2005 season, but few would have figured only one making the return trip the following season. You just don't know.

And so it is with Kevin Kelly and his staff. Unless you're Joe Paterno, it's part of the itinerant nature of coaching that people move around in their careers. For Kelly, who hasn't dwelled publicly on what his fate will be after this season, otherwise knows that this staff will change as well in some form or fashion.

Eight wins in five years would be grounds for civil unrest at some schools, but not at Georgetown; still, we'd all be foolish to say it doesn't get addressed with athletic director Lee Reed at some point. When Reed arrived at Georgetown, he received only two questions at the press conference: "When are you going to build a basketball practice facility?", and "When are you going to fix the football program?" Sooner or later, he's got to answer both questions, and whether Kelly and his staff are part of the problem or the solution is a question Reed will ultimately answer.

For coach Kelly, who has witnessed Senior Days at places as disparate as Bowdoin College's Whitter Field and Syracuse's Carrier Dome, Dartmouth's Memorial Field to Marshall Unviersity's Edwards Stadium, and from Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium west to tiny, unnamed Multi-Sport Field, he has seen it all before. The only constant is change, and for those involved to make the most of it. That's the charge Kelly and his team have to take in its finale with Marist. The seniors will certainly get to sing the fight songs at reunions, at basketball games, and at events in the future, but never again on the field of battle with their teammates. A win Saturday offers that one, that last, that lasting chance.

Seniors, stay active, stay informed, and please stay involved. And to those who will follow in your footsteps, recall the classic verse from days gone by: To you from failing hands we throw the torch; be yours to hold it high.

Week 10 Thoughts

Some brief thoughts from Saturday's loss to Lehigh (or scattershooting as to whatever happened to John Sims...)

Limping Home: Maybe it's not fair, but it just seems that this season is limping to the finish line. very little in the way of interest or enthusiasm remains after a sixth straight loss, which is why marking down a "W" next to Marist is no sure thing.

Georgetown continues to suffer from the quarterback carousel that produces no consistency and the special teams miscues that haven't gone away. (More on the quarterback situation below.) Maybe Brett Weiss' field goal wouldn't have won the game, but 10-6 Georgetown gives the Hoyas momentum, ever so brief, in a 3rd quarter where it owned time of possession. Instead, Lehigh marches down the field and takes over the clock for the remainder of the game. And fumbling a kickoff return? Maybe in week one or two, but this is mid-November.

This is just not a good way for a season to end, particularly for the coaching staff. Even the Gridiron Club seems to have faded from view--its last post on its Facebook page was September 27. But with any degree of preparation, focus, and/or good luck (take your pick), this could have been a six or seven win team hading into marist--and what would people be saying then about Coach Kelly and such a turnaround?

Not Worth Quoting: I'm still a bit surprised at Coach Kelly's comment last week to the Georgetown Voice that: "We started out strong, but still we're three games ahead of where we were last year and so it's all about how you look at it. Is the glass half full or half empty? Right now it's half full.”

No, it's not. That's the equivalent of saying the 2010 Hoyas are 300% better because won three more games.

Statistically speaking, Georgetown got off to a good start, may have caught a couple teams napping, early but ultimately failed to step up when the season hit its stride. I don't think the team ever recovered from losing on the last play to Yale, was fortunate that Holy Cross meandered through the Sep. 26 game, and it's been one week of shortfalls ever since. The defense still carries smore than its share of the load, the running game is still an easy target for a bigger defense, and the darby/Kempf rotation is as effective as when GU was swapping through the likes of Cangelosi, Allen, and Hostetler. Starting QB's are not baseball pitchers--teams don't respond long term to middle relievers.

Georgetown has one win this season over a team who was not playing in their season opener against the
Hoyas. That ought to say something about how this team has not progressed over the course of the 2010 season...or maybe that other teams have.

A Letter from The Coach: Finally, I found the following letter posted last season from Kevin Kelly's former boss at Navy, Paul Johnson, now at Georgia Tech:

Dear Georgia Tech Family:

I can’t thank you all enough for the great support you have shown our football team this season. The student-athletes, our coaches and staff are working extremely hard to make this a special season for all of us. We can’t complete that task without you.

That is why I am reaching out to you to today. It is important in the coming weeks that you get behind us like never before. Our stadium needs to be packed with supportive Tech fans when we take on Georgia on Saturday night and then we’ll need you all to plan to travel with us as we play for the ACC Championship in Tampa on December 5th.

"But during these critical game days for our football team, I am personally asking that we exhibit the utmost in sportsmanship. Please treat our opponents with respect and dignity. Make sure your actions reflect positively on yourself and on our football program. Your positive actions will continue to raise the profile of this great Institute and of Georgia Tech football across this nation.

Thank you and go Jackets!

Paul Johnson
Head Football Coach
Georgia Tech

Georgetown's coaches don't do enough of this. For fans that only see the box scores and don't know much else about the football program, Coach Kelly should (and should have) been more proactive with such communications. The more people can feel in touch with the program, the more support it will bring.

As Georgetown enters a long off-season in 2011, everyone needs to take positive steps forward: coaches, players, benefactors, fans. If the last decade has taught anything, it is that there is much work to be done, and it doesn't get done by itself. Everyone is needed to get it done.

Hail and Farewell: Six wins in four years is a disappointment by any definition for the class of 2011, but their departures will leave some big shoes to fill for the 2011 Hoyas. Here are three:

• Running Back. Senior RB's at Georgetown do not have a great history of late, and Philip Oladeji's numbers reflect it: just 329 yards on the season. With Oladeji and slotback Keerome Lawrence graduating, the three returning RB's (Chance Logan, Dalen Claytor, Brandon Durham) combined for just 284 yards this season. Each are smaller backs, and GU still needs a bigger presence in the backfield to give these runners better opportunities.
• Offensive Line: Dan Semler, Erik Antico, and Rob Bates did the heavy lifting--literally--but the GU line is still too small and a little too slow for its competition. Offensive linemen are one of those positions where recruiting can make a big imapct, and with GU's inability to match other offers, it's one they lose more than they win. If Georgetown is to improve in 2011, it will start with the line.
• Linebackers: Nick Parrish's numbers speak for themselves, but Patrick O'Donnell and Paul Sant'Ambrogio had a big impact as well this season. Were it not for the defense, a lot of games could have got out of hand quickly, such as last week's Lehigh game. Nate Zimmel is the only returning inside LB on the two-deep, so this should be a point of emphasis in the off-season.

If you can make it to unnamed Multi-Sport Field Saturday, give these seniors (and their parents) a show of support. They have truly earned it.