Please Bring Back Brandeis University Football --Petition--

I would first like to personally and publically thank Sheryl and Lynne who run our Athletics Department.

I have not spoken with them much over the years, however, they were gracious enough to take time to speak with me recently about the prospects of Re instating Football at Brandeis.

The conversation topics I was hoping to discuss were:

1) Can we reinstate football, if so, what are the hurdles and needs?
2)If not, why and can we overcome them with a real plan.

I had the opportunity to cross reference some of the research I have compiled with other Athletic Directors and have to say that most of what our Athletics department reflected to me was right inline with what I had thought, related to finances and NCAA rules.

Some data points and points of interest:

We discussed in depth the Gender Equity NCAA rules and how Brandeis has some flexibility given its current landscape of 10 mens teams and 9 womens. We would have to consider adding a womans sport in the future to make up ground, however, I feel that, after talking to the AD, we are well positioned to install Football related to the rules, if we so choose, have the appropriate financing, support and logistics.

The AD mentioned we would be able to utilize the soccer field to get started if need be, with the long term plan of designing a true expanded stadium where all sports can benefit, TBD.

--We will be discussing further logistics of locker room use and practice fields on my next campus visit. The Sheryl and Lynne were both gracious enough to invite me to meet in person in the near future for a walk through, and further discussion of Brandeis Athletics in general and the new football program idea(thinking late Feb March, if their calendars work)

--I have rough numbers of costs related to financing a football program from other AD's. Sheryl threw out a number of 500k annually for a budget(not counting any logistical changes which may have to be made), however, I have heard slightly lower(AVERGING A FEW OTHER SCHOOLS) from other programs of similar size and geography. I will further research this topic with some of the schools which have launched D3 programs this year to drill down into these numbers further in the coming months.

--I will be opening a special account(either escrow format or via the Brandeis Alumni page) to beging fundraising and have notified the Boston Globe, and the Mayor of Waltham about the progress we are making so you may see some headlines in the near future of the happenings on campus. My contact at the Globe is an old footballer and is excited to see our progress and cover the story over time.

Net net, I feel that Football is a way to increase the long term Alumni engagement of the University, something that our development staff works tirelessly to improve. Sometimes you need to think a little outside the box and having been an athlete and understanding that Football is a positive influence on college campuses, I truly believe this is, at the minimum, and honest way to bring students and alumni together for years to come--on a more consistent basis.

Sorry for any misspellings, I am not being graded on this I hope, whew!:)

Go Deis'