Junto Boys

NCAABALL

My alma mater is the preseason and current #1 in college baseball.

NEW ORLEANS, La. - Senior right fielder Matt Barket hit a grand slam and the Green Wave got four scoreless innings from its bullpen as the top-ranked Tulane University baseball team completed the series sweep of No. 11 Arizona State with a 9-3 victory Sunday afternoon at Turchin Stadium.

Tulane's sweep of the Sun Devils marked the first time Arizona State failed to win a game in a weekend series since Feb. 15-17, 2002 when Florida State took all three games in Tallahassee. With Sunday's win, the Green Wave improve to 7-0 on the season.

The university has invested heavily in its baseball facilities and athletics complex on campus. I used to watch afternoon games on aluminum bleachers with about 60 fans, free with my student ID. The renovated stadium accommodates thousands of fans in upgraded seating. Last year's TU-LSU game drew over 12,000 at Zephyr Field (New Orleans' triple-A team).

President Scott Cowen has led the have-nots in attacking the BCS system and the rising costs to compete in Division 1 football. When I was working in the school's budget office, the football program was losing about $2.7m a year, and that was with some creative accounting. It's been running a $7m annual deficit in recent years. Every so often they commission a six- or seven-figure study whose conclusion is always not to cut the football program. Certain wealthy donors like the idea of having a football team.

Basketball likewise. The program had a good run in the early 1990s but those glory days are gone and not likely to be repeated.

Like Pittsburgh's Pirates, Wave football will never win consistently and will never make money. They're the Northwestern of the south, except Northwestern did draw fans when they were winning. TU doesn't have the local alumni base or fan support and they can't run with the LSUs and the Alabamas. Even when Shaun King was leading the team to a 12-0 season a few years ago, they didn't draw any fans. It just ain't gonna happen. Tulane draws its students from outside New Orleans, and when they graduate, off they go. There was only one guy in my fraternity who was local. Other than him, when I left in 1993, I was the last of my class to go.

I have long been recommending to my old New Orleans friends that TU cut its football program and invest in sports where it can play at the top level and which support the academic, upscale bent of the school, like baseball, tennis, and golf. Maybe building up the baseball program is a signal that the next consulting engagement won't be another fix. Applications are way up and selectivity is much improved, and none of those students are coming because of the big-time football program. It's an expensive and unnecessary luxury.