“Plainly put, the Fort Lewis College athletic program can’t get much worse, and it probably won’t get any better.”
I wrote that in 1999 for a Herald guest editorial. It was a poor choice of words to express the possibility of a new collegiate sports paradigm. The fact is, FLC has a great athletic program when one considers its athletes, coaches, administrators and its fans.
It takes more backbone and love of the sport to compete or coach at FLC than it does at a Division I program like University of Colorado. The reality is that the National Collegiate Athletic Association system, particularly football, is stacked against our local college. There are more than 400 Division I and II athletic departments and more than 70,000 football players alone who compete in the NCAA.
Despite best efforts for the past18 years, FLC cannot keep pace with funding for traditional NCAA varsity facilities, coaches’ pay and athlete support the way that other colleges do, but it’s not for a lack of trying.
FLC Athletic Director Gary Hunter, who resigned May 11, noted that his biggest regret was not being able to raise the money needed to improve the facilities. National sponsors are not interested in programs like FLC, and there is a limit to the pool of local sponsors.
Men’s varsity sports at FLC are football, basketball, golf, soccer and cross country. Women have eight traditional sports – basketball, cross country, golf, lacrosse, soccer, softball, track and field and volleyball – to balance the size of the football team and meet Title 9 requirements to offer equitable athletic opportunities for women.
Despite varsity status, there is little chance of national prominence if one measures by win/loss records or revenue alone. Division II and the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference are not of true national status. Many people agree that the best value of traditional sports at FLC is to recruit a diverse and talented student body and to foster discipline to support academic achievement.
Alongside the varsity sports, bicycling, skiing, snowboarding and climbing are club sports, as is common at other colleges. Whereas Durango and FLC have been home to numerous national champions, Olympians and pro athletes in these sports, they take a backseat to traditional varsity programs, just like at every other place in the country.
But FLC and Durango are not like every other place. I’d argue that we become increasingly different every day, as traditional American sports undergo seismic changes. Whereas professional teams and top college programs generate billions of dollars in revenue, the financial fortunes are reversed as one goes down the ladder. It’s ironic that our local Olympic hopefuls in kayaking can’t get free books to RMAC schools, but traditional sport athletes not ranked in the top 50,000 of their sport have numerous scholarship opportunities.
What if the model was flipped so that current FLC club sports and other action disciplines were designated as varsity sports with the specific goal of national and international competitive success? If that happened, a door might be opened to revenue opportunities and other benefits that now are not possible.
I believe it’s possible for FLC and a select consortium of similar colleges and universities located in sports towns like Durango to write an entirely new chapter in collegiate athletics that would:
Attract the highest-caliber athletes as their first choice for a college education,Provide athletic and educational opportunities to students that cannot be found elsewhere;Generate national and international recognition for the students and their schools;Create significant and sustainable national sponsor revenue to benefit member schools, the local communities and the student athletes; andAddress issues regarding eligibility, athletes’ rights and other rules that are written to protect NCAA interests vs. athletes and small schools.All this is possible without jeopardizing FLC’s NCAA compliance or eligibility. The word “varsity” as used in college sports is not trademarked or a legal term. There is no suggestion that FLC drop current NCAA varsity sports it believes are successful and sustainable. There are no NCAA penalties for conducting sports programs the NCAA does not sanction.
To explore this line of thinking, one must first discard the notion that a college varsity team may only compete against other varsity teams. Why, for instance, couldn’t colleges in an action sports league enter varsity teams in any elite-level bike, ski, snowboard, kayak, climbing, skateboard, BMX or other action sport competition? Simply score the college teams against each other.
Ultimately, however, the colleges with action sports teams will host intercollegiate varsity events showcasing the best America and the world have to offer.
If a varsity action sports league was formed with other like-minded colleges and communities, value would be created that could attract media, sponsors and fans in a way that sets those sports apart from secondary club status (leaving them last in line for support). This is what ESPN did when it created the first X Games in 1995, despite much derision from the traditional sports establishment.
What is the downside of FLC forming a task force to explore this idea with similar schools, sponsors and media? It will be a long and patient process requiring an open mind to consider new ideas, formats and standards. There may be no collegiate varsity action sports teams now, but remember that there was no football program when Princeton and Rutgers fielded the first teams in 1869. Someone had to take the first step. I believe our community and the action sports world would rally behind FLC if it did.
Jack Turner is a fifth-generation Durango local, six-time NCAA champion and former member of the U.S. Ski Team. Reach him at jturner@sirdar.com.
