SEMO TAKE STEPS TO UPGRADE FOOTBALL EFFORT

Don Kaverman, athletic director at Southeast Missouri State University, is determined to put the football program on a sounder financial footing. The recent decision to hire top-flight head coach Tim Billings of Marshall University may be seen in this light. Billings, who moves here this week from West Virginia to start his duties, has been associated with winning programs. These include the University of Oklahoma, where under coach Barry Switzer Billings helped win a national championship in 1985, and at Marshall during the last decade, where Billings was part of the nation's winningest football program. Most recently, as defensive coordinator for Marshall, he steered his charges to a complete defensive domination of a potent Brigham Young University offense in last week's Motor City Bowl in Detroit. Marshall's superbly coached athletes finished the year at 13-0.

Southeast has seen its once-proud football fortunes fall on hard times with back-to-back 3-8 seasons. Over the last decade, the Indians managed 40 wins against 70 losses.

Athletics is for many the public face of the university, the source (like it or not) of most ink in newspapers within Southeast's service and recruiting area. Talk about the finances of the athletic program and you're talking mainly about football and men's and women's basketball.

Of the three, only the football program showed a deficit in fiscal 1999. Men's basketball registered a profit of more than $340,000, while women's basketball generated a slight profit of $16,259. But in reality, none of the Southeast athletic programs made money. The university pumped nearly $3.3 million into the athletics program in the last fiscal year. That included $550,548 for football, $360,131 for men's basketball and $270,000 for women's basketball. Nearly $834,000 was spent to subsidize Southeast's other sports.

Kaverman doesn't expect football to show a profit. In a 1995 study of the 72 Division 1-AA football programs nationwide, all but 11 responding to the survey said their football programs operated at a deficit. On the positive side, the NCAA has just signed a new $6 billion contract with CBS. Member institutions will be receiving more from this source.

Where Kaverman sees room for major improvement is in attracting paying customers. With room for 10,000 spectators at Houck Stadium, most games recently have been far from filled. And of course a winning program should Billings prove able to deliver it will help here. We wish him well and salute Kaverman and other university leaders in their effort to upgrade the football program.