Apple is right to consider if UH has what it takes

If you’re encountering difficulties figuring out where Tom Apple is coming from, look at where he came from.

That would be the University of Delaware, home of the Blue Hens … the Blue Hens who play a level below the University of Hawaii, in the Football Championship Subdivision.

So, when the UH Manoa chancellor talked about the possibility of the Warriors no longer competing in the Football Bowl Subdivision in the future, he knows the world doesn’t come to an end if you’re not an FBS school.

The way many fans have reacted, though, you’d think it would signal armageddon.

Maybe it’s an indicator of warped priorities, but it’s also a natural response from a beleaguered fan base that has lost confidence in the school’s leadership.

For the chancellor, this is a case of when keeping it real goes wrong.

No one wants to hear it. And Apple shouldn’t have said it. Recruiting top-notch talent to Hawaii is hard enough as it is.

Wrong to say it, but correct in principle — if UH playing sports in Division I is going to cost millions of dollars more than it brings in, Apple has to consider alternatives. Or he wouldn’t be doing his job. Some folks seem to forget his responsibilities include academics, not just athletics. They go hand-in-hand, but only to a point, and the priority is academics.

Now, I agree with athletic director Ben Jay that much of the deficit is due to the way revenue and expenses are counted. For one thing, the athletic department should be credited with money generated by sports apparel sales, that’s just common sense. And that’s a big chunk right there.

But it is also true that if more people don’t start buying tickets and making sizable donations, UH’s leadership does have to eventually ask and answer the tough question of what it can truly afford.

This incident made me think about the past, and if there was anything wrong about UH football before it attained the so-called big-time status of membership in the Western Athletic Conference in the 1970s. Somehow, the Rainbows managed to put together some pretty decent teams, and they pulled off some huge wins, including legendary road victories at Nebraska and Washington.

UH football wasn’t big-time, but it had big-time heart.

But that’s ancient history and almost everything but the shape of the ball has changed. Very few, if any, fans want to move backward.

Still, let’s take another look back, to 15 years ago. Remember the talk about UH football in the late 1990s, after the Mountain West breakaway and before June Jones’ arrival?

That’s right … same as now, moving down a division or two or maybe not even playing football at all. A few losing seasons in a row and the accompanying empty seats and indifference will do that.

If the Warriors turn things around now and start winning, how long will it take to bring back the fans? And will there be enough support from other sources to combine with that to maintain a Division I program?

UH was blessed with a miracle in the 1999 turnaround. To count on another as sudden and dramatic is unrealistic.

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Reach Dave Reardon at dreardon@staradvertiser.com or 529-4783.