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WSU Releases New Football Feasibility Study

John Bardo/Twitter/File photo

Wichita State has released the results of an extensive study over bringing back the school's football program.

The 69-page report from the consulting firm College Sports Solutions says that if WSU wants to bring back its football program, it will need a lot of money.

The study, commissioned in February, shows renovations to Cessna Stadium could cost between $21 and 28 million. A new practice facility would be more than $20 million.

Credit John Bardo's Twitter

Program expenses would be almost $240,000 for the first year in coaching salaries and recruiting. By the first year of play—the earliest would be 2019—it would cost more than $6 million, including expenses like travel, athletic equipment and conference membership.

A men’s football program would also change the school’s male-to-female ration among student-athletes. WSU would have to bring in some new women’s sports programs to adhere to federal Title IX requirements.

WSU suspended its football program in 1986 due to budget problems. President John Bardo told KMUW last month that a decision about football will come down to whether the school can afford it or not.

Interim athletic director Darron Boatright said in a news release that the school will spend the coming months analyzing the study and assessing the level of support among the community for bringing back the football program. The school is asking for feedback on the study.

This latest report isn’t the first time the school has looked into reviving football: There have been 8 other studies conducted in the past 20 years.

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Follow Nadya Faulx on Twitter @NadyaFaulx.

To contact KMUW News or to send in a news tip, reach us at news@kmuw.org.

Nadya Faulx is KMUW's Digital News Editor and Reporter, which means she splits her time between working on-air and working online, managing news on KMUW.org, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. She joined KMUW in 2015 after working for a newspaper in western North Dakota. Before that she was a diversity intern at NPR in Washington, D.C.