Why football matters in the Maricopa Community College District race
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
Glendale and Mesa community colleges play on an unknown date. Photo: Courtesy of Maricopa County Community College District
Football has become a campaign issue in the race for the Maricopa County Community College District as a slate of candidates campaigns on bringing back programs that were eliminated nearly a decade ago.
Why it matters: Supporters of community college football are passionate about the benefits they believe it has for the players, but it's also a cost-intensive program that would require considerable resources from MCCCD, which oversees 10 community colleges in the county.
Flashback: The four Maricopa county schools with football — Glendale Community College, Mesa Community College, Scottsdale Community College and Phoenix College — eliminated their programs in 2018.
- The decision came on the heels of a task force report that recommended scrapping football due to its high costs compared to other sports and low student success rates.
- Football accounted for about 20% of MCCCD's athletics budget and more than 50% of athletics-related insurance costs, per district spokesperson Lindsey Wilson.
- The decision came three years after the Legislature eliminated state funding for Maricopa County community colleges.
State of play: Three seats on the seven-member board are up for election in November, and candidates Ryan Caracciolo, John Crow and Susan Winder are running together as the Change4Maricopa slate, with reinstating football as part of their platform.
- Candidate Jack Hastings, a member of the Surprise City Council, also supports bringing back football.
Zoom in: A financial plan produced by the candidates, which is outlined on its website, proposes a $2-per-credit-hour student life and athletics fee starting in 2027 — $60 per year for a full-time student — which would be indexed to inflation in subsequent years, with up to 60% of revenues going to football.
- Crow tells Axios that the fee is "a proof of concept, not the plan," intended to "stress-test" a 25-year financial model and show that a "modest funding source" could provide the money.
- The actual funding mix should include sponsorships, naming rights, donations, budget efficiencies and the restoration of state funding, among other things, he says, telling Axios, "There's lots of levers. There's not one solution."
- New taxes or fees should only be used as a last resort, Crow says.
What they're saying: "The point is that we want to create opportunities for young people," Crow says.
The other side: "It's a nice idea but it's a bunch of BS," says Bill Sandweg, who's running against Winder.
- Sandweg tells Axios he loves football but the costs of bringing it back are high, and additional funding would be better used to expand other high-demand programs.
- Judy Schwiebert, who's teamed up with Sandweg and is running against Crow, says it would be great to have football back, but questions where the money would come from.
Reality check: The only way to fund new football programs would be to raise taxes or tuition, MCCCD board chair Linda Thor tells Axios.
- She says the board wasn't involved in the 2018 decision to eliminate football and likely wouldn't decide whether to reinstate it.
The intrigue: The board is nonpartisan, but Democrats Sandweg and Schwiebert, a former state legislator, allege that Change4Maricopa is using the football issue as a "Trojan horse" to bring "far-right extremism" to the MCCCD board.
- Crow calls the attacks a "baseless political claim" and says football is a nonpartisan issue.