Dear Editor:

As a student at Louisiana Tech, and now as an alumnus, I've spent seven football seasons watching the Bulldogs play and cheering them on.

It astounds me that our team has done as well as it has in the recent years. This astonishment comes from the fact that our operating budget for the football program is only $8 million, whereas most Western Athletic Conference schools operate on at least a $12 million budget. That is 50 percent higher than Tech.

Why is it that our program offers incentives to keep the budget so low? This action hinders our ability to compete on a much higher level.

It is readily apparent that the more money spent on a program, the better the athletes we attract (and for that matter, produce). If we get better athletes, we win more games, and we will generate more money for the school.

Not only would we generate more money, students would have a football game to look forward to attending every weekend.

In comparison to Louisiana State University, Tech has only half of the students but less than one-fifth of the operating budget for sports. The most surprising thing is LSU does not use any state money for its funding. It is self generated.

The problem does not lie in the fact LSU students are bigger football fans; we just do not have a team that motivates us, a president who cares much about the program, a penny-pinching athletic director nor do we have a coach that can get the job done.

If we put more money in the athletic programs, Tech would be a much better institution with more highly motivated fans and students.

Go Bulldogs.

Santi Parks

B.S. Mechanical Engineering

2003