Keller @ Large: Is It Time To Punt On UMass Football Revival?

BOSTON (CBS) -- "We are a university that is dealing with some tough issues" says newly-minted University of Massachusetts President Marty Meehan, referring to the public system's ongoing struggle to keep student fees and tuition affordable and fund faculty salaries.

Add another one to the pile – the simmering controversy over millions in funds UMass has been pouring into its football program, five years after a controversial decision to step up to the top level of national competition. Taxpayer subsidies have nearly tripled since then, and for now the budget ink is running as red as the Minutemen's uniforms, despite an effort to boost ticket sales by playing most home games at Gillette Stadium.

"The UMass/Amherst campus has a game plan for this and I think we should see how it plays out," said Meehan when we asked him about this in an interview that airs in its entirety Sunday morning at 8:30 on WBZ-TV.

Does that game plan include continuing to play games at Gillette in front of tens of thousands of fans disguised as empty seats?

"Some have been attended pretty well," claimed Meehan, but the record shows only two UMass games at the stadium have drawn more than 30,000 fans, with one of those against Boston College.

Still, the new president, a big sports fan who was credited with helping boost the UMass-Lowell hockey program to national prominence when he was chancellor there, is cheering the football plan on, arguing the exposure the school gets from being routed by teams like Notre Dame justifies patience.

At what cost, though, we asked? How many more millions of scarce public dollars is the university willing to spend chasing its pigskin payoff dreams?

Says Meehan: " I think when there's a new analysis of how football is doing, it will be different."

You can listen to Keller At Large on WBZ News Radio every weekday at 7:55 a.m. You can also watch Jon on WBZ-TV News.