THE FRONT ROW WITH STEVE CAMERON: UI fans: Check some figures

Yes, I’ve gotten quite a few emails since I wrote that the University of Idaho cannot financially or sensibly support a Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) program.

Most have called me an idiot, a traitor or worse.

And in case there are some Idahoans left who don’t know the subject matter here, UI President Chuck Staben announced in April that the school would drop down a notch to the Football College Subdivision (FCS) — and play in the Big Sky Conference beginning in 2018.

Of course, this comes on the heels of a fairly glorious season for the Vandals, who went 9-4 and won the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl in Boise over Mountain West Conference foe Colorado State.

Almost all of my detractors — who now include Vandals quarterback Matt Linehan, though he didn’t phone me personally — believe that Idaho would be a very good fit in that same Mountain West.

Linehan made several comments after the bowl victory to the effect that Staben had made a mistake, and that Idaho wouldn’t be the least bit out of place in the Mountain West.

Coach Paul Petrino pointed out that the Vandals were 2-0 against the MVC this season, having also beaten UNLV.

LINEHAN and Petrino may have a point that this year’s Idaho team could have been competitive in the Mountain West. But if you look at history, Idaho’s previous forays into what used to be called Division-IA have been both underwhelming and costly.

The Vandals have been in this top division since 1996 — always in weak, weak conferences — and produced three bowl appearances to go with plenty of losses, along with a so-what response from the fan base.

But debating whether Idaho ever could somehow, miraculously, get a consistent run of solid recruits to find their way toward Moscow and its 16,000-seat Quonset hut of a stadium…

That still wouldn’t reach the bottom line.

Despite poor years by some normal powerhouses — Nevada fired its coach and the nationally known Fresno State program stumbled to 1-11 — the Mountain West’s average attendance was 24,142.

FACT: There simply is no way short of building a bigger, major-conference stadium that Idaho can play FBS football — in the Mountain West or anywhere else.

And that’s a lot of money to invest when you have no reason to believe people will show up to fill the place.

This season’s exciting Idaho team drew an average of 11,190 fans per game, not even close to filling the Kibble Dome.

To put that in perspective, the Vandals’ average attendance was 122nd out of the 128 schools playing FBS football.

Does that sound like a fan base clamoring for a sparkling 25,000-seat stadium to pack for games against San Jose State?

By the way, the smallest stadium in the Mountain West (by some distance) is 22,000-seat Maverik Stadium at Utah State — where the administration is building expensive luxury suites because the Aggies are always close to selling out.

IT COSTS a boatload of money to field a decent FBS team.

A school like Utah State can get away with it because there are huge donors among the predominantly Mormon fan base, and the Aggies can draw 20,000 or more (plus get a fat check for a road game at BYU) with metro areas like Ogden and Salt Lake City within driving distance.

Just as in real estate, location does mean something.

In the Vandals’ case, it’s horrible.

You just aren’t going to get people flocking to the Palouse to see Idaho football.

They didn’t fill Kibbie this year, with a fun team that went 9-4, so why throw good money after bad and build a multi-million dollar stadium?

If fans had packed the place over the years to see FBS football, we might be having a difference conversation.

So would Staben.

Steve Cameron is a special assignment reporter for The Press who has covered sports at all levels for more than three decades. Reach Steve at [email protected].