CONFRONTING THE OPPORTUNITY COSTS.

The editorial board of the Northern Star goes into the Thanksgiving break with questions about the focus on big-time sports.

Although NIU's enrollment dipped again this year, President John Peters announced in his State of the University address that he plans for enrollment to increase to 30,000 students in nine years in accordance with his Vision 2020 plan.

Even if the university's overall enrollment does increase, how many people are actually going to be able to use this new facility?

NIU has to make a decision on what it values more: academics or athletics. In a time during which money is tight and government funding is spotty at best, NIU cannot afford to make any poor decisions when it comes to improving the university.

And when a certain improvement is only going to benefit 2 percent of the student population, is it really that much of an improvement?

If the goal is to increase enrollment by 7,000 students in nine years, NIU must let go of this idea that it could have the best football team in the nation if only it had a good indoor practice space.

The column, which might have been provoked by the fireworks display that made a premature victory celebration after the most recent Tuesday night football game, has drawn a great deal of flaming (by Northern Illinois standards) from the university's sports fans.  They'll have an opportunity to put their bodies where their enthusiasm is on Friday morning.  Yes, as thanks for giving ESPN some Tuesday night games, Northern Illinois gets to have a Friday morning game, on ESPN3.  Meanwhile, the Wisconsin fans get to show their imagination to Penn State on Saturday.