After reading Elliot Levy’s Tuesday column (“BU needs football, and D’Alessandro is the man to bring it to us,” Nov. 26, pg. 11), I wonder if he put any actual thought into it at all. It seems Mr. Levy thinks that a football program at Boston University would be run on the fumes of his farfetched hopes and dreams.

Sorry Elliot, the resurrection of the football team would take money, the lack of which was one of a number of reasons the team was cut in the first place. It seems like a vicious cycle: if the team isn’t any good, then it won’t generate revenue and it can’t go out and recruit so the team isn’t any good, but that’s the pattern the program had fallen into by the mid-90s. By 1997, the team’s final year, it had lost 25 of its last 27 games up until a 28-7 homecoming drubbing at the hands of Northeastern, which in part resulted in the paltry attendance rivaling an intramural broomball playoff game.

In addition to the general cash flow problem encountered by the program in its waning years, Mr. Levy failed to even touch on what may be the even more important impact of Title IX, which states that equal funds must be distributed to male and female college athletic programs. Any football team, even an unsuccessful one, takes a heavy wallet to run, and by its final season, BU was spending $3 million per year on the football team — roughly one-quarter of its athletic budget. As you said, the John Hancock Corporation has generously donated funds to build the Student Village. But would they be willing to donate money each year for a football program that would show close to zero returns on its original investment?

Another component to Title IX, which is often overlooked, is that the total male-to-female ratio of the student athlete population must reflect the ratio of the student body as a whole. Therefore, bringing back the football team would add, at a modest estimate, 60 male athletes. Since the female-to-male student population here at BU is roughly two females to every male, about 120 female student athletes would have to be added as not to be in violation of the stipulations set forth by Title IX.

So Mr. Levy, if you want football back so badly, I suggest you also go take in the newly added women’s handball, curling and hopscotch teams. The logistics of Title IX combined with the money issue make the return of the team, at this time, a pipe dream.

It’s absurd to think that in the few short years, as you contest, things have really changed all that much on this campus. What makes you think people, and a substantial amount of people at that, would attend games with any regularity? The hockey team is currently ranked No. 11 in the nation and was as high as No. 4 this year, placing them in the elite of college hockey programs. Yet, this nationally ranked and respected program drew just over 2,000 spectators last Thursday against UMass-Lowell.

There is a problem with spirit at this school, Mr. Levy — that I totally agree with — but to bring back a fledgling football program is not the answer to that problem.

You say “the quality of the team won’t even matter,” but I believe the quality of the team is also part of the issue. Do you think a Friday night tilt with William and Mary in the snow in early November will draw you away from your plans? If your answer is undoubtedly “Yes,” which I presume it would be, do me a favor first: Don’t compare the atmosphere at the Harvard-Yale game, one of the greatest traditions and rivalries in college football, to bringing the pigskin back to BU. First, saunter on over to Northeastern to watch a game against Hofstra in the freezing cold and then get back to me with your answer. My guess is you won’t be first in line for season tickets.

Next time you sit down to write a column like this, Mr. Levy, do your homework first and realize this is a topic on which many columnists’ breaths have been wasted, and there are vastly more important issues at BU that need to be addressed before we can begin to think about bringing football back. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve delayed my trip home for Thanksgiving so I could attend the BU-Harvard hockey game this evening. The “Icecocks” I guess you would call them?