First, Northeastern. Now, Hofstra. Two universities are dropping their football teams, both citing the high costs required to build a winning team. In both cases, the decision came after two-year studies of the football programs — current national economic conditions were not the prime factor.

At first, I was pleased with the news. Major sports — football, especially — are costly to universities and often threaten the educational mission. To drop football, given its strong proponents, is a courageous step, one that wouldn’t be taken without good reason.

But something else is disturbing.

These are both private colleges. Over the decades, we have seen public universities gradually crowd out private ones in terms of enrollment of students. (According to the Department of Education, about half of all college students were at public universities in 1947; today the figure is close to 75 per cent.)

Is dropping football another sign that state universities are “crowding out” private universities? Private schools, which depend heavily on tuition, must weigh their priorities carefully, while state universities can more easily tap into taxpayer resources. Could dropping football, while eminently sensible in some cases, push more students to the public schools with their well-funded athletic programs and ample state revenues?