Sorry baseball and soccer, “Friday Night Lights” means football only at Southwestern College. SWC’s decades-old favoritism to football has never been more apparent than right now as the tree-less battle zone adjacent to the corner lot attests. Using Proposition R funding, SWC’s Athletics Department is currently renovating the football stadium with artificial turf, new restrooms, concession stands, a new scoreboard, a central power plant, classrooms, offices, locker rooms and a weight-training room. Yet two better programs are left in the dark. While SWC’s decidedly mediocre football team rakes in the goodies, the more deserving baseball and soccer programs get nada. DeVore Stadium will be getting a $33 million makeover but other fields are missing out. “We don’t have any money for baseball lights,” said Terry Davis, dean of Health and Exercise Science. “Football isn’t getting new lights either.” Davis said there is an agreement between the college and the homeowners directly behind the baseball field that prevents the school from allowing the construction of lights for the baseball and soccer field. “We’ve always had an agreement with the families that live behind there that we would not put lights up,” said Davis. “You put lights up, then you have night games and that disrupts their home family lifestyles.” Davis said the night games might cause noise problems for the homeowners as well. Not everyone concurs, including some homeowners. What the college has not considered is the distance of the gap between the outfield and the outer fence of the houses is little over half the distance of a football field. Standing by the houses during a baseball game, virtually no noise can be heard. No balls striking bats, no cheers, no whistles, no loudspeakers. During a recent home game, three homeowners questioned said they were not even aware of a game going on. None were aware of any agreement forbidding the campus to install lights. None of the three homeowners said they had any problem with a lit baseball field. If decisions were based on merit, football would come in near the bottom of SWC Athletics priorities. Cross country, of course, is SWC’s signature sport and its baseball program is iconic. Soccer is on the ascent, football in decline. (Let’s not mention our college’s state champion tennis teams, eliminated by SWC three years ago. How much could tennis balls possibly cost?) Money would be better spent on the track and field facilities, another program on the ascent. SWC’s football team last year was 4-6. Men’s soccer, however, finished the fall 2011 season 14-3-3. Baseball ended the Spring 2011 season with a 26-18 record and is currently 8-5-1. Football can draw fans because home games are held on Saturday evenings. That revenue can be used towards field lights for soccer and baseball so they can play in the evenings as well. Lights for the baseball field would be pointed away from the houses. Aside from the “agreement” between the school and homeowners, there is nothing to stop the school from building lights. If money can be found for a football field make-over, it can be found for lights. It is time the athletic department and the campus facilities director got together to redistribute some of the money going towards the football renovations. Construction is already underway but there is still time to do the right thing and share the wealth with baseball and soccer. Dark fields are a slap in the face to the great baseball and soccer programs and to our community that can not ever see them play since the games need to be held in daylight. Football ain’t the only game in town, not even close.