Starting — or reviving — a Division I football team is an expensive and complicated process, with little obvious return on the investment.

Inside Higher Ed reports.

Despite long odds, universities start or resume big-time football programs

In February, John Bardo, Wichita State University’s president, tweeted an image of a black and yellow football helmet emblazoned with the letters WSU. The tweet was shared more than 2,100 times and viewed by 40,000 people, exciting Wichita State fans and alumni who speculated that the image meant the university’s long-dead football team was being brought back to life.

This was not quite the case; the helmet was only a prototype designed to gauge interest in restarting the program, which has been dormant for three decades. That same afternoon, university officials met with a consulting firm, College Sports Solutions, to begin determining if bringing Wichita State football back was financially feasible. About five months — and about $75,000 — later, the firm released its analysis.

It is the ninth such report commissioned by Wichita State since the football program was discontinued.