We’ve all heard the tale of woe from the NIU Athletic Department about how they’re just flat broke.

We have no reason to believe they’re not, but the newest attempt to trim the budget could turn around and bite them on their Huskie behinds.

The Athletic Department has decided to drastically reduce the number of security officers for home football games from 23 to seven. While the attempt to reduce costs is a valiant effort, this may or may not prove to be the best way to go.

Granted, NIU football crowds have been pretty tame in the past, but slashing security may just be the engraved invitations previously absent miscreants need to come out to the stadium.

NIU’s Joe “Spanky” McFarland seems a humanist of sorts. We appreciate his optimism about the student body, but we know students a little better. McFarland says as long as everyone obeys alcohol bans at games, everything will be hunky-dory.

Guess what, folks. Have you ever heard the saying “No cop, no stop?” That’s just the way things work, especially on a college campus.

We understand the athletic budget is strained, but we’re not sure if this idea will pan out. We hope it will.

The kicker is that we’re getting the line about the student athletic fee increase being denied. Last year, the department tried to squeeze about $60 a semester per student out of us last year. The proposal was emphatically squashed by loud student disapproval.

The department has to deal with that loss of revenue, and so far they’ve miraculously managed without much bloodshed.

The problem many universities, including NIU, face is that students generally don’t care much about athletics anymore but alumni still do.

Slashing the security from 23 to 7 will probably tick everyone off if things get out of hand, especially alumni and parents who attend the games.

At least there’s a backup plan and the university police are always available, but we hope the lack of security on hand won’t lead to major problems.

Twenty-three to seven sounds like a football score. We hope the Athletic Department ends up winning, but don’t say we didn’t warn you. The odds aren’t in their favor.