For one reason or another, some college football programs make the decision to shut down. Here are six now-defunct programs that should make a comeback.
The football program at the University of Alabama-Birmingham took a sharp turn in 2014 after its official termination. After a two-season hiatus (technically, briefly “defunct”), impassioned pleas by fans and efforts from school supporters brought the Blazers back to the gridiron by the fall of 2017. UAB quickly became a national darling last season, winning the Conference USA title and appearing in the AP Top 25 en route to an 11-3 campaign.
Exorbitant costs of a Division I football program are too high to make any financial sense for many defunct programs. Stadiums, coaching salaries, locker rooms, weight/conditioning facilities, support staff, and physical space are cost prohibitive obstacles for many schools today.
In addition, is there enough competitive balance at the Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FBS) level to justify the costs of sustaining a program? Clemson, Alabama, Ohio State, Georgia, and Oklahoma consistently out-recruit and out-fundraise other programs, and the results show on the football field. Of the five seasons of the College Football Playoff, Alabama, Clemson, and OU have combined for 12 of the overall 20 spots. And that’s not even to mention the enormous resources at the disposal of the average SEC schools, for example, compared to Group of 5 schools.
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That being said, the intangible benefits are incalculable for any school pondering the decision.
20 years ago, 114 teams competed in the Division I-A level, the top flight of college football. The now-renamed Division I FBS level contains 130 teams, an increase of 16, and shows no signs of stopping.
Idaho made the nearly unprecedented move in 2018 of dropping from FBS to the second-tier Football Championship Subdivision, but not without fierce backlash from fans. The future prospects for the Vandals remain to be seen, but a 4-7 finish last season (good for ninth place in the FCS Big Sky Conference) does not portend success.
On the other hand, Charlotte, Coastal Carolina, Georgia State, Old Dominion, and South Alabama have all started a football program within the last decade and within several years joined the FBS.
It’s necessary to mention that adding 63 to 85 scholarships for male student-athletes has Title IX implications for a university in terms of adding an equal number of women’s scholarship opportunities. This can result in cutting men’s sports and/or adding women’s sports.
Why is restarting a football program worth it?
Despite the constantly increasing costs, what are the benefits to starting a Division I football program from scratch? Just ask UAB.
There’s national TV exposure — look at the number of football games available for streaming on services like ESPN or Fox Sports. There’s brand recognition — think of all the bumper stickers, the jerseys, the helmets, the flags flying from a porch, and the monogrammed polo shirts.
There’s collective group identity — the pageantry of a Saturday morning tailgate, the swaying trombones of a marching band, and the fight songs chanted in unison by similarly clad fans.
And finally, there’s pride — the random connections forged when two people discover they’re alums of the same school, even if they graduated decades apart from each other. Those forged connections, by the way, come in handy when it’s time for schools to seek donations to the endowment from wealthy benefactors.
Proponents of college football, including the decision-makers at UAB, claim that these immeasurable positives outweigh the tens of millions of dollars put toward financing a football program. Helmets and shoulder pads don’t come cheap, but neither does an ingrained sense of pride and a softly sung alma mater on a crisp autumn afternoon.
Not convinced yet? Here are six schools that, like UAB, once had a football program and should restart one again: