College Football: Why aren’t there more Catholic D-I FBS programs?
By John Scimeca
3. Historical urban immigration of Catholics to the U.S.
Though Catholics were present at the nation’s founding, large numbers of Catholics didn’t immigrate to the United States until the mid-to-late 1800s. As many immigrants entered the United States during this time period from southern and eastern Europe, the attraction of employment in the nation’s early industrial centers was hard to resist.
This trend of immigration to urban areas shows itself in the prominent Catholic universities that are based in large U.S. cities today. Many of these schools have successful basketball programs but have either never fielded a college football team or have disbanded it at some point.
In Philadelphia, there’s Villanova, LaSalle, and St. Joseph’s, all of which (especially the national title-winning Wildcats) have made men’s basketball NCAA Tournament runs since 2000. In New York City, there’s Fordham, St. Peter’s, and St. John’s. In Maryland, there’s Mount Saint Mary’s, Georgetown, Catholic University, and Loyola University.
Moving into the Midwest, there’s Marquette in Milwaukee, DePaul and Loyola in Chicago, and Creighton in Omaha, all schools with competitive national profiles in men’s basketball. Not to be outdone, there’s Xavier in Cincinnati, Saint Louis, Duquesne in Pittsburgh, all founded in areas with many Catholic immigrants from Central Europe or Italy.
Of course, many of these decently sized, urban-based Catholic universities do not have Division I athletic programs, such as John Carroll (Cleveland), Rockhurst (Kansas City, Mo.), or Spring Hill (Mobile, Ala.).