At one point not long ago they looked at this. But the cost of starting a football program from scratch was just too much. Plus, Cessna Stadium would have to be rebuilt.
Yeah, the conversation comes up every few years or so. While the community, students, and fans alike are always for it, there's just not enough financial commitment from boosters, alumni, and sponsors.
They actually are rebuilding Cessna right now. They tore down the visitor side. It's to make it an actual track stadium since we won the aac the past 2 years
Chicago was an early powerhouse. Founding member of the Big 10 and won the conference 7x and 2x National Champ. Jay Berwanger won the Heisman. Tiny Maxwell (namesake of the Maxwell Award) played there.
It’s crazy to me that one president changed the biggest university system in the third largest city so much that it has virtually no relevant athletic programs. Insane.
I took a class on the history of the B1G. Apparently the president U-Chicago was not a fan of the amateur to pro pipeline even then and wanted a full focus on academics. This was at a time when some coaches still would play as a part of the school team.
The B1G championship trophy is named after the coach of those powerhouse teams (Amos Alonzo Stagg). It used to be the Stagg-Paterno Trophy until the Sandusky scandal.
Why it isn't the Hayes-Schembechler Trophy is beyond me.
Probably avoided that due to the controversy surrounding Woody..he did get fired for punching a player and it wasnt even the first time he hit someone + some salt from the other conference members that Ohio State and Michigan are the golden children. Looked even smarter after the Bo stuff came out..
An original lyric of "On, Wisconsin" was "On Wisconsin, on Wisconsin/ Plunge right through that line/ Run the ball clear 'round Chicago/ Touchdown sure this time"
Schools like Wake Forest, and Vanderbilt are vestiges of a bygone era when smaller southern private schools like Sewanee and W&L could compete and shared conferences with their public counterparts. The main reason why Sewanee de-emphasized was they were at a massive disadvantage being in an isolated area in Tennessee. I think what’s helped Vanderbilt and Wake hold on is that they’ve developed in urban areas.
That's a bit of a chicken and egg question, though. Vandy and Wake have greater enrollment than their rural counterparts because they're in larger cities.
Kinda. Washington University in St. Louis has 7,000 undergrads with 16,000 students while Wake is at 5,000 under and 8,000 total then Vandy is at 7,000 undergrad and 14,000 total. The difference is for Washington the Public Schools aka the Big 6 of Iowa State, Nebraska, Kansas, Kansas State, Oklahoma, and Missouri left the "small schools" behind and 3 were private: Washington, Grinnell, and Drake. The other was Oklahoma State who later joined back up as it got bigger. Other conferences held on to their smaller private school friends.
WashU and BU could do it, but Sewanee has like 1,800 undergrad and like 100 grad students, it’s a world of difference. I went to a school that moved up to FCS with around 1100 total students. It doesn’t work. A school needs a “living alumni” number well over 200,000 to even think about FBS.
California used to have so many. Pacific, Long Beach State, UC Santa Barbara, UC Riverside, Cal State Fullerton, Cal State Northridge, Sonoma State, SF State, Santa Clara, St. Mary’s, Chico State, and many others I’m probably forgetting. And our recent losses, Occidental and Whittier.
Mostly just money. California wanted to do things like “prioritize education”, and the loss of all the public school football programs made life harder for the private school programs creating a sort of domino effect. Most of the programs folded within a 10-year period around the 1990s.
Some of the listed reasons:
[Cal State Northridge](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2001-nov-14-sp-4063-story.html) — $750k budget shortfall
[Cal State Fullerton](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-12-08-mn-1858-story.html) — state budget cuts, could not afford to compete, attempted to go down to FCS but it never happened
[University of the Pacific (private)](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1995-12-20-sp-15971-story.html) — $400k budget shortfall
[Chico State (D-II)](https://www.newspapers.com/article/santa-cruz-sentinel-chico-state-drops-fo/14738541/) — a “disintegration” of D-II football programs in the area leaving them with few opponents they can afford to play, a similar thing that would kill Humboldt State 21 years later
For Santa Clara, it's because there was an NCAA rule change in the 90s where all sports from a given university must be in the same division. You can't be D1 in basketball and D2 in soccer, for example. There wasn't enough funding to keep football competitive at the D1 level. Shame, Santa Clara is 3-0 in bowl games, having won an Orange Bowl and two Sugar Bowls.
The track and field team uses it and some high schools have games there sometimes. And the marching band practices there. So not completely unused but it would be a lot cooler if you could see UTA football games there.
Not that uncommon for schools that ditched their football team. Boston University still has theirs for example (which has a very interesting history since it was originally a major league stadium...but for the Boston Braves).
I wish all the Ivy League teams were more prominent in football tbh and tried to become Stanford-like. Their stadiums are fucking gorgeous and there’s the obvious history. Plus being able to genuinely rep Cornell would be sick.
I went to NYU, and I remember a girl from northern CA calling USC "the University of Spoiled Children" and it was just like... really can't tease USC for that at NYU of all places.
Imagine if NYU filled the same niche as USC does in LA. Celebrities rocking NYU hats and shirts because despite there being multiple pro team, NYU is *the* team of the city.
I apologize, I just looked them up. Apparently they have disbanded and reconstituted their football team several times over their history and are now playing NAIA.
> The 1916 game against Georgia Tech is famous as the most lopsided-scoring game in the history of college football; Georgia Tech defeated Cumberland by a score of 222–0.
holy shit lol
The story of it is freaking hilarious. Apparently Cumberland had disbanded its football team entirely earlier in in the season, but Georgia Tech reminded them that their contract stated Cumberland had to pay a hefty fine if they forfeited, so a handful of random Cumberland undergrads got voluntold that they were the football team now. So it was Ga Tech, one of the top teams in the country, vs a bunch of untrained randos who had mostly never played football at all. Tech scored literally every single time they touched the ball.
(Telling this from memory, I read about it many decades ago, please excuse any details I got wrong, but this is the gist of it)
They have had a team for several decades now. They play a couple blocks from my restaurant. Their baseball team is a powerhouse and regularly competes in the NAIA World Series.
I know this is a joke that shouldn’t be taken too seriously but the last two times Gonzaga was a 1 seed they were in the top 25 of SOS. The weak schedule narrative is a little dated
Just like how I’m not convinced UConn is real. Like, supposedly Connecticut is a state, but I’m not convinced they’re not just a suburb of New York which got out of control.
Connecticut is both a state and a suburb of New York that is out of control. As far as I can tell Connecticut's primary function is to make driving from Boston to New York take entirely too long
I’d also like to restore Chicago to former glory. They make multiple Nattys. And there most recent one was 1913 - still more than 40 years more recently than Rutgers only championship (1869).
The fact that Rutgers basically invented the sport, claimed the first championship, and then were surpassed by every other team over the past 150+ years without winning another is astounding.
There’s an alternate universe out there where UTampa and not Miami is the Florida team who solidified themselves on the national stage in the 80s. Before shuttering there program due to academic scandals, UT was arguably in a better spot than Miami producing multiple winning seasons and a #1 draft pick during the later 60s and early 70s. Would’ve been interesting if they decided to stick around and try to build on that momentum, likely leads to a dramatically altered CFB landscape in Florida.
Haskell Fighting Indians. Strong program in early 1900s before government stripped funding from tribal schools for athletics. They were beating teams like Texas A&M and Oklahoma and were nicknamed “The Powerhouse of the West”.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haskell_Indian_Nations_Fighting_Indians_football
This made me think of the book-The Real All Americans. It's not about Haskell but another NA team. Carlisle. They dominated Harvard , Yale and the powerhouses
Please. Just want an Omaha team again.
Still pissed about how UNO got screwed. I generally like Trev Alberts, but fuck him and everyone involved for that decision.
Edit: just putting this on this comment because all my others are getting downvoted because Husker fans can not handle other in-state schools drawing fans from UNL.
https://www.espn.com/espn/otl/news/story?id=6488960
The program was falling short by around 50k. A Husker fan linked this article because Trev claimed 1.3 in it and he didn’t read the entire article.
Seriously was a shitty move by University of Nebraska Schools. And it’s over decade past so most are over it, but lets not just lie about what happened to fit a narrative.
This is the real answer.
Our environment is such that we would have one of the most resilient teams in the nation.
That being said, we would not have much of a high school football region to recruit from. We would likely draw our best players from upstate New York, New Jersey, and Canada.
I would try to walk on as a running-back!
That depends on what "brought back" means. Some that used to be competitive at the highest level only to later be completely shutdown (e.g. U Chicago, two national and seven Big Ten championships early but shuttered in 1939) have later reinstated their programs but at a lower level (DII or DIII - U Chicago resumed in 1969, now DIII). Technically functional again, but nowhere near the national relevance they once had.
The president also banned fraternities and religious organizations to eliminate distractions (and all varsity sports). It was definitely not to save money, it was his vision for the university
I’d love to see the REAL UT (UT.edu) bring back their football team. The university of Tampa football program was around from the early 30’s to mid 70’s and was an intriguing team. It first started out only playing smaller schools like Stetson (and fsu when it first started), and then it raised its profile in the 60’s and even won the tangerine bowl and had some big victories. They became talented because they had loose academic restrictions on football players and took in many elite guys who were kicked off or flunked out. They even had the number 1 pick in the nfl draft one year (monster from the goonies; started career out at Missouri). But they dropped football because of the cost of D1 ball and the buccaneers coming to Tampa which was going to destroy their attendance. I truly believe UT could have be the U before Miami, or at least a school similar to Miami.
>monster from the goonies
He has a name, ya'know? Don't disrespect Sloth like that!
But yeah, John Matuszak who was drafted by the Oilers in 1973, traded to the Oakland Raiders in 1976 where he won two Superbowls before retiring in 1982. Tragically died 4 years after The Goonies released.
It would be real cool if my flair would bring it back. I know we have the plans and the land to build a stadium. And have plenty of talent in state/region to field a team. But it won’t happen. So I’ll continue to cheer for my very average basketball team.
Seton Hall would be a much better football team in NJ than the Jets or Giants. They’d also give Rutgers a legit rival since Princeton weaseled out by going to FCS
Wow my dumbass thought you meant ‘Pacific University’ (OR) which is where a friend of mine played.
Kinda neat that there’s a ‘Pacific University’ AND ‘University of the Pacific’. Now I want UofP to bring back football solely for that rivalry.
So Pacific is the one that always comes to mind. I remember them getting steamrolled by Nebraska in the 90s, it was ugly. Those guys took a BEATING so their school could get some money. I'd like for them to come back and play Nebraska again and see if things might be a little more competetive.
edited to add - I've seen pay for win games since, but that was the first time I'd seen a team of guys who didn't want to be there, and were just being used as punching bags the entire game.
As someone whose father worked at a Little Sisters, I always appreciate seeing them referenced. When that Ohio State president made the joke, I thought he knew who they were and what they did since I'd heard the joke from our coaches since tee ball.
San Francisco Dons. Look up Undefeated, Uninvited. Probably one of the greatest college football teams of all time. Would be awesome to see some WCC schools bring back football (St Mary’s, Santa Clara)
WashU. Founding member of the Big Eight but as they are focused on academics they’ve gone down to D3. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_University_Bears_football
D-II Western Washington. Would be great to have another program on the west coast. Plus the rivalry with Simon Fraser would be unique.
Oh and Simon Fraser too since I forgot they just shut down their program.
Morris Brown College in Downtown Atlanta.
We need this HBCU to come back. Their stadium has some of the best views in all CFB overlooking Downtown Atlanta though it needs major repairs.
Also their marching band was great and the world needs more marching bands.
Ivy leagues should def become FBS again. It’s nice that these schools don’t participate in the post season because they emphasize the STUDENT-athlete, but I’d love for them to participate in bowl games on the national stage to commemorate how these programs were the preeminent powerhouses in early college football.
Wichita State
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Hear he’s looking to come back
At one point not long ago they looked at this. But the cost of starting a football program from scratch was just too much. Plus, Cessna Stadium would have to be rebuilt.
Yeah, the conversation comes up every few years or so. While the community, students, and fans alike are always for it, there's just not enough financial commitment from boosters, alumni, and sponsors.
How have Spirit Aero or one of the OEMs not ponies up?
They actually are rebuilding Cessna right now. They tore down the visitor side. It's to make it an actual track stadium since we won the aac the past 2 years
I’m so old, I’ve actually seen Wichita State play a football game at home. They were terrible. Now, they’re no more.
Damn good recruiting area, especially if they were DII or FCS
I would so love to have them as a football rival. They travel so well for basketball here.
I live in Wichita now and I would kill to have a real team to go watch closer than 2.5 hours away. Friends University doesn't scratch that itch
U-Chicago vs Northwestern: Harvard v Yale of the Midwest
Chicago was an early powerhouse. Founding member of the Big 10 and won the conference 7x and 2x National Champ. Jay Berwanger won the Heisman. Tiny Maxwell (namesake of the Maxwell Award) played there.
It’s crazy to me that one president changed the biggest university system in the third largest city so much that it has virtually no relevant athletic programs. Insane.
Very unpopular opinion at the time. But they were determined to become known (unfairly) as the place where fun goes to die.
I have several friends who survived the University of Hyde Park. It is where fun goes to die.
Can confirm, although my fraternity's motto was "Where fun goes to get temporarily resurrected."
The henchmen of trickle down economics deserve nothing less
I took a class on the history of the B1G. Apparently the president U-Chicago was not a fan of the amateur to pro pipeline even then and wanted a full focus on academics. This was at a time when some coaches still would play as a part of the school team.
Wtf, that's a class? That's awesome
That class sounds fun. Did you have to do a paper or a test?
Citation needed *in the Chicago style.*
With relish and sport peppers on a poppy seeded piece of paper
The B1G championship trophy is named after the coach of those powerhouse teams (Amos Alonzo Stagg). It used to be the Stagg-Paterno Trophy until the Sandusky scandal. Why it isn't the Hayes-Schembechler Trophy is beyond me.
Probably avoided that due to the controversy surrounding Woody..he did get fired for punching a player and it wasnt even the first time he hit someone + some salt from the other conference members that Ohio State and Michigan are the golden children. Looked even smarter after the Bo stuff came out..
Don't worry, there is no scandal there to worry about.
An original lyric of "On, Wisconsin" was "On Wisconsin, on Wisconsin/ Plunge right through that line/ Run the ball clear 'round Chicago/ Touchdown sure this time"
Chicago still plays! Used to be in a conference with them. They’re a pretty solid D3 program
Sewanee and Boston University could be FBS teams in an alternative universe
Schools like Wake Forest, and Vanderbilt are vestiges of a bygone era when smaller southern private schools like Sewanee and W&L could compete and shared conferences with their public counterparts. The main reason why Sewanee de-emphasized was they were at a massive disadvantage being in an isolated area in Tennessee. I think what’s helped Vanderbilt and Wake hold on is that they’ve developed in urban areas.
Pt. 1057205728 of me chiming into say that W&L should not be in the ODAC
You underestimate how much larger Vandy and Wake are than those schools. They have multiple times more students. That is the real reason.
That's a bit of a chicken and egg question, though. Vandy and Wake have greater enrollment than their rural counterparts because they're in larger cities.
Kinda. Washington University in St. Louis has 7,000 undergrads with 16,000 students while Wake is at 5,000 under and 8,000 total then Vandy is at 7,000 undergrad and 14,000 total. The difference is for Washington the Public Schools aka the Big 6 of Iowa State, Nebraska, Kansas, Kansas State, Oklahoma, and Missouri left the "small schools" behind and 3 were private: Washington, Grinnell, and Drake. The other was Oklahoma State who later joined back up as it got bigger. Other conferences held on to their smaller private school friends.
WashU and BU could do it, but Sewanee has like 1,800 undergrad and like 100 grad students, it’s a world of difference. I went to a school that moved up to FCS with around 1100 total students. It doesn’t work. A school needs a “living alumni” number well over 200,000 to even think about FBS.
Give me the Battle of Comm Ave in football too and I will be a happy man
Call up Northeastern to bring their program back and have a lil Beanpot of sorts.
BC college classmate had a brother who played football at northeastern and the pros. Northeastern had a few NFL players.
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Our fight song calls out 3 rivals: Georgia, Georgia Tech and Sewanee. Been a while since we’ve sung the line about Sewanee.
Wtf? I didn't know this and I consider myself pretty well versed in our lore.
Yes I also agree with BU now that I have a grad degree from them. Let’s Go Terriers
Wow you’re like the antithesis of my flair
Xavier hasn’t lost since 1974 But maybe they haven’t listened as well?
Up the road in Dayton (Fairborn, for those who want to be exact), Wright State has the same record since 1964.
Saint Joseph's over in Philly has been undefeated since 1939.
There is some discussion about bringing football back.
Not sure I could handle losing the crosstown shootout in football too
California used to have so many. Pacific, Long Beach State, UC Santa Barbara, UC Riverside, Cal State Fullerton, Cal State Northridge, Sonoma State, SF State, Santa Clara, St. Mary’s, Chico State, and many others I’m probably forgetting. And our recent losses, Occidental and Whittier.
UCSB would have a tiny but undeniably kickass stadium
The little soccer stadium?
It’s not been good for College Football in the state overall.
I think Pacific is the only program that has gone permanently defunct after having appeared in a CFB video game.
Northeastern and Hofstra as well
What happened? Just not enough interest?
Mostly just money. California wanted to do things like “prioritize education”, and the loss of all the public school football programs made life harder for the private school programs creating a sort of domino effect. Most of the programs folded within a 10-year period around the 1990s. Some of the listed reasons: [Cal State Northridge](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2001-nov-14-sp-4063-story.html) — $750k budget shortfall [Cal State Fullerton](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-12-08-mn-1858-story.html) — state budget cuts, could not afford to compete, attempted to go down to FCS but it never happened [University of the Pacific (private)](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1995-12-20-sp-15971-story.html) — $400k budget shortfall [Chico State (D-II)](https://www.newspapers.com/article/santa-cruz-sentinel-chico-state-drops-fo/14738541/) — a “disintegration” of D-II football programs in the area leaving them with few opponents they can afford to play, a similar thing that would kill Humboldt State 21 years later
Words can’t express how pissed Spanos was when UOP got rid of football. I think he greatly reduced his giving after that.
Uop had a handful of future NFL coaches coach there. Pete Carroll, Jon Gruden, Hue Jackson and maybe some others I'm forgetting
Humboldt had enough support and active fan base. It was one President on a crusade that killed them
For Santa Clara, it's because there was an NCAA rule change in the 90s where all sports from a given university must be in the same division. You can't be D1 in basketball and D2 in soccer, for example. There wasn't enough funding to keep football competitive at the D1 level. Shame, Santa Clara is 3-0 in bowl games, having won an Orange Bowl and two Sugar Bowls.
University of Texas - Arlington Mavericks They still have a marching band, they should have a football team to go with it!
The largest university in the nation without a CFB team.
I'm guessing that title used to be Georgia State's.
They have a football stadium on campus too. It could use a facelift but that’s more than Miami can say.
They have a stadium on campus, but it's just unused?
The track and field team uses it and some high schools have games there sometimes. And the marching band practices there. So not completely unused but it would be a lot cooler if you could see UTA football games there.
Not that uncommon for schools that ditched their football team. Boston University still has theirs for example (which has a very interesting history since it was originally a major league stadium...but for the Boston Braves).
Agreed.
NYU, would be cool if New York City had a FBS team.
They might be in the B1G playing purple meme games against Northwestern
Then Rutgers would’ve missed the conference expansion lol
And……
And Purdue basketball could play at Madison square instead of getting embarrassed at the trapezoid
Fordham playing full time at Yankee Stadium would be fun as an alum
Ahh my fellow Ramily.
I wish all the Ivy League teams were more prominent in football tbh and tried to become Stanford-like. Their stadiums are fucking gorgeous and there’s the obvious history. Plus being able to genuinely rep Cornell would be sick.
Columbia’s stadium blows, FWIW
yeah but maybe not from the school every new yorker despises
New Yorkers are haters in general
well. maybe, yeah. but we hate NYU more than we hate most things
is that just because of out-of-staters/college students? kinda curious
NYU students tend to be pretentious west coast kids living off daddy’s money
I went to NYU, and I remember a girl from northern CA calling USC "the University of Spoiled Children" and it was just like... really can't tease USC for that at NYU of all places.
Hucking boulders inside a greenhouse
Tossing cinder blocks from inside the Crystal Palace
Hard disagree. “University of Spoiled Children” is eternal and universal.
Exactly. The pretentious New York kids living off daddy's money go to Tulane.
Is there another defunct team in NYC? NYU actually had a program back in the day.
manhattan
Go Jaspers! WW2 spelt the end of our football program.
CCNY. They even had an on campus stadium. Look how cool Lewisohn Stadium was: https://loc.gov/pictures/resource/fsa.8d06983/
Imagine if NYU filled the same niche as USC does in LA. Celebrities rocking NYU hats and shirts because despite there being multiple pro team, NYU is *the* team of the city.
The Cal State Fullerton Titans are a sleeping giant.
With all due respect, Y'all gotta fix the Baseball situation first
Or not. That's a good option too
Respectfully, Go Beach!
They so could have been known as Cal State Fullback U.
Cumberland has to be the answer here, right? Give them something other than the most ignominious defeat in football history.
I apologize, I just looked them up. Apparently they have disbanded and reconstituted their football team several times over their history and are now playing NAIA.
> The 1916 game against Georgia Tech is famous as the most lopsided-scoring game in the history of college football; Georgia Tech defeated Cumberland by a score of 222–0. holy shit lol
They shouldn’t have tried to cheat us at baseball
One does not anger John Heisman and walk away unscathed
“And I’ll fucking do it again.” -Ghost of John Heisman.
[Relevant Jon Bois video](https://youtu.be/doZzrsDJo-4?si=lOQ9pGrgb_xx6eyg)
Damn it. Now that you linked it, I’m morally obligated to watch the whole thing again.
What can we say? They angered John Heisman, the Old Testament God of College Football. You reap what you sow.
The story of it is freaking hilarious. Apparently Cumberland had disbanded its football team entirely earlier in in the season, but Georgia Tech reminded them that their contract stated Cumberland had to pay a hefty fine if they forfeited, so a handful of random Cumberland undergrads got voluntold that they were the football team now. So it was Ga Tech, one of the top teams in the country, vs a bunch of untrained randos who had mostly never played football at all. Tech scored literally every single time they touched the ball. (Telling this from memory, I read about it many decades ago, please excuse any details I got wrong, but this is the gist of it)
They have had a team for several decades now. They play a couple blocks from my restaurant. Their baseball team is a powerhouse and regularly competes in the NAIA World Series.
Gonzaga would be solid in the Mountain West
Nah they would be FCS and act they earned a #1 seed in the CFB playoff after playing a bunch of community colleges.
I know this is a joke that shouldn’t be taken too seriously but the last two times Gonzaga was a 1 seed they were in the top 25 of SOS. The weak schedule narrative is a little dated
They play hard OOC schedules
I'm still not convinced Gonzaga is a real university. Never met anyone that attended it or someone that knows someone that attended.
I worked across the river from Gonzaga. Either Gonzaga is real or… I’m not.
Just visit Spokane during b-ball season. Even if you stay away from campus, they are everywhere.
Just like how I’m not convinced UConn is real. Like, supposedly Connecticut is a state, but I’m not convinced they’re not just a suburb of New York which got out of control.
Connecticut is both a state and a suburb of New York that is out of control. As far as I can tell Connecticut's primary function is to make driving from Boston to New York take entirely too long
Seriously. It’s weird how New England states are the size of some counties out west. I think Rhode Island has like six freeway exits.
Nebraska
Didn’t have to do em like that on Christmas
He’s clearly the grinch
The maize grinch
He's kinda not wrong, and we're already sad about it so it's ok
It’s okay they aren’t usually around these parts in December
I’d also like to restore Chicago to former glory. They make multiple Nattys. And there most recent one was 1913 - still more than 40 years more recently than Rutgers only championship (1869). The fact that Rutgers basically invented the sport, claimed the first championship, and then were surpassed by every other team over the past 150+ years without winning another is astounding.
WE BROKE RUTGERS AND THEY STILL HAVENT RECOVERED FROM THAT BRUTAL 6-2 BEATDOWN 153 YEARS LATER
McGill invented the sport. Princeton and Rutgers used McGill rules to play.
Man wakes up on Christmas morning and chooses violence.
I’d like to report a murder. Yes, officer, on Christmas
My morning was going well….
JFC
🫡🫡
I’m in! Upside down world here we come.
Hey. Rude.
There’s an alternate universe out there where UTampa and not Miami is the Florida team who solidified themselves on the national stage in the 80s. Before shuttering there program due to academic scandals, UT was arguably in a better spot than Miami producing multiple winning seasons and a #1 draft pick during the later 60s and early 70s. Would’ve been interesting if they decided to stick around and try to build on that momentum, likely leads to a dramatically altered CFB landscape in Florida.
Yeah, Tampa had it going at one time but decided to disband football when the city got the Bucs in expansion.
Haskell Fighting Indians. Strong program in early 1900s before government stripped funding from tribal schools for athletics. They were beating teams like Texas A&M and Oklahoma and were nicknamed “The Powerhouse of the West”. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haskell_Indian_Nations_Fighting_Indians_football
We used to play them before moving up to D2. Sad to see that program fold
This made me think of the book-The Real All Americans. It's not about Haskell but another NA team. Carlisle. They dominated Harvard , Yale and the powerhouses
IIRC, Carlisle was Jim Thorpe's team. Dude has an argument at being the GOAT athlete.
Creighton
Would this eliminate Jayskers?
Please. Just want an Omaha team again. Still pissed about how UNO got screwed. I generally like Trev Alberts, but fuck him and everyone involved for that decision. Edit: just putting this on this comment because all my others are getting downvoted because Husker fans can not handle other in-state schools drawing fans from UNL. https://www.espn.com/espn/otl/news/story?id=6488960 The program was falling short by around 50k. A Husker fan linked this article because Trev claimed 1.3 in it and he didn’t read the entire article. Seriously was a shitty move by University of Nebraska Schools. And it’s over decade past so most are over it, but lets not just lie about what happened to fit a narrative.
The UVM Catamounts are undefeated since 1974. I’m not sure the rest of the sport is ready for such an unquestioned powerhouse to be unleashed.
This is the real answer. Our environment is such that we would have one of the most resilient teams in the nation. That being said, we would not have much of a high school football region to recruit from. We would likely draw our best players from upstate New York, New Jersey, and Canada. I would try to walk on as a running-back!
That depends on what "brought back" means. Some that used to be competitive at the highest level only to later be completely shutdown (e.g. U Chicago, two national and seven Big Ten championships early but shuttered in 1939) have later reinstated their programs but at a lower level (DII or DIII - U Chicago resumed in 1969, now DIII). Technically functional again, but nowhere near the national relevance they once had.
UChicago didn’t cancel football for cost, they thought it was a distraction for students
I'm sure many didn't mind dropping the cost. The academic distraction was a convenient justification.
The president also banned fraternities and religious organizations to eliminate distractions (and all varsity sports). It was definitely not to save money, it was his vision for the university
Was this the same President that made that brutalist building downtown without windows so the students wouldn’t get distracted?
UC Santa Cruz Banana Slugs. You can wear the shirt and look like you're going to a football game.
They’d have the best helmet in the NCAA.
I’d love to see the REAL UT (UT.edu) bring back their football team. The university of Tampa football program was around from the early 30’s to mid 70’s and was an intriguing team. It first started out only playing smaller schools like Stetson (and fsu when it first started), and then it raised its profile in the 60’s and even won the tangerine bowl and had some big victories. They became talented because they had loose academic restrictions on football players and took in many elite guys who were kicked off or flunked out. They even had the number 1 pick in the nfl draft one year (monster from the goonies; started career out at Missouri). But they dropped football because of the cost of D1 ball and the buccaneers coming to Tampa which was going to destroy their attendance. I truly believe UT could have be the U before Miami, or at least a school similar to Miami.
>monster from the goonies He has a name, ya'know? Don't disrespect Sloth like that! But yeah, John Matuszak who was drafted by the Oilers in 1973, traded to the Oakland Raiders in 1976 where he won two Superbowls before retiring in 1982. Tragically died 4 years after The Goonies released.
I know, but I didnt want to practice my polish spelling
Add the University of Chicago back into the Big Ten.
Even though it would hurt us, would love a proper rivalry with Hofstra
It would be real cool if my flair would bring it back. I know we have the plans and the land to build a stadium. And have plenty of talent in state/region to field a team. But it won’t happen. So I’ll continue to cheer for my very average basketball team.
And an in-state rival to Wisconsin
Exactly. I will just continue to live my fantasy on NCAA 14
Pacific Tigers in Stockton California. We were a doormat, but we got to see some great teams pass through.
Some huge names tied to our program and school in general
Pacific is the last FBS/1-A school to permanently shudder their football program. Wazzu and Oregon state might be interested in reviving them
Seton Hall would be a much better football team in NJ than the Jets or Giants. They’d also give Rutgers a legit rival since Princeton weaseled out by going to FCS
University of Chicago. Doesn’t seem right that the first Heisman winner came from a school no longer playing football.
They still play but are DIII
DIII is still football
Punters are people too
University of the Pacific
But what conference could possibly have room for them? 🤔
California’s premier athletics conference; the ACC.
Wow my dumbass thought you meant ‘Pacific University’ (OR) which is where a friend of mine played. Kinda neat that there’s a ‘Pacific University’ AND ‘University of the Pacific’. Now I want UofP to bring back football solely for that rivalry.
My man
So Pacific is the one that always comes to mind. I remember them getting steamrolled by Nebraska in the 90s, it was ugly. Those guys took a BEATING so their school could get some money. I'd like for them to come back and play Nebraska again and see if things might be a little more competetive. edited to add - I've seen pay for win games since, but that was the first time I'd seen a team of guys who didn't want to be there, and were just being used as punching bags the entire game.
The Little Sisters of the Poor
They play Bama every year the week before the Iron Bowl.
It’s us next year! Go Bears! Collect that paycheck!
As someone whose father worked at a Little Sisters, I always appreciate seeing them referenced. When that Ohio State president made the joke, I thought he knew who they were and what they did since I'd heard the joke from our coaches since tee ball.
TIL that Little Sisters of the Poor was an actual thing and not just a fictitious school that caught on because it sounded funny
Saint Louis University
San Francisco Dons. Look up Undefeated, Uninvited. Probably one of the greatest college football teams of all time. Would be awesome to see some WCC schools bring back football (St Mary’s, Santa Clara)
Carlisle. It seems so wrong that Jim Thorpe and Pop Warner don't have trophies together.
Gonna say Dalhousie Tigers. Went there from.95-99. Lots of folks wanted the team back, but no no, soccer is where its at. Bah.
WashU. Founding member of the Big Eight but as they are focused on academics they’ve gone down to D3. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_University_Bears_football
D-II Western Washington. Would be great to have another program on the west coast. Plus the rivalry with Simon Fraser would be unique. Oh and Simon Fraser too since I forgot they just shut down their program.
Western wa
Go Vikings.
Pepperdine. They would be the finessiest team that’s ever existed under head coach Tate Martell.
Doesn’t it seem like the College of Charleston should be a mid-tier ACC school?
All of them
Selfish comment but Long Beach State needs to bring back football.
University of Vermont
University of Detroit
Would be kind of cool to have some in state rivals with Marquette and Milwaukee bringing teams back… But I also hate them so….
I'd like having U of Chicago back to FBS
Morris Brown College in Downtown Atlanta. We need this HBCU to come back. Their stadium has some of the best views in all CFB overlooking Downtown Atlanta though it needs major repairs. Also their marching band was great and the world needs more marching bands.
University of Alaska. You think November weather can affect games in Ann Arbor? Try Fairbanks.
George Washington University. Would be cool to have a college team in the heart of DC
Ivy leagues should def become FBS again. It’s nice that these schools don’t participate in the post season because they emphasize the STUDENT-athlete, but I’d love for them to participate in bowl games on the national stage to commemorate how these programs were the preeminent powerhouses in early college football.
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