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Tomorrow marks the official start of the 2009 college football season. Nine games line the docket which will include FCS teams like Coastal Carolina taking on Kent State, North Dakota State traveling to Iowa State and Eastern Kentucky battling the Hoosiers of Indiana University. Not only is this Thursday the official kick off to the 2009 season but five colleges will field football teams this year. Sadly, Cal State Fullerton is not on of those five. Even worse is that CSUF is not included in the list of 17 colleges set to launch new football programs between now and 2013.
Yesterday, the National Football Foundation & College Hall of Fame (NFF) highlighted the fact that despite the deepest economic recession we have seen in our lifetime, five colleges have managed to start football programs rather than suspend them in 2009. NFF Chairman Archie Manning said yesterday, “With more than one million high school football participants and only 66,000 playing college football, it makes sense that colleges would want to give high school players more options for playing at the next level.” Manning continued, “We are proud to highlight the college presidents and their trustees who have recognized the educational benefit of our sport. Their foresight will provide more student-athletes the opportunity to continue to learn to be leaders through football.”
The 17 colleges set to launch football programs in the next five years will boost the overall ranks of four-year institutions carrying the sport to 742 schools. The current divisional breakdown includes: 120 Division I Football Bowl Subdivision programs; 126 Division I Football Championship Subdivision programs; 149 Division II programs; 238 Division III programs; and 92 NAIA programs.
Nearly 30 schools have added football during the last decade and it appears to be a trend that will continue into the future. More and more schools are capitalizing on college football’s ability to attract student-athletes, energize campus life, increase a school’s media visibility and boost alumni support. In addition to football’s ability to bring in male applicants, the sport also plays a role in attracting students interested in band, cheer leading, sports journalism, sports business, exercise science and other related areas of study.
So by Cal State Fullerton remaining on the sideline and letting the years roll by without an attempt to bring back Titan Football, are we to assume that Cal State Fullerton doesn’t need to reap the benefits of what a football program can bring? Does CSUF have enough media visibility, alumni support and an energized campus life that it does not need football? With a student body ratio of 60/40 women to men students at CSUF, are we hearing that Cal State Fullerton would not want to work towards a 50/50 balance?
The five colleges set to open football in 2009 include:
Old Dominion University (Norfolk, Va.): NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision, Colonial Athletic Association. Head Coach – Bobby Wilder
University of the Incarnate Word (San Antonio, Texas): NCAA Division II, Independent and joining the Lone Star Conference in 2010. Head Coach – Mike Santiago
University of New Haven (West Haven, Conn.): NCAA Division II, Northeast-10 Conference. Head Coach – Peter Rossomando
Anna Maria College (Paxton, Mass.): NCAA Division III, Eastern Collegiate Football Conference. Head Coach – Marc Klaiman
Castleton State College (Castleton, Vt.): NCAA Division III, Eastern Collegiate Football Conference. Head Coach – Rich Alercio
Of the five listed above, Old Dominion is the only one adding football at the NCAA FCS level. Because the majority of arguments in favor of bringing back Titan Football have included introducing it back at the FCS level, let’s see what kind of excitement ODU’s return to the gridiron in over 60 years is bringing to the campus.
Old Dominion University will take on Chowan University (N.C.) on Sept. 5. The anticipation on campus is palpable with more than 1,200 students lining up to get the best seats. Students pitched dozens of tents outside the ticket office and endured 20 hours in the rain during an all-night vigil to get the best seats. Head coach Bobby Wilder and his staff delivered boxes of donuts to those in line at 7:30 a.m.
(Imagine a similar scene at Cal State Fullerton with tents and students camped on the athletic fields adjacent to the Titan House in order to be first in line to buy tickets. Does this currently happen for any of the sports Cal State Fullerton currently fields?)
“Football has most assuredly brought a new level of excitement to Old Dominion,” wrote Old Dominion president John R. Broderick in an email. “At a time when we are becoming an increasingly residential campus, with new residence halls, a state-of-the-art student recreation center and a growing University Village development, the addition of football now just makes sense. It’s something that our students and alumni, as well as faculty and staff members and area residents, have been looking forward to for years.”
(Hasn’t Cal State Fullerton added more residence halls since suspending the program in 1992? Isn’t there more student housing within a one mile radius of campus compared to 1992 when the program was suspended? Wouldn’t Titan Football on a Saturday afternoon be a positive social environment for students and alumni and to energize the local community?)
“Football coming to ODU has filled a void we need for a fall spectator sport which would bring together our alumni, students, friends, and fans in the Hampton Roads area like only that sport can do,” said Old Dominion athletics director Jim Jarrett. “We are already sold out in season ticket sales, and the students have picked up all of their tickets. This is a tremendous situation for us.”
(So I guess Cal State Fullerton has all the fans and alumni it needs currently supporting women’s volleyball, cross country and men’s and women’s soccer that it couldn’t possibly use football to bolster that spirit?)
The fact remains that despite the economic challenges facing Cal State Fullerton and the State of California, football needs to make its return. The benefits of having a football program at Cal State Fullerton far outweigh the challenges in getting the team back.
To learn more on how other schools are managing to resurrect their football programs or start one from scratch, visit the NFF official website, footballfoundation.org
That we can’t even field a Div-II or III/NAIA team is sad. An undergraduate student body population the size of Ohio State and NOTHING?!
CMON TITANS!!!!
WE NEED TITAN FOOTBALL BACK TO THE OC…
Football will never happen at CSUF until Milton Gordon retires! Can somebody please tell me when this man will move on? That will be the time when we can get a new President with some vision and not an excuse maker.
We could really use a football team to bring revenue into the school and athletics. Then maybe we wouldn’t have to fork over an extra $300 for the Fall semester.
It’s a shame that the sports referendum didn’t pass by a mere 27 votes. I guess no one likes sports at CSUF.
Funny that you bring up Ohio State, Ryan. Though our student population really is only about half of OSU’s. But since someone brought it up……I actually did grad school at OSU after finishing my undergrad at CSUF. I fly back every year for the Regionals/Super-Regionals in spring. The thing about Ohio State is, when the students want something done, there are tables/kiosks/writing on sidewalks/etc. EVERYWHERE on campus for weeks on end. There are petitions going, presentations done, the issue gets attacked on MANY levels. Now, I’m not on campus at CSUF anymore, but I don’t recall a lot of this happening when I have visited. I’m sure a lot of effort went into the referendum, but I have to wonder how much MORE effort it would have taken to get 28 more votes out? At OSU, the students get such a groundswell and momentum, then attack the issue with the help of the student Senate, faculty and staff supporters, and whatever else they can think of to make their voices heard so loudly that the administration just can’t ignore them….they have to do to something one way or another. We (Titans) managed to get a very expensive student rec center built and opened…maybe someone needs to look into the numbers on how that plan got executed? OSU’s advantage is they have one of the few athletics programs in the country that actually turns a PROFIT!! If we could somehow show the football program would at least someday not be a drain on the university budget, there’d be some hope and a strong argument for it.
Sorry, I meant to say our total number of students is roughly that of OSU’s undergrads. Which is to say: a large enough population to support a football program. Chapman University has a total of about 5,700 students and THEY have a football program.