pats1

Arrington shocked by Hofstra dropping football - Patriots Blog - ESPN Boston

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=4709412

As I said in the Northeastern thread from a week or so ago, college football (and high school football, for that matter) just hasn't taken root in the northeast. Perhaps it's because there's more smaller, Catholic schools in the area that focus on basketball (hence the dominance of the Big East in that sport). However, both Northeastern and Hofstra are larger, secular private schools. Even the big public schools - UMass and UConn for example - don't have huge football followings, as schools in the south do (Texas, Florida, Georgia, Florida State, Alabama, etc.)

It's also important to note that Hofstra was the Jets' headquarters and training camp site until last year, when they opened a new headquarters in NJ and moved their training camp upstate.

Rob0729

Well, they lost a huge money maker in the Jets who are moving their facilities out of Hofstra to the new complex in the Meadowlands. I wonder if without financial assistance of the Jets, Hofstra would have pulled their football program earlier.

oldskool138

I guess you could say that their football program is as dead as Jimmy Hofstra.

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jmt57

It was pointed out to me in the Northeastern thread that the NCAA has rules in place that prevent schools from fielding a Division 2 or 3 football team but being Division 1 in other sports. Perhaps it is time for the NCAA to revisit that decision; seems to me some sort of football program is better than none for all parties involved.


Regarding why college football is not as big in New England as it is elsewhere, I think there are reasons for that that go back several generations. The New England area has more schools per capita than other areas, so there is not just one or two schools that the vast majority follow; loyalties are much more divided. In addition most of the schools here are much smaller in size than the typical football powerhouses across the rest of the country. Being smaller in size makes it more difficult to compete, both in terms of number of athletes available to field a team, as well as number of students and alumni needed to support an expensive program. Look at the national powerhouses and almost all of them have a huge student body and alumni base in comparison to schools in New England.

Besides the residents of the area's loyalty being split between many schools, there are four pro sports teams that have been around since before most fans were born. People follow those pro teams first, with a college team a distant fifth. In many areas of the country there are no pro sports teams, or if there are they are relatively new. Residents of the entire state have followed one or two college teams for decades. That fandom is passed down from generation to generation from they day they were born.

Although there are some exceptions, for the most part specific areas of the country strongly support either a college football team or a pro team, but not both. The exception is when both have been around for a very long time (e.g., Ohio State/Browns; Michigan/Lions.)

While Boston College as a school may have been around for a long time, they've only been a national player for about thirty years, and none of the other schools have given people enough of a reason to follow them that closely. A big fanbase comes from being relatively succesful, and a loyal fanbase comes from being successful long enough for it to be passed down from one generation to the next. No New England schools have yet achieved that combination, although BC is getting there.

upstater1

I would argue that Penn State is in the northeast, and for many years, it has had a fanatical football following. The other state schools are not nearly the huge land grant schools you find elsewhere in the country. UConn has 16,000 undergrads. Elsewhere, schools get 40,000 undergrads. But UConn is doing as well as schools with similar bases, such as Kansas or Mississippi or Minnesota or Virginia.

The biggest factor in dropping the football programs is that Northeastern and Hofstra wanted to stay in D1 for basketball.

You cannot drop diVisions in football if you want to keep basketball at D1. The NCAA has a rule that says, if you're in D1 for football or basketball, then you need to place 12 sports and a certain amount of scholarships in D1. Impossible to do with football dropping to D2 and D3.

This is a NCAA problem.

pats1

Saying Penn State is in the northeast is a bit of a stretch. Pennsylvania in general falls somewhere in between the northeast, the mid-atlantic, and the Ohio/Ohio Valley area.

Tunescribe

Being a private Catholic school doesn't help BC's fortunes any in trying to generate a wide following for its sports teams.

jmt57

Penn State has been very good for a very long time. This has resulted in a strong following by students and alumni, as well as in recruiting. For the longets time they were by far the best program east of Columbus Ohio and north of SEC-land. Everyone else in that area is still trying to catch up to them and still has to compete with them for the best recruits.

efin98

UConn opened up a new stadium a few years back and actually jumped from the lower level 1AA programs to the higher 1A. Their program has been well received to the point where they may have to expand their stadium to meet the demand for seating.

UMass is a former national champion and plays to a consistent packed house averaging about 15,000 in their 20,000 seat stadium. They are also going to be playing a huge money game, possibly being the first team in the newly renovated "Big House" in Michigan. There have been consistent rumors that the school will try to to go the next step and go for 1A status with a new stadium- doesn't seem too much of a lack of support for them there at UMass.

New Hampshire, Maine, have had consistent big years with multiple tournament bids. New Hampshire has had a problem with capacity in their small stadium- it's been at full capacity. URI has had terrible seasons but has had some decent attendance numbers(67% capacity in a "new" stadium) despite the bad teams.

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PatriotsInGA

This is such a shame. College football is one of America's greatest sports and seeing schools drop it is just terrible.