OT: Northeastern cuts football program

[pats1]

Northeastern cuts 74-year-old football program - ESPN Boston

BU cut its football program in 1997.

 

[Jimke]

Northeastern cuts 74-year-old football program - ESPN Boston

They haven't been very good since I attended the university

1949-1954.

 

[upstater1]

Good move for them. I can go across the region and name many others that should be cut. All the SUNY schools for one.

 

[pats1]

Good move for them. I can go across the region and name many others that should be cut. All the SUNY schools for one.

Yeah, college football just isn't that popular in the northeast.

 

[DarrylS]

Reading the other day that the URI program costs something like 3.1 million per year... they have had a loosing season forever, time to cut your losses and move on.. UCONN is about 45 minutes one way and BC is about an hour the other...

 

[Rob0729]

Fact of the matter is that college football is not big in Massachusetts. Even BC has a small following for a college team in a major conference.

 

[Garbanza]

As an alum, I'm a little embarassed. I mean, division three football (Tufts, Williams) is alive and well but NU Football has been put to rest?

 

[Jimke]

As an alum, I'm a little embarassed. I mean, division three football (Tufts, Williams) is alive and well but NU Football has been put to rest?

They had a whole bunch of lousy coaches. Their best coach was Joe

Zabilski.

 

[Rob0729]

As an alum, I'm a little embarassed. I mean, division three football (Tufts, Williams) is alive and well but NU Football has been put to rest?

Division 3 football doesn't have a huge expense. Few players are on scholarship. The rules for what is needed for facilities, equipment, gameday experience, etc. is far different from the NCAA. A division 1 football team is very expensive to maintain especially when no one goes to the games.

 

[upstater1]

As an alum, I'm a little embarassed. I mean, division three football (Tufts, Williams) is alive and well but NU Football has been put to rest?

Those schools do it on the cheap.

1-AA is a multi-million dollar thing. NU was probably losing $5-10 million a year on that. That's 5% of the budget. Not for athletics. For the school.

 

[ForThoseAboutToRock]

As an alum, I'm a little embarassed. I mean, division three football (Tufts, Williams) is alive and well but NU Football has been put to rest?

Gotta figure it's easier to run a smaller college program than one in 1-AA. DIII programs don't have to give out a whole team's worth of scholarships. They probably have to travel less than Northeastern does as well. I'd be shocked if the Amherst and Williams football budgets were as big as Northeastern's was.

 

[jmt57]

Division 3 football doesn't have a huge expense. Few players are on scholarship. The rules for what is needed for facilities, equipment, gameday experience, etc. is far different from the NCAA. A division 1 football team is very expensive to maintain especially when no one goes to the games.

Why not just shift the program to Division 2 or Division 3 rather than scrap it completely?

 

[Rob0729]

Why not just shift the program to Division 2 or Division 3 rather than scrap it completely?

Because they have to be accepted into a conference. They can't just announce they are going to division 2. There probably wasn't a conference that wanted or could accept them.

 

[pats1]

Fact of the matter is that college football is not big in Massachusetts. Even BC has a small following for a college team in a major conference.

That's the driving force behind all of this. College and high school football in New England get only a small fraction (5%?) of the draw and fan following that they do in states in the south (Texas, Florida, Louisiana, etc.).

I know the Pats' Hall has an exhibit on New England football roots and has that video about how football is in New Englanders' blood, but it really isn't. If the Pats aren't as successful as they are, then nobody in this part of the country cares about football, to the tune of it being one of the least football-frenzied areas in the country. Easily.

Historically, baseball, basketball, and hockey have all had more popularity around here. In the south, football is part of their culture; hockey is practically an unknown.

 

[upstater1]

Th NCAA requires that your teams compete in the same division, so if Northeastern wants to keep their hockey and bball teams going, they must compete in div. 1. They can't drop in divisions.

This is precisely why there's a div. III hockey league but no div. II.

 

[Patspsycho]

BU cut its football program in 1997.

That's my alma mater, and Nickerson field was a terrible field, almost built as an afterthought. Puke green astroturf; next to loud Storrow drive and the RR interchange yard, and a hulking concrete mammoth that was the bleachers.

Our president at the time, Silber, an arrogant egomaniac was never a fan of football and couldn't wait for an excuse to do away with the program.

It's a pathetic ending to a location that has such a storied history- The Boston Braves and the Patriots played there.

 

[LiveShot]

College football programs are much too expensive. They give out scholarships to persons who don't belong in college and pay the coaching staffs as if they were coaching professional teams. Usually the head coach is the highest paid person on the entire faculty which is a travesty. Do it like the Ivy league and stop throwing away money. Money earned on college sports programs should be taxed. That would put an end to all the bullbleep.

 

[PATRIOTSFANINPA]

Question for the OP .....

Nothing personal,but why do threads like these stay in the main forum while other threads actually pertaining to OTHER PRO FOOTBALL TEAMS that are marked 'OT' get tossed to other forums???

Power of the Moderator to do this perhaps?

 

[ForThoseAboutToRock]

College football programs are much too expensive. They give out scholarships to persons who don't belong in college and pay the coaching staffs as if they were coaching professional teams. Usually the head coach is the highest paid person on the entire faculty which is a travesty. Do it like the Ivy league and stop throwing away money. Money earned on college sports programs should be taxed. That would put an end to all the bullbleep.

Where did you get the idea that football players are people who don't belong in college? There are schools out there that both compete at the highest levels on the field and graduate a large majority of their players.

Also, what do you mean by saying that football programs are much too expensive? Many times, the money earned from football (merchandise, TV, tickets) helps pay for the other sports on campus that would otherwise be dropped (or paid for through an endowment fund). Obviously you have to reinvest in your football program to keep it earning money, doesn't make it too expensive though because if it were, more programs would go the way of Northeastern.

 

[upstater1]

College football programs are much too expensive. They give out scholarships to persons who don't belong in college and pay the coaching staffs as if they were coaching professional teams. Usually the head coach is the highest paid person on the entire faculty which is a travesty. Do it like the Ivy league and stop throwing away money. Money earned on college sports programs should be taxed. That would put an end to all the bullbleep.

Money earned, eh?

It's all subsidized.

90% of the programs in America loses money on football when you add in the taxpayer subsidy.