Assessing the college football landscape: football programs a dying breed at small D-1 schools

The average football fan sitting home on a Saturday afternoon watching countless scores scroll across the bottom of the screen may be missing one of the most prevalent trends in college football for the last decade and a half: the dissolution of numerous football programs.

The problem dates back to 1991, when members of the National Collegiate Athletic Association's 85th national conference passed sanctions preventing schools from "playing down" in football; that is being classified in Division II or Division III football while the remainder of the school's athletic programs competes in a higher division.

The ruling, which was hailed as beneficial for the little guys of D-II and D-III who lacked the resources of their D-I counterparts, had profound ramifications for the so-called big guys in the equation. Prior to the ruling, Division I institutions were able to sponsor football without giving players scholarships, and play teams from lower division who also did not grant scholarships (Division III schools do not offer athletic scholarships for any of its athletic teams).

Adding insult to injury for these schools, the following year's NCAA conference elected not to put into motion a proposal to create a separate division, known operationally as Division I-AAA, as a special dispensation for schools forced to make the move up in division.

For 27 schools across the nation, the decision to be made became whether or not to begin offering scholarships to members of its football team, or risk playing in the more competitive D-I football scene at a disadvantage to scholarship-granting programs.

Of those 27 schools in that situation, nine have since dropped their football programs (including Santa Clara in 1992 right on the heels of the decision). Others, like Georgetown, have assimilated into Division I Football Playoff Subdivision (former I-AA) starting in the 1993 season and some, such as the University of Connecticut, have made the expensive transition to D-I Football Bowl Subdivision (former I-A).

Of the nine schools discontinuing football, many of them have similar characteristics as Saint Joseph's in terms of the standing of their athletic departments and amount of varsity programs sponsored. Their inability to maintain football at a highly-competitive level, despite some schools having long and storied histories of football, helps show just how high the price of intercollegiate football is.

Canisius College

Canisius College was one of the first schools to drop football in 2002 as a result of the decline in competitiveness caused by the NCAA's rulings. Located in Buffalo, N.Y., they continue to sponsor 16 intercollegiate varsity programs and have a similar institutional profile as St. Joe's (Jesuit institution, urban setting, 3,500 undergraduates).

The decision to discontinue the football program at Canisius was part of a larger overhaul of a financially and physically overstretched athletic department in a state of flux at the time. It was one of eight programs cut, along with men's rifle, men's and women's indoor and outdoor track, and men's and women's tennis (men's swimming was added at the same time to meet Division I minimum requirements).

The financial necessity of the move was one of the factors that was able to overshadow the history of the program. The Golden Griffins had participated in football from 1918-1949, and from 1975 until its final cut in 2002. In addition to the finances of the situation, the level of the team's play had dropped off sharply, culminating in a 2-9 season in 2002.

"It was a very difficult decision because football had been here off and on since 1918," said Associate Athletic Director for External Affairs John Maddock, who has been in his current position since 1997. "It was a tough decision because it not only affected the young men on the team at that point and coaching staff, but it also affected about 350 alumni who had played in the program and who were still following it. It was a tough decision, and it was certainly not taken lightly."

One such alumnus is current Canisius Director of Athletics Bill Maher. Maher, who was in an administrative position at the University of Buffalo when the decision to cut football was made, played football at Canisius from 1980-1983.

"I was certainly very aware of the decision being made," said Maher. "While I was disappointed from an alumni standpoint and from a former football player's standpoint, I certainly understood the decision being made by the college to narrow the focus of the program as an economic reality to become more competitive in other sports."

The decision at Canisius was heavily impacted by the changes in the college football landscape legislated by the NCAA. Moving up to Division I prevented Canisius from honoring many of its local rivalries with D-III schools. As a result, their schedule became more expensive in terms of travel costs. The overall profile of the program was reduced, leading to a cycle of decreased interest and decreased on-field success.

"There was a ton of Division III football programs in western New York, so we were playing every week against very natural rivals-Buffalo State, University of Buffalo, Rochester, Alfred-all within an hour and a half or two hours of Buffalo," said Maddock. "So we had a tremendous group of schools within a close proximity that were all natural rivals, so it really, really fed of itself."

"When we had to go up to Division I, we had to stop playing all those schools, and now ended up playing Duquesne and Iona and Siena, schools that we had never played before," said Maddock. "So there wasn't any rivalry, there wasn't any 'Hey, the big game this week is …', because we had never played them before."

The lack of interest in the team, both for prospective players and fans, led to a decline in play the program was unable to get out from underneath of.