Football is in the Air (Rob Broussard, Oct. 22)
Let's face it, when you live in the south, fall weekends generally revolve around one thing: Football. Whether it is Pop Warner, high school, college or ? if you really want to punish yourself, the Saints ? it does not get much better than a weekend with a little pigskin.
If college football is your game, you are not alone. But if you are a UNO graduate or fan, your loyalty has had to be given somewhere else for the past 38 years...until now.
For the first time since 1970, the University of New Orleans will have a representative on the gridiron, as a group of students have come together to form a club football team. That squad will play two games this year, beginning on Nov. 8 against Southern Illinois-Edwardsville at Tad Gormley Stadium. They will also play at Xavier (Ohio) on Nov. 15.
While the UNO Athletics Department is excited that students across campus have worked so hard to make this team a reality, the department would like to clear the air about some possible misconceptions about the football team. Please note that the football team is a club team, meaning it does not fall under the umbrella of the UNO Athletics Department. The Privateers have never had a football team compete as part of their NCAA intercollegiate athletics department, and that has not changed. The athletics department is not affiliated in any way with the club team, so UNOPrivateers.com will not have much football news to report.
I personally think it is great, though, that the team is up and running again.
One of the frequent questions I get when I tell people I work in the UNO Athletics Department is: When is UNO going to start a football team? So obviously there is interest.
But what I tell people whenever I'm asked is the Privateers will not be playing NCAA football. You never say never, but it certainly will not be happening in the years to come.
There have been conversations in the past about UNO football, but it has never come to fruition. Why? Numerous reasons, but the obvious major obstacle is money. While it would be great to have a Division I-A (errr Football Bowl Subdivision) or I-AA (whoops....Football Championship Subdivision) team at UNO, the start-up costs alone for a football team would be approximately $7-10 million, and that is being generous.
Considering the current budget for UNO's Athletics Department is a little more than $3.5 million, simply do the math.
UNO Athletics Director Jim Miller, who knows a thing or two about football after many years with the Saints, Buffalo Bills and Chicago Bears, has said numerous times he has no plans to pursue football as an NCAA sport.
He is also quick to point out the rebuilding efforts the department has made since Hurricane Katrina crippled it more than three years ago. We have worked with some of the best minds in college athletics to build and execute a plan committed to excellence. As of now, that plan is sans football.
But we hope you will join us in congratulating the members of the club football team for making football a reality on the Lakefront campus. Go Privateers!!!!!!!
Inside the Athletic Department Index
