Northeastern University Axes Football Team

November 25th, 2009

If you are an aspiring college football player, you can cross Northeastern University off your list of potential schools to visit–there won’t be a football team on campus next fall.

Officials at Northeastern University have announced this week that the Huskies football team has been cut from their Division I lineup. The team hasn’t had a winning season in the six years that Rocky Hager has been head coach, but the university says that the team’s mediocre record is not the reason for the cut.

In a letter to the Northeastern community, athletic director Peter Roby wrote: “We do not define success merely through wins and losses. Instead, we recognize that success comes from creating a positive student-athlete experience. The primary motivation for this decision was based on the significant obstacles to providing this experience for our football players.”

Roby goes on to say that Northeastern’s primary task is “focusing future resources on programs—both academic and non-academic—where the university can achieve and sustain leadership.” Which sounds to me that since the football team wasn’t leading the division, it’s not worth the university’s financial support. So perhaps wins and losses ARE the reason after all.

It’s going to be a somber Thanksgiving for the football team and its fans. I know the decision had to be announced at some point, but doing it as the players left campus for the long holiday weekend has to hurt.

So what happens to Division 1 football players when their team goes belly up? Ask each of the 87 Northeastern football players, and you might just get 87 different answers. Northeastern is still making good on the players’ scholarships—what the New York Times is calling a “buyout”—and will allow the former players access to the academic support and athletic training available to them as student athletes. Northeastern University has great academic programs, but that is of little consolation to the young men who arrived on campus ready to play—and ready for a shot at the NFL.

Transferring to a different Division I school is always an option, but most football scholarships are reserved for incoming freshmen. For those students determined to play on the gridiron, chances are they will be scrambling to fill out transfer applications in the upcoming weeks. Of course, not every team member will have a future in the NFL, but for those who were heading down that path, this news must be a nightmare for them.

If there’s a lesson to be learned here, it’s that college athletes need to have a feasible Plan B in place. Whether it’s a team getting cut or a career-ending injury, players should have a “what if?” scenario in place just in case their dreams of playing, pro or otherwise, get taken away from them. For some Northeastern players, their football days will end here, and they’ll transform into “regular” college students. For others, there will be serious discussions of what to do next at the Thanksgiving table tomorrow.

–Barbara Bellesi

Entry Filed under: College Sports,News