5 Arizona JCs drop FB

[GrifFan]

Re: 5 Arizona JCs drop FB

Semi-related: Fewer athletes from Kansas competing at junior college level: https://www.kctv5.com/news/fewer-ath...a3e1597173.htm

[laker]

Re: 5 Arizona JCs drop FB

Eastern Arizona is also dropping football. I haven't heard what Snow College is going to do.

https://www.eac.edu/Utilities/News_a....asp?Item=1581

[laker]

Re: 5 Arizona JCs drop FB

Snow College plans to continue, names new head coach.

https://www.ksl.com/article/46445306...id-uncertainty

[Herb Street]

Re: 5 Arizona JCs drop FB

No team, just a stadium. Kind of like the Vermont Catamounts.

How do you have a stadium but no team?

[laker]

Re: 5 Arizona JCs drop FB

How do you have a stadium but no team?

They dropped football back in 1974. I visited campus back in 1996.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centennial_Field

[Predatory Primates]

Re: 5 Arizona JCs drop FB

There were 65 teams outside of California- now down to 58.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...tball_programs

8 in KS, 10 in Minn, and 14 in MS. That's pretty much half of them in 3 states.

[laker]

Re: 5 Arizona JCs drop FB

8 in KS, 10 in Minn, and 14 in MS. That's pretty much half of them in 3 states.

So many schools in MN that have dropped- Inver Hills, Lakewood, Normandale, North Hennepin, Wasecao and now Ridgewater. Amazing that we still have so many.

[boatcapt]

Re: 5 Arizona JCs drop FB

How do you have a stadium but no team?

I think it's been completely reconfigured to a baseball "stadium".

[Wildcat Khan]

Re: 5 Arizona JCs drop FB

How do you have a stadium but no team?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_F._Caniglia_Field

UNO has a stadium and no team too. HSU is now in that boat as well, but WWU isn't as they used a public stadium off campus.

[Predatory Primates]

Re: 5 Arizona JCs drop FB

Seems like Iowa used to have a lot more than they do now.

[boatcapt]

Re: 5 Arizona JCs drop FB

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_F._Caniglia_Field

UNO has a stadium and no team too. HSU is now in that boat as well, but WWU isn't as they used a public stadium off campus.

I think many schools that have dropped football over the years still use their football stadiums for other sports (Track, Lacorsse, Soccer, etc).

Here are some of the recent schools who have dropped football that still have their own stadiums:

Hofstra University, Shuart Stadium
La Salle University, McCarthy Stadium
St Mary's College of California, St Mary's Stadium
Cal State Fullerton, Titan Stadium

[shipfbfan12]

Re: 5 Arizona JCs drop FB

I think many schools that have dropped football over the years still use their football stadiums for other sports (Track, Lacorsse, Soccer, etc).

Here are some of the recent schools who have dropped football that still have their own stadiums:

Hofstra University, Shuart Stadium
La Salle University, McCarthy Stadium
St Mary's College of California, St Mary's Stadium
Cal State Fullerton, Titan Stadium

Oddly enough I still think LaSalle could resurrect their program without making too many improvements to the stadium and be competitive in the NEC or a middle of the pack CAA team with all the local talent around and just off them being a FCS team many local kids would say I'll take that scholarship to stay local rather than get $500-1500 to go to West Chester or Bloomsburg.

[ftballfan]

Re: 5 Arizona JCs drop FB

Michigan does not offer a single JUCO football program although many JUCO's do offer other sports that are decently competitive on the national level. The last Michigan JUCO football program was GRCC, which ended its program the same time T.A. left the school to take the Ferris St HC position. GRCC's final couple seasons saw them play teams as far away as Georgia during the season. They declined their Bowl invitation to play Snow in the Top of the Mountain Bowl because T.A. couldn't justify the expense of travelling to a game to play a team ranked that low. This was a team that was 11-0 and ranked #3 nationally but wasn't chosen to a high level game because of a lack of following limiting the profitability for the bowl hosts (per the press release about the declined bowl invite). Their schedule that season included teams in Georgia, Iowa and Illinois.

If the state doesn't offer JUCO football it is tough to justify the expenses.

Expenses were a major reason for the shutdown of many college programs out west (mainly California in the 1980's and 1990's). The schools could not justify the expenses of having the sport in the face of mounting pressures from budget constraints and Title IX regulations.

One thing that hurts Michigan (and many other states) is that most of their community colleges opened after World War II (while it seems like most juco's with football predate WWII).

[laker]

Re: 5 Arizona JCs drop FB

One thing that hurts Michigan (and many other states) is that most of their community colleges opened after World War II (while it seems like most juco's with football predate WWII).

In Minnesota a lot of JC's didn't even start until the 1960s. So football varied from school to school.

[SW_Mustang]

Somehow we missed this - JUCO football is back in Arizona, and is working through their third season already. They played through COVID last year. This isn't a typical JUCO league, though:

JC football fallout: New league brings hope that the sport can be revived in Arizona | Arizona Wildcats football | tucson.com

tl;dr - displaced WSFL coaches didn't want to see Arizona go without JUCO football. Since they knew the schools wouldn't support it, they created their own league. The league is non-profit, corporate backed, and completely independent - not only from the NJCAA, but from the schools too.

Teams are based in cities, and play at a local high school. They also do play outside of their conference against traditional JUCO teams. Players don't have to attend any specific school, however they do have to be enrolled in an associate's program in order to participate. They must also pay a fee that helps the league operate. That fee is waived if they attend Snow College in Utah through a partnership with the league.

This idea is pretty radical, admittedly, but I think it operates with genuine good intention. I would like to see it hang around, and I could also see it becoming a model for other states whose schools don't want to commit to football.