Northeastern to End Football Program After 74 Years

By Mike in College, Featured ⋅ November 23, 2009 at 8:55am ⋅ Post a comment

Northeastern players walk off the field after what turned out to be the program's final game, a 33-27 win over Rhode ISland.

Northeastern has notified its players and coaches that football at the university is no more. The Huskies finished this season 3-8, including 2-4 at home. They won their final game on Saturday over the University of Rhode Island 33-27 and beat Hofstra at home 14-13 in what will be their final home game. University officials will save $3 million by cutting football and have not targeted the money for a particular cause. Northeastern did not believe they could compete at the level they wanted without investing even more money in the program, a move they were unwilling to make. The Huskies played football for 74 seasons dating back to 1933 (with the exception of 1943-1945), when they played in Brookline.

Move Leaves Boston College as Only Major College Football in Boston

Boston University canceled its football team after the 1997 season to direct funds to athletic facility improvements and women’s sports, leaving BC and NU as the only Division I football programs in the city. Boston College is Football Bowl Subdivision (formerly 1-A) while Northeastern was Football Championship Subdivision (formerly 1-AA). Northeastern averaged 1,600 fans per game at home this season at Parsons Field in a 7,000 seat stadium, which is half of the Colonial Athletic Association average. In addition to the saved costs on the field, the school was looking at a football stadium upgrade, which would run into the tens of millions.

Northeastern finishes with an all-time record of 289-364-17 and the last winning season was 2003 when the Huskies went 8-4. The 2002 squad finished with 10 wins, including a share of its only Atlantic 10 title, and made the NCAA Playoffs. BC won their all-time series 4-0, most recently playing in 1999 (prior to this season).

Tags: College Football, Northeastern University

Discussion

3 comments for “Northeastern to End Football Program After 74 Years”

Northeastern to End Football Program After 74 Years: Northeastern has notified its players and coaches that footbal… http://bit.ly/8mK72Y

Posted by Sports of Boston | November 23, 2009, 11:36 am
Thank god!!

Posted by deepak | November 23, 2009, 3:27 pm
As bad as they’ve been recently, it’s still pretty shocking. Now there’s two gigantic schools in Boston without a football team. That’s crazy!

Posted by KC | November 23, 2009, 6:02 pm