Bradley Football?

[Headless Bobcat]

Saw a discussion on another board about non-scholarship football (ie. Pioneer League).

I'm sure Bradley is pretty much out of football for good. But for the sake of dreaming, has the re-introduction of Bradley football ever been discussed on this board?

Heck...if Drake can do it, why can't we?

Would most people be for it or against it?

http://www.pioneer-football.org/

Just curious.

[Headless Bobcat]

14 views and no response.

I guess that that answers the question about any interest in Bradley football.

[Bradleyguy10]

I think it would be a bust....


The only way to do it is to be successful at it. Bradley doesn't need another losing team. And to do it successfully you need money...which I don't think Bradley really has right now.

[DUBulldog]

Heck...if Drake can do it, why can't we?

Drake continued to play scholarship Division 1 football for many years after Bradley dropped the sport. Drake switched to non-scholarship sometime in the mid-late 80s.

Drake didn't go from no football to non-scholarship football, which is what Bradley would be doing, so it's a little bit different situation.

I think it would be worthwhile for Bradley to at least look at the possibility. But, you have to look deeply into the numbers. If you just scan them, it appears that Drake is spending much more on the football program than the amount of revenue it generates. And that is true. But, without football, none (or very, very few) of those 110 players on the team would be at Drake....and they're all paying tuition to attend the school. Male students are in the minority at Drake, and would be even more so if not for football. Is Bradley similar?

[LG281]

I'd love to watch Bradley play football. It would be an excellent way to boost tuition like DUB has stated.

I do however think that if BU is going to add another sport it'll more than likely be Women's Soccer - we've already got top notch facilities, a decent following for the men's team, and (not sure here) a decent women's club soccer team.

[BuBraves55]

play at the stadium!

[real fan]

The overall costs to run a football program is the main reason why Bradley will not have a football team.

[SFP]

I do however think that if BU is going to add another sport it'll more than likely be Women's Soccer - we've already got top notch facilities, a decent following for the men's team, and (not sure here) a decent women's club soccer team.

You are right on. If BU does add a sport it would be Woman's Soccer. With the continued success of our Men's soccer team we already have a fall sport to follow. 2nd rate football would probably be a bust on the Hilltop. Who wants to sit around and watch a mediocre product in 20 degree weather?

[Braves4Life]

A start-up football team could work at a university that already did not have an established money-making sport like BU does with men's basketball. BU could start up as a D-3 football team and probably become successfull rather quickly. But would anyone go to watch? Probably not..... And I just don't see BU diverting attention away from the main sports that unites the entire Peoria community -- Bradley Basketball.

When you think of Peoria you think of Caterpillar and Bradley Basketball!

[Scouter]

When you think of Peoria you think of Caterpillar and Bradley Basketball and Big Al's!

Fixed.

[SFP]

Fixed.

It is kind of funny when I mention that I went to school in Peoria and if by a chance they stopped there for work they always ask about Big Al's.

[BradleyStuff]

Not having big-time football on Saturdays was unfortunate, having grown up near a Big Ten school. However, I wish we'd had the option to go tailgate when I was at BU, like I got to experience last month during the soccer homecoming game. If that is a regular event, then it brings a part of the college experience that had been missing in Peoria.

I like to tell friends that Bradley hasn't lost a football game in 30+ years.

I agree that it would be difficult to justify the money necessary to get a respectable program in place, even if we didn't have aspirations of competing in division I. I would rather see the focus on continuing to build new, first-class facilities to support the athletes (and students) we have, and then expand into areas that could directly leverage that (such as with women's soccer).

[Double D]

A start-up football team could work at a university that already did not have an established money-making sport like BU does with men's basketball. BU could start up as a D-3 football team and probably become successfull rather quickly. But would anyone go to watch? Probably not..... And I just don't see BU diverting attention away from the main sports that unites the entire Peoria community -- Bradley Basketball.

When you think of Peoria you think of Caterpillar and Bradley Basketball!

I think there would be a hangup with the D3 issue. I am not sure but it relates to what division you play in other sports. My guess is that we would have to consider the Pioneer League like Drake. That is non scholarship 1AA (championship subdiv.?) I think. Teams like Drake, Butler, Dayton,etc. play in that league.

It's fun to think about and I would be a HUGE supporter as I am a football guy, but I would guess the starup costs for Pioneer would be much higher that strait D3 (facilities, coaches salaries, etc).

Maybe our Drake poster friends could add to this.

[DUBulldog]

I think there would be a hangup with the D3 issue. I am not sure but it relates to what division you play in other sports. My guess is that we would have to consider the Pioneer League like Drake. That is non scholarship 1AA (championship subdiv.?) I think. Teams like Drake, Butler, Dayton,etc. play in that league.

It's fun to think about and I would be a HUGE supporter as I am a football guy, but I would guess the starup costs for Pioneer would be much higher that strait D3 (facilities, coaches salaries, etc).

Maybe our Drake poster friends could add to this.

You are correct....teams cannot compete in D-1 basketball and D-3 football. That is why the Pioneer League was started.....it connected a lot of the D-1 schools that wanted to play non-scholarship....but, they had to do it at the D-1AA level.

The NCAA's thoughts were that D-1 schools that were playing non-scholarship football would absolutely dominate the D-3 competition. Most of these D-1 schools formerly played scholarship football, so they already had facilities far above those of the D-3 schools. They also probably had more money available for the program as well. So, sometime in the late 80's or early 90's, the NCAA made a rule that if you were D-1 in basketball, and you had a football team, it also had to be at the D-1 level...in this case, 1-AA. The 1-AA teams can offer as many as 60-65 scholarships, and many of the 1-AA schools do. There are also many that offer scholarships, but far fewer than the max. Then there are 15-20 schools like Drake and Dayton that offer none.