By Chuck Burton, The CSN Way Columnist

Thanks to their run to the men’s basketball Final Four this year, sports fans across America know all about Villanova. Whether fans have been following Jay Wright and Scotty Reynolds this year, or have been die-hard fans since the days of Rollie Massimino, Howard Porter, “Easy Ed” Pinckney and the “Four Corners” offense, chances are folks have heard of the Wildcats’ basketball program.

What folks don’t always know is that Villanova also has a football team, and a very successful one at that. They played in the toughest conference in Football Championship Subdivision (the Colonial Athletic Association), making another “Elite Eight” in the FCS playoffs before bowing out in a hard-fought game against the No. 1 seed in one of their league opponents in James Madison.

Most folks see their March brackets and see a bunch of schools they don’t usually see any other time of year. But many of them either played, or currently play, football at the FCS level. Let’s take a look at the teams in the tournament, and their parallel football history.

(Many thanks to the folks at The Helmet Project and MG Helmets for the many helmets used in this piece, especially the historic ones.)

MIDWEST REGION

Alabama State
Football/Basketball Conference: Southwest Athletic Conference (SWAC)
Basketball: No. 16 team, lost to No. 16 Morehead State in play-in game

The Hornet basketball team managed to survive the SWAC basketball tournament and qualify for the NCAA Tourney - unlike last year, where the heavily-favored Hornets were upset in the first round. In football, on the other hand, head football coach Reggie Barlow was suffering through NCAA hearings and a 3-8 season. After shuffling in multiple quarterbacks all year long, Barlow settled on Brandon Dowdell - just in time to win over Division II Tuskegee 17-13, in the annual “Turkey Day Classic.”

Better than that win over their bitter rival, however, was the news this offseason that the probation-plagued football program finally has seen the light at the end of the violations tunnel: the NCAA’s marathon investigation (dating from 2003, before Barlow became head football coach) is now complete, with their scholarship restriction and postseason ban expiring after the 2009 season.

In 2010, Alabama State will be able to play for the SWAC championship once again. That, coupled with the appearance of the men’s basketball team in the NCAA tournament, must have Hornet fans smiling.

Morehead State
Basketball Conference: Ohio Valley Conference (OVC)
Football Conference Pioneer Football League (PFL)
Basketball: No. 16 team, play-in game winner vs. No. 16 seed Alabama State, lost to No. 1 seed Louisville

While the fans around Morehead, Kentucky will be talking an awful long time about the Eagles’ incredible run through the OVC tourney in basketball – losing four straight road games, winning three straight in the conference tournament and then winning the play-in game – the Eagles’ non-scholarship football team made some noise too at the end a 6-6 season.

After ruining Dayton’s chances at the “Gridiron Classic” (where the winner of the non-scholarship Pioneer Football League plays the winner of the limited-scholarship Northeast Conference) postseason game by their 14-13 upset over the Flyers, the Eagles soared past Campbell 42-9 to end the year on a two-game winning streak. Spring football opens for Morehead State this week, and Matt Ballard’s troops are optimistic they will be able to build on their end-of-season success for 2009 and compete for the PFL championship with returning quarterback Evan Sawyer (1,369 yards passing, 12 touchdowns).

While Morehead State is currently unique in that they are the only public university currently competing at the non-scholarship level, there has been talk in the past about them joining the OVC in football – which sponsors a full-scholarship league loaded with public universities. It will be interesting to see if such talk happens again now that they have been back to the NCAA basketball tournament.

Robert Morris
Football/Basketball Conference: Northeast Conference (NEC)
Basketball: No. 15 seed, lost to No. 2 Michigan State

Many folks looking at their brackets might have known that the Colonials were playing in the Dance for the first time since 1992. But a lot don’t know that their football team’s head coach is someone who has coached in the NFL: Joe Walton, former head coach of the NFL’s New York Jets.

Unlike brutal Jets fans, who had all sorts of serenades for their head coach in the late 1980s (many unprintable), Walton is known in western Pennsylvania as being the father of the Colonials program and the only head coach they’ve ever known. (They’ve even named the field after him.)

In 2008, the football Colonials suffered through a somewhat disappointing 5-6 season, but saw some hope for next season as Robert Morris finished the year strong, winning three of their last four behind a stingy pass defense (led by defensive back Michael Landers’ 5 interceptions). And starting in 2010, the winner of the NEC will get an autobid into the FCS playoffs - which has to have all Colonial football fans salivating.

North Dakota State
Basketball Conference: Summit League
Football Conference: Missouri Valley Football Conference (MVFC)
Basketball: No. 14 seed, lost to No. 3 Kansas

In their first year as a full-fledged Division I institution, the Bison were expected in the preseason to win the Missouri Valley Football Conference title. They fell short of that expectation - finishing 6-5 behind the rushing of running back Tyler Roehl (1,053 yards rushing, 13 touchdowns), and losing to their bitter rival South Dakota State for the “Dakota Marker” in a 25-24 squeaker - but instead, in a mild surprise, won the Summit League instead to make the NCAA tournament in basketball.

To the joy of North Dakota State supporters, they played the first round NCAA tournament game in Minneapolis - a short drive for Bison Nation to watch their team. They were hoping for a repeat of their football team’s success in Minneapolis: in 2007, the Bison upended the FBS Golden Gophers 27-21, marking the second Big 10 team to lose to an FCS opponent that year.

With the Bison’s narrow loss to Kansas, it seems unlikely that Minneapolis will be inviting the Bison to trample through again any time soon. But with a season-opening tilt at FBS Iowa State in 2009, North Dakota State hopes to spring another FBS upset en route to qualifying for their first-ever FCS playoffs. Unlike this year’s NCAA tournament, however, it’s unlikely Bison fans will be satisfied with one-and-done.

Cleveland State
Basketball Conference: Horizon League
Football Conference: None
Basketball: No. 13 seed, beat No. 4 seed Wake Forest, lost to No. 12 seed Arizona

“Why not football?” is the idea that Cleveland State president Michael Schwartz floated in October of 2008. And why not? Nothing quite gets students and alumni together on Saturdays like a football game. Schools without programs generally struggle to generate school pride, especially in the fall. Homecoming at a women’s lacrosse game simply doesn’t hack it.

Despite the fact he is stepping down as university president in 2009 (opening up the criticism that offering football was only an eleventh-hour whim), Schwartz assigned a committee to study the feasibility of Viking football, with results to be released sometime this spring. If Cleveland State athletics were to go through with it, the committee was rumored to be thinking primarily of Division I non-scholarship football, putting them in the middle of the Pioneer Football League footprint, along with fellow Tourney members Morehead State, Dayton and Butler (who, along with the Vikings, is also a Horizon League member in basketball).

An additional benefit to Cleveland State sponsoring football would be the increase in male enrollment. In a world where universities are becoming female-dominated, an easy way to boost male enrollment is to add a non-scholarship football team – which generates not only the 60-70 players, but frequently male fans as well that want to support a team.

Dayton
Basketball Conference: Atlantic 10
Football Conference: Pioneer Football League (PFL)
Basketball: No. 11 seed, beat No. 6 seed West Virginia, lost to No. 3 seed Kansas

Few were surprised to see Dayton upend Illinois in the first round of the NCAA tournament this year. Like Villanova, Dayton has had a history of top-flight basketball teams. Unlike Villanova, however, Dayton has a firm commitment to Division I football of the non-scholarship variety.

Predicted to win the PFL in 2008, Dayton started strong with a win over a team that qualified for the FCS playoffs in 2007 - they beat Fordham 23-21 and defensive end Scott Vossler earned CSN Player of the Week honors. But the Flyers tripped down the stretch, losing to Morehead State and Jacksonville to deny them the chance to defend their “Gridiron Classic” victory from 2007.

Every once in a while there are thoughts entertained about Dayton jumping to full-scholarship football, perhaps to play in the Missouri Valley Football conference. But non-scholarship football works perfectly for Dayton - it seems likely that they’ll be a force in both basketball and non-scholarship football for years to come.

Siena
Basketball Conference: Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC)
Football Conference MAAC (2004)
Basketball: No. 9 seed, beat No. Ohio State, lost to No. 1 seed Louisville

Once upon a time, the MAAC sponsored non-scholarship football at the Division I level, and the Saints fielded a team in that league. In the early to mid 1990s, the MAAC thrived as a non-scholarship league, with nine members including affiliate schools such as St. John’s (NY), Georgetown, and Duquesne.

But MAAC non-scholarship football didn’t last. A combination of institutional indifference, a change in philosophy by one of their frequent scheduling partners (the Patriot League) and escalating costs caused Siena to cease football operations in 2004. “In light of the college’s strategic plan, enhancing the football program is not in line with the athletic department’s or the college’s strategic direction,” Siena athletic director John D’Argenio said in a statement at that time.

The MAAC seems extremely unlikely to sponsor football again in the near future – the league leadership seems to be focused on basketball and lacrosse almost exclusively these days. But you wonder if a school like Siena, or other former teams in the MAAC football league, might take on non-scholarship football again someday - or if MAAC schools, who want to play football once again, might want to leave the MAAC for a conference that gives more respect to the pigskin.

WEST REGION

UT-Chattanooga
Football/Basketball Conference: Southern Conference (SoCon)
Basketball: No. 16 seed, lost to No. 1 seed UConn

Late night comic Jimmy Kimmel made Mocs fans rejoice across the country this spring. How? When he adopted Chattanooga as his team in the NCAA Tournament, the Mocs got lots of extra publicity the week before their first round slaughter against No. 1-seeded UConn.

While there was lots of cries of “Mocs!” in Jimmy Kimmel’s audience, there wasn’t a lot of talk about their football program - no mentions about their famous football alumnus, wideout Terrell Owens, or about the fact that the football home of the Mocs is Finley Stadium, the home of the FCS Championship game. Perhaps you can’t blame Kimmel for not mentioning Mocs football: their performance has been terrible over the past ten years, with only one winning season and not a single berth to the FCS playoffs. Even by those standards, Mocs football was awful in 2008: during a 1-11 season, head coach Rodney Allison was told he wouldn’t be returning even before the season had concluded.

Head coach Russ Huesman, a former Moc, was hired in the offseason to allow Chattanooga fans to dream that they soon will be able to compete with the likes of Appalachian State and Wofford in the SoCon. They can only take heart from the basketball program, who made an unlikely postseason run this year ending with a win over College of Charleston to win the SoCon championship.

Cal State-Northridge
Basketball Conference: Big West
Football Conference: Big Sky Conference (2001)
Basketball: No. 15 seed, lost to No. 2 seed Memphis

Seven years after the Matadors dropped football, there are still hard feelings. Formerly a member of the Big Sky (and a football rival of current Big Sky football member Sacramento State), in 2001 CSUN elected to drop football and join the Big West conference amidst a California state “funding crisis". It was speculated that the president of CSUN was trying to pull the plug on football, however, from the start - and an NCAA report revealing 15 violations didn’t help matters either.

At the time the Matadors dropped football, however, they were on the rise by all accounts right before the rug was pulled from under them. In 1999, CSUN was a win away from the Big Sky championship and a bid to the FCS playoffs, and the Matadors seemed to be on the gateway to bigger and better things. Quarterback Sherdrick Bonner led the Matadors to the Division II playoffs before embarking on a pro career in Arena Football League that continues to this day.

While it’s unclear whether CSUN will be back to sponsoring football anytime soon, there are other Big West schools - such as Cal State Fullerton - who have gotten closer to resuming football programs at the FCS level. If CSUF resumes football, might Cal State Northridge be far behind? It’s a real possibility.

Cornell
Football/Basketball Conference: Ivy League
Basketball: No. 14 seed, lost to No. 3 seed Missouri

The Big Red, two time Ivy League regular season basketball champions, long for their football team to share the same sort of dominance in Ivy League football that they’ve enjoyed recently in basketball.

While the Big Red’s impressive 3-0 start in football in 2008 - including a thrilling last-second touchdown pass from quarterback Nathan Ford to wide receiver Jesse Baker for a 25-24 win over Lehigh - made some think of Cornell as a dark horse for the Ivy League championship, the aftermath unfortunately proved to be more typical for Cornell football in recent years - a 1-6 finish, with their only win coming against hapless Dartmouth 37-14.

While the Big Red has a long and stored football history - winning the newspaper poll championships of 1915 and 1921, and producing legendary players like running back Ed Marinaro - more recently Cornell’s football legacy has left something to be desired. With their last co-Ivy League championship occurring in 1990 and a legacy of hovering around .500 for the last ten years, they’ll hope this year to buck that trend and outduel Harvard, Yale and Princeton for an outright Ivy League title. Hope ever springs eternal in upstate New York.

Northern Iowa
Basketball Conference: Missouri Valley Conference
Football Conference: Missouri Valley Football Conference
Basketball: No. 12 seed, lost to No. 5 seed Purdue

If there was ever a poster child for mid-major basketball and FCS football excellence, Northern Iowa would have to be it. Playing in the brutal Missouri Valley conference in both basketball and football, the Panthers prove that you can have full-scholarship football and Top 25 basketball - all under the umbrella of the same conference. No non-scholarship football or rent-a-conferences in basketball here: the Panthers, indeed, can do it all.

The only thing UNI needs, though, is some post-season success. This year’s disappointing loss in the basketball tournament to nearby Purdue was bad, for sure - but it came nowhere close to the excruciating fall-from-ahead loss to the eventual national champion in FCS football - Richmond - in the FCS semifinals in their home stadium. UNI has become known for winning conference championships and qualifying for the playoffs - but they’re also know for falling short of their ultimate goal, too. Quarterback Pat Grace had a gritty season battling through injury (2,041 yards passing, 25 touchdowns) - but may become as well known for some key overthrows in the semifinal game as his gutty performance in 2008.

Going into 2009, UNI certainly will be one of the favorites once again to win the Missouri Valley Football Conference and return to the promised FCS playoff land once again. (Quarterback Pat Grace will be a huge part of that.) But the question everyone will ask is: what will they - and Grace - do once they get there?

Marquette
Basketball Conference: Big East
Football Conference: None
Basketball: No. 6 seed, beat No. 11 seed Utah State, lost to No. 3 seed Missouri

Marquette was one of the schools of the football-crazed Midwest who started football in the late 1800s (1889) and continued to have a strong following in the 1920s, 30s, 40s, and 50s. Led by college football hall-of-fame coach Frank Murray for seventeen of those years, he would lead the Golden Avalanche to over 100 career wins and a trip to the Cotton Bowl in 1937.

In 1960, budget deficits caused Marquette’s president, the Rev. Edward J. O’Donnell, to choose to discontinue football at the university. In a precursor to violent riots in Milwaukee later in the decade, 3,000 students reportedly responded by walking out of classes and demanding their football team back. No dice; Marquette’s storied football program, like those of so many private, religious institutions, would be no more.

A few short years later Marquette started up - not without resistance - a club team which continues playing to this day. At 35 years old, they are currently the oldest club football team in existence. Might they elect to start up Division I football once again, perhaps joining the Pioneer football league to play teams like Drake and Butler in football? It wouldn’t be the first time a Big East team has hosted a non-scholarship football program at the Division I level: St. John’s (NY) did so in the 1990s as part of the now-defunct MAAC conference. Will the Golden Avalanche rise once again?

UConn
Basketball Conference: Big East
Football Conference: Atlantic 10 (1999)
Basketball: No. 1 seed, playing in the Final Four

UConn never really was a hard-core football school at the FCS level. For years they used to play in the Atlantic 10 conference (now the Colonial Athletic Association, and, before that, the Yankee Conference) at the FCS level and used to be very happy playing at that level against regional rivals UMass, New Hampshire and Rhode Island. In 1979, however, they joined a new basketball conference called the “Big East” that didn’t seem at all assured of surviving. How would a Eastern basketball conference, with FBS football powerhouses (Syracuse, Boston College, Rutgers) and teams not playing football at that level (Villanova, Georgetown, UConn, St. John’s) survive?

The Big East “experiment” ended up more successful than anyone’s wildest dreams. In the 1980s, Big East NCAA titles followed as the NCAA men’s basketball tournament grew in popularity. When the Big East looked to become an all-sports conference including football, UConn seemed like a likely school to make the jump to FBS: with the city of Hartford eager to construct a stadium, UConn had a golden opportunity to not only get to FBS football, but a chance to play in a BCS championship and all the money that could entail for the conference and the school. The Huskies went for it, and didn’t turn back. This year, they qualified for their second consecutive (and second-ever) second-tier bowl: the International Bowl in Toronto, Canada, where they beat Buffalo (who also were a school that played football at the FCS level) 38-10.

Oddly enough, at the FCS level UConn was hardly dominant. They won some Atlantic 10 co-championships and won a one game in the FCS playoffs, but they would never have sustained success at the FCS level. They had a few NFL-caliber players from the FCS football days - notably tight end Brian Koslowski, who played at UConn in 1992 - but mostly had a pretty quiet time in the FCS ranks.

EAST REGION

East Tennessee State
Basketball Conference: Atlantic Sun
Football Conference: Southern Conference (2003)
Basketball: No. 16 seed, lost to No. 1 seed Pitt

Six years after disbanding their football program, Bucs fans finally have something to cheer about - a trip to the NCAA tournament, a trip to the Big Dance. But many fans still haven’t forgiven ETSU president Dr. Paul Stanton for discontinuing Bucs football in 2003.

When Stanton discontinued football, ETSU had some good football teams, like Mike Cavan’s 1996 team which beat Villanova at home in the I-AA playoffs before bowing out to Montana in the quarterfinals. But more than that it’s hard to understate how football defined ETSU as an institution - with a program dating from 1922, with the Bucs’ intense rivalries in the SoCon in all sports with Appalachian State, UT Chattanooga and Davidson. When they left the SoCon to play schools from Florida and Georgia in the Atlantic Sun conference, it was like they betrayed their SoCon brothers and turned their backs on some great regional rivalries. Folks still talk about Buc quarterback Todd Wells and his single-game record for passing (377 yards) and all-purpose yards (443 yards) over hated rival Appalachian State in 1997.

With Dr Stanton stepping down this year, Buc fans seem as optimistic as ever that football will return to Johnson City, Tennessee. What form that might take - full scholarship football in the Big South, or non-scholarship football in a newly sponsored Atlantic Sun conference - nobody knows at this point. Regime change may not be talked about a lot in Washington, DC these days, but it certainly is a lively topic of discussion for ETSU fans.

American
Basketball Conference: Patriot League
Football Conference: None
Basketball: No. 14 seed, lost to No. 3 seed Villanova

American is the only Patriot League school which does not field a football team. But in the late 1920s and 1930s, the Eagles were excited to be able to make an attempt bring football to the tiny DC teacher’s college. The only trouble was: how to field a competitive team when you only have 11 players?

Through their brief football history, American’s Eagles never really got off the ground, with plenty of losing seasons. As Georgetown and Fordham (who are currently associate members of the Patriot League in football) grew to national prominence, American struggled against local teams like George Washington and Catholic (DC). Peaking at 19 football-playing members, American’s football team disbanded during World War II when there were “only a handful of males left on campus - only enough for basketball", according to American’s yearbook at that time.

After the war, AU students clamored to have football return - but were repelled by president Paul F. Douglass, who likened football players as “human slaves” caught in the “biggest black market operation” in the history of higher education. (For good measure, the head of the Board of Trustees was quoted in the New York Times that “Post-War college football has no more relation to education than bull fighting does to agriculture.") Nearly sixty years later, the battle continues: American University students have made game efforts to try to start a football team in the District, and while AU’s presidents haven’t been comparing football to slavery (at least not as of the time of this article), the stance of AU’s faculty hasn’t changed: no football. Perhaps a club team at American might change some minds, but for now, all AU students have are dreams.

Portland State
Basketball/Football Conference: Big Sky
Basketball: No. 13 seed, lost to No. 4 seed Xavier

Folks might most identify Portland State today with back-to-back trips to the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, but the Vikings are more well known in the FCS world for their head football coaches.

Start with current head football coach Jerry Glanville, who coached in the NFL with the Houston Oilers and Atlanta Falcons. His right-hand man? “Mouse” Davis, architect of the Run-n-shoot offense which he perfected at - you guessed it - Portland State as head football coach in the late 1970s. In between Glanville and Davis were Don Read, Pokey Allen and Tim Walsh - all who had success coaching the Vikings at the Division II level. (Walsh, now the head coach at Army, built success with - of all things - running the football. How must Mouse Davis have been able to stand it?)

Glanville hasn’t yet gotten the wins yet for the program he is hoping for: last year produced lots of points behind quarterback Drew Hubel and the run-n-shoot, but only a 4-7 record. But he still knows how to get people to watch a football game. In 2009, his league game against Eastern Washington will be played in Seattle instead - proving that the man who leaves tickets for Elvis at every game knows how to keep people interested. Will Portland State turn the corner this fall?

Virginia Commonwealth
Basketball Conference: Colonial Athletic Association (CAA)
Football Conference: None
Basketball: No. 11 seed, lost to No. 6 seed UCLA

Depending on who you talk to, there is no record of any football program at Virginia Commonwealth, or there was one briefly in the pre-war era. But one thing’s for sure: the talk about bringing a team to Richmond has gone beyond a few wild-eyed fans demanding the sport, despite the fact that not even a club football team currently exists at VCU.

VCU president Eugene P. Triani has made no bones about it: he does not want football on his campus as long as he is president. But his resignation as president has opened the door for football fans: perhaps if a more football-friendly president were to take over, could Division I football become a reality? In 2008, VCU athletics director Norwood Teague was quoted in the Richmond Times-Dispatch as saying “I think it will be difficult for us not to have a serious discussion about it because of [the size of the university]. We’re not the VCU of 15 years ago, where you have a lot of commuters and a lot of people who are transient. This is a destination school.”

Certainly the stars seem to be aligning for VCU. Leaguemate (and rival) Old Dominion is starting their football program in 2009. And Richmond, who also competes in the CAA, will soon be vacating downtown Richmond Stadium for a more intimate on-campus stadium. The only issue might be the size of the CAA: already bursting at the seams with 14 members, would there be any room for a VCU? It’s starting to go from an academic question to a real question: can VCU support football?

Xavier
Basketball Conference: Atlantic 10
Football Conference: None
Basketball: No. 4 seed, beat No. 13 seed Portland State, beat No. 12 seed Wisconsin, lost to No. 1 seed Pitt

With this year’s NCAA bracket, it was theoretically possible to have a good old-fashioned football rivalry grudge match as the NCAA championship - but not one you’d guess off the top of your head. If No. 4 Xavier out of the East had met No. 11 seeded Dayton out of the Midwest, the Ohio “Governor’s Cup” rivalry would have been reborn for a day, a trophy football game for the state of Ohio that started in 1929.

At the turn of the 20th century, Xavier (then an all-male institution) was a natural for football as a Jesuit school with nearby rivals in Dayton and University of Cincinnati. Playing their first season in 1901, in the 1930s they counted other Jesuit schools as their equals, such as powerful Georgetown and Fordham. Unlike many Jesuit schools after World War II who folded their programs amidst financial pressures, the Musketeers flourished, playing big-time football programs like Kentucky and Arizona State. They also were pioneers in integrating football, by fielding great African-American players like linebacker Dennis Davis back when segregation was still the norm down South.

But ultimately the financial drain of having a big-time football program was too much to bear for tiny Xavier. In 1973, Xavier’s board of trustees elected to discontinue football for cost reasons. But the existence of a club team in 2009 give hope to some that Xavier might once again host a Division I non-scholarship team playing in the Pioneer Football League - and then the “Governor’s Cup” could be played once again, but this time as a PFL league matchup.

Villanova
Basketball Conference: Big East
Football Conference: Colonial Athletic Association (CAA)
Basketball: No. 3 seed, playing in the Final Four

Like Northern Iowa, Villanova proves that when there’s a will to have a playoff-caliber football team and a national-championship team for men’s college basketball, there’s a way. But unlike the Panthers, the Wildcats have done so by being a part of arguably the most powerful basketball conference in Division I and the most powerful football conference in FCS.

Much like their basketball team, Villanova’s football team didn’t start out favored to reach the FCS playoffs out of the Colonial Athletic Association but gradually convinced FCS fans in 2008 that they were something special. After head coach Andy Talley started quarterback Antwon Young to start the year, after some early struggles he promoted backup quarterback Chris Whitney to become the starter - and the team get stronger every week. After a first-round mauling of Colgate (55-10), Villanova bowed out to CAA champion James Madison in the second round in a game that could have gone either way.

2009 could be the year where Villanova pulls off the “double” - an NCAA national championship in basketball (as a part of the powerful Big East), and a FCS national championship (as a part of the powerful CAA) in Chattanooga. In football, at least, they’ll definitely be one of the favorites from the CAA going into the 2009 season.

SOUTH REGION

Radford
Basketball Conference: Big South Conference
Football Conference: None
Basketball: No. 16 seed, lost to No. 1 seed North Carolina

Radford University has never had football before - that is, until April 19th, 2008. On that day, Radford University’s club football team suited up to play George Mason for a spring football game in nearby Fairfax, Virginia.

Emblazoned with the slogan “RU Football: Tradition Starts Now", Radford’s grassroots club team makes do without university funding, like many other club football teams. They have to raise money for uniforms, pads, and raise fees to schedule practice time and travel to other schools. They raise funds through traditional fundraising efforts, like T-shirt sales. And they keep together on Facebook, increasing their profile and publicizing their effort.

For Radford, these are early days: the money is new, the club football experience is new, and the idea of university sponsorship probably seems far away right now. But as a member of the Big South conference, they probably have a gleam in their eye about the future, one that may someday involve FCS football. Might they join Big South football and play against leaguemates Liberty and Coastal Carolina for a FCS playoff autobid (starting in 2010)? Or might they elect to go the non-scholarship route, and join a new Southern non-scholarship conference sponsored by the Atlantic Sun Conference? (ASun members Jacksonville and Campbell already play in the Pioneer Football League, and East Tennessee State and Belmont are rumored to be considering sponsoring football as well.) Is it possible? Hopefully April 19, 2008 was the first step towards FCS football - eventually - for the Highlanders.

Morgan State
Football/Basketball Conference: Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC)
Basketball: No. 15 seed, lost to No. 2 seed Oklahoma

Folks like to talk about the “NCAA Tournament Bounce", or the bump in enrollment when your school qualifies for the NCAA Tournament in basketball. But there’s another “bounce” that you might not be aware of that affects Morgan state: the “bounce” that happens to your national cheerleading team once your team makes the Big Dance. Morgan State’s “Cheer Bears” were invited to perform at the United Cheerleader Association’s Collegiate Nationals competition at Daytona Beach, Florida this year. Other schools which made it? Try fellow tourney teams VCU, West Virginia, American University, University of Maryland, Florida, Michigan, Michigan State, and North Carolina.

The Cheer Bears got where they’re going by performing at Morgan State football games, of course. And on the football field, the Bears have also been greatly improved over seasons past. While their 6-6 record in 2008 was seen as a disappointment by some, sophomore running back Devan James (1,766 all-purpose yards) headlined a powerful rushing attack that beat the 2007 MEAC champion Delaware State 20-3.

Can Morgan State make a run at the MEAC title in 2009? It’s quite possible, with quarterback Carlton Jackson returning and James’ running attack returning as well. Hampton, Norfolk State and South Carolina State certainly won’t be lining up against the Cheer Bears in 2009.

Stephen F. Austin
Football/Basketball Conference: Southland Conference
Basketball: No. 14 seed, lost to No. 3 seed Syracuse

Texas State 62, SFA 21. Central Arkansas 49, SFA 41. Basketball scores? No; those were scores in Stephen F. Austin football games in 2008. While quarterback Jeremy Moses put up some big numbers as quarterback of the Lumberjacks (4,026 yards passing, 41 touchdowns), unfortunately 4-8 Stephen F. Austin also gave up more points (39.6 per game) than any other team in their conference. To add insult to injury, for the second year in a row they lost “Chief Caddo” - the country’s largest football trophy, a 7′6, 320 lb totem pole - to Louisiana rival Northwestern State, 34-24.

The Lumberjacks enjoyed their first appearance in the basketball tournament this year, but SFA has enjoyed FCS playoff success in the past. While their last appearance in the football postseason was 1995, John Pearce’s squad did make it all the way to the semifinals by beating Eastern Illinois (34-29) and Appalachian State (27-17) after bowing out to Montana.

Can Stephen F. Austin end another playoff drought in 2009? With Moses returning for his junior year, hopes are high in Nacogdoches, Texas that the Lumberjacks can challenge for the Southland title and the FCS autobid. If not, at least the scoreboard will be lighting up - like it would be, say, for a basketball game.

Akron
Basketball Conference: Mid American Conference (MAC)
Football Conference: Ohio Valley Conference (OVC)(1986)
Basketball: No. 12 seed, lost to No. 4 seed Gonzaga

The University of Akron holds a dubious distinction. No, not that they were cannon fodder for Gonzaga in the first round of this year’s NCAA Tournament (though they were that): they were the first team to transition from I-AA to I-A, starting with the 1997 season.

Akron has a long and storied football history in the football-crazed Midwest, founding their program in 1891 and playing in the OVC for many years, forging a in-state rivalry for the “Steel Tire” with Youngstown State (now a member of the Missouri Valley Football Conference). Akron also appeared once in the I-AA playoffs in 1985 - though they quickly exited in a 35-27 loss to Rhode Island - and ended their time in the OVC with a whimper, losing three straight “Steel Tire” games.

The Zips joined the MAC in 1992, and never looked back to their I-AA (or, for that matter, Division II) days. If you look at Akron’s athletics web site, you’d think that their entry into the MAC was the Second Coming - but for both football and basketball the MAC hasn’t been exactly heavenly: aside from their first appearance in the NCAA tournament in 23 years being a quick one, their lone bowl appearance in 2005 was an appearance was a defeat in the Motor City Bowl, 38-31 to Middle Tennessee State (themselves another former member of the OVC and I-AA).

Western Kentucky
Basketball Conference: Sun Belt
Football Conference: Gateway Conference (2006)
Basketball: No. 12 seed, beat No. 5 Illinois, lost to No. 4 seed Gonzaga

Of all the teams in this year’s NCAA tournament, only one has won the I-AA national championship as well. The Hilltoppers had a long and successful career in FCS, winning the national championship in 2002 34-14 against McNeese State (out of the Southland Conference). From 2001 to 2005, Western Kentucky made the FCS playoffs five straight years behind a bruising running attack featuring a stable of fullbacks like Jermemi Johnson and Maurice Bradley.

As a member of the football-only Gateway conference, Western Kentucky had a great home for many years. But when the Sun Belt elected in 2001 to start sponsoring a FBS football conference, the writing was on the wall for the Hilltoppers to join their conference in all sports. In 2009, WKU will be joining the Sun Belt in football after a three-year ramp-up period to FBS. Part of that process is to expand their stadium from a capacity of 17,000 to 22,000.

WKU probably didn’t have much of a choice about moving up once their conference sponsored FBS football. But they’re certainly spending a lot more money - by some reports doubling their spending on football, not counting compliance and stadium improvements - for the honor of a 2-9 record as an independent in 2008 and not being able to play for a national championship in the future. Will it be worth it? Only time will tell.

Butler
Basketball Conference: Horizon League
Football Conference: Pioneer Football League (PFL)
Basketball: No. 9 seed, lost to No. 8 seed LSU

Butler basketball is well known in the mid-major basketball circuit as a team that plays hard-nosed defense that’s worthy of the tenacity of a Bulldog, their mascot. But many folks don’t realize that Butler also plays football of the non-scholarship variety in the same league as Dayton, Davidson and Morehead State. Last year, behind the passing of quarterback Matt Kobli (2,518 yards passing, 27 touchdowns), 6-5 Butler had a winning record for the first time since 1997.

Butler started their football program in 1887, according to Butler’s football media guide, beating Purdue three straight times in 1887, 1889, and 1890. Through the 20th century Butler was a fixture in the small college ranks, eventually settling into Division II in 1973 and competing in the Division II playoffs during that time. But in 1993 Butler (along with Dayton, Drake and others) were required to upgrade their football program to the level at which it competed in other sports, Division I. At that time Butler chose to join the non-scholarship Pioneer Football League.

Butler’s road in non-scholarship football has been rocky, with more losses than wins since they’ve joined the PFL. But the Bulldogs seem ready to build off a successful 2008 and take the next step: challenging Dayton and Jacksonville for the PFL championship.

Gonzaga
Basketball Conference: West Coast Conference
Football Conference: None
Basketball: No. 4 seed, beat No. 13 seed Akron, beat No. 12 seed Western Kentucky, lost to No. 1 seed North Carolina

The Zags, more than any other school, is identified with the mid-major label in basketball - a school without a football team, but a threat to win the NCAA tournament every year. But few people realize that Gonzaga in their early years used to play of the best football teams in the country and produced two NFL hall-of-famers: Green Bay Packer quarterback Tony Canadeo and head coach Ray Flaherty.

Only three years after Washington was added as the 48th state (in 1889), Gonzaga fielded their first football team. After playing regional rivals for the most part from 1892-1898 and 1908-1919, the Bulldogs brought Notre Dame great Gus Dorais to become head coach. It was then that Gonzaga got the nickname “Bulldogs” as the local paper praised them for their “Bulldog-like tenacity". They would play West Virginia in a bowl game, as well as Texas Tech - and also regional powers St. Mary’s (CA) (who later played at the I-AA level and disbanded football in 2004), and Santa Clara (who also played at the I-AA level and disbanded their program in 1993). They’d also face current Big Sky members Montana and Eastern Washington.

Like many religious universities, Gonzaga disbanded their football program after World War II, and even the stadium they had built for football was gradually torn down by 1949. Today, Zag students ask the question: why shouldn’t they have a football team, too? Could it happen? If you can learn anything from the experiences of this year’s NCAA tournament teams, it’s that: when there’s a will for Division I football, there’s a way.