Boston Herald: NU To Keep Football

[Husky Alum]

NU grid plans
By John Connolly
Wednesday, February 6, 2008 - Added 9h ago

Northeastern will make an announcement today about the future of its football program. Athletic director Peter Roby declined comment last night, but it is expected he will recommend to NU president Joseph E. Aoun to keep Division 1 football for the foreseeable future.

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For those of you who followed this situation, you're aware there was an Athletics Review Panel that was commissioned by our Athletic Director to help vet the issue and provide recommendations. For what it's worth, I was on the panel.

[Ivytalk]

xhurrayx xhurrayx xhurrayx xhurrayx AWRIIIGGGHHHTTT!!

[Go...gate]

Good news. :)

[Husky Alum]

xrolleyesx ;)
xhurrayx xhurrayx xhurrayx xhurrayx AWRIIIGGGHHHTTT!!

Thanks, but come on, you guys won't even play us any more. xrolleyesx ;) xrolleyesx xrolleyesx ;) xbowx xbowx xbowx xbowx

I mean come on, you embarrassed us in the Beanpot on Monday, too!

[Ivytalk]

xrolleyesx ;)

Thanks, but come on, you guys won't even play us any more. xrolleyesx ;) xrolleyesx xrolleyesx ;) xbowx xbowx xbowx xbowx

I mean come on, you embarrassed us in the Beanpot on Monday, too!

I'd be thrilled to see the football rivalry come back. They were good games and drew good crowds.

Have a heart about the Beanpot! 3-1 is hardly an embarrassment, and this will be Harvard's first trip to the finals in 10 long years! The Huskies are still ranked, after all. And we lost to frickin' Brown last weekend!xrolleyesx

[Cobblestone]

NU grid plans
By John Connolly
Wednesday, February 6, 2008 - Added 9h ago

Northeastern will make an announcement today about the future of its football program. Athletic director Peter Roby declined comment last night, but it is expected he will recommend to NU president Joseph E. Aoun to keep Division 1 football for the foreseeable future.

====

For those of you who followed this situation, you're aware there was an Athletics Review Panel that was commissioned by our Athletic Director to help vet the issue and provide recommendations. For what it's worth, I was on the panel.

Congrats! xthumbsupx

[Eaglegus2]

This means you will travel to Georgia Southern in the fall?xthumbsupx

[dbackjon]

Great news!

[AggieFinn]

Sweet! See y'allz in Beantown this fall.

[Husky Alum]

I'd be thrilled to see the football rivalry come back. They were good games and drew good crowds.

Have a heart about the Beanpot! 3-1 is hardly an embarrassment, and this will be Harvard's first trip to the finals in 10 long years! The Huskies are still ranked, after all. And we lost to frickin' Brown last weekend!xrolleyesx

Apparently your administration didn't want to play us any more. We effectively told you guys "let's sign a 5 year deal, 4 at Harvard Stadium and if we ever open a new on campus stadium, you'll agree to play us there, but in case we don't we'll play the 5th at Harvard Stadium as well." The professors from HBS obviously don't work in the Athletic Department, because there's no school in country who would give another school a Five for None at our level.

Maybe now that we're playing football for the forseeable future someone at Harvard will realize that playing a home game makes more money for the school thank a road game at Lehigh or Lafayette or whomever (no offense to the Leopards or Engineers/MountainHawks).

We haven't won the Beanpot since 1988, so while I appreciate your concern, I've seen you guys win it twice since I enrolled at NU and have never seen us win it - the 1989 Beanpot win over BU was a GREAT game - that was the 9-6 shootout.

[Go...gate]

Apparently your administration didn't want to play us any more. We effectively told you guys "let's sign a 5 year deal, 4 at Harvard Stadium and if we ever open a new on campus stadium, you'll agree to play us there, but in case we don't we'll play the 5th at Harvard Stadium as well." The professors from HBS obviously don't work in the Athletic Department, because there's no school in country who would give another school a Five for None at our level.

Maybe now that we're playing football for the forseeable future someone at Harvard will realize that playing a home game makes more money for the school thank a road game at Lehigh or Lafayette or whomever (no offense to the Leopards or Engineers/MountainHawks).

We haven't won the Beanpot since 1988, so while I appreciate your concern, I've seen you guys win it twice since I enrolled at NU and have never seen us win it - the 1989 Beanpot win over BU was a GREAT game - that was the 9-6 shootout.

I recall Harvey Yavener of the Trenton Times (a Rider University grad, but a huge fan of PU football since WWII) saying in the late 1960's that there would eventually come a time when the Ivies would play no one but each other. This kind of scheduling philosophy by Harvard is evidence that Yavener's prediction may not be far off.

[carney2]

And now for the aftermath.

At Lafayette in the late 90s, after word "leaked" that a study had been done that included the options of dropping to D-III or eliminating football altogether, the bottom dropped out, with 2-9 seasons becoming the norm. The Board of Trustees more or less washed their hands of the whole thing saying (and I do not quote) "if you want it, find a way to fund it." Luckily for those of us who love to spend our fall Saturdays at Fisher (now) Stadium, an entire army came to the rescue.

Coach Tavani and this then new staff proved up to the challenge.
The Maroon Club formed "Friends of Lafayette Football," and this group has had a lot of impact.
A small group of well heeled alums put their money where their mouth is and created a Taj maFootball over the carcass of a dilapidated Fisher Field.

My point is that announcing that football will continue "into the foreseeable future" and creating a viable long term program may be two separate issues. Good luck and get to work, you Huskies.

[Husky Alum]

And now for the aftermath.

My point is that announcing that football will continue "into the foreseeable future" and creating a viable long term program may be two separate issues. Good luck and get to work, you Huskies.

You Lafayette guys are pretty smart. xlolx xlolx ;) ;)

It also depends on your definition of a "viable long term program" - I'd argue playing in the CAA at Parsons field doesn't make us all that viable- unless Delaware is in town - they see Parsons Field and get a complex about it. ;)

Hey 'gate, any word on a potential home/home with us in the 2010-13 range?? The guy at NU who told me about it is no longer with the school.

[UNHFan99]

My understanding of the Lafayette situation was that it was in the plans to cancel football. Coach Bill Russo knew for 2 or 3 years they were gonna cancel. Thinking this he did not recruit top notch players into a program that was doomed and these players wouldnt have a full career at Lafayette. He accepted the programs fate and was going to retire. Then administration changed their mind and put tons of money into the program. He retired anyway and was very upset with the stupid administration for greatly hurting the success of his teams in the later years.

Bottom line is leaks of cancelling a program greatly hurts your recruitment. I wouldnt want to go there unless I knew for sure the program wasnt just going to stay but also thrive and get better and bigger every year.

[Go...gate]

You Lafayette guys are pretty smart. xlolx xlolx ;) ;)

It also depends on your definition of a "viable long term program" - I'd argue playing in the CAA at Parsons field doesn't make us all that viable- unless Delaware is in town - they see Parsons Field and get a complex about it. ;)

Hey 'gate, any word on a potential home/home with us in the 2010-13 range?? The guy at NU who told me about it is no longer with the school.

We have an open date in 2010 and several in 2011 and beyond, and we never got together with Army on a date in 2010 and 2011, which I understood to be happening. So I would bet that a Colgate-NU home and home series has a very good chance of taking place. Certainly sounds good to me, as I saw CU-NU games at Hamilton in '77 and '91 (there was another in Brookline in '94 or '95, which I missed) and it seems like a fine matchup.

[henfan]

I'd argue playing in the CAA at Parsons field doesn't make us all that viable- unless Delaware is in town - they see Parsons Field and get a complex about it. ;)

A complex about Parsons? Nice double entendre!xthumbsupx

Yeah, the Hens are on a 3 game snide in Brookline but haven't faired too poorly over the long term (4-3). At least we're not as bad as Rhody's been at Parsons (9-15-2)... or Towson (0-4). And we're in the same stratosphere as UR, Nova (both 4-3) and W&M (4-2).

[Husky Alum]

Official Announcement from NU Athletics Director Peter Roby on Tuesday at 3:00 pm.

We're going to be playing football next season and into the future, I know nothing but rumors from campus indicate no sports are being cut.

[Lehigh Football Nation]

http://www.projo.com/sports/mikeszostak/projo_20080219_northeastern.9a0cd31.html


08:58 AM EST on Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Northeastern University will learn the future of its intercollegiate athletics program today at 3 p.m. when Peter Roby, director of athletics, issues an announcement in the Makris Varsity Club at Matthews Arena in Boston.

Speculation arose last fall that Northeastern was going to drop football. Coach Rocky Hager acknowledged toward the end of the season that such rumors bothered his staff and players. Roby indicated the entire athletics program was under study. Hager has since had his contract extended, signed a recruiting class and announced the 2008 schedule that includes games against Ball Sate and Syracuse.

Any word? The announcement was made an hour ago.

[NU Hound29]

No sports cut! AD Peter Roby even mentioned that he would love to build an on campus stadium and that it might be worked into a master plan, though the city gives fits about it.

At anyrate, the Dogs will take to the field once again!

[Lehigh Football Nation]

http://www.championshipsubdivisionnews.com/?title=nu-football-safe-funds-are-sought&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1


Football is safe at Northeastern, but athletic director Peter Roby says he needs your help.

That was the message Roby delivered yesterday in a press conference called after a two-month examination of the Northeastern athletic department and the 19 men’s and women’s varsity sports it funds.

Football was the primary topic because rumors of its demise hovered around the program throughout the fall. That caused angst internally among head coach Rocky Hager and his staff and externally as the friends and supporters of Husky athletics wondered whether football would disappear the way it did at crosstown rival Boston University.

[bluehenbillk]

Did Parsons Field disappear?? At least that road game isn't on the schedule, not that I'd make it anyway.

[Husky Alum]

We're in the North, you're in the South, you're not in our rotation for 08-09, you won't lose at Parsons again until 2010.

Our southern opponents this year are Towson, Villanova and W&M.

As for NU building a new stadium, my 5 year old will graduate from NU before we build one. Boston politics at its finest.