GMU, VCU Football?

[DJKyR0]

I have a buddy who has some ins at the George Mason athletic department, and according to him GMU is taking a hard look at starting up football; presumably VCU would mirror the move. Any of you CAA guys have any insight into this?

[henfan]

Nothing has been announced officially but there are stirrings on both campuses.

Of course, GMU has had a club team for several years and they have plenty of space to construct a new FB stadium should they need to do it.

VCU is looking at obtaining 22K-seat City Stadium in Richmond, less than 1 mile from their campus. Common thought is that it would need upgrades over time to get the most out of a D-I program. The administration has said that they will begin discussing FB in the new year.

These are two huge public schools who have no doubt been inspired by the FB start-ups at ODU and Georgia State. They would be guaranteed automatic entry into the CAA if they declare their intentions by 2017.

I think it's going to happen before then. Stay tuned.

[superman7515]

It's already been in the paper in Richmond that VCU was looking to lease or buy the old City Stadium where the Spiders played, and in the article the President spoke about a football team possibly in the future. I thought George Mason was already doing a study, there's certainly been a ton of talk about them lately, even a little about UNC Wilmington.

[bluehenbillk]

There has been talk for years, especially with George Mason. Maybe seeing ODU & GSU bring programs on may push things along a little faster. If anyone decided to start a program, which I don't think is right around the corner it'd be George Mason.

[wr70beh]

http://www.apa.virginia.gov/reports/VCUNCAA09.pdf

The athletic department loses money overall. The only way VCU gets a football team started is with either a sugar daddy (like ODU did) or by jacking up student fees. They just had a huge tuition increase due to funding cuts recently. I don't see how this gets done. Granted, they have a lot of students so they could spread it out more than a smaller school, but an increase is an increase.