Football and scholarships
The University of Dayton plays football in the Pioneer League, a 10-team conference that includes schools that play NCAA Division I basketball. The PFL does not offer athletic scholarships for football.
Scholarship limits for other NCAA divisions
Division I-A (Football Bowl Subdivision) — 85
Division I-AA (Football Championship Subdivision) — 63
Division II — 36
DAYTON — Rick Chamberlin and his nonscholarship University of Dayton football team faced three straight scholarship opponents to start the season — Duquesne handed out the equivalent of 20 full rides this year, while Urbana and Robert Morris doled out close to 30 — and UD regularly chooses nonconference foes who benefit from having some athletic financial aid.
But don’t look for Chamberlin to grouse about being at a disadvantage on the field. In fact, the second-year UD coach wouldn’t want to trade places with those other programs.
“When you start doing that (giving out scholarships), it brings other problems, too,” he said. “You’ve got kids who all of a sudden say, ‘Hey, I’m starting and I only got this much money, and the guy behind me is on a full ride.’ Those are always stories I hear out there.
“Our young men, they all know they’re on the same playing field. Whoever is the best player is going to get out there. Nobody is getting special treatment. ... I think that helps with team morale. I think it helps with the players, to be able to say, ‘I’m out here because I enjoy it.’ And I hope they feel like they’re getting something out of it, too — not in a monetary way, but the experiences they get to have of being in this program and being part of something special.”
Football ‘pioneers’
The Flyers stopped giving football scholarships in 1977 and toiled at the NCAA Division III level for years, winning national titles in 1980 and ’89. But the NCAA adopted a rule that prevented Division I schools from competing at a lower level in football, prompting UD to become a charter member of the nonscholarship Division I-AA Pioneer Football League 16 years ago.
While the Flyers probably would get blistered by fully funded Division I-AA (Football Championship Subdivision) schools such as Delaware and Appalachian State, which can give out as many as 63 scholarships, they’ve proven they can compete against some D-II programs (36 full rides) and I-AA schools that don’t have the wherewithal to award the maximum number of scholarships.
UD lost to D-II Urbana but beat I-AA Duquesne and Robert Morris. The Flyers are 14-3 this decade against teams that give at least some athletic financial aid.
“That’s what we always say: We’re getting young men who could have gotten scholarships at Division II schools and turned them down because of the atmosphere we have here and the way things are done first-class,” Chamberlin said. “We can play against them. I don’t think we can do a steady diet of 12 or 11 games a year, but we can play a few teams here and there we can compete with.”
Most UD players, though, are receiving some financial help — just not in the form of athletic scholarships. Don Vince, the UD associate director of financial aid, said 95 of 110 players have earned academic scholarships this year ranging from $2,000 to $15,000. That number doesn’t include federal and state need-based grants independent of the university, for which many UD players qualify.
Two other Flyers have had the full cost of attending UD paid through the ROTC, while another is going to school for free because his parents are UD employees.
The percentage of players getting academic scholarships is comparable to what the rest of the student body receives. Since the cost of tuition, room and board is $37,680 this year, however, most parents still are writing hefty checks. But don’t try telling former Flyers coach Mike Kelly that UD football is just for players from affluent backgrounds.
“Absolutely not,” said Kelly, now a UD associate athletic director. “We have a number of young men in all sports who come from financially strapped families and qualify for a substantial amount of money.”
Positive program
Even without athletic scholarships, fielding a football team isn’t cheap. According to gender-equity filings for the 2007-08 school year, the athletic department spent $964,369 on football while generating just $136,098 in revenues.
But Kelly, who retired in 2007 after a highly successful 27-year run, said the school still gains overall by keeping football because of the additional students who come to UD for the chance to extend their careers.
“There were something like 17 new football programs in the NCAA last year, so that would tell you adding the sport sure is a plus from that standpoint,” Kelly said. “It’s a pretty good investment. It also brings life to the institution in the fall and gives people something to rally around.”
While the Flyers haven’t been a huge draw for local sports fans, they do have a loyal following. They drew 5,153 fans at 11,000-seat Welcome Stadium for the Duquesne game last week after averaging 4,443 per game for the five seasons from 2004-08. But unlike men’s basketball, they seldom attract many students.
“Personally, I think UD needs to make a commitment to play opposite of Ohio State,” Northmont High School football coach Lance Schneider said. “If Ohio State has a day game, they should play at night or Thursday to make the program more marketable to people in the area. If they go head-to-head against Ohio State, people aren’t going to watch them play.”
Northmont has sent several players to UD over the years, including one of the team’s top receivers this season, Justin Watkins. But Schneider pointed out that the Flyers are facing more competition than ever for talent.
“It’s a great program,” he said. “They’re very selective in who they recruit. They’re looking for kids with over a 3.2 GPA and a 25 ACT. They’re real selective, but I think that helps them be as competitive as they are as a program. They’re getting smart kids who can play football.
“But they’re going after the same kids Findlay and Urbana and other Division II (scholarship) schools are going after, and they’re going to have to be more creative in the financial packages they put together. I think it’s getting more competitive than it had been under Mike, that’s for sure. Mike could usually give kids a choice between Division I nonscholarship and Division III. Now, a lot of Division II schools are playing as good of football as UD is.”
First-class travel
The Flyers, though, have many perks for players that few of their rivals can offer. Their road trips easily match those of the top I-AA schools and perhaps even those in the Mid-American Conference. They’ll travel at least once annually on a charter jet — this year, it’s to Des Moines, Iowa, to play Drake — and they’ll also fly commercially this season to face Campbell in North Carolina.
In most seasons, they’ll play on either coast, facing Pioneer League members San Diego or Jacksonville.
“We travel like a full-scholarship program,” said junior Steve Valentino, who turned down a full ride (half for football and half for baseball) to Division II Mercyhurst to come to UD. “We stay at the nicest hotels. We have meals and flights that the nonscholarship schools just don’t do.
“The hotel we stayed at for Fordham two years ago was the one the week before the (New York) Jets stayed at. When we went to Valpo, the (New England) Patriots had stayed at the same place. They take care of us.”
UD is simply giving football the same travel experience its other sports enjoy. And while keeping the program afloat is costly, it’s not the biggest drain on the athletic department’s $17 million budget.
More than $1.5 million was spent on women’s basketball in 2007-08, while revenues were just $42,145. But gender-equity requirements assure that women’s basketball is in no danger of being axed, and Athletic Director Tim Wabler said school officials are wholeheartedly committed to maintaining a football program.
When men’s basketball reached its nadir in the early 1990s and the other sports at UD were slogging along, football was the one program playing at a championship level.
“First of all, when you look at the tradition of football here at the institution, that is really a Saturday event,” Wabler said. “And you look at the young men who have come through the program over the years, they’ve represented the university well. ... There’s a sense of pride in the athletic department for what they’ve accomplished over the years.”
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2125 or
dharris@DaytonDailyNews.com.
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