Should Cleveland State Have a Football Team?

• Y-Town Steelhound

  

  Do you think the Cleveland State University Vikings should field a football team? If so, which division and conference do you think would best suit it?
• Little Danny

  

  Club level maybe, BCS level no way.
• THE4RINGZ

  

  Not until they become more than a glorified community college.
• Tobias Fünke

  

  Yes. They'd fit well in the GLIAC.
• hoops23

  

  Yes they should. Great area in terms of recruiting base and already has a football field
  
  Obviously not at D1, at least not right off the bat. Maybe take the UCONN route. I could see them being FCS or DII.
• mucalum49

  

  Yes. The school is shedding its commuter school feel and adding new, less penitentiary looking buildings. The next expansion calls for a downtown baseball stadium. Where I moved to, UNC Charlotte is in the same transition from commuter school to residential and are going to start a team in 2013. It will be FCS in the same conference as App State, Richmond, etc..
  
  I say go for it.
• mucalum49

  

  hoops23;614379 wrote:Yes they should. Great area in terms of recruiting base and already has a football field
  
  Obviously not at D1, at least not right off the bat. Maybe take the UCONN route. I could see them being FCS or DII.

  I wish Cleveland State's soccer field wasn't so close to the freeway. Is it too close to add on seating for a football stadium? If not, that would be a cool place for a stadium.
• Viking

  Non-scolly like the Ivy league and Dayton. Get into the cionference with dayton.
• thedynasty1998

  

  Their only option would be to go the route of Dayton and be 1AA. They wouldn't be able to join the GLIAC and be D2 if they kept all of their other sports at the D1 level.
  
  And to answer the question, no, they don't need football. Football is a very expensive sport and for whatever reason they have chosen not to have it.
• hoops23

  

  I can't believe people are saying CSU shouldn't have a football team. Every school, if capable, should be able to field a football team.
• thedynasty1998

  

  hoops23;615853 wrote:I can't believe people are saying CSU shouldn't have a football team. Every school, if capable, should be able to field a football team.

  
  How many schools lose money based upon having football, and with Cleveland State being a state school, it's probably best that they don't.
• Sykotyk

  

  Anybody claiming CSU should start anywhere lower than D-I is an ignorant of NCAA protocol. CSU is a D-I school, any football team they get (other than club level which is absurdly expensive and doomed to failure) would have to play at the D-I level (and they would be forced to start in FCS no matter what, no team gets an auto pass to FBS). FIU, FAU, USF, UCONN, etc all had to start in FCS and jump up.
  
  I think CSU should get a football team. It is a starting point for recognizing the school as something more. Some sort of identity. This isn't Spokane, WA where a team with a good basketball team can become 'well known'. Cleveland has a lot going on in it. Obviously, I would suggest joining the MVC with Youngstown State as the starting point. Maybe, if the time comes, jump up to the MAC. But that is based more on fan support than ability.
• Sykotyk

  

  thedynasty1998;615875 wrote:How many schools lose money based upon having football, and with Cleveland State being a state school, it's probably best that they don't.

  
  The one unspoken part about having a football (or athletics in general) running in the red is the publicity, general good will, and some sense of identity that you just can't get with a marquee out front of the main building.