Only 1 non Football school has won ncaa tourney in 50 years

[Hall2012]

All that means is that when college sports turned into big business and started to get far more competitive, the large majority of the schools that cared about keeping up with that competition also play football. Hell, the large majority of schools, period, play football.

Looking at college athletics right now, how many non-football playing schools are even interested in competing at a high enough level where a basketball national championship could be a somewhat attainable goal? It's pretty much the schools in the Big East, Wichita State, an Gonzaga. That's it. We're massively outnumbered, so odds are we're not gonna win many championships. And it's not like the non-football schools haven't been competitive in basketball. There may be only the 1 NC, but there are Final Fours and plenty of very good teams.

[TheBall]

There are about 50 football playing schools that put forth a good effort in hoops, and maybe 10 or so basketball schools (primarily the big east and gonzaga).

That considered, and the fact that georgetown, nova, uconn weren't football schools when they have won, and schools like duke and kansas and kentucky and syracuse put a disproportionate amount of funding into hoops than they do football (compared to the real football schools), and the numbers aren't that skewed.

Also, it is not like 30 different teams have won in the past 30 years. Lots of repeat champs.

The proportion is about right.

[butlerguy03]

Maybe a better stat would be how many basketball national champions also had a football team reach the top 25 in football that same season or how many football national champions also had the basketball team in the sweet 16. Schools like Indiana play football at the highest level, but are not competitive like in basketball. Duke, North Carolina, Kentucky, and Kansas all probably meet that criteria. I think you'll see that stat doesn't mean that football=basketball.

[robinreed]

Georgetown has had a long football history where they have ever been everything from club football to Division III football, division II football,major college I-A football and the current I-AA Football.

But when they won the men's basketball title in 1985 the football team was only at the nonscholarship Division III level at that point in time.

http://www.hoyafootball.com/records/rec_season.htm


Villanova is also been a different levels but they actually disbanded their football program between 1981 in 1985. They didn't start playing football again after they disbanded until September 1985 and that was just a partial schedule against five Division III teams. So they actually have literally no football at all going on when they won their title in April 1985.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Villanov ... s_football

Thanks for the clarification on nova marcusee.

[mpwalsh8]

Georgetown has had a long football history where they have ever been everything from club football to Division III football, division II football,major college I-A football and the current I-AA Football.

But when they won the men's basketball title in 1985 the football team was only at the nonscholarship Division III level at that point in time.

http://www.hoyafootball.com/records/rec_season.htm


Villanova is also been a different levels but they actually disbanded their football program between 1981 in 1985. They didn't start playing football again after they disbanded until September 1985 and that was just a partial schedule against five Division III teams. So they actually have literally no football at all going on when they won their title in April 1985.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Villanov ... s_football

Thanks for the clarification on nova marcusee.

Villanova won the National Championship on April 1, 1985. It was my Junior year and the only football going on at Villanova at the time was intramurals. There was an announcement ofVU bringing football back at D1-AA (as it was called at the time) and recruiting had started but football players didn't show up in campus until the fall of 1985 for the '85-'86 school year. My recollection was there weren't many that first year because I think they didn't actually play any games other than some sort of a scrimmage on homecoming, I think games actually resumed in a limited fashion during the 86-87 school year.

[ChelseaFriar]

Yes, FCS.

http://www.butlersports.com/sports/m-footbl/index

Thanks HoosierPal. I honestly did not know that Butler still had a FCS team. I have to imagine that makes for a richer collegiate experience than not having a football team to follow and cheer for. As a XU fan I have always been disappointed that we let football slip away. I know a few XU grads from the late 70's and 80's who long for the sport's return and I admit to being one of them. However realistically it must be admitted to be a chimera. I love basketball but football rounds out the collegiate sports experience.

Eh, Not really. At least not in the Northeast. The only significant draws for schools up here are at the BCS level, such as BC and Syracuse (and they suck). Nobody cares about URI football, including their own students. Even UMass, who is attempting to get a BCS level football program going, really struggles with attendance.

And for that matter, I know many Georgetown and Villanova grads and none of them talk about following their football team or going to football games. They do all talk about their basketball programs.

Even my friends who went to Patriot League schools. Some of them went to the Lafayette/Lehigh anniversary game at Yankee Stadium this year, but that's the only game they have attended in 20 years.

Xavier football would be a waste of time and resources.

It seems the people who care about lower level football programs are older alumni getting nostalgic about an era that had less division between the football haves and have nots. This is the case at URI. They would probably drop that horrible football program that students don't care about but some influential alumni want to keep it around. They'd be better off pumping the money they lose on football into their A-10 basketball program that the school can actually rally around when they are winning.

[Piratefan]

Lets not confuse correlation with causation. F5 schools have done well in college hoops because they invest heavily in hoops. Alabama and USC have not exactly been fixtures in the final four. I am confident that a BE team will win a national championship in the next decade and multiple teams will be in the FF. I would not be shocked if Nova wins this year, especially if it is a #1 seed.

[TheBall]

Yes, FCS.

http://www.butlersports.com/sports/m-footbl/index

Thanks HoosierPal. I honestly did not know that Butler still had a FCS team. I have to imagine that makes for a richer collegiate experience than not having a football team to follow and cheer for. As a XU fan I have always been disappointed that we let football slip away. I know a few XU grads from the late 70's and 80's who long for the sport's return and I admit to being one of them. However realistically it must be admitted to be a chimera. I love basketball but football rounds out the collegiate sports experience.

Eh, Not really. At least not in the Northeast. The only significant draws for schools up here are at the BCS level, such as BC and Syracuse (and they suck). Nobody cares about URI football, including their own students. Even UMass, who is attempting to get a BCS level football program going, really struggles with attendance.

And for that matter, I know many Georgetown and Villanova grads and none of them talk about following their football team or going to football games. They do all talk about their basketball programs.

Even my friends who went to Patriot League schools. Some of them went to the Lafayette/Lehigh anniversary game at Yankee Stadium this year, but that's the only game they have attended in 20 years.

Xavier football would be a waste of time and resources.

It seems the people who care about lower level football programs are older alumni getting nostalgic about an era that had less division between the football haves and have nots. This is the case at URI. They would probably drop that horrible football program that students don't care about but some influential alumni want to keep it around. They'd be better off pumping the money they lose on football into their A-10 basketball program that the school can actually rally around when they are winning.

Exactly.

College football in the northeast is a waste of time and money. Nobody cares. The sooner Nova drops football, the better as far as I am concerned (and 99% of villanova alumni). There are some friends and family of the program that care, but it is limited.

Nova hosted 2 playoff fcs football games this year. They drew a combined 5k fans. And one of those games was against a school that "traveled well" and brought a couple thousand fans. The numbers speak for themselves. Fcs football is a huge drain on the athletic department and adds nothing.

[DeltaV]

Free advertising from the football team? How so?

I, and most Nova students, didn't even go to games when we were students, tickets were free, and the stadium was a short stumble away from our dorms. I think when UDel plays Nova, the majority of fans in the stadium are Blue Hens.

No one pays attention to it.