Projo Sports Blog

By MIKE SZOSTAK
Journal Sports Writer

Northeastern University's decision to drop varsity football means that the University of Rhode Island will pick up another Colonial Athletic Association South Division opponent for the 2010 season and that coach Joe Trainer and his staff will try to recruit Northeastern players to URI for the spring semester.

The South has been the stronger of the two divisions in recent years. Richmond is the 2008 national champion at the Football Championship Subdivision level and is returning to the playoffs this season with Villanova and William & Mary. New Hampshire is also in the playoffs.

Northeastern announced Monday that it is discontinuing football. The Huskies' 33-27 victory over URI Saturday was the program finale. Northeastern cited "significant obstacles" as a primary reason to discontinue the program that started in 1933.

"I'm sure it was certainly a very difficult decision for Northeastern to make. After going through sports cuts ourselves, the guys on that team are having a very difficult time accepting that decision. I wish them well," URI athletics director Thorr Bjorn said Monday.

The move leaves the Colonial Athletic Association with 11 teams, five in the North Division, and raises questions as to the future of the league. Old Dominion University of Norfolk, Va., a CAA member in other sports, started football this season and will join the league in 2011. Georgia State of Atlanta, another CAA member, will launch its football program in 2010 and join the CAA in 2012. The addition of those programs will require a conference re-alignment at some point.

CAA Commissioner Tom Yeager said Monday that the league's athletics directors will begin discussing long-range planning during a conference call Tuesday. The more pressing challenge is the 2010 schedule. Northeastern's decision leaves North Division rivals URI, UMass, UNH, Maine and Hofstra plus three South Division teams with an open date for the 2010 season. The league has already distributed a revised schedule.

Northeastern players will be able to transfer and play in 2010 because the NCAA and CAA have waived the requirement that transfers sit out a year. Trainer already has his eye on a couple of 2009 Huskies who would look good as 2010 Rams.

"We'll scour the tape and not pass on anyone who can help us," he said Monday afternoon. And the help will have to be next year, not two or three years from now.

Unlike the courtship that occurs in high-school recruiting, this will be speed recruiting because, as Trainer put it, "I got to believe that 95 percent of those kids will transfer for the spring semester."

CAA coaches in the North Division are already familiar with the Northeastern players either from the recruiting trail or from playing against them.

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 Tags  college sports URI

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