UNC Charlotte chancellor recommends adding football

In a presentationSept. 18to the University’s Board of Trustees, UNC Charlotte Chancellor Philip L. Dubois recommended the University should start a football program and field a team by 2013.

The trustees took the chancellor’s recommendation under advisement. They will make the final decision whether or not to accept the recommendation, and the decision likely will come in November.

The chancellor’s recommendation comes after 21 months of deliberation and research by a football feasibility committee, Dubois and others at the University. Dubois has given several previous reports to the trustees on the issue of whether to add football to the University’s roster of athletic programs.

In his presentation, Dubois said he felt the time was right for football at UNC Charlotte because it helps foster a full university experience that many students crave in their undergraduate careers and could help build even closer relationships with the greater Charlotte community. The University is expected to have 35,000 students by 2020.

Dubois said the issue was not really about whether UNC Charlotte will play football in 2013. Instead, “this should be a question of where UNC Charlotte wants to be 20 years after 2013.”

The soonest the trustees are expected to make a final decision would be at the board’s Nov. 13 meeting. If football is approved, the most likely scenario would have UNC Charlotte fielding its first team in the fall of 2013.

For the chancellor’s complete address go to: www.publicrelations.uncc.edu/resources/pdfs/FootballStatement_BOTMeeting.pdf.