Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (SIUE) is not planning to add football according to recent statements made by athletic director Andrew Gavin. “Any future of football at SIUE? I can’t speak on forever. That’s not currently a discussion point for us,” Gavin said. SIUE has never fielded a varsity football program but does sponsor a club football team, which began competing in 2005.
The answer from Gavin is similar to the one given by the previous athletic director Tim Hall in 2019. Hall stated, “We didn’t talk about it during the interview process, but in the near term, even a decade, I can’t see it happening.” Going back to 2009, the answer was clear when then-athletic director Brad Hewitt was quoted as saying, “I get asked that almost on a daily basis. With the staggering number, it doesn’t make sense to start up a football program. It’s a big expense and commitment, and unless there’s a significantly wealthy alumnus who wants that to be his mark, I don’t see it ever happening.”
The Cougars are the latest school to be linked to a potential football program. In November 2022, students at the University of New Orleans voted against a football program. In April 2023, students at UT Arlington voted to approve a non-binding referendum that would increase the athletics fee and potentially bring back football. That was only one small (non-binding) step in a long road that has seen no further action since the referendum.
In September 2023, Chicago State announced it was seeking to raise $4 million to start an FCS football program. The proposed timeline had a tentative start of 2025 for the football program but no additional updates have been provided. Fear The FCS reached out to Chicago State for an update but no reply has been received as of publication. A month later in October 2023, Xavier announced it would not be starting a football program in the near term as the school wanted to focus on building the College of Medicine facility. In March 2024, UTRGV announced its football program will compete in the Southland in its inaugural season in 2025.
SIUE is a member of the Ohio Valley Conference, which has a combined football conference with the Big South called the Big South-OVC Football Association. The two conferences joined football forces starting in 2023 with a four-year agreement to allow all programs access to the FCS Playoffs via the automatic bid. The agreement was altered earlier in 2024 allowing the conferences to extend the deal through the 2030 season.
Even if SIUE committed the financial resources to start a football program, there’s no certainty it would remain in the OVC or join the Big South-OVC in football due to the ongoing governance changes within the NCAA. It’s difficult enough to start a football program when the costs can be estimated but it becomes next to impossible when the sand shifts and a school doesn’t know when it will stop or where they will end up.
In 2024, the Big South-OVC will have 9 programs competing: Charleston Southern (Big South), Eastern Illinois (OVC), Gardner-Webb (Big South), Lindenwood (OVC), Southeast Missouri State (OVC), Tennessee Martin (OVC), Tennessee State (OVC), Tennessee Tech (OVC), and Western Illinois (OVC). Lindenwood is not eligible for the AQ bid until the 2026 season due to its reclassification from NCAA Division II to Division I.
Photo Credit to Wikimedia Commons / Tyler Warren
