UCSD Tritons Football
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UCSD Football: Still Undefeated?

One of the most common things I hear from people coming to UCSD for the first time is, "why don't you guys have a football team?" To poke fun at the fact that UCSD does not have a football team, the UCSD Bookstore even sells a shirt that says "UCSD Football... Still Undefeated". Nearby schools field teams: San Diego State has a Division I-A program, and the University of San Diego has a I-AA non-scholarship team. So why doesn't UCSD?

What most people don't know is that UCSD did field a football team for one season, in the fall of 1968. And contrary to the shirt's slogan, UCSD is actually winless. That first season went a little something like this:

The 1968 Season: Still Winless

Date Opponent Score
  @ Cal Western1 L 7-34
  Loyola2 L 14-34
  @ St. Marys L 13-27
  La Verne L 6-41
  Cal Western1 L 7-34
  @ Nevada Southern3 L 6-27
  @ Cal Tech4 L 31-34

NOTE: I'm still trying to verify some of these scores and dates. If you have any of the missing information, send it on in!

  1. School became US International, now Alliant International; intercollegiate sports programs defunct
  2. School is now Loyola Marymount
  3. School is now UNLV
  4. Cal Tech's first win in over four years

What Happened After 1968?

After that first season, Triton players started asking for benefits. Athletes at other schools had things like scholarships, physical education majors and preferential class scheduling; why couldn't they? But the administration and student government would have none of it, and after several players were drafted (to Vietnam, not the NFL), the team folded before practice even began for the 1969 season.

College Football in California: A Sad Story

UCSD was not alone in folding its football team. Many colleges in California fielded teams at one time or another but had to close up shop:

School Last Year of Football Division Reason for Dropping
UC San Diego 1968
San Francisco 1971
UC Riverside 1974 II
Cal Tech 1976 III
Cal State L.A. 1977 I
US International 1979
Cal Poly Pomona 1982 II
Long Beach State 1991 I-A
Cal State Fullerton 1992 I-A
UC Santa Barbara 1992 III
Santa Clara 1992 I-AA
Cal State Hayward 1993 III
San Francisco State 1994 II
Pacific 1995 I-A
Sonoma State 1996 II
Chico State 1996 II

UCSD Football since 1968

Students have tried to reinstate the football program at UCSD several times since 1968. In the mid-90's, the issue even made it on to the ballot and was narrowly defeated [still trying to verify this]. In 1998, a club football team was formed and played some of the junior colleges in the San Diego area.

How Much Would it Cost to Restart Football at UCSD?

Ah, the million dollar question. Literally. The costs associated with starting a team could vary depending on what facilities need to be constructed, but based on what other schools have done recently, a $1,000,000 per year budget is not unreasonable. For the first season, equipment such as sleds, goal posts, pads, helmets, etc., would also need to be purchased, which would result in an additional start-up cost. After the initial one-time costs, the largest expenses would be coaching salaries and travel. If UCSD implements athletic scholarships at some point in the future, this will be an additional cost.

$1,000,000 per year is no small sum, but when the numbers are crunched, it breaks down to a student fee increase of around $20 per quarter per undergraduate. This figure includes funding for the 2-3 new women's teams that would need to be created (see Title IX, below). As with other UCSD sports, students would receive free admission to games. When compared to the cost of a ticket to any big-time division I-A program or NFL game, $60 for a whole season of football is a steal.

Title IX

Title IX requires equal opportunities for men and women. Generally, schools meet this requirement by having an equal number of spots available for men and women. If UCSD were to add a 80-man football team, 80 new spots for women athletes would need to be created. This would likely occur by creating two or three new women's teams. Most likely, UCSD would add women's golf, lacrosse, and perhaps women's gymnastics. The other option is a very bad one -- eliminating existing men's teams in order to make the gender numbers match.

Where Would We Play?

UCSD does not have currently a facility suitable for football. A team would have two options: use a field at a nearby high school or community college; or build one. If UCSD were to construct a field, the RIMAC fields would be the most obvious choice. The concrete bleachers on the west side of the fields could be expanded to seat more fans, and metal bleachers could be placed on the east side of the field to give it more of a stadium feel. The soccer teams would have to relocate to a new field elsewhere on campus, or perhaps to another area of the RIMAC fields.

A football team could also possibly play in the Triton Track & Field stadium. Mesa College, City College and Miramar College all have football teams and facilities that the Tritons could use also, though Triton football games would have to work around the schedules of these programs.

Who Would We Play?

Scheduling will be a problem, especially for Division II UCSD, given the number of schools that have dropped their football programs in recent years. There is only one Division II program in the entire state -- the Humboldt State Lumberjacks, whose home field is about 800 miles north of La Jolla. NCAA regulations require that a majority of games be played against Division II opponents; in a 12-game season, UCSD would need to find 6 other opponents to play. This would result in increased travel costs for the team if four of these games are played on the road. UCSD could choose its other five opponents from other divisions and the NAIA. A potential schedule for the Tritons might look like:

20XX UCSD Triton Football Schedule

Date Opponent Division
9/2 @ Azusa Pacific NAIA
9/9 Redlands III
9/16 @ Western Washington II
9/23 Mesa State (CO) II
9/30 @ UC Davis I-AA
10/7 Humboldt State II
10/14 New Mexico Highlands II
10/28 @ Chapman III
11/4 Western Oregon II
11/11 @ Central Washington II
11/18 @ Cal Poly I-AA
11/25 @ Univ. of San Diego I-AA

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