Beat writer Ken Sugiura outlines why five Georgia schools decided to add football.
1. Berry
The liberal-arts college in Rome is using football to balance its enrollment and improve the social climate on campus. The school was 33 percent male in 2012-13. This year’s freshman class, bolstered by about 100 prospective football players for a team that begins play in September, was 45 percent male. The school also wanted to compete against the members of the newly formed Southern Athletic Association, a Division III conference that includes Sewanee and Oglethorpe.
2. Georgia State
The most prominent team to recently begin play was the product of a university trying to shake its past as a commuter school and develop a traditional college campus. It was thought that football could become the school’s face and enhance its profile. The Panthers first took the field in 2010, have a three-year record of 10-23, have a new coach, Trent Miles, and have moved up to FBS and the Sun Belt Conference.
3. Kennesaw State
Founded as a junior college in 1963, Kennesaw State has followed the rocketing growth of Cobb County and has become the third-largest university in Georgia, with more than 24,600 students. Fielding a football team was part of the progression as the school has built dormitories and sought to improve campus life. School officials also hope football will bring recognition. The Owls are scheduled to begin play in 2015.
4. Mercer
The Macon school once offered football — it played Georgia in the first intercollegiate game in the state, and was Georgia Tech’s first opponent — but gave it up in 1941. The school’s trustees voted in 2010 to bring it back, beginning play this year, to increase exposure and draw students. Led by former Furman coach Bobby Lamb, the Bears will play in the FCS non-scholarship Pioneer Football League for this season before moving to the Southern Conference in 2014-15.
5. Shorter
The Rome school fielded its first football team in 2005, a move that has played a considerable role in the undergraduate enrollment growing from around 850 to 1,500. The school has become an NAIA powerhouse in a number of sports and is in the process of moving to NCAA Division II. Not surprisingly, Shorter has been seen as something of a template for a number of schools that have added football since then.
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