There are "precious few fans" who care about FAU football, as the school's "build-it-and-they-will-come strategy hasn't worked as hoped," according to Jeff Ostrowski of the PALM BEACH POST. Former football coach Howard Schnellenberger "persuaded FAU in the late 1990s to launch a football program, and the team began play" in '01. The idea was to "use gridiron glory to put FAU on the academic map." Instead, FAU has "failed to post a winning record" since '08, and the school's "outsized investment in the football program has begun to spur grumbling on campus." Even some supporters "have soured on the team." But despite the "desultory results on the field and at the turnstiles, FAU is doubling down on its bet." The school this month announced plans for a $50M sports complex "that would be devoted largely to an indoor practice field." FAU President John Kelly said that the "goal is simple: Win football games, and 'more high-quality students' will attend FAU, a school that hasn't been especially selective about the students it admits." After 14 seasons of football, FAU has "appeared on the national stage only briefly," as the team "won low-profile bowl games" in '07 and '08. But since '08, FAU "is winless in 15 tries against Alabama, Auburn, Nebraska, Texas and other big-time schools." FAU's official attendance in '13 was 14,552 per game, but "nearly everyone agrees that the official stats far overstate the actual attendance." FAU's football revenue of $8.4M in '13 ranked 80th among schools "with big-time football," and as the school "forges ahead, skeptics wonder whether it's the wisest use of the university's scarce resources" (PALM BEACH POST, 12/14).
