Fordham SportsNet

In an exclusive interview with Fordham SportsNet, Tom Masella talks about Fordham's recent decision to award football scholarships. (fordhamsports.com)

BY CHARLES COSTELLO

It was the biggest development in Fordham Athletics since the university joined the Atlantic 10 Conference in December of 1994.

On June 5, 2009, Fr. Joseph McShane, president of Fordham University, announced that the school would begin awarding football scholarships in the fall of 2010. Fordham last awarded football scholarships in 1954. The decision to award scholarships was the result of years of study by the administration, and included prolonged negotiations with the Patriot League and its member schools. Head coach Tom Masella couldn’t be happier with the decision.

“You have to be extremely excited,” Masella told Fordham SportsNet in an exclusive interview. “To have athletic scholarships or athletic merit – as opposed to need-based scholarships – you can just attract a different type of student-athlete. And now you don’t have to limit your pool of players to kids with need. You can find the best football players who are admissible to Fordham and go try to get them to attend Fordham University and play football here. It opens up another avenue of players that we wouldn’t be able to even get in the game with. We’re excited. I think we’ll be a better football program for it.”

Masella said the move to scholarships was necessary given recent rule changes in the Patriot League that negatively impacted Fordham. It was a move he consistently promoted in conversations with the university’s administration.

“The rules in the Patriot League changed as far as how we were able to recruit last year and it was not favorable to Fordham University,” Masella said. “I expressed my concerns to our administration quite often, and kept on expressing that scholarships for us is the way to go because we were already spending the money and we would get a better football player, a better student, and excite the people who care about Fordham football. To me it was a no-brainer, but our administration listened to my concerns and the way I looked at it and they took the ball and ran with it. I thank Fr. McShane, [Vice President for Student Affairs] Jeff Gray, [Executive Director of Athletics] Frank McLaughlin, and [Director of Athletic Administration] Charlie Elwood because they listened. They listened and saw how the new rules in the Patriot League would affect us.

“[Awarding] scholarships makes the most sense for Fordham University,” Masella continued. “There was no negative impact in anything we do by [offering] scholarships. Everything was positive. We’ve talked since I’ve been here – or after the first year – about what was best for our football program. When the rules changed as far as the academic index and the banning in the Patriot League I expressed my concerns about how it affected us. It affected us much more negatively than it affected any other school. It affected all the other schools in a positive manner. It limited our pool of recruits. Our administration saw that and took action.”

Awarding scholarships will not cost the university any additional money. Instead, money currently allocated for need-based scholarships will be reallocated for athletic scholarships. Masella saw this as a win-win for the university and for his program.

“The great thing is it doesn’t cost us a penny more than what we’re already spending,” the head coach said. “We’re already in compliance with Title IX. It didn’t change the way we’re funded and it didn’t affect us as far as compliance with Title IX. Those are the two biggest issues for us and it didn’t have an impact on us. This was just a very good decision for us.”

And it was a decision that was years in the making. Along with Fordham’s administration studying every issue and aftereffect of moving to scholarships, the university also had to negotiate with the Patriot League, a league that does not award football scholarships. As a result, the Patriot League and Fordham reached the following agreement as described in separate press releases issued by the league and university back in June when the decision was announced: Fordham will remain as an associate member of the Patriot League. The Rams will be eligible for the league title and an automatic playoff berth for the 2009 season. While the Rams will be included in the league schedule through 2012, they will not be eligible for the Patriot League championship beginning with the 2010 season, and games against Patriot League members will not count in the league standings. Though the Rams will not be eligible for an automatic playoff bid beginning in 2010, the number of NCAA Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) playoff bids will increase from 16 to 20 that year, with 10 automatic bids and 10 at-large bids. In addition, Fordham’s football players will not be eligible for regular season or end-of-year league awards and will not be included in league statistics and records. Still, Masella believes that being a member of the Patriot League, even with the negotiated restrictions, is better than being an independent.

“To be an independent is not the way to go,” he said. “Yes we had to make some concessions and compromises with the Patriot League. I thought Jeff Gray and Frank McLaughlin did a great job in coming to an agreement with the Patriot League. We don’t want to be an independent. We like our association with the Patriot League. Obviously we’d like to win a title down the road in the Patriot League. That remains to be seen how it all unfolds in the next three years. The short term is we have a schedule. We have our alliance with the Patriot League. It’s a good association. We can’t win a league title. Fine. But we can still go to the national playoffs, and we have a better chance of going in as a member of the Patriot League than we would as an independent. And we still have scheduling. All that was positive. I think the only negative out of the compromise is that our kids cannot win league honors. I was disappointed with that, but that was part of the compromise that Fordham and the Patriot League made.”

In the meantime, the Patriot League is having internal discussions about awarding football scholarships and a decision is expected by 2010. Patriot League members offer scholarships in the league’s other 22 sports. The ongoing talks will affect Fordham’s future in the league, but for now Masella is focusing on the positives of the move.

“They’re looking at scholarships and decisions will be made by the winter of 2010,” he said. “Things will be in place if we want to continue our association or if the Patriot League wants to continue our association.

“Right now we’re in the Patriot League. There’s nothing negative that has come out of us going to scholarships. Nothing for Fordham University that you can look upon and say we shouldn’t have gone scholarships. I think our program is going to be better for it as we move forward.”

One of the advantages of awarding scholarships is the ability to schedule games against NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) schools, formerly known as 1-A schools. Fordham has games scheduled with Connecticut in 2011, Navy and Villanova (an FCS school) in 2012, and Army in 2014 and 2015.

“I think it’s great for our players,” Masella said about playing FBS schools. “I’ve coached at every level. When I was at Louisiana Tech we played all the big boys and we had success. Players always like to play up. They love the challenge of playing up. It’s great for us. It brings revenue into our program but it also brings exposure to our program. It helps us in recruiting. Statistically you’re not going to have great success in those games, but it’s a long season and the impact of playing in that game and possibly every once in a while winning one of those games is just tremendous for our players and our program, and I think it excites our alumni. It’s a great thing. Everybody in 1-AA football (FCS) is doing it and everyone should because you can generate some revenue, you can get some exposure, it helps with recruiting, and the players love the challenge.”

Fordham will continue to abide by the Patriot League’s academic and eligibility requirements, and standards will remain high with regard to the type of student-athlete the school looks to bring aboard.

“Hopefully we’ll coach a better athlete in time, but we have some great athletes here right now that are scholarship players because that’s the way we’ve set up our recruiting. I don’t think it changes. We’re going to recruit student athletes who are going to get a great education. Hopefully we’re not going to make mistakes with character. We’ve brought in kids with character. Going scholarship opens up the pool of student athletes for us. It doesn’t change our philosophy. It just gives us a bigger pool to choose from.”

A winning scenario for coach, player, and university.

Note: Patriot League press release from June 13, 2008 announcing academic index changes.

(Charles Costello can be reached at charlescostello@optonline.net)

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