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President Presents Athletic Plan for D I-A Football

NCAA Has Received Athletic Department’s Letter of Intent

BOCA RATON – Florida Atlantic University took the final step in its move to Division I-A status, Monday when it submitted a formal letter of intent for reclassification of its football team from Division I-AA to Division I-A to the NCAA. The mandatory strategic plan outlining FAU’s plan for making the jump as well as a fee of $5,000 accompanied the letter.

“This is an exciting day for FAU,” said Florida Atlantic President Frank T. Brogan. “We are looking forward to a heightened level of competition for our football team and are in anticipation of kick off in September.”

During a Board of Trustees meeting earlier today, President Brogan presented the Athletic Department’s executive summary outlining the I-A strategic plan, which addresses the institution's adherence to NCAA Division I philosophy as well as the compliance principles associated with NCAA certification. The institution also plans to comply with the requirements of maintaining at least 200 full athletic scholarships and average at least 15,000 fans for each home football game. While the football attendance requirement is currently under review by the NCAA, the Athletics Department is making every effort to surpass the bench mark in an effort to meet the NCAA regulations, but also to increase the revenues and awareness of its football program. The move to I-A status will allow the football team to join the 16 FAU sports currently competing at the highest collegiate level.

"When this program was first started, it was done so with the intent to move up to Division I-A ranks quickly,” said Craig Angelos, Florida Atlantic’s director of athletics. “The fact that the ground work has been in place to allow this to happen at the beginning of the fourth full-season of competition is a tremendous tribute to Coach Howard Schnellenberger and the rest of his staff. Building a football program from scratch and taking it to this level in this amount of time is an incredible accomplishment. I really foresee that in the next five to seven years the FAU football program will be as good as any one in the country because of the institution's commitment, the resources, and especially the talent base associated in this part of the country."

Florida Atlantic’s football team finished the 2003 season with an 11-3 record and a no. 4 national ranking. The squad will return 18 starters to the line-up and will begin competition September 4 versus Hawaii. The team will also begin its affiliation with the Sun Belt Conference in 2004 and will compete for the league’s title and possibly a BCS berth in 2005.

“Even though it was a stated goal of the University, the President and the Board of Trustees wanted to insure that there was a solid business plan in place to build a winning program,” said Howard Schnellenberger, FAU’s head coach. “The President commissioned an in depth study of the cost and procedures to make the jump. Today, the Board officially and enthusiastically gave us the blessing.”