College club football

[BrendanP]

I couldn't find anything online, and nobody in my circle seemed to know anything about this, but I had thought about seeing if I could possibly break into college club football to get as many snaps as I can. Any idea if this is as selective as real college football or something that a guy like me could possibly do on the side?

[GAHSUMPIRE]

I did both college club and "semi-pro" games through a guy in my HS Association.

I hated it, and won't do them again. The money was not worth the abuse.

I assume there are other clubs and leagues that may be different, but playing football was not their primary concern.

[TampaSteve]

Ditto

[stevestod]

 
I did both college club (3 years) and semi-pro (8 years).  I found the club football competitive and fun.  The semi-pro is nothing more than adult baby sitting!

[yarnnelg]

Our Florida Semi Pro league dumped the silliness of the NFL mantra " Thou shalt not throw a USC on the Head Coach. They also dumped the abuse from players. Trying to get families in the stands. It worked well. Profanity took a nose dive.

I did get conned into working the Tampa Bay Firefighters and Police Vs. The LA Firefighters and Police. Tampa Bay got their hats handed to them and were the biggest bunch of cry babies imaginable.

Late 4th quarter, a Clearwater Cop asks "We're pretty bad aren't we?"
My reply..."LA has had a team for years, you guys just need to work out more. My concern is all the local Cops hiding in wait for the zebras."
The Cop says " Man, we are so beat up, we won't wait for anyone, you're safe."

[BrendanP]

I put some more research into it, and it seems that they're mostly varsity high school guys around here. I can also say that at many schools around here it seems to have had a big following. Oakland University, about a half hour north of here, fielded a club football team after students complained year in and year out about not having a team. Apparently many schools that are big enough to be in D-II have to have club football because a varsity, NCAA-sanctioned team would put them in violation of Title IX because they'd then have more men's teams than women's teams. The result is that some of these schools have a huge student following and put plenty of money into good equipment and coaches.

It seems like it might be a good way to get a feel for what college football would be like.

[GAHSUMPIRE]

It seems like it might be a good way to get a feel for what college football would be like.

My experience was nothing like football- college or otherwise, but I wish you luck, and hope your experience is better than mine.

[Matt]

BrendanP
Are you talking about Oakland University in Michigan? If so, supposedly the reason they don't have a football team is that when Matilda Dodge donated all the property for the school she specified they could not have a football team. Seems that she hated the sport.

[scrounge]

I've actually heard quite good things from buddies that do the more-organized NCFA club football, which includes teams like Oakland, UM-Flint, Ohio St, etc. They've said that it's often kids that could have gone on to DIII but for non-football reasons wanted to go to a larger or different school, depending on the situation. While they aren't officially sponsored by the school as an NCAA sport, they still fall under school jurisdiction as an approved student club and all the associated bureaucracy.

Non-affiliated/independent clubs or adult? Keep it.

[BrendanP]

BrendanP
Are you talking about Oakland University in Michigan? If so, supposedly the reason they don't have a football team is that when Matilda Dodge donated all the property for the school she specified they could not have a football team. Seems that she hated the sport.

If that's the case then the OU administration won't admit it. A grad student friend of mine here at UM Ann Arbor who did his undergrad at Oakland said it's an urban legend and that because Title IX requires the same number of women's programs as men's that they'd have to axe a men's team to come into compliance if they were going to have an NCAA football team. I have other issues with Title IX interpretation that aren't sports-related, but that's beside the point.

[VALJ]

I worked two club games for a school not too far from here, and other than the fact that they couldn't get the games started on time, had no more problems than high school. The visiting team's bus got held up in Maryland and they didn't get to the field until half an hour after we were supposed to start, but nothing we could do about that.

[SJ3205]

Anyone truly looking to break into college football first needs to take steps to become as good as possible at the level you already working. You should also be able to find an NCAA study group this winter. Get yourself into the best physical condition as possible also. Once those things have been taken care of you may be able to work your way into spring practices or even pre season scrimmages (or at least observe them at field level) if you have established contacts. Beware that working scrimmages before you are ready is a good way to burn your chances.