Ohio Valley Conference

Less than six months after announcing it was exploring a return to scholarship football, Austin Peay State University has made that dream a reality.

In a Friday press conference in Nashville, Austin Peay announced it will return to scholarship football in 2006 with the plan of rejoining the Ohio Valley Conference a year later.

“This is an exciting moment in the history of athletics at APSU,” said Dr. Sherry Hoppe, Austin Peay president. “I am excited for our alums, including our former football players, and campus and community leaders who strongly believed we should be playing at the scholarship level in the OVC.

“APSU's public and internal images were diminished when scholarship football was dropped. I think it affected how students viewed this University. I see this as an investment in Austin Peay’s future.”

Austin Peay, which dropped from scholarship to non-scholarship football after the 1996 season, will leave the Pioneer Football League following the upcoming 2005 season. In 2006, APSU will transition from non-scholarship to partial-scholarship status as a I-AA independent, largely because the NCAA allows a maximum of 30 scholarship awards per season. Then in 2007, APSU plans to rejoin the OVC as a full-scholarship (60 grants) member.

After Hoppe was appointed president in January 2001, she was deluged with queries by former players, alums and supporters about the possibility of returning to scholarship football. Last October, Hoppe indicated she was exploring the University’s return to scholarship status.

“Our financial condition at that time of my hiring did not allow me to consider the possibility of returning to scholarship football,” Hoppe said “With three years of enrollment increases (this year APSU had the largest growth of any public university in Tennessee-13.5%), we are now positioned to support scholarship football.

“Even with the highest enrollment in our history, though, we knew we would find it difficult to provide the level of financial support necessary to be competitive in the OVC. Consequently, after determining how much we would need to ensure we were able to field a competitive team, we began a fund-raising campaign.”

In early December, a letter, written by Dr. Hoppe, detailed a plan to return the University to scholarship football. It was sent to former APSU players and other potential donors.

The plan stated the University, through several different sources, could fund as many as 45 scholarships at a cost of $382,000 per year plus the necessary resources for recruiting, an additional assistant coach and gender-equity compliance. However, the plan indicated the remaining 15 annual scholarships would need to come from private funds over a five-year period, totalling $150,000 per year for five years ($750,000 total).

Four months of fund-raising left the University less than $30,000 per year short of their goal. After last weekend’s Football Reunion Weekend and the resulting goodwill generated from the gathering, APSU reached its goal this week.

“Over the past few months we have contacted a large number of former football players, and the response has been tremendous,“ Hoppe said. “This past weekend more than 100 former players returned to campus and we surpassed our goal of $750,000 in pledges.”

On Dec. 11, 1996, then-APSU President Sal D. Rinella announced the University was dropping from I-AA scholarship to non-scholarship, citing a “lack of equal financial footing. When it comes to support for football, we are disadvantaged by the size of our university and funding,” said Rinella at the time.

However, going non-scholarship saw the loss of traditional rivalries, resulting in attendance reduction and subsequent drop in revenue. In addition, the expected cost savings never really materialized when scholarships were discontinued.

“Our challenge now is to continue to raise private dollars to support our football program,” Hoppe said. “With the current level of commitments, we can be competitive in the OVC. However, to move to the championship level, we will need additional funds so our fund-raising efforts will be ongoing.

“I am confident our former football and athletic supporters will commit the necessary resources to make our team the best it can be. With our excellent coaching staff, our strong community support, and our new football field turf, we have in place the basis on which to expand and strengthen our football program as we return to scholarship football in the Ohio Valley Conference.”

Austin Peay State University Football Timeline

•1930–First year of football at Austin Peay Normal School
•1933-35–Football discontinued at Austin Peay
•1936–Football returns to Austin Peay
•1942-45–No team was fielded because of World War II
•1946–First year of four-year level football
•1947–Austin Peay joins Volunteer State Athletic Conference as charter member
•1962–Membership in the Ohio Valley Conference approved
•February 1963–Austin Peay resigns from the Volunteer Athletic Conference
• Fall 1963–APSU plays first football season as member of the OVC, then a College Division conference
•1973–NCAA reorganizes into three divisions, based on scholarship allocation
•1977–Austin Peay wins its only OVC championship, under James “Boots” Donnelly
•1978–Division I football is subdivided into three sections: I-A, I-AA, I-AAA. The OVC is assigned to I-AA
•Sept. 5, 1987– Austin Peay defeats Kansas State, 26-22, in Manhattan, Kan.
•Dec. 11, 1996–APSU President Sal Rinella announces the University is dropping its scholarship football program in favor of I-AA non-scholarship competition, citing a “lack of equal financial footing. When it comes to support for football, we are disadvantaged by the size of our university and funding.” Football coach Roy Gregory is reassigned to the advancement office.
•February, 1997–Austin Peay hires Bill Schmitz as its first non-scholarship football coach
•Fall, 1997–Austin Peay plays season as an independent partial-scholarship program
•September 21, 2000–Austin Peay is admitted into the Pioneer Football League, a I-AA non-scholarship football conference
•Fall, 2001–APSU plays first season in the PFL
•November 2002–Bill Schmitz contract as APSU head football coach is not renewed
•Jan. 20, 2003–Carroll McCray is hired as Austin Peay head football coach
•October 2004–APSU President Sherry Hoppe announces that she is exploring the possibility of returning football to the scholarship level
•December 2004–Plan is outlined and fund-raising campaign begins to return Austin Peay to I-AA scholarship football level.
•April 8, 2005–Austin Peay announces it will return to scholarship football, playing its final year in the PFL in 2005; compete on a partial-scholarship basis in 2006 and rejoin the OVC in 2007.