That’s right, you heard me. Has the university’s most successful athletic program succumbed to changing times, a different football climate, financial hurdles, and fan disinterest that leaves Flyer football on the way out? By out we mean out of the sporting conscience of the UD Faithful, out of the minds and interests of the community, and removed from the national fabric of small college football excellence. If Flyer football isn’t dead, perhaps it rests in a state of suspended animation, feasting off the Division-III chest-pounding national title teams while treading water in an irrelevant conference among irrelevant programs providing irrelevant competition with no carrot at the end.

No matter how you describe it, UD football cannot re-generate the past. That ship sailed once UD left D-III. The program cannot continue embrace the present either. Outside of a conference title and the biased rankings from one or two football writers jotting down an imperfect poll derived from an imperfect system, everything about the current situation screams of second-class citizenship among other I-AA schools. Just 15 years ago, Dayton cracked skulls with the likes of national powers Augustana, Mount Union, Rowan, Widener, and Wagner for D-III supremacy. The season meant something because a single blemish could knock a team out of a playoff spot. The playoffs knocked everyone else out, leaving the last team standing as the undisputed king of small-school football. It wasn’t USC vs. Notre Dame, but things were organized and the pool of programs fighting for the same thing was far greater. Today, I-AA non-scholarship football boasts around 30 schools and like any other division in college athletics, 1/3 tend to be funded to win, 1/3 funded to compete, and 1/3 funded to substantiate an extra cheerleading quad. That leaves approximately 10 teams worth keeping an eye on. The walls are closing in.

If I’ve led you to believe UD football should be axed, it’s not my intent. I also dismiss the notion that Dayton can compete at a higher level given the current conditions of the university. Money is a tailwind, but only when you have it. Title IX is a second variable that forecasts the next chess move too. Without either one working in a school’s favor, making radical football moves is almost impossible. Nonetheless, it’s a terrific case study to examine the options to get a better understanding of what Dayton football has working for and against it.

First and foremost, Flyer football has Mike Kelly, perhaps the best pigskin coach in America no one knows about. The staggering numbers speak for themselves in terms of long-term success and everyone has read enough Flyer football press releases to recount them. Riding shotgun is the tradition of Flyer football itself. Fans love a winner and for the better part of three decades fans have feasted at the trough.