Barton College, a Division II program located in North Carolina, made the decision over the weekend that football would be making a return to the college campus.
Saturday, the board "made the bold, unanimous decision to approve a football program for the Barton campus," the release notes.
No timetable was specified for the return, but the release from the school notes that Barton is creating an implementation team that will include faculty, staff, and student leaders on campus that will oversee the hurdles that come along with establishing a football program. That committee will ultimately decide the timeline, conference affiliation, coaches, schedule, and everything else that goes into rolling out a new football program.
Finding a league to play in shouldn't be an issue. As it sits right now, there are currently twelve other football-playing Division II colleges in the state of North Carolina, including; Catawba, Chowan, Elizabeth City State, Fayetteville State, Johnson C. Smith, Lenoir-Rhyne, Livingstone, Mars Hill, UNC-Pembroke, Saint Augstine's, Shaw, Wingate, and Winston Salem. Seven of those schools compete in the CIAA, four compete in the SAC, and one (UNC-Pembroke) is an Independent.
The last time that the school fielded a football team was back in 1950 when it was known as Atlantic Christian College and had the mascot the Little Christians. That lasted for a decade and the program was briefly brought back for five seasons back in 1946, according to the News Observer.
Read more from the official release here.
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