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Despite NCAA strife, Charlotte goes all-in on football

Dan Wolken
USA TODAY Sports
Charlotte offensive linemen work on their technique at practice last week. The team has its first-ever game Aug. 31 against Campbell.
  • Even with aura of uncertainty surrounding college sports%2C 49ers jump into football in big way
  • Team will start play this year as FCS independent but will join Conference USA and FBS in 2015
  • Opening game Aug. 31 vs. Campbell culmination of three-year journey

CHARLOTTE — With the constant upheaval of realignment, the widening financial gap between the haves and have-nots, the threat of watershed lawsuits against the NCAA and talk of massive restructuring in Division I, these are among the most uncertain times in the history of college athletics.

Though conditions are never perfect to launch a football program from scratch, Charlotte 49ers athletics director Judy Rose has seen an ominous divide in college athletics looming for awhile. So for Charlotte, whose football venture comes alive Aug. 31, it didn't matter whether the time was right to make a ridiculously ambitious leap from startup to the Football Bowl Subdivision. The issue was whether Charlotte had been too late to the party.

"I wish we'd done it years ago," Rose said last week. "My whole reason for wanting football was more for security and protection for the rest of our athletic program. I kind of thought what has happened was going to happen."

As the money flowing from college football grows exponentially in the coming years — even the realignment-ravaged Sun Belt will see unprecedented returns from the College Football Playoff — more and more schools want in on the action. By 2015, FBS will have 129 members, many of which have stretched resources to compete with the desperate hope they'll cling to the power conferences in any major NCAA governance shift, or in the most extreme scenario, a breakaway from the NCAA.

Should there be a separation within Division I, it's uncertain whether Charlotte would fall on the right side of the line. But without football, Rose didn't see much of a chance, which is why a school whose signature athletics accomplishment is an appearance in the 1977 Final Four has embarked on a fast-track plan from program inception to Conference USA in a span of three years.

"It has been a challenge, there's no question, but I do think it was a necessity," Rose said. "We've had a very strong athletic program here, but without football you're not viewed as a total athletic program."

Just to get to this point, with an opener against Campbell now weeks away, the time line has been dizzying.

Head coach Brad Lambert, with defensive back Ardy Holmes at practice, was hired in 2011 after 10 seasons as an assistant at Wake Forest.

After the final hurdle to creating a football program was cleared by the school's Board of Trustees in early August 2010, construction on a stadium and football training facility began eight months later. In May 2012, the school accepted an invitation to join Conference USA, giving new coach Brad Lambert a definitive schedule to move from the 63-scholarship Football Championship Subdivision to the 85-scholarship FBS.

So while Charlotte will play exclusively lower-level teams such as Gardner-Webb, Chowan and Wesley College (Del.) this season, the 49ers will be in the same league as Southern Miss, Marshall and Louisiana Tech by 2015.

Making matters even more difficult is the scholarship situation. Because Charlotte will be limited to awarding 25 scholarships per year once it reaches FBS, Charlotte is working its way up to a full roster. The 49ers will have just 55 players on scholarship this year and around 75 next year, with many of this year's and next year's freshmen likely to redshirt so the team will be older once it starts playing better competition.

"We want to establish how we're going to play this year and what we expect when we go to the games, but there's always that in the back of your mind, what do we look like in 2015?" said Lambert, who helped rebuild Wake Forest under Jim Grobe between 2001 and 2010. "That's all part of recruiting, but we have to establish how we're going to play and how we're going to work. You only get one chance to start."

Despite the inherent challenges of starting a program, especially one with such a compressed time line, this was not a scattershot operation. The stadium in the middle of campus was constructed so a second deck expanding capacity to 40,000 could essentially be built right on top of the current structure. The locker room and weight room facilities will be on the same level as the 49ers' competition in Conference USA. And the school's location in a major market and talent-rich area has helped draw players, including walk-ons who should help immediately.

The 49ers' on-campus stadium seats a little more than 15,000 and is named for Carolina Panthers owner Jerry Richardson, who donated $10 million to the football program.

In the bigger picture, Rose said the university projects to have 30,000 students by 2020, which fits the profile of a football school with a chance to move up the college athletics food chain.

"We'll probably be the largest state university in North Carolina because we have land," she said. "Had we done this years ago, I think we could have possibly had some opportunities we don't have right now. But nothing is ever stable in our industry, so if a split occurs in some shape form or fashion, are the members in that group permanent? I don't think so, and we're going to grow."

But it's also an expensive gamble. To make football happen, Charlotte needed to secure a $40.5 million stadium loan in state-issued bonds, which is being paid back through an increase in student fees, seat licenses and naming rights (Carolina Panthers owner Jerry Richardson donated $10 million).

Charlotte will also face a huge increase in its athletics budget with the general cost of football and corresponding scholarships in women's sports that must be added to comply with Title IX. Rose said the school will have a 10-year window to add as many as three women's sports, with sand volleyball, golf and swimming among those the school has studied.

Meanwhile, this year's team just wants to get on the field, especially because most of the roster went through an entire season of practice in 2012 without games to play.

"It was fun and it was new, and most of all it was frustrating," quarterback Matt Johnson said. "It's been a big challenge, but something we've handled really well. Guys were willing to set apart that year to work for something that is going to pay off for as long as this building stands."

It's impossible to say what kind of ceiling might exist for Charlotte, but even in an unstable college athletics environment the 49ers are going for it. After years of failing to pull the trigger, the plan is in place, the money has been raised and the immediate destination is clear.

Charlotte might be late to the game, but Lambert thinks the school is all-in.

"The work the administration did prior to me ever showing up, it was a good plan and once I interviewed and saw it, I was like, these guys are serious about it," he said. "There are so many variables in college football right now, but I'm excited about the future and think it's going to be a lot of fun."

Dan Wolken, a national college football reporter for USA TODAY Sports, is on Twitter @DanWolken.

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