You wake up on a Saturday morning, pull out your phone and open Snapchat to catch up on what you might have missed the night before. Instead of parties, you’re greeted by a 10-minute story from your friend who goes to Oregon State.
He’s been posting all morning, giving you an inside look at the tailgate party that precedes the OSU vs. University of Oregon football game being played later that day. You watch and for a brief moment you feel a bit of jealousy, wishing that Portland Pilot football was actually a thing.
But what if it was?
What if instead of checking Snapchat first thing on Saturday morning you sprang out of bed to paint your face and put on your Pilots football apparel all in preparation for the big game happening that day?
After you’re properly decked out in Pilot gear, you meet up with a group of friends and prepare for the game. And finally, after a long week of anticipation, you make your way down the hill towards the river campus, you turn a corner and there it is. Insert-donors-name-here Stadium sits overlooking the Willamette, welcoming you in for an afternoon of fun and football.
So you flash your ID card at the gate and enter the stadium. You take your seat and after a short wait the ball is kicked off and the game is underway. You are now enjoying a game of Pilots football.
What if?
This used to be a reality at the University of Portland but the football program was discontinued in 1950. Since then, intramurals have been the only source of competitive football on campus.
Maybe America’s favorite sport will never make its way back to The Bluff, but based off of the Pilots’ WCC counterparts, there is a slight glimmer of hope.
Two WCC schools currently have football programs. BYU has a rich history of football, but their team is an independent, meaning it doesn’t belong to a conference. The rest of the Cougars’ sports teams compete in the WCC.
San Diego is the other WCC school with a football program. Instead of being an independent in football, they belong to the Pioneer Football League, which is a conference in the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision. Teams like Eastern Washington and Portland State are also a part of the FCS.
Money is the biggest incentive for most schools to start a college football program at the FCS level.
Schools in the highest level of college football such as Oregon, Alabama and Ohio State often pay millions of dollars to FCS schools to come to their stadium and play them as an early season tune up. In fact, in 2014, FCS schools were paid $12.9 million to play against the top teams in the nation.
In that same year, the University of Oregon paid South Dakota, an FCS school, $525,000 to come to Eugene and play the Ducks. What resulted was a 62-13 win for U of O, but still, South Dakota walked away with a big check.
The University of Portland is located in close proximity to several schools that would be potential early season opponents such as Oregon, Oregon State, Washington and Washington State. Games against those schools would potentially be a big source of income if UP had a football program.
This is all merely speculation. The chance of UP having a football program is slim to none.
For now students will have to continue to live with the jealousy that comes with watching friends from other schools as they cheer for their football team every week.
But who knows? The UP football program ended 66 years ago, maybe it will take another 60 for it to come back. In the meantime, we’re just going to have to keep asking one question. What if?
