Indiana Football Should Revert to a Club Sport

Austin Thomas, a native of Woodstock, Ga and Sequoyah High School, is a Senior Safety on the Indiana University Football Team. He's done very well for a program that has been dismal for the past couple of decades. Last year, Thomas led the Hoosiers in interceptions with 2. He leads the Hoosiers with 202 tackles since the start of the 2006 season and is second with 121 solos behind Sr. LB Will Patterson, who has 127. Thomas collected 10 stops, five solo, picked off a pair off passes and netted one pass breakup in the team's win over No. 22 Northwestern.

All that having been said, Indiana had yet another down year in 2008. They lost to Ball St., out of the Mid American Conference, by a score of 42-20. They lost to another MAC opponent, Central Michigan, by a score of 37-34. Against fellow Big 10 opponents, they got clobbered by scores of 55-13 (Illinois), 45-9 (Iowa), 62-10 (Purdue) and 34-7 (Penn St.) and finished 3-8 overall and 1-6 in the Big 10. I cant remember when they last had a winning season. The last really good quarterback they had was Antoine Randall El, who plays mostly Wide Receiver in the NFL and has never played QB in the League. His Senior Year, the Hoosiers went 5-6 and almost had a winning season and bowl eligibility.

I think the last time Indiana had a winning season was 1988 when Dave Schnell was the starting quarterback. Do y'all remember Dave Schnell? I was a Sophomore in High School that year. Michigan St. won the Big Ten Title that year and defeated the Rodney Pete-led USC Trojans in the Rose Bowl. Indiana went to the Peach Bowl in Atlanta and lost to Tennessee in the old Atlanta Fulton County Stadium. Bill Mallory was the Hoosiers coach back then.

If the University of Texas can have a top 10 basketball program (both Men's and Women's) in a football-crazy state, why cant Indiana have at least a decent football team in a basketball-crazy state. I know that Vanderbilt was in the desert for 26 years. Last year, they finally had their first winning season since 1983. Yes, Al Michaels, we do believe in miracles.

If the Hoosiers continue their woeful football ways, perhaps it may be time to become a club sport. They won't have to play any more brutal Big Ten opponents. They cant even beat the so-called "small schools". Two years ago, they even lost to Div. l-AA Southern Illinois.

IU needs to improve its Football facilities if it wants to compete with the MAC, let alone opponents in their own conference. They haven't been consistently competitive since the days of Randall El. If the current trend continues, then it's time for the IU administration to mandate that the football team "go clubbin."