Eastern Washington reached the FCS National Championship in 2018 and won the darn thing in 2010, making EWU the third-most recent program to win a title at that level.
Which is why alarms sounded Friday when a report emerged that the school is considering dropping down a level or cutting athletics entirely. If football can’t survive at the FCS level at EWU, what hope was there for anyone else outside of North Dakota State?
Turns out, it’s not on the chopping block and never was.
The report was authored by faculty members, apparently disgruntled at budget cuts and looking to blame athletics and football in particular for said cuts.
“There are no plans at EWU to cut our football program or change our athletic division level,” the school’s official Twitter account replied to a tweet from sports business reporter Kristi Dosh
There are no plans at EWU to cut our football program or change our athletic division level.
— EWU (@EWUEagles) February 15, 2020
While cutting football may be on the agenda for some EWU faculty, those views don’t apply to EWU as a whole. Everyone else with a vested interest in the success of football at all programs below EWU on the totem pole can now breathe a sigh of relief.