By Chris Estrada

With the revelation that Athletics Director Peter Roby is considering restructuring Northeastern athletics and making potential program cuts, new fuel has been added to rumors that the football program would be the first to go.

Although nothing has been confirmed yet, these rumors stretch back several years. Some students even said they weren’t worried or didn’t care about the potential loss, or if the university’s reputation would be harmed by it.

Junior computer science major Lee Fogle admitted to not caring about the team, but did say that a piece of the social fabric on campus would be missing, especially among younger students.

“Probably freshman and sophomore year, the team plays a pretty big role in the social life as far as meeting people goes,” he said.

Senior political science major Leif Nordberg, disagreed. Nordberg said he thinks the football program has had a disconnect from campus, basing that point around the Huskies’ off-campus home of Parsons Field in Brookline.

“I think the social aspect of it is that people like to go to the hockey games because you can chill and go on campus,” Nordberg said. “But with the football team, not many people know where the football field is and take the trouble to go out there.”

But not all feel that playing off campus at Parsons Field hurts the team. Sophomore psychology major Melissa Sinclair said what matters is whether or not the student body supports the team, not where they play.

“College football is a right of passage for any student to be able to cheer on their home team,” she said. “I think, honestly, they’d go to hockey games more, but I think that might have to do with the football team not winning.”

Nordberg questioned whether the football team’s reputation warranted funding.

“The football team has been almost considered more of a joke,” he said. “And though they may get some revenue when they play larger schools, with revenue sharing, I wonder how much it brings in. I know a lot of kids that say it’s a complete waste of money, equipment and coaching.”

A feeling of disconnect between the program and the campus was similarly reflected in the comments of Elizabeth Stenger, a junior theatre major.

“It should be [a sport] that people want to go to because it’s such a social activity, but I don’t see a whole lot of people getting into it very much,” Stenger said.

When asked if the university as a whole would notice the loss of football, Stenger said there would be an upset group of people, but that the majority of students would “get over it.”

“I don’t think it would be devastating,” she said.

As far as a loss of school prestige, sophomore psychology major Ryan Fitzpatrick said he didn’t expect any adverse effects on the school’s standing if the program was cut.

“I think if football was taken off the Northeastern campus that it’s not going to change the number of students that apply,” he said.