Drexel football gets bid to join Big East
By: Tom Holzerman
Issue date: 4/2/04 Section: Sports
Taking advantage of the disintegration of Big East football, Drexel intramural football all-stars have seceded from the University and joined Louisville, South Florida and Cincinnati as a new addition to the conference's football roster. The Dragons will begin play in the 2004 season, a year before the other schools are slated to join. Home games will be played on Buckley Green, and the team has scheduled an ambitious non-conference schedule that includes defending BCS National Champion Louisiana State.
"This friggin' rocks," team captain and long snapper Mark Gress Jr. said. "I can't wait to bang heads with the LSU and Miami. I can't wait to see the looks on Nick Saban's and Larry Coker's faces when we kick their asses."
University President Constantine Papadakis was not happy with the decision by the intramurals.
"Those bastards will pay," Sir Constantine said. "How dare they use Drexel's name to garner obscene amounts of revenue. That's my job!"
However, the president's reaction was in the minority. There was much jubilation at football coming back to the University for the first time in over 30 years. In fact, people even cheered when Rich Kotite was introduced as head coach.
"We were kinda on a budget," Gress said. "We had to make payment arrangements with the Big East to pay our entrance fee on installment over the next 40 years, so we had to go cheap for our coaching staff. I mean, I'd rather have gotten a name head coach, but Rich 'The Eagles Sucked While I Coached Them But I'll Turn Out All Right' Kotite will do for now."
Even though the payment plan is unorthodox, the Big East was happy to accept Drexel.
"Hey, we just lost three big time football programs," Commissioner Mike Tranghese said. "Between you and me, I'd have let Drexel in for a bag of chips and some of those K'Nex that they use for their freshman engineering project. Besides, it's good publicity."
The Dragons' schedule looks brutal. Not only do they play LSU in Louisiana, but they also travel to Miami and welcome Virginia Tech to Buckley Green in their toughest conference games.
"It's Miami's and Virginia Tech's last year in the conference," Gress said. "They stand no chance against our team."
As of right now, West Virginia is a 34-point favorite in Drexel's season opener. However, the Dragons are 10-point favorites against Temple, even though the game is still seven months away. That spread is expected to climb as football season draws nearer.
