Sprint football

Sprint football, formerly called lightweight football, is a varsity sport played by United States colleges and universities, under standard American football rules. The sport is currently governed by the Collegiate Sprint Football League.

CSFL Members
SchoolJoined
Alderson Broaddus University2019
US Military Academy (Army)1957
Caldwell University2017[1]
Chestnut Hill College2015
Cornell University1937
Mansfield University2008
US Naval Academy (Navy)1946
University of Pennsylvania1934
Post University2010
St. Thomas Aquinas College2018[2]

In sprint football, players must maintain a weight of 178 lb (81 kg) or less and a minimum of 5% body fat to be eligible to play. The end result of these weight restrictions is that, unlike conventional collegiate football which places a premium on body weight and strength, sprint football emphasizes speed and agility.[3]

Competition
Navy sprint football team, Fall 1963.

As of 2019, 10 schools fielded teams in the CSFL; of the 10, seven are private universities (two being schools in the Ivy League, and one being a for-profit institution) and two are national military academies; Mansfield University of Pennsylvania is the only state university or college currently playing sprint football. All of the teams are located in the northeastern and mid-Atlantic United States. Seven schools joined in the 21st century, one in 2008 and the others in the 2010s; six remain active in sprint football today. Of these new members, only Franklin Pierce University, which joined in 2012, no longer sponsors the sport, having transitioned to full-sized football in NCAA Division II after the 2018 season.[4] Of the 21st-century arrivals, only Alderson Broaddus University, also a Division II member, has a full-size varsity football team. The other four teams (all of which have been in the CSFL since 1957) have full-size football teams that compete in NCAA Division I—the service academies in FBS, and the Ivy League schools in FCS. Each team plays a seven-game season.[5] It is not uncommon for the CSFL teams to play against full-size junior varsity or club football squads from other schools in the early part of the season (in 2015, for instance, Navy faced the Longwood Lancers). In addition, Army, Cornell, Princeton, and Penn all hold alumni games in which sprint football alumni return to campus for a full-contact scrimmage against the varsity squad. The alumni games serve the dual purpose of raising funds to support the team and maintaining alumni interest in the program.[6] Typically, the alumni have to donate a monetary weight penalty (e.g., $2 per pound) for weighing above the 178-pound limit.[7] In 2017, when Caldwell joined, the CSFL was split into two divisions, the North and the South. On December 7, 2017, St. Thomas Aquinas College was announced as the tenth team in the league, to begin play in the 2018 season.[2] After that season, Franklin Pierce left to play full-sized football and was replaced by Alderson Broaddus.[8]

As of 2019, only one charter member of the league remains, the Penn Quakers. The Princeton Tigers dropped the sport after 2015, following 16 consecutive years of winless seasons (an organized football record) and changes in league membership, and shifted its resources to club football.[9] A number of other Ivy League schools have historically had sprint football teams, including the Yale Bulldogs, Harvard Crimson, and Columbia Lions, all of whom had dropped the sport many years earlier; of the Ivy League schools, only Penn and the Cornell Big Red remain.

For its first 83 seasons, the CSFL did not sponsor playoff or bowl games (a tradition due in no small part to the Ivy League schools, who, like the rest of the Ivy League, abstain from all football postseason play to encourage academic performance). The season championship was decided solely by the regular season record; if multiple teams were tied atop the standings, all of them shared the championship. Since Navy's and Army's respective admissions to the league, those two schools have dominated the league; of the 72 seasons of lightweight football since Navy joined, they and/or Army have won at least a share of the league title in 64 of them, including stretches of 20 consecutive seasons from 1955–74 and 17 straight from 1983–99. Since the 2017 season, a championship game has been held on Veterans Day weekend.

Although CSFL teams are considered varsity teams and official school-sponsored sports for the purpose of the NCAA, sprint football teams do not fall into the same divisional structure as other NCAA sports.

In April 2020, the CSFL chose Dan Mara, also Commissioner of the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC) as Commissioner. In July of that year, the league voted to not play a fall 2020 season out of concern over the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, over the objections of Army and Navy, who indicated an intent to continue play without the other eight teams.[10] Post University is transitioning to D2 football in 2021 and will no longer have a sprint football team.

Weight limit

CSFL rules require that players must weigh no more than 178 pounds (81 kg), a figure that has slowly increased from its original 150 pounds (68 kg) as the weight of the American college student has increased over the course of the league's existence.[3] League rules specify official weigh-ins four days and two days before each game. Players are allowed to weigh-in up to 183 pounds (82.6 kg) four days before game but in order to be eligible to play they must weigh-in under 178 pounds (81 kg) on the two day weigh-ins. Players are allowed to gain weight back after meeting the weight limit[5]

Notable players

Notable coaches
  • George Allen, Pro Football Hall of Fame coach, most notably with the Washington Redskins, was an assistant sprint football coach at the University of Michigan in 1947.[3]
  • Jack Cloud, College Football Hall of Famer, former NFL player (in 1990); Cloud came to the Naval Academy in 1959 and spent the next 32 years in Annapolis coaching football, and the head lightweight (now called sprint) football coach from 1958–61, 1963–72, and 1980–82, in addition to teaching in the Physical Education Department.
  • The Cullen family has been sprint football's leading advocates. Robert Cullen revived the Cornell team as its coach in 1946 following a suspension for World War II. His son, Terry Cullen became offensive coordinator in 1965 and co-head coach in the 1970s, and continues in that position.[17]
  • Dick Harter, college and NBA head coach, coached at Penn from 1958–1964.[18]
  • Tim McGuire, American football college coach; defensive coordinator for Navy[19]
  • Jack McCloskey, college and NBA head coach, coached at Penn from 1954–1955.[20]
  • Sean Morey, former NFL player, coached the Princeton sprint squad for its last two seasons of existence.
  • Mike Siani, played wide receiver for the Oakland Raiders and Baltimore Colts; was the quarterbacks and wide receivers coach for Princeton.[21]
  • Eric Tipton, College Football Hall of Famer, Major League Baseball outfielder (1939–1945); Tipton was an assistant baseball and football coach at the College of William & Mary for 18 seasons, and then was the head baseball coach and Lightweight football coach at the United States Military Academy.

See also

References
  1. "Caldwell University Adds Sprint Football". Caldwell University Athletics. Retrieved February 3, 2016.
  2. "St. Thomas Aquinas joins CSFL". Collegiate Sprint Football League. Retrieved 15 December 2017.
  3. Thompson, Adam (2008-09-26). "A Small League for Little Dudes Is the New Hope at Mansfield U.". Wall Street Journal. p. A1.
  4. "Franklin Pierce statement" (Press release). Collegiate Sprint Football League. September 25, 2018. Retrieved September 6, 2019.
  5. "CSFL Rules -- 2010 Season". Collegiate Sprint Football League. 2009-11-10. Archived from the original on 2010-01-04. Retrieved 2010-02-13.
  6. "Army Sprint Football To Host Alumni Game". US Department of Defense. 2009-06-02. Retrieved 2010-02-13.
  7. "A Video History of the Sprint Football Alumni Game is Now Available on YouTube". Retrieved 2010-02-13.
  8. "Alderson Broaddus joins CSFL" (Press release). Collegiate Sprint Football League. October 9, 2018. Retrieved September 6, 2019.
  9. "csfl". csfl.
  10. "CSFL Announcement on 2020 Season". Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference. July 17, 2020.
  11. Coder, Maria. "Sasha Obama Joins Vice President Joe Biden to Cheer US Team to World Cup Victory". People. Retrieved 20 September 2016.
  12. "Sprint Football's biggest cheerleader". The Daily Pennsylvanian.
  14. "Zachary Iscol - 2000-01 - Sprint Football". Cornell University Athletics.
  15. Bierman, Fred (September 15, 2006). "Keeping the Little Guys in the Game (Published 2006)". The New York Times.
  16. "Eli Northrup - 2005-06 - Sprint Football". Cornell University Athletics.
  17. Cornell Athletics Dept. (2008). "The Collegiate Sprint Football League" (PDF). Cornell Spirit Football Media Guide. p. 18.
  18. AP. "Penn Coach Resigns for Oregon Job". Schenectady Gazette. Retrieved 20 September 2016.
  19. "Tim McGuire" (PDF). Indiana State University Football 2004 Media Guide. Indiana State Sycamores. 2004. pp. 9–10.
  20. Glassman, Les. "Time Out" (PDF). The Daily Pennsylvanian. Retrieved 20 September 2016.
  21. "Raiders hire Siani as Head Coach". OurSports Central. September 15, 2009.
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