Alabama A&M to drop men's program
As players, many of them from overseas, began arriving on campus for the 2010 season, they got word that this will be the last season for men's soccer at Alabama A&M, once a national power. It's the 20th Division I men's soccer program dropped since 1990.
The Department of Athletics announced Friday the elimination of men's soccer from its list of sponsored activities after the 2010 season.
The fact the Bulldogs are the only men's soccer program in the SWAC hurt, forcing them to patch together an independent schedule, but finances were the bottom line.
Coach Salah Yousif, the current men’s soccer coach, will lose his head coaching position but will remain with the university as an assistant professor in the department of economics & finance.
All existing scholarship agreements will be honored and the school will grant full eligibility releases to any other institution that seeks players who wish to transfer.
Yousif has a 238-121-24 record in 21 years with the Bulldogs, who were second in Division I in 1981.
Over the last eight years, A&M has had just two winning seasons.
SCHOOL (LAST YEAR)
*Houston Baptist (1990)
North Texas (1993)
Illinois State (1994)
Central Michigan (1994)
Arkansas-Little Rock (1995)
Maryland-Eastern Shore (1996)
Texas-Pan American (1997)
Northeastern Illinois (1997)
South Alabama (1998)
Miami-Ohio (1998)
Eastern Michigan (1998)
Charleston Southern (2002)
Fresno State (2002)
TCU (2002)
The Citadel (2002)
East Carolina (2005)
Vanderbilt (2005)
Western Kentucky (2008)
Maine (2009)
Alabama A&M (2011)
*Later reinstated.
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