Cornell Football Association No Longer Donating Money

Sorry state of the Cornell Football program.

The CFA has received the following communique from the Cease-and-Desist-CFA-letter-final-06-19-2019 and we wanted to inform you of this and subsequent actions which have been taken by the CFA Board of Directors.

On November 14, 2015 and with the University’s consent and encouragement the CFA proceeded forward in the formation of a not for profit corporation and obtained tax exempt status under IRC 501(c)(3). This was done in an open, honest and transparent way, and with the full support of the University. The collaborative manner with which we set out to work with the university was designed to benefit our football program through increased budget capacity and direct targeted financial support.

During this time period, the CFA has provided significant support to our football program, the players and the overall game day experience. We were instrumental in the formulation of the “CFA – White Paper”; a comprehensive and collaborative agreement which detailed the most critical issues to advance Cornell Football. Further, we endeavored to promote Coach Archer’s “Cornell Victorious Plan” designed as a road map for our rebuilding process. Along the way, we boosted membership above 700 members, raised significant monies to support the program, pre-game tailgates, post-game player meals, CFA Awards Day, IFA Dinner-Receptions, Player Gear, Senior Player Receptions, CFA Career Day NYC, CFA Career Weekend, pre-game player meals, alumni receptions and reunion weekend activities. We met with University Compliance Personnel, provided NCAA Compliance educational materials to our constituency, updated the CFA website to ensure NCAA compliance and complied with NCAA University mandated financial audits over the same time period without problems. Finally, the CFA entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (“It’s Time Challenge”) with the University on December 19, 2017 to raise $3M over a five year period. In short, we have worked hard to help positively affect and improve those areas we felt could make a real difference to our football program.
"Since our inception, the Athletic Director and Head Football Coach have been members of the CFA Board of Directors (Ex-Officio) and have been formally invited to participate in all CFA Board Meetings. They, along with University Administrators have been invited to speak and attend numerous CFA sponsored events. All of this was done to promote the positive aspects our football program brings to the entire University community.

Our efforts to meet the University’s demand for “Institutional Control” were not successful despite our best good faith efforts. Ultimately, we chose not to give up complete control of all our activities, affairs and finances. While we are not happy with the University’s position, and their unwillingness to accept any financial support, we have decided to maintain our independent status. Naturally, we will comply with their request and hope that the University will find a way to work collaboratively with us in the future.

We are proud of the work we have done and will continue to do. In the meantime; please be advised that the CFA is now a web based organization which will promote camaraderie of the Big Red football family through activities and information dissemination. We will not donate any money to our football program until the University goals align with our own, and a proper plan is laid out to reach this objective. We hope that you will continue to support the CFA and our efforts to improve our football program.

Football Record Since 1999: 2 winning seasons | Overall winning percentage 35.6% | Ivy League winning percentage 34.2% | Last 10 seasons overall winning percentage 28% | Last 10 seasons Ivy League winning percentage 25.7% – RESULTS MATTER!"

Results do matter it seems to everyone except the Cornell administration.

[cornellfootballassociation.org]

All of this was done to promote the positive aspects our football program brings to the entire University community.

There's a lot to unpack in that simple sentence.

We've been seeing a shift in whether the good outweighs the bad in maintaining football culture. It certainly affects Cornell far less than most schools of comparable size but it is still something that is always under negotiation. Cornell may simply be recognizing that jock culture in general is slipping towards an atavism. There are ways to mediate this: the attempts to use athletes for outreach and good works over the last few decades have had some positive effects and at times they might even not be cynical.

This reminds me a lot of the highly public effort of frats to rebrand themselves as cause-driven service providers instead of exclusionary rape factories. To the extent that it works, all well and good -- the result is an improvement. And if it doesn't work and the institution fails it was time to go. Students used to duel, once. Culture changes.

CFA
Our efforts to meet the University’s demand for “Institutional Control” were not successful despite our best good faith efforts.

lol

ugarte

CFA
Our efforts to meet the University’s demand for “Institutional Control” were not successful despite our best good faith efforts.

lol

If they ran the CFA the way they have run the football program, it was doomed to failure as well.

Ken711

ugarte

CFA
Our efforts to meet the University’s demand for “Institutional Control” were not successful despite our best good faith efforts.

lol

If they ran the CFA the way they have run the football program, it was doomed to failure as well.

"Institutional Control" is NCAA-speak for "if you can't control your boosters we will still penalize the school for infractions," so the CFA announcement is functionally that the school told them that they were not transparent enough to be trusted and associated with.

[www.ithaca.com]

Al DeFlorio
[www.ithaca.com]

“There isn't going to be a time in the future where we align, because we've done everything we can to align,” Noel said.

i.e., only the wrestling program matters.

And fuck the NC$$!!!

Jeff Hopkins '82
And fuck the NC$$!!!

If the Cornell football program were put on NC$$ suspension, would anyone notice?

Swampy

Jeff Hopkins '82
And fuck the NC$$!!!

If the Cornell football program were put on NC$$ suspension, would anyone notice?

Given the number of wins under David Archer's 6 years as HC, it wouldn't matter anyway.

Ken711

Swampy

Jeff Hopkins '82
And fuck the NC$$!!!

If the Cornell football program were put on NC$$ suspension, would anyone notice?

Given the number of wins under David Archer's 6 years as HC, it wouldn't matter anyway.

Yea, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Cornell try to position itself as a leader in the “football is too violent and shouldn’t be played as it is being played at elite academic institutions” crusade that’s been gathering steam in recent years. The fact that the team stinks and probably is going to get worse with a good chunk of its funding just vanishing makes it extra convenient.

CU2007

Ken711

Swampy

Jeff Hopkins '82
And fuck the NC$$!!!

If the Cornell football program were put on NC$$ suspension, would anyone notice?

Given the number of wins under David Archer's 6 years as HC, it wouldn't matter anyway.

Yea, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Cornell try to position itself as a leader in the “football is too violent and shouldn’t be played as it is being played at elite academic institutions” crusade that’s been gathering steam in recent years. The fact that the team stinks and probably is going to get worse with a good chunk of its funding just vanishing makes it extra convenient.

Indeed you can argue that this is true. While I don't know which schools you put in the "elite" group, the general feeling in football toward players seems to be, use them till they are used up and then throw them away.