Northeastern University will disband its football program after 74 years due to lack of interest and resources, officials said.

Athletic Director Peter Roby announced the change in an email to the Northeastern community Monday. He said Northeastern has been evaluating the Division-I program since 2007 and decided the millions of dollars that would be required to sustain the program would be better spent in other areas.

‘A broad consensus developed behind discontinuing football and focusing future resources of programs – both academic and non-academic – where the university can achieve and sustain leadership,’ he said.

He emphasized that the decision did not come as a result of the team’s record this year, 3-8, but instead was made because of a desire to choose the best option for the community as a whole.

‘We do not define success merely through wins and losses,’ Roby said. ‘Instead, we recognize that success comes from creating a positive student-athlete experience.’

He said Northeastern hopes players choose not to change schools and will be able to keep their athletic scholarships.

‘Let me assure you that we will make every effort to help our players with this transition,’ he said. ‘Our staff also stands ready to assist those who have been impacted by this decision.’

Roby said he hopes for a continued support of Northeastern athletics.

‘I want athletics to serve as a source of pride for our community, while fielding teams that we feel can compete every time they take the field, ice, track, poor, or court,’ he said.

Some students said they were not typically excited by Northeastern football and did not often attend games.

‘To be honest, I don’t really care all that much,’ third-year Northeastern student Randy Latona said. ‘For the most part no one that I know really cared.’

But Latona said he feels bad for students on the team.

‘I know a couple kids who were on it and it kind of sucks for them,’ he said.

First-year Northeastern student Sara Pressman said she prefers hockey to football.

‘When I went to school, the first thing I did was I went to a football game against [Boston College] and they lost zero to 50-something, and it was kind of depressing,’ she said. ‘I went to a hockey game and we won that. So it was kind of depressing to watch, it was so bad.’

Pressman said she hopes the funding is beneficial for other areas of Northeastern.

‘Hopefully they’ll put more funding into sports we can be better at, like hockey,’ she said. ‘Maybe they’ll rebuild [football] someday.’

Second-year Northeastern student Greg McGowan said he never enjoyed football games.

‘The atmosphere was, I guess you could say, a little disappointing,’ he said. ‘The stadium is not very large at all, attendance is pretty dismal and the poor attendance means for kind of a poor student atmosphere. It wasn’t all that much fun.’

He said though he looks forward to seeing money redirected to other programs, he will miss the team’s presence in Northeastern’s sports scene.

‘I have mixed feelings,’ McGowan said. ‘I’m excited more money’s going to be going into other programs like basketball and hockey, because they’re actually competitive, but at the same time it’s a little sad to see the football team go because it’s sort of a source of pride for the school. Everyone likes to have a football team.’

Boston University cut its 91-year-old football program in 1997, after BU announced that the team didn’t draw enough student interest to justify the $3 million cost of the program, according to an Oct. 27 Daily Free Press article. The decision came the same day the team lost 28-7 to Northeastern

Staff reporter Annie Ropeik contributed to the reporting of this article.