The University of North Carolina at Charlotte had just accepted a deal which would move their basketball program from Conference USA into the Atlantic-10. Normally, such a move would spell the end of good relations between the school and the conference, but these aren’t normal times. The Conference USA was looking to add more football exposure to a good basketball conference, and one team was just dragging it down.

Ever since its football program was crippled by NCAA violations in the 1980s, SMU had not been competitive. They had held the conference down year after year. Finally, a new Conference-USA director was named. He had seemingly unrealistic plans to build up the conference’s athletics, starting with football. It would take some bold decisions, and he took some. He called up his old friend, Bill Smitherson, the Athletic Director at UNC Charlotte.

He was intrigued about the possibility of UNCC adding a football program to compete in the conference. Smitherson was bewildered. He didn’t even think a football program was possible. But then he thought about it. No other football team within 2 hours. They could build up a big fan base, and with the growing number of people moving to the greater Charlotte area, it would provide a great source of income for the school.

He laid the ground work for the program secretly in 2005-2006. It first became public in February of 2006, when the school announced the program. They said that they would be having tryouts, and that any students are welcome to come to try to make the team. Needless to say, there isn’t much talent. But there was one burning question: Who would coach them?

That was solved quickly. Legendary Independence High School head coach Tom Knotts (Independence has won 92 straight games, and 6 straight state championships), wanting to coach college ball all his life, accepted an offer extended to him by Smitherson. When asked if he was going to run his Spread offense, he chuckled and responded with a “We’ll see.”

Time will tell if this team can gel and build a tradition, but it won’t be easy. They are penned to finish last in the Conference-USA this season. Maybe they can pull off some upsets, and shock some people.