Chicago will soon be home to a Division I football team, as Chicago State University hired Bobby Rome II as its first-ever coach for the sport.
Chicago State will begin play in the Northeast Conference starting with the 2026 season, competing in the NCAA’s FCS level of college football.
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WATCH HERERome will be tasked with building a program from the ground up, a unique opportunity that will bring high-level college football within Chicago’s city limits.
“We’re going to win some football games, trust me! All right? We’re going to win some football games. Why? Because our young men are going to be disciplined,” Rome told media on Tuesday.
The Virginia-native’s experience includes a strong run at Florida Memorial University, with his resume there beating out more than 200 other applicants.
He says that while he doesn’t have ties to Chicago, he will make sure to build a strong brand that will make the city proud.
“Let’s go ahead and address the elephant in the room. I have no personal ties to the South Side and that’s OK. I didn’t have any personal ties to South Florida and we still competed for championships. Football is football,” he said.
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Chicago State’s decision to join the Northeast Conference, including plans to field a football team, comes just years after layoffs and budget cuts threatened the school’s future. During a budget impasse in Illinois in 2016, all 900 employees at the school received layoff notices in anticipation of funding cuts, and enrollment plummeted as a result.
The school’s fortunes have since improved dramatically, and Dr. Monique Carroll, the athletic director at Chicago State, said that donor involvement helped them to take the big leap into a higher level of NCAA competition, including in football.
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SIGN UP : “Yes, so this is a donor funded project that was very clear to us from the Board of Trustees as our charge to add it we had to bring in new revenue sources,” she said.
It’s unclear where Chicago State will play its games, but for now Rome is focused on building the program, which includes recruiting the right players from the Chicago area.
“They’re going to have obedience, they’re going to show grit on the football field, and most importantly they’re going to be submissive to authority and authority figures,” he said. “These are the young men I plan on pulling out of our community.”
