Non-Power 4 School Ends College Football Program After Four Seasons

For every success story that climbs onto the pedestal are those that got stepped on in the path. It’s naive to think so, but worth keeping in perspective that it’s not all sunshine and rainbows in College Football. The gaudy NIL money, pageantry, and overall positivity paint a layer of sheen on a surface level. Scratch beneath and for all the bluebloods that have millions of dollars and just as many fans. There are programs that ceased to exist before they even got their feet set. A damning revelation that also serves as a cautionary tale has come to occur.

Imagine being a school that looks at the pandemic in 2020 and tries to get something good to stem from it. They foray into athletics with a football program to complement 8 other varsity sports they partake in. But the train just never picks steam. In fact, it gets halted abruptly within 4 seasons. The most hapless aspect of it all? Their wins and losses were never even officially recognized by the NCAA. It’s almost as if the program never existed in the first place. Talk about being doomed from the get-go.

This is the unfortunate reality for North American University. For a name so vanilla, the short history of their CFB program was rather spicy. Begun as a Texas Gulf Institute in 2007 by Turkish founders, it didn’t gain stats as a full-fledged university till 2013. As the school grew in stature over the years, they decided to delve into athletics. A big part of the American collegiate culture but one the Turkish founders were uninitiated about. You can see the cracks which led to what has transpired in 2025.

“This was a difficult decision, backed by the Board of Trustees, that aims to direct investment to the things that make North American University exceptional,” said athletic director Kenneth Apande after the decision to close CFB operations. “Our goal is to still compete in the eight NAIA and USCAA sports that will remain an integral part of the NAU experience.” The AD has provided a very generic account of why the program is being shut so quickly. But there’s a lot of underlying history that contextualizes what went down with NAU. There are even accusations of terrorist activity involved.