While Brown and Rhode Island are fixtures at the Ocean State’s sparkling new sports venue, Bryant remains nowhere to be seen.
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The Bryant Bulldogs are an afterthought in the small Rhode Island football landscape. Hardly any other program in the state, aside from tiny Division III Salve Regina, receives less attention. The flagship Rhode Island Rams, whom Bryant has yet to beat in six meetings, have the local MeTV station broadcast its games, Brown lands a primetime game on ESPNU yearly, and Bryant gets nothing.
Even their membership in the Coastal Athletic Association Football conference was a bit of a last resort. Bryant meandered to the Big South, then the Big South-OVC Alliance, before a string of departures finally prompted the CAA to give it a call.
This overshadowing extends to other aspects. The Brown Bears added to Centreville Bank Stadium’s robust 2026 college football schedule by moving its home opener against Harvard to the home of the United Soccer League’s Rhode Island FC. This marks the second straight year that Brown will play a home game at the stadium, adding to the five home games that Rhode Island will play there due to Meade Stadium’s renovations.
All the while, Bryant has no games scheduled at Centreville Bank Stadium for the foreseeable future.
When will the Bulldogs get their day in Pawtucket?
The Bulldogs suffer from some of the worst attendance in the FCS, even after joining the nationally respected CAA. The table below gives a brief snapshot.
| Year | Average Attendance | FCS Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 2252 | 117th |
| 2025 | 2029 | 119th |
Despite this, details of the University of Rhode Island’s deal with Centreville Bank Stadium show that hosting a game there would be profitable.
The Rams will pay $30,000 to rent Centreville Bank Stadium, and relinquish $4 of every ticket sold. However, the program keeps all food and beverage revenue. When extrapolating these numbers to Bryant’s 2024 and 2025 average home attendance and using Brown’s ticket pricing for the 2025 Governors Cup game at Centreville Bank Stadium, the Bulldogs still make anywhere from $2,000 to $6,000 before concessions.
Although asking Bryant fans and students to drive 30 minutes for a home game is a substantial request, the novelty could create fascination that regular Bulldog home games simply lack. The creation of a “bowl game-like” atmosphere worked for Holy Cross’ EBW Classic, which drew well in its three editions from 2021 to 2023.
Bryant’s CAA slate provides plenty of fascinating options. Rhode Island is the easy choice, but longtime Yankee Conference and Atlantic 10 stalwarts Maine and New Hampshire offer brand-name appeal. Towson’s location raises questions about road fan travel, but they offer the same notoriety.
Stony Brook drew 5,200 fans when it visited Smithfield in 2024. Using the current Centreville Bank contract stipulations, that game would have made $53,200 before concessions.
The CAA’s two HBCU schools provide the most fascinating possibilities. Bryant can create a de facto HBCU classic with North Carolina A&T or Hampton. Last year’s Essence HBCU Classic between Johnson C. Smith and Morehouse shows there is an appetite for Black College Football in the Northeast, particularly New England. The two schools drew 6,283 fans to Harvard Stadium, outdrawing the Crimson’s home game against Merrimack and nearly outdrawing their home game against Cornell.
In an age where neutral-site classics are becoming more difficult to justify financially, Bryant can create a similar atmosphere without forcing North Carolina A&T or Hampton to relinquish a home game. North Carolina A&T’s scheduled 2027 road game against Chicago State at SeatGeek Stadium, the former home of Major League Soccer’s Chicago Fire, shows HBCUs are beginning to reinvent the “classic model”. Centreville Bank offers a suitable stage for the pomp-and-circumstance of an HBCU classic.
Bryant needs to do something to avoid falling even more in Brown and Rhode Island’s shadow. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but the Bulldogs can use this imitation to assert themselves as a football brand in the state.
