ORANGE COAST COLLEGE, which was 0-10 last season, is skipping the 2026 season. So is Pierce College of Los Angeles (OCC photo).
Football may be bigger than ever these days, but not for community colleges.
A combination of forces are making the fielding of a tackle football team for a two-year college increasingly problematical.
The Orange Coast team was 0-10 last year and hasn’t had a winning season in years. The beneficiary of this “hiatus” could be rival Golden West College, both part of the Coast Community College District. Or not.
Football is an expensive sport and a team must field 45 to 60 players to compete. Since there are 22 positions in the sport – not counting kickers – a team needs to have that 45 to provide for subs in case of injury or ineligibility.
The changes in major university football have impacted the two-year schools. The big schools often relied on transfers from (what used to be called ) junior colleges to find fresh talent. But now, with the transfer portal, the talent pool is wide open to whoever can offer the bigger and better deal.
Jaycee players have long been a part of the college and pro picture. Aaron Rodgers (Butte Community College) and O.J. Simpson (San Francisco City College) each started at a two-year college before going on to greater glory (or infamy, in the case of O.J.)
Community college football used to be a big deal. The “national championship” was settled at the Junior Rose Bowl in Pasadena before crowds as large as 47,000 people. In Orange County, the game between Fullerton and Santa Ana colleges was prominent and well-attended.
The forces that are squeezing JC’s (CC’s?) are also affecting some pretty big universities. Cal State Fullerton and Long Beach State – two of the largest four-year schools in the nation – have long since dropped football, primarily because of cost.
We may be moving toward a time when there’s the NFL and its “farm league” of the top 25 college football mills, and that’s all.
Flag football, anyone?
Editor’s note: Jim Tortolano attended Golden West College and Cal State Long Beach.
