[NEW ROCHELLE, N.Y.] — Walking along the back rooms of the Times Union Center at the 2015 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference basketball tournament, you would come across the press conferences and the media work room. Both are typical sights for a Division I conference.

If you walk a little further, you will walk past a party room designed for special guests. This room was reserved by Iona College, who hosted receptions for alumni, benefactors and prospective students in the Albany, N.Y. area.

Iona, located 146 miles south of the arena, saw the tournament as a great opportunity to extend its reach to the Albany area. Having its men’s basketball team seeded first and women’s basketball team placed fourth, Iona tried to capitalize on the prominence of its basketball teams.

One of the major reasons that the College places so much of an emphasis on using basketball as a way of branding itself is that it does not have a football program. Since Iona has only one of these two major revenue-drawing sports, basketball serves as the top fundraiser and prized jewel of the athletics department.

While basketball has always held the spot as Iona’s most prominent sport, the school had a football team for 43 years, spanning from 1965 to 2008. Following the cancellation of the program other aspects of life at Iona increased in prominence.

“We find other ways to involve our alumni and friends,” Iona College Senior Vice President for Advancement and External Affairs Paul Sutera said. “For the alumni experience, it’s about getting involved and participating. I haven’t seen us being at a disadvantage by not having [football]. Even though we don’t have it, we should remember that we did.”

The football program had many ups and downs. The team won at least a share of the MAAC title twice (in 1993 and 2007). However, the Gaels posted a losing record in four of the program’s final five seasons.

As a mid-major program struggling to stay above .500, it became really tough for Iona when the MAAC discontinued its football division after the 2007 season. The Gaels played the 2008 season as an independent and went 3-8. This subpar season showed that Iona would not be able to sustain an independent football program, like the University of Notre Dame has.

“How do we get to being at the level of a school like Notre Dame or Boston College?” said Br. Jason Ford, who graduated in 2001 and has since returned as an admissions counselor. “Athletics isn’t going to be our primary vehicle to that. It’s going to help, but it’s going to be having a few academic programs that really make a name for us.”

Iona’s Hagan School of Business is renowned and one of the first things that pop into prospective students’ heads when they hear about Iona, according to Ford. He also wants to see other academic departments receive similar recognition.

However, sports will continue to be one of the major avenues for attracting people to a school. Basketball grabs the majority of the attention. The men’s and women’s teams are consistently in contention for conference titles and berths in the NCAA Tournament.

“I love having as many people [at the basketball games] as possible,” said junior Greg Potempa, one of the leaders of the Maroon Maniacs student section. “It really makes the school look really good. It really shows that our school does have a lot of school spirit.”

Other sports teams at Iona do not draw the same amount of attention, despite having high levels of success. The cross country teams perennially rank among the best in the nation. This is a great achievement that often goes unnoticed.

Cross country does not generate the type of revenue as other sports. Ford noticed that the sport that the most prospective students wished Iona had was men’s lacrosse, not football. Therefore, the absence of football has not had a tremendous impact on Ford.

“I don’t see a major difference [without football],” Ford said. “The kids that I knew that were football players, in their mind, football was very, very important. I think in reality on campus, I don’t know that it really was.”

On the other hand, not everyone feels as though there has not been a major change to the campus with the detraction of football.

Peter Kollmann, class of 2006, reflects fondly back on his time on campus when Iona football played on Mazzella Field in the center of campus.

“It was great,” he said. “I was always emotionally ready for Saturday home football games after a hard week of classes and homework. A supercharged atmosphere provided an ideal college experience for me. Iona football made my Iona experience all the more meaningful.”

Kollmann has a unique perspective on Iona athletics as he co-authored a book with classmate Jeff Castellano that chronicled the 75 years of Iona athletics titled “Maroon & Gold Legacy.”

The book encapsulates the football team’s performance on the field as well as the College’s decision to terminate the program.