Division III football will come to Arkansas after the Hendrix College Board of Trustees decided to add the sport, contingent on the ability to raise start-up costs through external sources.

Hendrix, which began studying the feasibility a year ago, will be the only Division III football program in Arkansas.

"Athletics have always been secondary to academics here at Hendrix, and that will never change," said president J. Timothy Cloyd in a release. "We believe that Division III athletics enhances the whole person academically by providing opportunities to compete athletically against our peer institutions, and adding (football and women's lacrosse) only increases the opportunity for our students to compete on the playing field."

The Warriors discontinued their football program after 1960, citing the cost of fielding a team and frustration with the inability to compete against other Arkansas colleges offering athletic scholarships. A target date for launching the football program has not been established, but at this point in the year, either 2009 or 2010 are possibilities.

Hendrix is a member of the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference, which recently added Austin (2006), Colorado College (2007) and Birmingham-Southern (2007). Southwestern and Oglethorpe are the only two SCAC members without a football program. Hendrix would be the 10th football member of the conference.