Lewis & Clark will now line up just four times this season. Lewis & Clark athletics photo

Lewis & Clark announced Thursday afternoon that it was suspending play in the Northwest Conference for football for 2005 and would play only its slate of four non-conference games.

The team, which has just 34 players on the roster as the season opens, says declining numbers are to blame. "This decision is based on a recommendation from Steve Wallo, athletics director, and Roger VanDeZande, head football coach, that having too few players on the Pioneer football team may put our players at undue risk for injury," school president Tom Hochstettler, said in an e-mail to the campus community. "Our overriding concern must be to ensure the safety and well-being of all members of the Lewis & Clark community."

The Pioneers went 1-8 last season, 0-5 in the NWC, and were outscored by 32.5 points per game. The previous four seasons Lewis & Clark was 3-6, 1-4 each year.

"The players, as you might expect, are very frustrated and upset," VanDeZande told D3football.com, "but we have a tremendous group of kids and loyal, wonderful coaches, so we're going to do everything we can to make things right here."

The Pioneers had about a dozen incoming players to replace only three outgoing seniors. The program has struggled keeping players in the program. "There's a couple kids on campus who could help us, for sure, but we brought in kids from off campus who will play well, too," VanDeZande said.

"We're trying to do the best we could to offer the kids the opporrunity to play but we have to consider what's best for the conference in the long run.

"We're concentrating on being the best four-game team we can be right now."

Five years ago Macalester, a liberal arts college of similar profile, dropped out of the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference for football and has yet to return. Swarthmore, another similar school, cut its resurgent football program at the end of the 2000 season despite a 4-5 record.

Hochstettler has commissioned a study to evaluate the program and provide recommendations for future Pioneer competition.