The 49ers are the football team of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. They compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of the NCAA and play in the American Athletic Conference (AAC).
📜 Charlotte 49ers Football History
The first ever football team at UNC Charlotte was fielded in 1946, but this program lasted only 2 years before being disbanded in 1948.
60 years later, a group of students met to discuss possibilities for creating a new Division I football program at the university. Plans began in 2006, and in 2007 the student body voted to back the project, despite an associated increase in tuition fees. In November 2008, the UNC Charlotte Board of Trustees decided to add a football program by 2013.
The 49ers played their first 2 full seasons as an independent team, following the NCAA requirement for new programs to spend at least 2 years in the Football Championship Subdivision before moving up to the FBS. In 2015, football joined the rest of the Charlotte sports programs in Conference USA.
Charlotte moved to the American Athletic Conference ahead of the 2023 season.
