In September 2001, Florida Atlantic played its first football game, a 40-7 loss to Slippery Rock.
The Owls have indeed had a slippery slope to climb, going from starting from the ground up as a I-AA school to succeeding in I-A in a relatively short time.
Last season, Florida Atlantic and Troy were the class of the Sun Belt Conference, and fittingly, the conference title and a New Orleans Bowl berth came down to the final weekend of the season, when the Owls and Trojans met in Troy.