Florida Atlantic Owls football The Florida Atlantic Owls football team represents Florida Atlantic University , a mid - major NCAA Division ( FBS ) college football team that completed an eight - season tenure in the Sun Belt Conference in 2012 . Florida Atlantic will join Conference USA in July 2013 . Overview and history . Florida Atlantic University football began play in 2001 and has had only one head coach , Howard Schnellenberger . After competing their first four years as an NCAA Division I - AA independent , the Owls moved to Division I - A and the Sun Belt Conference . Starting with the 2013 - 14 school year , FAU athletics will compete in Conference USA . In 1998 , Florida Atlantic University announced it was pursuing the creation of an NCAA football program and that Howard Schnellenberger was going to lead the charge , as director of football operations and head coach . After his success in rebuilding programs at the University of Miami and the University of Louisville , Coach Schnellenberger now undertook the role of building a program from scratch . Much like his time at Miami and Louisville , Coach Schnellenberger did not shy from placing lofty expectations and high goals on his newly - created program . Even before FAU would play an intercollegiate game , Coach Schnellenberger explained the goal of FAU football would be to play the best teams it can schedule , in order for the program to aim for a National Championship in Division I - A football . These extreme goals were not unusual from a man like Coach Schnellenberger . At Lousiville , facing threats from the administration that the football team would be terminated , Schnellenberger made the bold ( and now famous ) prediction , " [ We are ] on a collision course with the national championship . The only variable is time . ” On August 29 , 2000 , the first practice was held at the Boca Raton campus of FAU , and 164 students showed up to try out for the team . During the August 29 , 2000 first practice , dubbed the inaugural scrimmage game , FAU continued the tradition of Homecoming King , this time including the crowning ceremony of the King as part of the half time festivities . The Homecoming King crown was bestowed upon Wayne Burns , having been voted in by the majority of student population from across all the campuses at the time , which totaled five , then running a Q & A gauntlet alongside the top three candidates , conducted by a committee of students and faculty , who then voted to determine if Mr . Burns would move to the winners circle or if the next candidate would get the crown . Mr . Burns , was driven around the scrimmage game field in a convertible Rolls Royce to wave to the 164 students in the stands , many of whom voted for him . Wayne Burns was and is the oldest Homecoming King to ever receive the honor at FAU . Florida Atlantic joined the NCAA Division I - AA as an Independent team for the 2001 season . Its first - ever intercollegiate competition was against Slippery Rock University , which the Owls lost 40 - 7 in front of 25 , 632 fans at Pro Player Stadium / Joe Robbie Stadium . During half time of the inaugural intercollegiate game at Pro Player , FAU Homecoming King Wayne Burns entered the field for a ceremony to hand off the king ' s staff to a new king . The team finished its inaugural season at 4 - 6 and followed the next season at 2 - 9 . Major accomplishments in its first two seasons include the program ' s first win , which came in its second game , against Bethune Cookman , 31 - 28 , and won in the first meeting with newly - created South Florida rival , Florida International University , 31 - 21 . On September 15 , 2007 FAU defeated its first Big Ten opponent with a 42 - 39 victory over the University of Minnesota . Led by Rusty Smith , FAU beat Troy University in the final game of the 2007 season to become Sun Belt Conference champions and received an invitation to the 2007 New Orleans Bowl , its first ever bowl bid . As a result , in just the seventh year of the football program ' s history , and the third year playing in Division I , Florida Atlantic set an NCAA record by becoming the youngest program ever to receive an invitation to a bowl game . On August 11 , 2011 , Howard Schnellenberger announced he would retire at the end of the season . On December 1 , 2011 FAU offered Carl Pelini , the Nebraska Cornhuskers defensive coordinator to become their new head coach , a position he accepted . Records . Year - by - year . Conference affiliations :