Dec. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Hofstra University dropped intercollegiate football, citing high costs and low interest, eliminating a program that produced National Football League players Wayne Chrebet and Marques Colston.

The school’s board voted unanimously to discontinue the program to “redirect those resources toward academic initiatives and need-based scholarships,” according to an open letter from Stuart Rabinowitz, the Hempstead, New York, university’s president.

Hofstra is the second team in the Colonial Athletic Association to drop its football program in the past week, following a decision by Boston’s Northeastern University to drop its program after 74 years.

“We must invest in academics and programs in which we can compete at the highest level,” Rabinowitz wrote in the letter that was posted on Hofstra’s Web site. “It is more essential than ever that we invest our resources wisely, and consider fully how we meet our mission as a university.”

Hofstra, which finished this season 5-6, has produced NFL players including former Jets receiver Chrebet, current Saints receiver Colston and Willie Colon, a lineman for the Super Bowl champion Pittsburgh Steelers.

‘Saddened and Shocked’

Colston said he was both “saddened and shocked” to learn of the program’s cessation, and that he wishes success to current members of the team and its coaching staff.

“I owe a tremendous amount of gratitude to the university, my coaches and my former teammates and I am sure they share in my disappointment,” Colston said in a statement. “I grew as both a student-athlete and as a man at Hofstra and I feel like the school helped me prepare for the challenges I currently face as a professional football player.”

Football was the school’s largest and most-expensive sports program, and the school “could not continue to justify the expense of football compared to the benefits it brought to the university,” Rabinowitz wrote.

To contact the reporter on this story: Aaron Kuriloff in New York at akuriloff@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: December 3, 2009 12:38 EST