Alright, so the other day I kept hearing chatter about Shane Gillis and him being some kinda D1 football player back in the day. You know how it is, you hear something enough times, you start to wonder. Was this guy really out there battling future NFL stars?
Naturally, my curiosity got the best of me. I figured, okay, let’s actually look into this. My process wasn’t anything fancy, just good old-fashioned searching around online. I started punching in stuff like “Shane Gillis college football,” “Shane Gillis D1,” that sort of thing.
Digging into the Details
Pretty quickly, I started seeing mentions of West Chester University. Okay, West Chester… I know that school. It’s in Pennsylvania. So, I dug a bit deeper specifically into West Chester football. And yeah, his name popped up on some old rosters from the mid-2000s. He was on the team, alright.
But here’s the thing – West Chester University isn’t Division I for football. They play in the PSAC, which is a strong Division II conference. D2 is still serious college football, no doubt about it, involves scholarships and tough competition, but it’s not the same beast as D1, the level most people think of with the big schools like Alabama or Ohio State.
From what I could piece together from old articles and mentions:
- He definitely played football at West Chester (DII).
- Looks like he might have been more of a special teams guy or defensive lineman, maybe not a major starter for a long time, but he was on the squad.
- There was also some talk about him briefly trying out or being associated with Elon University, which is D1 (FCS, specifically). But the main story, the place he actually played consistently for a while, seems to be West Chester. Maybe he tried to walk on at Elon first? It wasn’t super clear, but the confirmed playing time was at the D2 level.
So, the whole “D1 football player” thing? It’s a bit of a stretch, or maybe just a misunderstanding that caught on. He played college football, yes, and at a competitive level in D2. Calling it “D1” just isn’t quite accurate based on where he actually played most of his college ball.
It was an interesting little dive. Funny how these narratives pop up. Guy played ball, now he’s a famous comedian. Good for him. But yeah, the D1 label needed a fact-check. Just goes to show, always worth digging a little yourself if you get curious. Took me maybe 20 minutes to get the basics sorted out.
