College football is coming to Charlotte, N.C.

The Board of Trustees of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte voted unanimously today in favor of bringing a Division I-AA football program to the university in 2013, The Charlotte Observer reported.

This morning’s 8-to-0 vote comes two months after the university’s chancellor, Philip L. Dubois, announced he would support a Division I-AA football program at the university.

Now the hard work begins. The university must raise $45.3-million to get the program up and running, and Mr. Dubois has charged the athletics department with raising most of the sum. “Those who say they want football are going to have to help pay for football,” Mr. Dubois said in September.

Despite an outpouring of support from alumni and others in the Charlotte region who are eager for football, the climb will be steep for university fund raisers: The recent failure of the Charlotte-based Wachovia Corporation represents not just a blow to the regional economy but also the loss of one of the university’s major corporate donors. —Libby Sander