All 50 states are in a bind right now to fund their universities. We are seeing a lot of public schools merging into 1 to cut cost to the states. The Arizona Community Colleges might be eaten up by the big 3 4 year schools, and maybe a couple like Eastern Arizona and Arizona Western schools could merged with the community colleges in their area to become 4 year. There are talk that I posted in a thread in the realignment section about schools closing. Several D2 public schools are at the risk of closing because small enrollment sizes. They are in Pennsylania and West Virginia. 4 public schools in West Virginia could actually merge. Cheyney in Pennsylvania is at risk of closing down. The larger student body size schools like Western Washington, Central Oklahoma, Central Washington, Colorado Mesa, the California schools and the Lone Star public schools need to look at the future of D2 because it is really dim when you are losing schools to closures, mergers or going to D1. Western State in Colorado approved recently to change their name to Western Colorado. They need approval from the state. The problem is what about the rest of RMAC? I could only see Dixie State, Metro State, Colorado Mesa, UC-Colorado Springs and CSU-Pueblo surviving. Western Colorado is an iffy since they want to change their name to attract others. Colorado Heights University in Denver closed last fall.
Any invite out of D2 is an escape route out of a dying lower class Education system. I think that is why many of these largers D2 schools looking to leave. Our higher Ed system is failing and underbudget.