(09-22-2023 03:52 PM)Todor Wrote:  

(09-20-2023 07:47 PM)Rube Dali Wrote:  Frontier Conference, NSAA discussing merger: https://406mtsports.com/college/frontier...f9f6b.html

This is where having a huge NAIA void in Minnesota is forcing a move like this to occur. If the UMAC were still an NAIA conference, they probably would've absorbed the NSAA by now, even keeping Jamestown and Waldorf.

(09-22-2023 09:20 AM)teamvsn Wrote:  

(09-22-2023 07:13 AM)Mid-Major Hoops Enthusiast Wrote:  

(09-20-2023 12:04 AM)Todor Wrote:  On the other hand, a school like Georgia Gwinnett is sponsoring very few sports, winning national titles in some of them year after year, is likely to add more sports soon and move on to D2 or wherever.

Others like Keiser and possibly Southeastern are growing very rapidly and have plenty of money to throw around. They kind of pop up out of nowhere, win a lot, and then leave.

It’s always been that way, but it still sucks for so many schools to always be get walked all over because their organization is a stepping stone. But I am a fan of the smaller schools that do a lot with a little, that are small campuses where people know one another, schools that have important niches to play etc. I like to see them succeed sometimes too.

I just had a look at Keiser and Southeastern's enrollment out of curiosity and wow did not realize Keiser had over 16k enrolled currently as of last season. I'm going to guess that is the highest in NAIA. At the very least right up there. Yeah, the Sunshine State Conference in D2 will probably be looking at them in the near future.

(09-21-2023 06:21 AM)DavidSt Wrote:  Lets not forget that Bismarck State is having plans to go to a 4 year college soon as well, and they do have sports.

True, although I don't think Bismarck State becoming a 4 year college and joining NAIA would be the ultimate factor if the North Star and Frontier Conference merged or not.

The Keiser figure is a gross, system wide figure. They have many branch campuses and an online component. According to the NAIA web site, their on campus enrollment at their flagship campus in West Palm Beach is 1300.

https://www.naia.org/schools/quick-searc...code=33409

Not much more than Northwood had during their good years.

"The rest of the story", for those who don't know, is that Keiser - with all the branch campuses - bought Northwood a number of years ago to use as a flagship campus. They were very spread out, decentralized. So while enrollment at that campus might not be much higher (I'm not sure how up to date NAIA's figures are), it was a big gain for Keiser to gain a flagship, residential campus, with athletics, and 1300 students.