(10-03-2023 05:52 PM)teamvsn Wrote:  

(10-03-2023 05:30 PM)Fighting Muskie Wrote:  

(10-03-2023 05:17 PM)teamvsn Wrote:  

(10-03-2023 05:08 PM)Fighting Muskie Wrote:  Any idea why Defiance was unhappy with NCAA D3?

A local paper says they'll have a news conference Friday.

Typically, small underperforming D3s move up to the NAIA in order to provide athletic scholarship opportunities to athletes, which assists in drawing more students to their campuses, even when they are only partial scholarships. Sometimes conference affiliation is a big factor too. Some studies done by the NAIA show that the NAIA saves schools money, even compared to D3.

I don't know where Defiance stands in relation to any of these issues though, except that apparently their enrollment is around 500. They seem to have a full football roster though, so I'm not sure they need scholarships to attract students.

Thanks that makes sense. My alma mater plays Defiance quite regularly OOC and they are pretty bad at most sports. I hope it works for them.

I wonder how rival Bluffton feels about this.

Most of the other 4 year Mennonite colleges are in the NAIA, so maybe they'd be tempted. Exceptions are Eastern Mennonite (D3) and Fresno Pacific (D2). NAIA members are Tabor KS, Bethel KS, & Goshen IN. Bethel IN has some Mennonite influence as well but not officially.

I don’t think it will be much longer until we see Hesston as well. Now with several Bachelors degrees and more coming, it’s only a matter of time. And every private juco that makes the move like Spartanburg did, the more likely it makes the few remainers to make the same move. And Hesston has been taking steps in that direction for a number of years already, so it wouldn’t be out of the blue.