(08-16-2009 10:30 PM)chargeradio Wrote:  If you're going to toughen the requirements for Division I, do it the right way and increase the minimum number of scholarships and/or sports schools must offer. Right now all Division I schools must offer at least 14 sports, and at many schools six of those involve running (Cross Country, Indoor Track, and Outdoor Track, each for men and women). If I were in charge of Division I, I'd require schools to offer the following:

Minimum of 17 sports (18 for FBS schools)
Men's and Women's Basketball must be sponsored
All Division I schools must offer at least one of Baseball, Men's Ice Hockey, or Men's Lacrosse
All Division I schools must offer at least one of Softball, Women's Ice Hockey, or Women's Lacrosse
All sports must be funded at least 90% in terms of scholarships, unless if the school awards no athletic scholarships in all its sports (i.e. Army)
Division I schools that do not play football must offer Men's Soccer

I'd do away with the attendance requirement for FBS, but raise the minimum number of scholarships for the entire athletic program from 200 to 220.

I think you're spot on with that.

It really irks me to see some schools have like six men's sports (three of which being X-country, indoor track, outdoor track) just to sponsor football.

I like that my school sponsors a lot of sports and is pretty competitive. I do care about all sports and think if you have the team you should try to win in it.

UCF, sorry about the smart alec comment. I was tired. I know UCF has had a traditionally strong program.

I do disagree about women's BB, though. I know it's viewed a little differently in Tennessee than a lot of other states, though. TN is kind of the cradle of WBB.

Maybe you should come up for the UCF-MT game this year.

I've watched a couple schools make the move from Division II to Division I and from NAIA to Division I.

They get sold the same basic way. We already spend almost as much and there is a lot of money in Division I so it will more than pay for itself.

It almost never does.

A one bid conference that doesn't win games, basically funds the league operation and championship events off the NCAA revenue share of 6 units (one per year). There just is little of nothing to share.

So to get money they chase $30,000 to $50,000 basketball paydays. Attendance goes up a little but not enough to offset the usually higher travel costs and the big paydays are used to fund the higher expenses partially.

When it is all said and done they are spending more out of the university pocket to be Division I than they did for II or NAIA membership.

I like the idea of a one million dollar upfront payment to join Division I. That's a number that is more likely to cause members of the board of trustees to look carefully at what is being proposed. It is a number designed to protect schools from themself.

I don't have the Division I Manual in front of me but as I recall the basic Division I membership requires sponsoring 14 sports and awarding at least half of the permissible scholarships for those sports. That should be ratcheted up to at least 75% if not 80% of the maximum full time equivalencies.

At risk of having every Title IX advocate on my front lawn protesting, I'd also be willing to bump the Division I sport sponsorship to 16 (18 for FBS) if cheer and dance were recognized as sports. (My quick argument is that both have high participation interest levels, while I am opposed to "sports" that depend on judges scores to determine a winner, we recognize gymnastics and diving as sports, recognizing them coupled with increasing sport sponsorship requirements prevents schools at the minimum from cutting sports to add them).

The schools that have moved up from D2 with football aren't really the problem, its the ones without football.

(08-17-2009 10:04 AM)MissouriStateBears Wrote:  The schools that have moved up from D2 with football aren't really the problem, its the ones without football.

I don't know...I think Savannah State is the poster child for the moratorium. Certainly most of the schools that are basketball-indies or playing in the Great West need to be asking themselves what they were doing.

Utah Valley, for instance, went from JUCO to D-1. That was impressive to be able to do, but they didn't have any significant base, fan or financial, from which to work. And they didn't have a conference home. They should have gone to D-2, where conferences homes are more easily found, and then built a program. Utah Valley is a school where this $1 million fee would have caused considerably more pause and looking at future options. I'd imagine the same would be true at NJIT and Houston Baptist.

Personally, I was glad to see Centenary drop to D3. D3 is not a bad place to be if you're a small school that prides itself on its academics and doesn't have the capability or willingness to fund a competitive D1 program. For what Centenary was doing as a D1 school, it looks like they made the best decision for the school as a whole. And hopefully now a team like Denver or possibly Utah Valley will benefit from that open spot in the Summit.

Savannah State is suppose to be joining the MEAC. But they are the lone excepation among the football schools. The rest have found homes and are well on their way to being solid D1 members. I know in the MVC football side, we added North Dakota St and South Dakota St when WKU moved to the Sun Belt. They were solid coming from D2. They also dominated their first year in the Summit League, I expect them to be the next teams when the MVC expands.

At this point, there are really only a handful of schools that are truly unaccounted for in terms of conference:

Denver/Utah Valley - presumed to be fighting for the last spot in the Summit
Seattle - an associate member of the Great West (cross country, indoor track, outdoor track), but holding out for the West Coast
Houston Baptist - member of the Great West, but little hope of making the Southland without football
Texas-Pan America - see Houston Baptist
Chicago State - member of the Great West who is too far north for the SWAC or MEAC and needs some major help to make the Horizon (i.e. Loyola-IL or Illinois-Chicago leaving)
NJIT - Great West member seemingly unwanted by America East or the Northeast; lack of football not helping
Longwood - Independent that can't seem to make the Atlantic Sun or Big South; lack of football not helping

Savannah State seems destined for the MEAC (espeically if Florida A&M leaves) and North Dakota should make the Summit once it has a new nickname.

The four schools west of the Mississippi would probably be locks for the Big Sky or Southland if the WAC expands-presuming they start football. It might be a little tougher for the schools east of the Mississippi even if they start football, although Longwood's stock would rise dramatically.