Quote from: Gregory Sager on April 11, 2021, 09:30:41 AMQuote from: Ron Boerger on April 10, 2021, 09:11:58 AM
In 2004 there was an article in the Houston Chronicle recommending Rice take the D3 route but I don't know if the school ever seriously considered the possibility. According to this 2017 Chronicle article, it was a number of possible alternatives put on the table, none of which were apparently pursued.
It would've been interesting to see what would've happened if Rice had considered the change after the massive shakeup a little over a decade ago that made the SCAC a Texas-centric conference and the newly-minted SAA a more southeastern-oriented conference centered around former SCAC members. There are certainly more options for a wealthy and high-academic-cachet university such as Rice to find a D3 league "nearby" (in Texas, the word "nearby" ought to always be put in quotes ) containing schools that have a somewhat similar academic profile than there were before.
Nearby isn't even necessary for them. Rice and Tulane are UAA type schools I don't know if Rice and/or Tulane went D3 they would want to (Johns Hopkins doesn't want to) or the UAA would even have wanted them but they would fit right in.