Future of Division III

[maripp2002]

Which essentially amounted to giving someone a track scholarship but then strongly encouraging them to also join the football team.

That would work out MUCH better if your D1 sports were football or oddly essentially cheerleading. The old scholarship limits were barely enough to give partial scholarships to fill out a roster. The new roster limits are much higher, but my thoughts are the vast majority of programs aren't going to offer that many scholarships, especially if they're not making any money off the sports. And all but power 4 schools are probably going to opt out of that, and just stick to the old scholarship model.

https://blog.sportsrecruits.com/2025/06/13/ncaa-roster-limits-explained-what-every-recruit-family-needs-to-know/

As much as I'd enjoy it, I don't see anyone filling out a rowing program with 68 full scholarships. I say this mostly because I've never once seen collegiate rowing on television, espn+, or even on youtube. I watch a lot of weird sports, so if I've never seen it, it's probably not bringing in any money - and throwing a full FCS football team's worth of scholarships at a sport like that just seems laughable.

[IC798891]

What you describe is absolutely the rationale for closing that loophole in the early 1990s, yes.

Sometimes gossip is right!

[IC798891]

Which essentially amounted to giving someone a track scholarship but then strongly encouraging them to also join the football team.

That would work out MUCH better if your D1 sports were football or oddly essentially cheerleading. The old scholarship limits were barely enough to give partial scholarships to fill out a roster.

But even a few thousand dollars for a partial scholarship to track might be enough to sway him to come to your school. Once he's there, even if he's lower on the track totem pole for you, he might still be the fastest dude on a football field. So you convince him to concentrate on football, and even if it doesn't impact the track team that much, and you have a D1 caliber athlete (raw perhaps, but still there) on a D3 roster.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

I'm not sure why we're re-litigating 40 year old decisions, but it's pretty clear the NCAA is going to give the Power 5 whatever it wants.  If they want to have one set of rules for revenue sports and another set of rules for non-revenue, they'll just do it where they are.  No reason to come to d3.

The schools who should drop down are largely schools that don't factor in football or basketball anyway.

[Caz Bombers]

I also don't think it would be good for D3 to have a sudden influx of perhaps 100 or more schools that don't really want to be here, either institutionally or from their fan base perspective.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

I also don't think it would be good for D3 to have a sudden influx of perhaps 100 or more schools that don't really want to be here, either institutionally or from their fan base perspective.

Currently, I believe it's still in place, there's an annual limit of five new schools.  Any D1 schools who want to reclassify would have to wait their turn.

[Kuiper]

I also don't think it would be good for D3 to have a sudden influx of perhaps 100 or more schools that don't really want to be here, either institutionally or from their fan base perspective.

If there ever really was a move out of DI of that scale, it would be to create some alternative/lower "DI" level, akin to the old DI-AA (FCS) in football.  Most schools and their alums simply couldn't take the horror of being seen as "dropping" from DI. 

If there was a big D3 move, I could see it as being one that emphasized high academic/high athletic in a way that was characterized as DIII+ or something like that.  For example, the Ivy League and the Patriot League could move to a "high athletic/high academic" division with its own set of rules.  There would probably be a clamor from existing DIII schools eager to get in that division for branding purposes.

[Gregory Sager]

I also don't think it would be good for D3 to have a sudden influx of perhaps 100 or more schools that don't really want to be here, either institutionally or from their fan base perspective.

I doubt it would be "100 or more schools." Looking at the current list of 365 D1 schools, I count 37 institutions that look like reasonable candidates to move from D1 to D3 because they fit the most common D3 profile. My criteria are: private, undergraduate population of less than 5,500 students, non-HBCU (since HBCU schools have become very intentional over recent decades about affiliating together), geographic proximity to existing D3 conference(s),  non-D1-FBS, and not a member of the Patriot League.

I'm sure that among these 37 schools there are several that have compelling reasons why they wouldn't reclassify to  D3 under any circumstances, however dire.

Bellarmine (Louisville, KY)
Bryant (Smithfield, RI)
Campbell (Buies Creek, NC)
Canisius (Buffalo, NY)
Charleston Southern (North Charleston, SC)
Davidson (Davidson, NC)
Drake (Des Moines, IA)
Evansville (Evansville, IN)
Furman (Greenville, SC)
Gardner-Webb (Boiling Springs, NC)
Houston Christian (Houston, TX)
Iona (New Rochelle, NY)
LaSalle (Philadelphia, PA)
Lipscomb (Nashville, TN)
Longwood (Farmville, VA)
Manhattan (New York, NY)
Marist (Poughkeepsie, NY)
Merrimack (North Andover, MA)
Monmouth (West Long Branch, NJ)
Mount St. Mary's (Emmitsburg, MD)
Niagara (Lewiston, NY)
Pepperdine (Malibu, CA)
Portland (Portland, OR)
Presbyterian (Clinton, SC)
Providence (Providence, RI)
Queens (Charlotte, NC)
Richmond (Richmond, VA)
Rider (Lawrenceville, NJ)
Robert Morris (Moon Township, PA)
St. Bonaventure (St. Bonaventure, NY)
St. Joseph's (Philadelphia, PA)
St. Peter's (Jersey City, NJ)
Siena (Loudonville, NY)
Stonehill (Easton, MA)
Valparaiso (Valparaiso, IN)
Wagner (New York, NY)
Wofford (Spartanburg, SC)

[Ralph Turner]

I might understand the schools in the South from Sager's list. The members of the Southern Conference and the Big South, of which a few are listed, have strong natural rivals and clearly view their missions and visions differently from the USA South and the CCs.

Not being privy to the inner workings of Houston Christian, however, I can see one of their peer institutions being Dallas Baptist University (very successful D1 in Baseball 41-18 in 2025 and went 1-2 in the Baton Rouge Regional).

I see this mostly as a northeast US problem where demographics are squeezing them.

[IC798891]

I'm not sure why we're re-litigating 40 year old decisions, but it's pretty clear the NCAA is going to give the Power 5 whatever it wants.  If they want to have one set of rules for revenue sports and another set of rules for non-revenue, they'll just do it where they are.  No reason to come to d3.

The schools who should drop down are largely schools that don't factor in football or basketball anyway.

No one's "re-litigating" anything. I was offering historical context to possibly help someon more fully understand an issue

[CNU85]

My thoughts on the 2 Virginia schools on that list. Longwood I could fathom. $100 million endowment. 5,000 enrolled. Could fit nicely in the ODAC.

Richmond. I can't see them moving. While they have fewer enrolled (just under 4,000), they like what publicity they can get being D1. Their endowment is over $3 billion. I think they are financially stable and can do what they want.

but those are just my thoughts not based on much research whatsoever.

[Ralph Turner]

I 'queried' about Longwood being D-3 and they were, for a "cup-of-coffee" in the late 1970's. They rapidly progressed to D2 about 1980 and finally to D-1 from 2003-2007.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

My thoughts on the 2 Virginia schools on that list. Longwood I could fathom. $100 million endowment. 5,000 enrolled. Could fit nicely in the ODAC.

Richmond. I can't see them moving. While they have fewer enrolled (just under 4,000), they like what publicity they can get being D1. Their endowment is over $3 billion. I think they are financially stable and can do what they want.

but those are just my thoughts not based on much research whatsoever.

Not to be a conspiracy theorist, but Longwood did hire Tom Palombo this year.  Putting a d3 head coach on staff was exactly what Hartford did before they announced a move.  That person didn't end up transitioning into the HC role for UHart, but you have to imagine it was part of the thinking at the time.

[jknezek]

What I think is really going to happen. 60-80 schools are going to break off from the NCAA. They are going to form 4 conferences of 15-20 and it's going to be developmental pro ball. These schools are going to play football, m&w basketball, and baseball, maybe softball or women's soccer thrown in.

The rest of the former D1, FCS and FBS, who all get "left behind", are going to rebrand as the "real" Division 1. They aren't going to want to give up the prestige of that title, and they will basically turn back the clock to pre-NIL days. It's going to look like the early 90s. Lower conference payouts, facilities will age, coaching contracts will be reasonable, along with staff size, and scholarships will be the big point. The big difference might be an FCS style playoff instead of the bowl games. They will hold most of the current NCAA sports, as it will be reasonable and useful to these sports to amortize facilities over many more student athletes.

D2 and D3 will remain mostly the same, though NIL will, eventually, disappear again. A few schools will move down from the "new" D1 as the money no longer is as sweet a temptation, but most will be fine.

The new "pro" league will continue to raid the new D1. In fact, I think the majority of their players will come from the new D1 in football. Less so in the other sports. But very few h.s. kids are going to make that jump in football. In accommodation, the new D1 will have majors/degrees that focus on athletics. That way they can prepare for the jump and they don't feel like the schooling is a waste.

There will be some jockeying for those 60-80 spots, though the major conferences pretty much have that sown up already. You might see a few schools like Memphis, who offered to pay their way in to the Big 12 and take no payout, try and desperate jump in, you might see a few schools get booted. I suspect they will do this by making schools put some skin in the game to get started, like a franchise fee. But basically, that's what you are going to have.

If these schools want to have other athletic programs, they will do it amongst themselves. I could see golf, tennis, t&f, etc., all sports with pro pathways, but not too many, and not among all schools. The only real hang up I see is the time frame of eligibility. Somehow it will need to be enforced. And the pay is going to have to be fixed. At some point NIL is going to have to actually mean something. The deep pocketed donors are not going to give the way they have been, recently, forever. It need to be sustainable. So I suspect it will start to work like a business. Players will get their own sponsorships, but pay will come from the school based on revenue.

Anyway, I give it a 5-10yr timeline, max, mainly due to tv contracts, with the only wildcard being Washington stepping in and doing something to stop it.

[Gregory Sager]

I might understand the schools in the South from Sager's list. The members of the Southern Conference and the Big South, of which a few are listed, have strong natural rivals and clearly view their missions and visions differently from the USA South and the CCs.

Not being privy to the inner workings of Houston Christian, however, I can see one of their peer institutions being Dallas Baptist University (very successful D1 in Baseball 41-18 in 2025 and went 1-2 in the Baton Rouge Regional).

I see this mostly as a northeast US problem where demographics are squeezing them.

Yes, as I said there are any number of reasons as to why any of the 37 schools I listed would reject the option to reclassify to D3. Houston Christian's location in a prosperous and growing state is as good a reason as any.

My thoughts on the 2 Virginia schools on that list. Longwood I could fathom. $100 million endowment. 5,000 enrolled. Could fit nicely in the ODAC.

Richmond. I can't see them moving. While they have fewer enrolled (just under 4,000), they like what publicity they can get being D1. Their endowment is over $3 billion. I think they are financially stable and can do what they want.

but those are just my thoughts not based on much research whatsoever.

And, again, I said that there are any number of reasons why any of those 37 institutions wouldn't contemplate reclassification to D3. Richmond isn't the only small private school with a fat endowment that has probably insulated itself from the need to leave D1. That description also fits Davidson, Furman, Pepperdine, and perhaps a few others. But the option's still there if a school feels so devoid of peers at the D1 level and so locked out of any potential athletic success that it becomes willing to consider a reclassification.

I 'queried' about Longwood being D-3 and they were, for a "cup-of-coffee" in the late 1970's. They rapidly progressed to D2 about 1980 and finally to D-1 from 2003-2007.

I remember the brief tenure of the Lancers in D3 very well, because Longwood played the third of North Park's threepeat national champions in the 1980 semifinals in Rock Island. Thanks to the defensive heroics of Vikings backup center Keith French, who blocked what would've been the game-tying shot at the buzzer, North Park prevailed, 57-55, to advance to the national championship game the next night and the final moment of public glory for that group of Vikings as they secured the only threepeat in D3 history.

Longwood was not ready to accept the outcome of the game. I will never forget how the next day at Augustana's Carver P.E. Center a pair of Lancers fans stuck around after the Longwood vs. Wittenberg consolation game so that they could tote a giant poster that read, "Smith and Brown presided over the Rape of Longwood", around the gym in protest of what they felt was a game that had been decided by the two refs rather than the players. And in a 2014 article about the 1979-80 Lancers season that is still posted on the Longwood website, this is how that semifinal game was described:

Faced with long odds again, the Lancers nearly pulled off a giant upset on the national stage.  ESPN, a relatively unknown sports network at the time, broadcast the game with play-by-play announcer Paul Brown and Dick Vitale, a recently fired NBA coach, providing the color commentary.
 
Longwood was not intimidated by the size and tradition of the North Park College Vikings from Chicago.
 
The Lancers trailed 30-28 at halftime before North Park went ahead 42-36 midway through the second half.  Longwood battled back to tie the contest at 45, and then led 53-52 with just 39 seconds left.
 
The Vikings took advantage of a pair of controversial traveling calls against the Lancers to take a 56-53 lead at :13.  Longwood's Joe Remar converted on a layup to trim the lead to 56-55 at :06. North Park then made one of two free throws at :05.  Remar's final layup attempt at the buzzer was blocked by the 6-8 Keith French and the Lancers' Cinderella season came to an end 57-55.  The game continues to leave a bad after taste.
 
"We were robbed," Coach Ron Bash recently noted from his home in Pompano Beach Florida.
 
"That is the only bitter taste that I really have about that (game)," said Ford.  "We just didn't win and should have.  It was taken from us.  But there was nothing we could do about it."

The next year Longwood moved to D2. One of the first Lancers basketball scholies that they gave out that off-season was to a skinny 6'6" incoming freshman named Jerome Kersey. Of course Kersey went on to play in the NBA for 17 seasons -- most of them, ironically, for the same team for whom the star center of the 1979-80 North Park Vikings, Michael Harper, had played, the Portland Trail Blazers.

I'd love to see the Lancers return to D3. I have a feeling that a lot of Longwood grayhairs would love the chance to play North Park again.