Future of Division III

[MCScots2013]

How about prior 2 years' average NPI above a certain level gets an AQ?  If a smaller conference has good teams then they benefit, if they fall off then they don't get a bid.

Or, pool (with a little "p") smaller conferences in a particular region together and highest NPI between the teams gets the AQ. Looking at you, ASC and SCAC...

Fair point about limiting number of conference members. Remember the USA South a few years back that had schools split off to form the CCS. There was an ungodly number of USAC teams before the split.

[y_jack_lok]

Are you sure about that?  I see your point, but tons of schools are adding graduate courses.  Schools that were strictly undergraduate 20 years ago when I was in high school and looking around, now shock me when I see how many graduate programs they have. I'm sure there are a lot of online classes, but graduate nonetheless.

I live in Virginia, so here are some examples in the region: Roanoke, Shenandoah, Averett (seemingly online), Bridgewater, E&H, Guilford, Methodist (now has a medical school), Greensboro, Lynchburg, Piedmont, Pfeiffer--given a few more minutes I can find more.

Let's take Guilford as an example, first.  The Guilford MBA is a 12-month program, tuition is $19,800.  When prompted to go to the "Financial Aid" page, it has an overview of the unsubsidized federal loans--no mention of scholarships. Another avenue for funding is tuition reimbursement as a benefit from employers.  Schools are getting wise to that and adding these programs.  Can't say I fault them, especially if you have the same faculty and you know beforehand the money is coming in.

Here's probably a better example: Roanoke, which has two MBA options. 4+1, and online 2-year self-paced.  Not  a terrible idea.

I'm not saying it's a good idea for every small colleges to rush to do this, but faced with the numbers issues they have to do something.

RMC started a Physicians Assistant grad program in 2023. https://www.rmc.edu/academics/physician-assistant-studies/#About-RMC-PA

[Ron Boerger]

How about prior 2 years' average NPI above a certain level gets an AQ?  If a smaller conference has good teams then they benefit, if they fall off then they don't get a bid.

Or, pool (with a little "p") smaller conferences in a particular region together and highest NPI between the teams gets the AQ. Looking at you, ASC and SCAC...

Fair point about limiting number of conference members. Remember the USA South a few years back that had schools split off to form the CCS. There was an ungodly number of USAC teams before the split.

The SCAC has ten full members even after the loss of McMurry and Schreiner.  The only sport where they are a "small" conference is football.

[DagarmanSpartan]

Yeah.

University of St. Thomas here in Houston made the D3 Elite Eight in men's basketball out of the SCAC.

[Ralph Turner]

How about prior 2 years' average NPI above a certain level gets an AQ?  If a smaller conference has good teams then they benefit, if they fall off then they don't get a bid.

Or, pool (with a little "p") smaller conferences in a particular region together and highest NPI between the teams gets the AQ. Looking at you, ASC and SCAC...

Fair point about limiting number of conference members. Remember the USA South a few years back that had schools split off to form the CCS. There was an ungodly number of USAC teams before the split.

...and CCS, which lost a founding member this year... 

[MCScots2013]

The CCS was a weird experiment, and if I'm being honest, something I never thought highly of since I'm a football alum.  We were established in the conference (for a long time) and felt like some schools were run off after the USAC grew too big too fast. The conference was the island for misfit toys and everyone got an invite.

The ASC/SCAC comment was directly pointed to football and the highly prized AQ.

[KnightSlappy]

Another item on the agenda that could be of interest is rethinking the the automatic qualification process and how it might be perversely affecting conference affiliations and travel/expenses:

Rethink championships automatic qualification – address unintended conference
behavior driven by AQ requirements. Preserve championship access by identifying
opportunities for stability and cost savings to reshape conference realignments
decisions for AQ access that may result in inefficient, unstable membership
outcomes. 

I believe one aspect they are (or were) specifically looking at is the C2C model where conference members don't need to play a conference schedule in order to be AQ eligible.

[Ron Boerger]

The ASC/SCAC comment was directly pointed to football and the highly prized AQ.

The SCAC is adding Millsaps in 2027.  The
Majors will now have to travel to Texas/Colorado 2-3x as much as they do now but may find a conference they can be somewhat competitive in (they were dead last in the SAA this year and it wasn't close).  Having under 600 students isn't helpful.

[jknezek]

The ASC/SCAC comment was directly pointed to football and the highly prized AQ.

The SCAC is adding Millsaps in 2027.  The
Majors will now have to travel to Texas/Colorado 2-3x as much as they do now but may find a conference they can be somewhat competitive in (they were dead last in the SAA this year and it wasn't close).  Having under 600 students isn't helpful.

Wow. I'm not sure I'd have given up the association with the SAA schools, but with first Hendrix and now Millsaps doing it, maybe there just isn't as much benefit as I thought. The travel is a bear, but Millsaps to the rest of the SCAC isn't great either.

[Ron Boerger]

Per the D3football.com article on the move about 2/3rds of their <600 students are athletes.  Maybe they're not happy being uncompetitive in the SAA. 

I don't get the move otherwise.  Lots more travel including the awful weekends going to Colorado College and another school, a conference that doesn't fare very well in the NACDA Directors Cup, and one, with the exceptions of CC and Austin, which isn't made up of schools that are terribly well-regarded academically.

But once again - you have to tip your hat to SCAC Commissioner Hanberry who finds a way to deal with situations that could cripple other conferences!

[jknezek]

I posted this on the SAA football board, but it probably fits better here.

Check out this realignment now. We can actually make some real regional conferences in the south if people want to make it make sense.

Start with how weird the SAA looks now. You've got Berry, Maryville, Oglethorpe, and Sewanee holding down a pretty simple 200 mile line on the east side. And then it turns into a disaster. Centre, Rhodes, Southwestern, Trinity.

If I was the 4 on the east side, I might try and pick up Huntingdon, Brevard, Covenant, LaGrange, Piedmont and Agnes Scott and make a conference that makes geographic sense. All eastern TN (yeah Brevard is NC, but it's right there), GA and AL. Farthest trip would be Brevard to Huntingdon? Less than 6 hours for teams that have some monsters in their current conferences. That gives you 6 for football and more than that in most other common sports.

It would free up Trinity and Southwestern to go back to the SCAC. Belhaven as well with Millsaps as a travel partner. Rhodes maybe as well? Making the SCAC a cherry conference and ending all the issues with poaching between the two Texas conferences.

That ends the SAA, basically, and we deal with the rest of the USA South, which is now all in NC and VA. Pull in Christopher Newport, who needs a home and now fits the footprint and was once a member, and Gallaudet, who needs a home, and you have 6 for football and more for most common sports.

Centre and Asbury are really the only two left out from the SAA, CCS, USA South, and SCAC. Given they are both in Kentucky, they'd probably need to sniff around the midwest for new homes. But there are a lot more conferences that direction and since Asbury doesn't need a football home that makes it easier for them. Centre is a well known and generally strong school in many sports, you'd think someone would be happy to take them on.

All of a sudden, the southern conferences actually start to make sense for D3.

[Ron Boerger]

There's geographic sense (which you have nailed) and then there is "look and feel" sense (e.g. "we only want to associate with schools that meet our standards").  The SAA was formed out of the SCAC which was supposedly all about the latter but then started admitting a bunch of schools that were definitely not of the same academic level, and it was was nice because the SAA could also now say "look how much more compact we are".

Fast forward a couple of decades and survival is a third, more important factor.  The SAA would never have brought Maryville in (sorry) had it not been for B-SC failing. They would  have never brought in Trinity and Southwestern except both are rock solid and have academics that rival anyone in the conference, and both schools valued the SAA's commitment to academics.  Now they may have to reach out to a CCS school they wouldn't have dreamed of before just to keep their numbers up. 

The question for the eastern SAA schools is simple:  preserve a reputational conference with travel pains and costs, or throw that away to form a more compact, possibly less nationally competitive entity.  They've done that once already; would they do it again if it means competing with schools they consider beneath them?

[jknezek]

Completely agree. But we saw both Hendrix and Millsaps say it's not worth it for one reason or another. So I'm thinking if two schools are thinking that way more may follow.

On the other hand, if the SAA wants to double down on itself, Colorado College is the obvious answer. But given Maryville, I suspect they have reached he limits and it's more likely going the other direction.

W&L is the other obvious candidate, but I suspect that ship sailed many years ago. W&L just didn't want the travel, the ODAC is too friendly, and too winnable.

[MCScots2013]

Damn. Looks like I jinxed the SAA.

[Gray Fox]

The SCIAC and NWC are islands of schools that are very diverse.  It works for them.