Future of Division III

[WUPHF]

No schools are moving to Division IV. Sharpie.

[Patrick Coleman]

Agreed -- there is no funding available for a Division IV, frankly. There isn't enough for Division III.

[Kuiper]

No schools are moving to Division IV. Sharpie.

The NCAA won't create Division IV most likely, but schools could cut NCAA sports and play club only like Bryn Athyn did last year.

[AndrewB]

No schools are moving to Division IV. Sharpie.

Their won't be a D4 because why would you allow the NCAA make rules but not fund the sports. 
Juco leagues exist
NAIA exist
What's to say a newer non-NCAA entity doesn't appear.
What does the NCAA fund?  Only the post-season?  If a teams not making the playoffs, funding doesn't make a difference. 

[jmcozenlaw]

I've always known there were a lot of D3 schools in the Northeast, but the number in some states is eye-popping.  I thought growing up in Virginia we had a lot (20), but NY and PA both have 60 and MA has 39. That's 37% of all D3 schools.

Those 3 states have more schools than the following 12 states, combined: VA, WV, KY, OH, IN, MI, IL, MO, MD, IA, WI, and MN (150 total).

The comment about being in the 3rd inning and going into extras hits a little different after looking at the numbers...


EDIT to add context to D2:  NY, PA and MA have 37 total schools.  22 of those are in PA alone.
302 D2 schools and the Southeast has over a third of those at 123 (if your definition of Southeast mirrors the SEC plus VA and NC...)

The D2 schools in PA (most in the PSAC) bought some time with playing a shell game of sorts over the past 12-24 months, but for a handful of them, the grim reaper is also approaching their doorsteps. I have a lot of friends who coach football and men's basketball in the PSAC and to a person, they are starting to get a little worried. I thought the closings of the private schools, along with their tuition and fee advantage would help them, and it has on the fringes, but the cliff of college aged students now and looking out into the near, mid and far term, might doom as many as half of them. Scary times indeed!

I posted something similar to this a while back, but there are some strong rumors coming out of the PSAC (PA DII Conference) that most of the schools (vs. the conference as a whole at this point) are looking at what St. Anselm's just did (and it's sounding like Bentley and SNHU to follow) of dropping down from DII to DIII.

Having been to many PSAC games and seen all of each school's facilities, I've always looked at the PSAC as DII's WIAC (or DIII's WIAC as DII's PSAC). If the Penn State system continues to whittle down satellite campuses, with the plan of growing 7-8 of them into larger campuses and offering a full compliment of athletics (i.e. football and wrestling as two examples), THIS would be more in line with the WIAC. 

This has been addressed here before, but would it be possible for the PSAC to have discussions with whomever would make the call, to pick up the conference as a whole and plug it into DIII? I am hearing that the majority of the PA "state schools" would like to look into dropping down a level and the non-state schools such as Gannon, Seton Hill, Pitt-Johnstown and Shepherd (not even in PA), looking to make a Mercyhurst type of move or find another DII conference.

The wheels on the conference roulette bus go round and round, round and round, round and round. The wheels on the..........