Conference changes

[jmcozenlaw]

IF we had most of the D2 schools move down to D3, that may necessitate a split to maintain competitive balance in the division.

My baseline assumption is programs coming to D3 from 'higher' levels will struggle for a while as they adjust to turning over their roster and recruiting without scholarships to offer.

For the average student-athlete (those not going to highly selective nor selective schools), in the case of the PSAC in PA, maybe the differential could be tuition/room & board/fees coming in at about half the cost of many D3 schools in PA. I know many PSAC grads who have done extremely well for themselves in a variety of fields and if I was a coach at any of the PSAC schools (after the move to D3), I am selling the student-athlete (again, the non-selective, non-highly selective school student athlete) on a variety of factors......facilities (if and where applicable), academics and cost. Add in decent financial aid packages and the all-in cost factor of a PSAC school will be much more reasonable than the all-in cost of your average, garden variety, tuition dependent, D3 school.

[Patrick Coleman]

The PSAC is huge.  I wonder what d3 would do with a request to bring 17 schools into the division all at once?

I'm not sure the procedure for a whole conference changing affiliation.  Would they be considered individually?

Certainly a conference of this size joining en masse is unprecedented.

Once upon a time, the Northwest Conference came in all together, but these days a conference has to sponsor a school before they can gain entry to D-III. Not sure how that would work.

[Patrick Coleman]

IF we had most of the D2 schools move down to D3, that may necessitate a split to maintain competitive balance in the division.

My baseline assumption is programs coming to D3 from 'higher' levels will struggle for a while as they adjust to turning over their roster and recruiting without scholarships to offer.

For the average student-athlete (those not going to highly selective nor selective schools), in the case of the PSAC in PA, maybe the differential could be tuition/room & board/fees coming in at about half the cost of many D3 schools in PA. I know many PSAC grads who have done extremely well for themselves in a variety of fields and if I was a coach at any of the PSAC schools (after the move to D3), I am selling the student-athlete (again, the non-selective, non-highly selective school student athlete) on a variety of factors......facilities (if and where applicable), academics and cost. Add in decent financial aid packages and the all-in cost factor of a PSAC school will be much more reasonable than the all-in cost of your average, garden variety, tuition dependent, D3 school.

Also, PSAC schools vary widely in the amount of athletic aid they currently give, with a number of them giving lower than the maximum. They distance between some of these programs and Division III isn't super large.

[ronk]

IF we had most of the D2 schools move down to D3, that may necessitate a split to maintain competitive balance in the division.

My baseline assumption is programs coming to D3 from 'higher' levels will struggle for a while as they adjust to turning over their roster and recruiting without scholarships to offer.

For the average student-athlete (those not going to highly selective nor selective schools), in the case of the PSAC in PA, maybe the differential could be tuition/room & board/fees coming in at about half the cost of many D3 schools in PA. I know many PSAC grads who have done extremely well for themselves in a variety of fields and if I was a coach at any of the PSAC schools (after the move to D3), I am selling the student-athlete (again, the non-selective, non-highly selective school student athlete) on a variety of factors......facilities (if and where applicable), academics and cost. Add in decent financial aid packages and the all-in cost factor of a PSAC school will be much more reasonable than the all-in cost of your average, garden variety, tuition dependent, D3 school.

 Having done 15+ years of evaluations of HS girl prospects for college basketball in the Mid-Atlantic area, I've found that a significant number each year choose PSAC and its nearby competitors(SUNYAC and NJAC) over the private schools for the reasons that you mention.