University of New Orleans & D3-D1

[Ron Boerger]

UNO had considered jettisoning their money-losing and not terribly competitive scholarship (D1) athletic programs and joining D3, but lacked the conviction to follow through and had decided to go D2.  As of this morning, that decision has been rescinded and they will stay in D1, where they can both continue to lose money and be non-competitive.  Congratulations, UNO braintrust!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/university-of-new-orleans-halts-transition-to-division-ii-will-remain-d-i/2012/03/08/gIQAESyuzR_story.html

[smedindy]

Hmmmm....I wonder if the Sun Belt will take them back or if they'll have to scrounge for a conference.

[hickory_cornhusker]

Hmmmm....I wonder if the Sun Belt will take them back or if they'll have to scrounge for a conference.

I don't remember where I read it, but it sounded like UNO is looking at trying to get into the Southland Conference.

[Just Bill]

UNO had considered jettisoning their money-losing and not terribly competitive scholarship (D1) athletic programs and joining D3, but lacked the conviction to follow through and had decided to go D2.  As of this morning, that decision has been rescinded and they will stay in D1, where they can both continue to lose money and be non-competitive.  Congratulations, UNO braintrust!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/university-of-new-orleans-halts-transition-to-division-ii-will-remain-d-i/2012/03/08/gIQAESyuzR_story.html

What on earth could they have been thinking through this whole process. Is no one in charge?

[smedindy]

They see the $$$ there for the D-1 basketball tourney. That and being a patsy for teams in the SEC to play for guarantee games.

[Ralph Turner]

Hmmmm....I wonder if the Sun Belt will take them back or if they'll have to scrounge for a conference.

I don't remember where I read it, but it sounded like UNO is looking at trying to get into the Southland Conference.

Why does the Southland want a non-football school?

Abilene Christian University, a charter member of the Southland Conference from way, way back wants to move from D-2 to D-1 and rejoin the Southland.

[smedindy]

Hmmmm....I wonder if the Sun Belt will take them back or if they'll have to scrounge for a conference.

I don't remember where I read it, but it sounded like UNO is looking at trying to get into the Southland Conference.

Why does the Southland want a non-football school?

Abilene Christian University, a charter member of the Southland Conference from way, way back wants to move from D-2 to D-1 and rejoin the Southland.

Not all Southland schools sponsor football, and UT-SA, which just started it, is moving to the WAC. If they want to keep at 12 members there's an opening for UNO. And they may be better suited than Texas Pan-Am. However, it's still rather short sighted for UNO to think of that. I think Birmingham Southern should have been a great example for them - though with UNO now part of the Louisiana State school behemoth there may be politics involved.

[Just Bill]

They see the $$$ there for the D-1 basketball tourney. That and being a patsy for teams in the SEC to play for guarantee games.

Right, but that was all there two years ago when they started this ridiclous campaign. Why go through the whole hassle to end up right where you were?

[smedindy]

Again, I bet it's intertwined with the always-colorful world of Louisiana and New Orleans politics.

[Knightstalker]

Again, I bet it's intertwined with the always-colorful world of Louisiana and New Orleans politics.

Unfortunately that is what too often happens to state universities and colleges.  They get caught up in political games that only end up hurting students.  It seems that too often administrators and trustees seem to care more about their own pocketbooks and image and not enough about the students, you know the ones paying the freight for the schools.

[NCF]

Again, I bet it's intertwined with the always-colorful world of Louisiana and New Orleans politics.

Unfortunately that is what too often happens to state universities and colleges.  They get caught up in political games that only end up hurting students.  It seems that too often administrators and trustees seem to care more about their own pocketbooks and image and not enough about the students, you know the ones paying the freight for the schools.

Speaking of which-North Central tuition going up 4% for next year

[Privateer6]

not terribly competitive scholarship (D1) athletic programs

FYI, before all this mess started, the baseball team made the DI NCAA regionals in 2007 and 2008 (winning the Sun Belt Tournament in 2007).

What on earth could they have been thinking through this whole process. Is no one in charge?

Basically, different people have been in charge.  Tim Ryan was chancellor of the school.  Athletics had largely been run on student fees and, when the size of the school dropped from 17,000 to 10,000 post-Katrina, the athletic department was producing more red ink than usual.  In the face of multiple state budget cuts, Ryan decided to go DIII.  The LSU system, which UNO was a part of, endorsed this move.  That plan involved starting DIII football in 2011.

Ryan was then fired.  The interim leadership indicated that we were unable to find any DIII conference home and made the case that we could, at least, afford DII.  They also secured a DII conference home in the Gulf South Conference.  The LSU system signed off on this proposal, too.  That plan included raising funds to start DII football by 2015.

A bill was introduced that would have merged UNO and Southern University of New Orleans (NAIA in athletics) and placed the merged university in the University of Louisiana system.  That bill was defeated and an alternative proposal emerged to just move UNO into the UL system and that passed.

All 8 other schools in the UL system are in DI.  The UL system is headed by the former president of Southeastern Louisiana University who was in charge of SLU when it restarted its football program.

The UL system indicated that a final decision would be left to the new UNO president.  Dr. Peter Fos was appointed as the new president of UNO, determined how much he would have to find in his budget to support UNO in DI and determined that a) he could do so and b) it was worth it to do so.

Dr. Fos said he can and will fund a competitive DI program (without football).  About football, he indicated he still wants to start it, but it will take $3-4M/year that he does not currently have.  Indications are that this money would come, in part, from an increased student fee and, in part, from outside sources.  In his press conference regarding DI, he indicated that football at UNO may end up pushed back a year to 2016.  In any event, it seemed clear that football at UNO in DI was part of his plan.

Rumor has it that the Southland will welcome us.  They did just add another non-football school (Oral Roberts) and are losing two schools that did not play Southland football (UTA, who has no football, and UTSA, who did not play in their league), so they may be okay with two non-football additions, particularly if they feel reasonably confident that football is coming to UNO.

Anyway, that's probably more info than y'all wanted on a school that isn't going DIII, but that's a quick recap at what's been happening at UNO since our original DIII announcement.

Why does the Southland want a non-football school?

As noted, they're losing two schools (UTA, UTSA) that didn't play Soutland football and are adding one (ORU) that doesn't play football.  I hope the Privateers are playing football by 2016, but we probably make sense as we'd add one large market to a league that's losing two.

I think Birmingham Southern should have been a great example for them - though with UNO now part of the Louisiana State school behemoth there may be politics involved.

While I'd rather be DI than DIII, I would have supported my alma mater either way.  That said, the word we were getting was that no DIII conference wanted any part of UNO, a 10,000-student (hoping to return to 15,000+) public university that intended to play football (we'd already started signing games for a DIII football startup in 2011).  That's supposedly why they started looking at DII -- the GSC was invited us.

[sunny]

That said, the word we were getting was that no DIII conference wanted any part of UNO, a 10,000-student (hoping to return to 15,000+) public university that intended to play football (we'd already started signing games for a DIII football startup in 2011).

I think the school type, combined with the "vibe" that UNO really didn't want to be Division III (not just alums, etc - but the actual administration) and were just seeing it as some sort of "worst case scenario" solution and the fact that, as you indicate, the captain(s) of the ship kept changing are probably what scared Division III conferences off.  It never seemed anyone connected with UNO really understood Division III, so I think it probably works out best for all parties that it didn't happen.

[Gregory Sager]

That said, the word we were getting was that no DIII conference wanted any part of UNO, a 10,000-student (hoping to return to 15,000+) public university that intended to play football (we'd already started signing games for a DIII football startup in 2011).

I think the school type, combined with the "vibe" that UNO really didn't want to be Division III (not just alums, etc - but the actual administration) and were just seeing it as some sort of "worst case scenario" solution and the fact that, as you indicate, the captain(s) of the ship kept changing are probably what scared Division III conferences off.  It never seemed anyone connected with UNO really understood Division III, so I think it probably works out best for all parties that it didn't happen.

I agree with this, and I think that it is likely that D3 conferences were leery of having UNO join in light of the unsteady and irresolute nature of the school's leadership. But the more fundamental reason, I think, why no D3 conferences came calling to have UNO join them is because the school wasn't a good fit geographically and demographically. D3 schools are thin on the ground in that part of the country -- the closest D3 schools to Nawlins are Millsaps (SAA) and Mississippi College (ASC), both three hours distant, and Louisiana College (ASC), which is three and a half hours away. The ASC, which would've been the only logical choice in terms of geography, is already spread out enough as it is; UNO would've created an even greater travel burden for the league. And, demographically, as Privateer6 said, UNO is not a good fit for schools in that part of the country. The only peer institution it would have as a 10,000+ public university would be Texas-Dallas.