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Is Arkansas Tech going D-I?
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arkstfan Away
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Post: #21
RE: Is Arkansas Tech going D-I?
I think it is unlikely.

They are around 12,000 enrollment so that's not an issue. They are 80 miles from Little Rock television and 80 miles for Fort Smith television so getting coverage outside local radio and local newspaper would be a challenge.

In 9 years they went from 7500 enrollment to 12,000. I'm not sure Division I athletics is that important for their growth (seeing that they've grown rapidly without Division I athletics). Until the growth spurt their prior president had been seriously considering merging into the Arkansas State University system, the big hitch was the Arkansas Constitution is really funky on boards and commissions and there is no easy way to increase the size of the board of trustees, with only five board slots it was generally presumed that the board would never have more than one Tech aligned member.

Current president is first woman to lead a four year college in Arkansas and well regarded from what I hear. Her background in administration has been at Fitchburg (Division III), Donnelly (no intercollegiate athletics), Washburn (Division II), and Rockhurst (Division II).

Unconditional enrollment requires a high school diploma and a 19 on the ACT. They are the closest open enrollment non-HBCU four year school to Little Rock and second closest to the Fayetteville/Bentonville corridor (UA-Fort Smith is closer).

Budget could be an issue, they spend about $2 million less than UA-Pine Bluff in the SWAC and nearly $8 million less than Central Arkansas in the Southland. Their athletic fee if bumped to the same level as UCA would only generate about another $400,000 per year.

They were a charter member of the GAC and league is headquartered in Russellville.

Athletics have been down a bit over the past success.

If they could find a conference home, they are plausible but they aren't so successful that there is going to be any real push to grab them.

Trivia for anyone who made it this far.
Arkansas State, Arkansas Tech, Southern Arkansas, and UA-Monticellor are what are known as 1909 schools in Arkansas. They were started by an act adopted during the 1909 legislative session creating four agriculture schools with home ec programs for women. They were advanced high schools. They were known as State Agriculture School - X District. AState was First District, Tech Second District, SAU Third District, and UAM Fourth District. AState became a junior college and the others followed.
The four were then renamed Arkansas A&M with the District nomenclature retained except for Tech becoming Arkansas Polytechnical. It was the last of the four to stop offering high school courses.

The Wonder Boys nickname comes from John Tucker who as a freshman led Tech to an upset win over AState. He was called the Wonder Boy and the name stuck to the team. He played for Alabama's Rose Bowl team.

One of the reasons Arkansas Tech led the charge to create the GAC was to get the Arkansas Division II schools into a tighter athletic footprint to try to head off Harding University's flirtation with going Division I. Harding was in serious talks with the Summit and less productive talks with the Pioneer to provide a football home.
(This post was last modified: 04-09-2018 11:51 PM by arkstfan.)
04-09-2018 11:46 PM
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Nerdlinger Offline
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Post: #22
RE: Is Arkansas Tech going D-I?
(04-09-2018 09:24 PM)PeteTheChop Wrote:  
(04-09-2018 09:13 PM)DavidSt Wrote:  
(04-09-2018 08:35 PM)PeteTheChop Wrote:  
(04-09-2018 07:29 PM)DavidSt Wrote:  The Wonder Boys do play very close games with D1 schools at times. The Golden Suns did won a game against a D1 school a few years back in women's basketball. Arkansas do get some transfer from Tech as well. We had some players like Zak Clark, Dickey and Mustaine on our depth charts. They may had to do some basic remedio classes before they could go to Arkansas.

Sounds like you may have some real familiarity with Arkansas Tech.

Does this fellow I heard on the radio have some inside knowledge about a promotion to Division I?


I graduated from Arkansas Tech. I do follow the GAC closely.

Congrats.

Don't know if you'd mind speculating, but any thoughts as to if ATU will be joining the "big boys" as call-in to the radio show suggested?

DavidSt is not known for being prone to speculation.
04-10-2018 07:24 AM
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DavidSt Offline
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Post: #23
RE: Is Arkansas Tech going D-I?
(04-10-2018 07:24 AM)Nerdlinger Wrote:  
(04-09-2018 09:24 PM)PeteTheChop Wrote:  
(04-09-2018 09:13 PM)DavidSt Wrote:  
(04-09-2018 08:35 PM)PeteTheChop Wrote:  
(04-09-2018 07:29 PM)DavidSt Wrote:  The Wonder Boys do play very close games with D1 schools at times. The Golden Suns did won a game against a D1 school a few years back in women's basketball. Arkansas do get some transfer from Tech as well. We had some players like Zak Clark, Dickey and Mustaine on our depth charts. They may had to do some basic remedio classes before they could go to Arkansas.

Sounds like you may have some real familiarity with Arkansas Tech.

Does this fellow I heard on the radio have some inside knowledge about a promotion to Division I?


I graduated from Arkansas Tech. I do follow the GAC closely.

Congrats.

Don't know if you'd mind speculating, but any thoughts as to if ATU will be joining the "big boys" as call-in to the radio show suggested?

DavidSt is not known for being prone to speculation.



Well, with all the schools closing, merging or in financial troubles. We can not rule anything out. While some on here rather attack other people for saying that some schools have a chance on moving up? They really do not pay attention on what is going on with the overall picture of the whole college sports issues going on. We even have several D1 schools in trouble right now like Presbyterian moving their football to the Pioneer League to several HBCUs not able to keep up. If and when D1 goes to the 1A/1AA model for all sports? The top D2 schools could be moved up to D1 as part of the 1AA in sports. Back in the early 2000 when UCA moved up to D1, any games against D2 schools in basketball counted. That did hurt the RPIs for SoS for many schools since some of the games against the top D2 schools when they implemented that any games with lower divisions would not count for w/l and stats. It became now known as an exhibition. That also cut off the paycheck from D1 to D2 schools. It is a reason why many schools are rumored to want to exit D2 for D1 because they could get an extra money to play D1 schools than what you can do right now.

As for Arkansas Tech? They would play in the Southland. UCA, NW LA. State, and some northern schools in both states of Louisiana and Texas are close by. Plus, you could actually play out of conference with Arkansas State, Missouri State, UAPB, Little Rock, La. Tech, Grambling State, Tulsa, Oral Roberts, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Oklahoma State, and some others. If Incarnate Word and Abilene Christian go to the WAC? I think the travel cost is a little better than they are in the GAC when they have to travel to NW. Oklahoma State and SW Oklahoma State.
04-10-2018 10:04 AM
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AZcats Offline
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Post: #24
RE: Is Arkansas Tech going D-I?
(04-10-2018 10:04 AM)DavidSt Wrote:  
(04-10-2018 07:24 AM)Nerdlinger Wrote:  
(04-09-2018 09:24 PM)PeteTheChop Wrote:  
(04-09-2018 09:13 PM)DavidSt Wrote:  
(04-09-2018 08:35 PM)PeteTheChop Wrote:  Sounds like you may have some real familiarity with Arkansas Tech.

Does this fellow I heard on the radio have some inside knowledge about a promotion to Division I?


I graduated from Arkansas Tech. I do follow the GAC closely.

Congrats.

Don't know if you'd mind speculating, but any thoughts as to if ATU will be joining the "big boys" as call-in to the radio show suggested?

DavidSt is not known for being prone to speculation.



Well, with all the schools closing, merging or in financial troubles. We can not rule anything out. While some on here rather attack other people for saying that some schools have a chance on moving up? They really do not pay attention on what is going on with the overall picture of the whole college sports issues going on. We even have several D1 schools in trouble right now like Presbyterian moving their football to the Pioneer League to several HBCUs not able to keep up. If and when D1 goes to the 1A/1AA model for all sports? The top D2 schools could be moved up to D1 as part of the 1AA in sports. Back in the early 2000 when UCA moved up to D1, any games against D2 schools in basketball counted. That did hurt the RPIs for SoS for many schools since some of the games against the top D2 schools when they implemented that any games with lower divisions would not count for w/l and stats. It became now known as an exhibition. That also cut off the paycheck from D1 to D2 schools. It is a reason why many schools are rumored to want to exit D2 for D1 because they could get an extra money to play D1 schools than what you can do right now.

As for Arkansas Tech? They would play in the Southland. UCA, NW LA. State, and some northern schools in both states of Louisiana and Texas are close by. Plus, you could actually play out of conference with Arkansas State, Missouri State, UAPB, Little Rock, La. Tech, Grambling State, Tulsa, Oral Roberts, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Oklahoma State, and some others. If Incarnate Word and Abilene Christian go to the WAC? I think the travel cost is a little better than they are in the GAC when they have to travel to NW. Oklahoma State and SW Oklahoma State.

You are nothing more than a troll. To include the pigs in a list of potential OOC games for ATU when everyone in the world knows will never ever happen is insane. Tech's longest trips in the GAC are Southwestern Oklahoma State (332) and Northwestern Oklahoma State (384) with no other trip more than 300 miles. In the Southland the shortest trips outside of Arkansas is Northwestern State (355) and Stephen F. Austin State (358) with other trips ranging from 439-716 miles so nothing about travel in the Southland is really "close by". Abilene Christian and Incarnate Word can stay or go but travel costs are still going to skyrocket. Go somewhere else to post your fiction.
04-10-2018 11:04 AM
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arkstfan Away
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Post: #25
RE: Is Arkansas Tech going D-I?
(04-10-2018 10:04 AM)DavidSt Wrote:  
(04-10-2018 07:24 AM)Nerdlinger Wrote:  
(04-09-2018 09:24 PM)PeteTheChop Wrote:  
(04-09-2018 09:13 PM)DavidSt Wrote:  
(04-09-2018 08:35 PM)PeteTheChop Wrote:  Sounds like you may have some real familiarity with Arkansas Tech.

Does this fellow I heard on the radio have some inside knowledge about a promotion to Division I?


I graduated from Arkansas Tech. I do follow the GAC closely.

Congrats.

Don't know if you'd mind speculating, but any thoughts as to if ATU will be joining the "big boys" as call-in to the radio show suggested?

DavidSt is not known for being prone to speculation.



Well, with all the schools closing, merging or in financial troubles. We can not rule anything out. While some on here rather attack other people for saying that some schools have a chance on moving up? They really do not pay attention on what is going on with the overall picture of the whole college sports issues going on. We even have several D1 schools in trouble right now like Presbyterian moving their football to the Pioneer League to several HBCUs not able to keep up. If and when D1 goes to the 1A/1AA model for all sports? The top D2 schools could be moved up to D1 as part of the 1AA in sports. Back in the early 2000 when UCA moved up to D1, any games against D2 schools in basketball counted. That did hurt the RPIs for SoS for many schools since some of the games against the top D2 schools when they implemented that any games with lower divisions would not count for w/l and stats. It became now known as an exhibition. That also cut off the paycheck from D1 to D2 schools. It is a reason why many schools are rumored to want to exit D2 for D1 because they could get an extra money to play D1 schools than what you can do right now.

As for Arkansas Tech? They would play in the Southland. UCA, NW LA. State, and some northern schools in both states of Louisiana and Texas are close by. Plus, you could actually play out of conference with Arkansas State, Missouri State, UAPB, Little Rock, La. Tech, Grambling State, Tulsa, Oral Roberts, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Oklahoma State, and some others. If Incarnate Word and Abilene Christian go to the WAC? I think the travel cost is a little better than they are in the GAC when they have to travel to NW. Oklahoma State and SW Oklahoma State.

Arkansas hasn't scheduled a non-conference game against Arkansas State, Little Rock, UAPB or Central Arkansas in something like seven decades. But hey they'll play Tech. 03-lmfao
04-10-2018 11:22 AM
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IWokeUpLikeThis Online
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Post: #26
RE: Is Arkansas Tech going D-I?
Arkansas Tech is 4k students bigger than Gonzaga. Put them in a similar league like the MVC where results prove they can contend (smoked Concordia who smoked Milwaukee who smoked Loyola-Chicago) and this progran will explode.
04-10-2018 01:02 PM
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Post: #27
RE: Is Arkansas Tech going D-I?
(04-10-2018 01:02 PM)IWokeUpLikeThis Wrote:  Arkansas Tech is 4k students bigger than Gonzaga. Put them in a similar league like the MVC where results prove they can contend (smoked Concordia who smoked Milwaukee who smoked Loyola-Chicago) and this progran will explode.

To put it in perspective Arkansas Tech beating Concordia-St. Paul was not that big. We started 10-1 then went 8-10 the rest of the season (18-11) losing in the first round of the conference tournament. However, CSP beating Milwaukee was big since CSP finished the season 5-24; that record does include a win against a D3 school but not the 3 games played against D1 schools in Milwaukee. And Milwaukee's season wasn't much to write home about either, they still finished with a losing record.
(This post was last modified: 04-10-2018 01:39 PM by AZcats.)
04-10-2018 01:30 PM
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Post: #28
RE: Is Arkansas Tech going D-I?
DavidSt: we are calling you out on your comment that Arkansas Tech could get OOC football games games vs Arkansas. Please explain how that it is a possibility when Arkansas will not play games vs other in state programs?
04-11-2018 11:17 AM
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