UT-Dallas looks to move up.

http://utdmercury.com/utd-considers-dii-move/

Lone Star Conference is getting full.

why did Heartland merge w/ the LSC? If both UTT and UTD join that will be 20 schools plus the women's school. 2 Conf of 10 would be better and could expand further.

(04-12-2018 05:42 AM)Fresno St. Alum Wrote:  why did Heartland merge w/ the LSC? If both UTT and UTD join that will be 20 schools plus the women's school. 2 Conf of 10 would be better and could expand further.

The Southland will be losing fb schools to a WAC FBS. That is sacrilegious to this board but will soon reveal itself. The Southland and LSC will both need fb schools. Tarleton willl backfill to the Southland and more LSC schools will move up in coming years. LSC fb will itself need to be replenished.

(04-12-2018 05:42 AM)Fresno St. Alum Wrote:  why did Heartland merge w/ the LSC? If both UTT and UTD join that will be 20 schools plus the women's school. 2 Conf of 10 would be better and could expand further.

Majority of the D2 conferences are huge. Nothing out of the ordinary.

(04-12-2018 10:28 AM)NoDak Wrote:  

(04-12-2018 05:42 AM)Fresno St. Alum Wrote:  why did Heartland merge w/ the LSC? If both UTT and UTD join that will be 20 schools plus the women's school. 2 Conf of 10 would be better and could expand further.

The Southland will be losing fb schools to a WAC FBS. That is sacrilegious to this board but will soon reveal itself. The Southland and LSC will both need fb schools. Tarleton willl backfill to the Southland and more LSC schools will move up in coming years. LSC fb will itself need to be replenished.

Columbia International in SC has applied to the NAIA:

https://www.ciurams.com/news/2017/12/15/...rship.aspx

They are about 1000 students, currently members of the NCCAA. Their history is as a bible school.

The NAIA convention starts tomorrow (Friday) and we'll hear more about who is accepted for 2018. Rumor is nine applicants, the NAIA wrote in a blog earlier this year that there were "at least 8" so the rumor is credible.

The big news from the NAIA convention is that the Council of Presidents will be voting to combine NAIA basketball divisions I & II. Basketball is the only sport in the NAIA with divisions. The difference between the divisions is only scholarship levels. 6 for II and 11 for I. All questions regarding scholarship levels and championship tournament format will be addressed after the vote; the only question considered at this time is whether to combine the divisions.

(04-12-2018 12:07 PM)teamvsn Wrote:  Columbia International in SC has applied to the NAIA:

https://www.ciurams.com/news/2017/12/15/...rship.aspx

They are about 1000 students, currently members of the NCCAA. Their history is as a bible school.

The NAIA convention starts tomorrow (Friday) and we'll hear more about who is accepted for 2018. Rumor is nine applicants, the NAIA wrote in a blog earlier this year that there were "at least 8" so the rumor is credible.

The big news from the NAIA convention is that the Council of Presidents will be voting to combine NAIA basketball divisions I & II. Basketball is the only sport in the NAIA with divisions. The difference between the divisions is only scholarship levels. 6 for II and 11 for I. All questions regarding scholarship levels and championship tournament format will be addressed after the vote; the only question considered at this time is whether to combine the divisions.

I hope that the basketball divisions do get combined. Each division had a 32 team tourney. I don't think it made that big of a difference between the two divisions. It would be a good to get the tourney to the familiar 64 team model that NCAA has. I wonder if they may just keep the 11 scholarship max.

Of the 20 conferences in the NAIA, there was pretty much an even split between the 2 divisions. I don't think there is enough schools/conferences to warrant such a split. If the combine does happen we may see some movement of some schools to different conferences. One for instance could be Eastern Oregon and College of Idaho joining the Frontier Conference for all sports (Frontier is a D1 conference while EOU & C of I was D2). Southern Oregon could remain a football affiliate but stay in the CCC for all other sports as traveling up I-5 is a lot easier than getting across the state to play EOU and CofI.

(04-12-2018 10:28 AM)NoDak Wrote:  

(04-12-2018 05:42 AM)Fresno St. Alum Wrote:  why did Heartland merge w/ the LSC? If both UTT and UTD join that will be 20 schools plus the women's school. 2 Conf of 10 would be better and could expand further.

The Southland will be losing fb schools to a WAC FBS. That is sacrilegious to this board but will soon reveal itself. The Southland and LSC will both need fb schools. Tarleton willl backfill to the Southland and more LSC schools will move up in coming years. LSC fb will itself need to be replenished.

UTT and UTD do not have football. I could suspect Sul Ross State,Southwestern and Texas Wesleyan might fit the bill for the Lone Star Conference for football.

(04-12-2018 10:35 AM)MissouriStateBears Wrote:  

(04-12-2018 05:42 AM)Fresno St. Alum Wrote:  why did Heartland merge w/ the LSC? If both UTT and UTD join that will be 20 schools plus the women's school. 2 Conf of 10 would be better and could expand further.

Majority of the D2 conferences are huge. Nothing out of the ordinary.

20 is the largest. I have a list of every D-I, D-II, D-III, NAIA conf. 16 is normal for D-II, 20 isn't. PSAC was the largest at 18. Crazy big, and I was at Fresno St. during the WAC 16 mega conference.

(04-12-2018 02:09 PM)Fresno St. Alum Wrote:  

(04-12-2018 10:35 AM)MissouriStateBears Wrote:  

(04-12-2018 05:42 AM)Fresno St. Alum Wrote:  why did Heartland merge w/ the LSC? If both UTT and UTD join that will be 20 schools plus the women's school. 2 Conf of 10 would be better and could expand further.

Majority of the D2 conferences are huge. Nothing out of the ordinary.

20 is the largest. I have a list of every D-I, D-II, D-III, NAIA conf. 16 is normal for D-II, 20 isn't. PSAC was the largest at 18. Crazy big, and I was at Fresno St. during the WAC 16 mega conference.

Mid-South Conference have 21 schools for football with Keiser joining this year. Allen University who also added football in the future would make it 22. They could get bigger if they grab Lyon, and possible with some of the southeastern schools that have been thinking of adding football, could bring them up close to 30 football schools.
Brewton-Parker
Middle Georgia State
William Carey
University of Rio Grande
Georgia Gwinnett
Florida Memorial
St. Thomas Florida
Talladega
Those were schools that had newspaper articles in the past 10 years talking about football. Not sure who else would add football, but Mid-South is the largest conference for 1 sport right now in football.

(04-12-2018 02:02 PM)MWC Tex Wrote:  

(04-12-2018 12:07 PM)teamvsn Wrote:  Columbia International in SC has applied to the NAIA:

https://www.ciurams.com/news/2017/12/15/...rship.aspx

They are about 1000 students, currently members of the NCCAA. Their history is as a bible school.

The NAIA convention starts tomorrow (Friday) and we'll hear more about who is accepted for 2018. Rumor is nine applicants, the NAIA wrote in a blog earlier this year that there were "at least 8" so the rumor is credible.

The big news from the NAIA convention is that the Council of Presidents will be voting to combine NAIA basketball divisions I & II. Basketball is the only sport in the NAIA with divisions. The difference between the divisions is only scholarship levels. 6 for II and 11 for I. All questions regarding scholarship levels and championship tournament format will be addressed after the vote; the only question considered at this time is whether to combine the divisions.

I hope that the basketball divisions do get combined. Each division had a 32 team tourney. I don't think it made that big of a difference between the two divisions. It would be a good to get the tourney to the familiar 64 team model that NCAA has. I wonder if they may just keep the 11 scholarship max.

Of the 20 conferences in the NAIA, there was pretty much an even split between the 2 divisions. I don't think there is enough schools/conferences to warrant such a split. If the combine does happen we may see some movement of some schools to different conferences. One for instance could be Eastern Oregon and College of Idaho joining the Frontier Conference for all sports (Frontier is a D1 conference while EOU & C of I was D2). Southern Oregon could remain a football affiliate but stay in the CCC for all other sports as traveling up I-5 is a lot easier than getting across the state to play EOU and CofI.

I've written a series of articles on the possible merger. 3 so far, the last installment will be tomorrow.

http://www.victorysportsnetwork.com/Clip...isions.htm

http://www.victorysportsnetwork.com/Clip...pation.htm

http://www.victorysportsnetwork.com/Clip...format.htm

I also hope they keep it at 11. There's very little competitive difference between DI and DII already so the higher limit won't hurt the DII schools. But from what I've heard they are looking at 8.

(04-12-2018 02:44 PM)DavidSt Wrote:  

(04-12-2018 02:09 PM)Fresno St. Alum Wrote:  

(04-12-2018 10:35 AM)MissouriStateBears Wrote:  

(04-12-2018 05:42 AM)Fresno St. Alum Wrote:  why did Heartland merge w/ the LSC? If both UTT and UTD join that will be 20 schools plus the women's school. 2 Conf of 10 would be better and could expand further.

Majority of the D2 conferences are huge. Nothing out of the ordinary.

20 is the largest. I have a list of every D-I, D-II, D-III, NAIA conf. 16 is normal for D-II, 20 isn't. PSAC was the largest at 18. Crazy big, and I was at Fresno St. during the WAC 16 mega conference.

Mid-South Conference have 21 schools for football with Keiser joining this year. Allen University who also added football in the future would make it 22. They could get bigger if they grab Lyon, and possible with some of the southeastern schools that have been thinking of adding football, could bring them up close to 30 football schools.
Brewton-Parker
Middle Georgia State
William Carey
University of Rio Grande
Georgia Gwinnett
Florida Memorial
St. Thomas Florida
Talladega
Those were schools that had newspaper articles in the past 10 years talking about football. Not sure who else would add football, but Mid-South is the largest conference for 1 sport right now in football.

I'm talking all sports dude. I'm surprised you didn't post every school w some form of affiliation to the ECAC.

(04-12-2018 03:12 PM)teamvsn Wrote:  

(04-12-2018 02:02 PM)MWC Tex Wrote:  

(04-12-2018 12:07 PM)teamvsn Wrote:  Columbia International in SC has applied to the NAIA:

https://www.ciurams.com/news/2017/12/15/...rship.aspx

They are about 1000 students, currently members of the NCCAA. Their history is as a bible school.

The NAIA convention starts tomorrow (Friday) and we'll hear more about who is accepted for 2018. Rumor is nine applicants, the NAIA wrote in a blog earlier this year that there were "at least 8" so the rumor is credible.

The big news from the NAIA convention is that the Council of Presidents will be voting to combine NAIA basketball divisions I & II. Basketball is the only sport in the NAIA with divisions. The difference between the divisions is only scholarship levels. 6 for II and 11 for I. All questions regarding scholarship levels and championship tournament format will be addressed after the vote; the only question considered at this time is whether to combine the divisions.

I hope that the basketball divisions do get combined. Each division had a 32 team tourney. I don't think it made that big of a difference between the two divisions. It would be a good to get the tourney to the familiar 64 team model that NCAA has. I wonder if they may just keep the 11 scholarship max.

Of the 20 conferences in the NAIA, there was pretty much an even split between the 2 divisions. I don't think there is enough schools/conferences to warrant such a split. If the combine does happen we may see some movement of some schools to different conferences. One for instance could be Eastern Oregon and College of Idaho joining the Frontier Conference for all sports (Frontier is a D1 conference while EOU & C of I was D2). Southern Oregon could remain a football affiliate but stay in the CCC for all other sports as traveling up I-5 is a lot easier than getting across the state to play EOU and CofI.

I've written a series of articles on the possible merger. 3 so far, the last installment will be tomorrow.

http://www.victorysportsnetwork.com/Clip...isions.htm

http://www.victorysportsnetwork.com/Clip...pation.htm

http://www.victorysportsnetwork.com/Clip...format.htm

I also hope they keep it at 11. There's very little competitive difference between DI and DII already so the higher limit won't hurt the DII schools. But from what I've heard they are looking at 8.

So what do you say, is it going to happen. NAIA under 1 Bball umbrella? Will we see conf. changes from schools if this happens. Aren't there a couple that are D-I indy or were just for bball but in their "D-II" conf. for other sports

(04-12-2018 03:45 PM)Fresno St. Alum Wrote:  

(04-12-2018 03:12 PM)teamvsn Wrote:  

(04-12-2018 02:02 PM)MWC Tex Wrote:  

(04-12-2018 12:07 PM)teamvsn Wrote:  Columbia International in SC has applied to the NAIA:

https://www.ciurams.com/news/2017/12/15/...rship.aspx

They are about 1000 students, currently members of the NCCAA. Their history is as a bible school.

The NAIA convention starts tomorrow (Friday) and we'll hear more about who is accepted for 2018. Rumor is nine applicants, the NAIA wrote in a blog earlier this year that there were "at least 8" so the rumor is credible.

The big news from the NAIA convention is that the Council of Presidents will be voting to combine NAIA basketball divisions I & II. Basketball is the only sport in the NAIA with divisions. The difference between the divisions is only scholarship levels. 6 for II and 11 for I. All questions regarding scholarship levels and championship tournament format will be addressed after the vote; the only question considered at this time is whether to combine the divisions.

I hope that the basketball divisions do get combined. Each division had a 32 team tourney. I don't think it made that big of a difference between the two divisions. It would be a good to get the tourney to the familiar 64 team model that NCAA has. I wonder if they may just keep the 11 scholarship max.

Of the 20 conferences in the NAIA, there was pretty much an even split between the 2 divisions. I don't think there is enough schools/conferences to warrant such a split. If the combine does happen we may see some movement of some schools to different conferences. One for instance could be Eastern Oregon and College of Idaho joining the Frontier Conference for all sports (Frontier is a D1 conference while EOU & C of I was D2). Southern Oregon could remain a football affiliate but stay in the CCC for all other sports as traveling up I-5 is a lot easier than getting across the state to play EOU and CofI.

I've written a series of articles on the possible merger. 3 so far, the last installment will be tomorrow.

http://www.victorysportsnetwork.com/Clip...isions.htm

http://www.victorysportsnetwork.com/Clip...pation.htm

http://www.victorysportsnetwork.com/Clip...format.htm

I also hope they keep it at 11. There's very little competitive difference between DI and DII already so the higher limit won't hurt the DII schools. But from what I've heard they are looking at 8.

So what do you say, is it going to happen. NAIA under 1 Bball umbrella? Will we see conf. changes from schools if this happens. Aren't there a couple that are D-I indy or were just for bball but in their "D-II" conf. for other sports

I suspect it will happen. But if it doesn't, I think it will be because of uncertainty over the scholarship issue.

I do think there will be conference changes as a result within 5 years or so. The conferences will get smaller footprints with less overlap. I could still see the GSAC and the CalPac remaining mostly as-is because of the difference in athletic commitment among schools in those two conferences. But there are others where there's a lot of geographical overlap but not much difference in quality between the members.

There used to be some schools that were just basketball but the NAIA has changed their rules and I can't think of any that remain. One was Life, who expanded sports, and another was Mountain State that closed. There were also some that were DI independent basketball and DII everything else, but I can't think of anyone like that anymore either. One was Robert Morris Chicago and another was WV Tech; both are now all DII. There are very few DI independents at all. There are a lot more DII independents, and a few of them might join a DI conference if the distinction were to be dropped. Maybe Ozarks (Branson MO) and Crowley's Ridge (AR) to the AMC, and Stillman to the Gulf Coast. (DavidST, don't reference this as a rumor! It's just idle speculation)

(04-12-2018 03:12 PM)teamvsn Wrote:  I've written a series of articles on the possible merger. 3 so far, the last installment will be tomorrow.

http://www.victorysportsnetwork.com/Clip...isions.htm

http://www.victorysportsnetwork.com/Clip...pation.htm

http://www.victorysportsnetwork.com/Clip...format.htm

I also hope they keep it at 11. There's very little competitive difference between DI and DII already so the higher limit won't hurt the DII schools. But from what I've heard they are looking at 8.

Part 4, the VSN Proposal, has been published.

http://www.victorysportsnetwork.com/Clip...oposal.htm

This is so complicated it is hard to come to a firm opinion.Your articles were very helpful.THANKS!!!!

Maybe nationwide on average the competition between D1 and D2 is close.However from scores I have seen and a fair amount of games I've attended there is a noticeable gap in talent level.

(04-13-2018 02:12 PM)TOPSTRAIGHT Wrote:  This is so complicated it is hard to come to a firm opinion.Your articles were very helpful.THANKS!!!!

Maybe nationwide on average the competition between D1 and D2 is close.However from scores I have seen and a fair amount of games I've attended there is a noticeable gap in talent level.

Thanks for the comments. There is a lot of information to digest. But I would say your observations are colored by your region. You are likely watching Mid-South teams playing Appalachian teams; the very good vs the very bad. Union KY from the AAC was really good last year, but I can't remember an AAC team prior to that that was really good.

I do not know why the NAIA and NCAA D2 can't make a deal about doing a joint venture just for college football? It could actually give Arizona Christian, Ottawa Arizona and College of Idaho a real home for their football program along with Southern Oregon and Eastern Oregon in the GNAC. The Montana schools could actually compete with the RMAC. This would give the 2 Arizona schools Humboldt State and any Mexico schools to play with.

Second, why is Cumberlands KY not NCAA D2? Carnegie list them as an R3 level of Research as the same size as Boise State. They seemed to be way out of placed for their field at that level.

(04-13-2018 03:43 PM)DavidSt Wrote:  I do not know why the NAIA and NCAA D2 can't make a deal about doing a joint venture just for college football? It could actually give Arizona Christian, Ottawa Arizona and College of Idaho a real home for their football program along with Southern Oregon and Eastern Oregon in the GNAC. The Montana schools could actually compete with the RMAC. This would give the 2 Arizona schools Humboldt State and any Mexico schools to play with.

Second, why is Cumberlands KY not NCAA D2? Carnegie list them as an R3 level of Research as the same size as Boise State. They seemed to be way out of placed for their field at that level.

Oh, boy!