(01-19-2023 07:09 PM)johnintx Wrote:  

(01-19-2023 04:37 PM)DawgNBama Wrote:  

(01-19-2023 09:52 AM)johnintx Wrote:  I didn't realize St Francis (PA) had football, but I knew IUP was a strong D-II program.

FCS is not equal. That's the choice of the schools competing in it. St Francis and the Northeast Conference play with a maximum of 40 scholarships. They're competitive among themselves, but they're cannon fodder for another school in the playoffs.

IUP is a D-II power. I'm not sure if they fully fund the D-II max of 36 scholarships, but they're probably close.

So there's not that much difference between the two programs, other than designation (FCS vs D-II). A player can make a deeper playoff run at a lower level.

In this situation, there's not a ton of difference between FCS and D-II. However, there's a big difference between a FCS school that fully funds 63 scholarships (i.e., North Dakota State) and a fully funded D-II school.

IUP posters firmly believe that they would never win a national championship in basketball if they went D1. My point is that they don't understand the benefits of D1 and believe that there's no difference between FCS & D2, and that D1 basketball is a murderers' row!!!

I've been to Indiana, PA. They have a nice hoops facility. They have a basic D2 football stadium. And I've seen some of their posters on the D2 board...yeah, they think highly of themselves.

They're right in this: they'd never win a D1 national championship in hoops. They have to calculate what's worth more: a chance to be a national power at their level, playing nearby rivals and peers, with no national exposure; or being in a lower-level D1 conference, getting trickle-down money from the NCAA, playing in a one-bid league with a shot to be one-and-done in the Big Dance, and getting their name on ESPN's ticker. They've chosen the former. To each their own.

There are serious financial issues with the PA regional state university system, as six of their sister institutions have consolidated into two. IUP is one of their bigger schools, but they're not in a position to move up. So, they're going to be the best D2 they can be.

Their D2 teams would beat a lot of low-level D1 teams in hoops. Today, they could also compete with lesser funded football programs.

So there is some gray area between the top of D2 and the bottom of D1, especially depending on what area of the country you're in.

I actually think some of the financial issues facing some of the smaller schools is also a reason why a school like IUP or Ship doesn’t move up. With them being state funded I’d imagine the PA legislature would be a little ticked off if IUP abandoned Clarion (granted Clarion is D1 wrestling and one of the top wrestling schools in the nation).

Right now a school like Ship can play a game in shepherdstown, Millersville, West Chester or Straudsburg maybe 90 minutes to 2 hours from campus and average crowds about the same size they’d get as a FCS school.