There has been plenty of chatter recently down here. The final sentence admitting that FGCU doesn't have the funds of the larger established state schools is true, but they seem to be very successful at receiving donations in the short time of their existance.
If FGCU goes D-I, it could land in the Atlantic Sun
By WILL GRAVES, wrgraves@naplesnews.com
September 16, 2005
It was a joke, Bill Bibb swears.
The Atlantic Sun Conference commissioner was kidding when he was talking to old friend Carl McAloose a few years ago. At the time, McAloose, the Florida Gulf Coast University athletic director, was wondering about the course the school's upstart athletic program should take.
NAIA or NCAA Division II? NCAA Division II or NCAA Division I?
"I told him, 'Carl, you do whatever you have to do, you get your program started and when you want to go Division I, you come see me,'" said Bibb with a laugh.
Funny how life turns out. There's a chance by this time next year, the two friends who met when McAloose served as deputy commissioner of the Big South Conference could be working together again. The Eagles, who currently compete in Division II, are considering moving to Division I, where an invitation to the Atlantic Sun Conference could be waiting for them the second they walk through the door.
"They have an institution there that has Division I written all over it," Bibb said. "It's just a matter of finding a way to do it or not.
They've got great facilities. I don't think there's any doubt that FGCU would fit in very well with our conference."
The A-Sun, which is entering its 27th year of competition, currently consists of 11 schools. That number will drop to 10 next year when Florida Atlantic becomes a full-fledged member of the Sun Belt Conference.
Bibb said the university presidents within the A-Sun want to expand the league back to 12 schools and set up a two-division conference very similar to Atlantic Coast Conference and the Southeastern Conference. FGCU, if it decides in its next board of trustees meeting in January to move to Division I, would be one of three teams the A-Sun would consider for future conference affiliation.
"We would be very interested (in FGCU) now that they've decided they're going to do a study," said Bibb, who would not name the other two institutions the A-Sun is monitoring. "They have the interest and they have the support from the community. They have a school like many schools in Florida like Central Florida, South Florida and Florida Atlantic where the pieces are there."
The A-Sun currently competes in 17 varsity sports, but football is not one of them. FGCU, which has 11 varsity teams but would have to expand to at least 14 to meet with Division I standards, does not plan to add football in the foreseeable future.
McAloose said the A-Sun would automatically solve FGCU's biggest problem: scheduling. FGCU competes as an independent in Division II but has made overtures in the past to both the Sunshine State Conference and the Gulf South Conference. The Sunshine State has never considered FGCU while the Gulf South asked FGCU for $250,000 a year to offset travel costs. The Eagles balked at the price.
It's a noble cause, but one that's made life for each of the school's coaches difficult. In order to qualify for the Division II postseason, a school must play a minimum number of games against teams in its region. In men's basketball, for example, that number is 16. Having a conference to play in would automatically fill up those games. Without those guaranteed matchups, FGCU coaches are left scrambling to fill out the schedule.
"We've had this discussion with the coaches and I think the reason (the idea of going Division I) has really come to fruition, the reason that we're doing this study is the coaches have had such a difficult time getting a schedule," McAloose said. "It's for the coaches' and students' well-being that we're doing this."
Which makes the A-Sun such a tantalizing option. If the Eagles decided to go ahead and move to Division I in January, they could become a member by the 2006-07 academic year and start playing a full A-Sun schedule by 2007. The University of North Florida, which voted to move from Division II to Division I in October 2004, is already a full-fledged member of the A-Sun and plays a full conference slate.
There are a lot of "ifs" that need to be answered between now and then. If the Eagles decide they want to go D-I. If they can come up with the estimated $5 million budget ($2 million more than the current budget). If they can add three sports within the next three years. If they can get through the exploratory year and get on schedule for the four-year provisional period that follows and if the coaches want to go five years waiting for the right to compete in postseason tournaments.
"I'm interested to see what comes out of the study and if we can financially support our programs at a Division I level," said women's basketball coach Karl Smesko. "Then I think it's something our university has to look at. Right now it's the only conference option we have."
The A-Sun would also have to formally extend an invitation. It means having the conference's evaluation team make a two-day trip to FGCU. With the team's approval, FGCU would then go in front of the conference presidents, which would then vote on whether to admit the Eagles. Bibb said the conference has never voted down a potential member.
"If you make it that far, it's because you're doing something right," he added.
But moving up means more than dollars, it means having a little common sense about your place in the world. While the A-Sun is competitive at the Division I level, no A-Sun team has ever won a national championship in any sport. McAloose and the FGCU coaches have talked about building the Eagles into a Division II power and sprinkling championship banners throughout Alico Arena. Moving up would probably mean those dreams are over.
"If we can't be competitive, we won't make the move," McAloose said. "If the study comes out that we should go up, we should set ourselves up like men's basketball at Gonzaga or baseball at Cal-State Fullerton. Small schools can be very successful in certain sports in Division I, you just rarely see it across the board."
Still, the A-Sun has a network television contract in men's basketball. It annually ranks in the Top 20 among the 32 Division I conferences. Not a bad place to be for an athletic program that didn't exist six years ago.
"We're not going to have the finances of the University of Florida or UCF but we think we've got some different elements that make it special," McAloose said.
<a href='http://www.naplesnews.com/npdn/sp_fgcu/article/0,2071,NPDN_14993_4085376,00.html' target='_blank'>Linky: Naples Daily News has best local coverage of FGCU</a>
