Partly to flesh out my list of games to watch on Youtube, but largely because my third daughter's family moved to Alexandria for her husband's job in the LSU ag system, I have started paying a little attention to the NAIA. There are two colleges in the Alexandria/Pineville metro area. LSUA is already NAIA, and Louisiana College recently announced that they were applying to move from NCAA D3 to NAIA.

https://www.naia.org/why-naia/naia-vs-ncaa/index

The NAIA pushes its case vs. the NCAA (see link above). Of course, the level of ability is far less than at D1 or even most D2, but as they point out, NAIA schools get a lot more bang for their buck in terms of student participation.

It is an interesting concept: the more elite the athletes, the less participation you get. We attended a couple of games at D3 Ozarks in Clarksville last year, and it is amazing the percentage of the student body that are in athletics. They have an enrollment of about 900, and yet they have 34 (if I counted correctly) athletes on the wrestling roster. They have 37 on the baseball roster. Those two sports alone account for close to 8% of the student body.

And the thing is that to the kids involved, a national championship means just as much to them at that level as it would D1. And, of course, John Brown won the NAIA national basketball championship in 2005.

The most noticeable difference, of course, is in big men. Anyone over 6-5 who can walk and chew gum will qualify, and basically are there for setting screens and rebounding.

(08-27-2020 08:39 AM)MICHAELSPAPPY Wrote:  Partly to flesh out my list of games to watch on Youtube, but largely because my third daughter's family moved to Alexandria for her husband's job in the LSU ag system, I have started paying a little attention to the NAIA. There are two colleges in the Alexandria/Pineville metro area. LSUA is already NAIA, and Louisiana College recently announced that they were applying to move from NCAA D3 to NAIA.

https://www.naia.org/why-naia/naia-vs-ncaa/index

The NAIA pushes its case vs. the NCAA (see link above). Of course, the level of ability is far less than at D1 or even most D2, but as they point out, NAIA schools get a lot more bang for their buck in terms of student participation.

It is an interesting concept: the more elite the athletes, the less participation you get. We attended a couple of games at D3 Ozarks in Clarksville last year, and it is amazing the percentage of the student body that are in athletics. They have an enrollment of about 900, and yet they have 34 (if I counted correctly) athletes on the wrestling roster. They have 37 on the baseball roster. Those two sports alone account for close to 8% of the student body.

And the thing is that to the kids involved, a national championship means just as much to them at that level as it would D1. And, of course, John Brown won the NAIA national basketball championship in 2005.

Athletics create a lot of revenue at the D3 level, but not in the same way it does at D1. Most D3 athletes are paying most if not all of their tuition, etc., so a large percentage of student body being athletes means a lot of tuition for the school.

Ozarks has really gotten creative in their athletics mix. They even have skeet shooting.

I see where Little Rock native Kelvin Robinson of Episcopal is transferring from D1 Eastern Kentucky to Central Baptist.

I am watching the 1984 NAIA championship game, mainly because Wisconsin-Stevens Point played, coached by Dick Bennett. On that team they had Terry Porter, who had a long NBA career, and Brad Soderberg, who was the head coach at South Dakota State, Wisconsin, and SLU.