Quote from: 70_dc_alum on October 16, 2023, 04:09:05 PMQuote from: Darryl Nester on October 13, 2023, 02:39:34 PMQuote from: GrizFan on October 07, 2023, 03:12:22 PMQuote from: dc_has_been on October 05, 2023, 10:48:43 AM
It seems to be the right move for Defiance due to all the current issues they are dealing with (i.e., accreditation, enrollment, and so on). Hopefully, this changes their trajectory as an academic institution.
Schools with enrollment and financial issues do NOT makes moves which drastically increase their costs. Schools tend to move from D2 or NAIA to D3 when they need to cut costs or if they have financial issues. Defiance has accreditation, enrollment and financial issues. Now they have to find a way to fund 36 full ride football scholarships plus hundreds of other scholarships just to be competitive. Moving to D2 may gain prestige but NOT a move to a less prestigious NAIA. Just ask Thomas More! Big mistake!
I don't have any additional input about what they will have to spend scholarship-wise in order to be competitive, but at the recent HCAC administrative meeting*, their AD summarized what they had considered in making the decision, and one expected benefit of the move is a considerably reduced travel budget: They will be near the geographic center of their new conference (the WHAC), with their maximum travel time in the neighborhood of three hours—so no overnight stays for conference play. (And as a side benefit, less missed class time.)
Regarding the NAIA being less prestigious, I don't disagree. I recall when Bluffton, Defiance, and other members of the old HBCC made the transition from NAIA to NCAA D3 thirty-plus years ago, and how not long after that, the NCAA had to put a pause on letting in NAIA schools.
*I cannot share everything that was said in that meeting, of course, but this particular item did not feel confidential.
they have stated the less travel expense as a key reason in the announcements they put out explaining the move. Reality is only Hanover and Transylvania are the only 2 overnights that you have to do as MSJ is right at 3hrs. The new conference for football has Olivet Nazarene, Judson, St Francis IL all over in the Chicago Area which is about 4hrs. Its not really a factor for football but all of the other sports I can see how this will be a lot better.
When it comes to Scholarships, in one of the letter's they send out I think it said they will be giving out close the same grant money as before but now it can be packaged up differently so their costs do not increase but they have a lot more flexibility on how to give it out. if done correctly i can see how this can be leveraged to increase enrollment. hand out a bunch of partial athletic scholarships to folks that may not have qualified for needs/merit grants before. Spend the same amount but spread the wealth and get more to attend.
Will be interesting to see how this all pans out. I have no idea who I am supposed to hate now that its all new teams. I am going with disliking Sienna Heights just cause they are in Adrian. Either way that game for the Hammer this year with Bluffton will be huge and could determine who owns the hammer forever!
All in all, it is disappointing to see all the transition that DC has gone through since I attended (97-00). Went from the MIAA to HCAC and now to NAIA. I really hope this solves some of their issues moving forward and helps them from not shutting down.
Regarding who to dislike, I will go with St. Francis due to their proximity, having a DC alum as a coach, and we scrimmage them when I played at DC.
Now to wait and see who MSJ gets in the 1st round. Don't know if they host with that awful SoS dragging their regional ranking down but should hopefully avoid a Mount Union/North Central type of matchup.
