Future of Division III

[KnightSlappy]

Cited in "What We Are Reading" on the front page of D3baseball.com


http://www.fayobserver.com/articles/2012/04/18/1163624

The conference's two largest schools, Christopher Newport and Shenandoah, are moving to the Capital Athletic Conference and Old Dominion Athletic Conference, respectively. CNU, the only state-supported institution in the league, will remain a football-only member of the USA South for up to three seasons while the Capital adds the sport.

They will be replaced by three colleges from the Great South Conference: LaGrange and Piedmont in Georgia, and Maryville in eastern Tennessee. Peace College in Raleigh, a league member in women's athletics, has gone coed as William Peace University and will phase in men's sports over the next three years. Wiggs said she expects the USA South presidents to approve in May the addition of two other Great South schools, Huntingdon College in Montgomery, Ala., and Covenant College in Lookout Mountain, Ga.

Great News for the GSAC Men's programs...

What that does for the co-ed schools in the GSAC is another matter.

So the newly minted William Peace men's basketball team will be a full D3 member for next season (no provisional status needed). Is this correct?

http://www.peace.edu/content/page/id/1292

[Ralph Turner]

Cited in "What We Are Reading" on the front page of D3baseball.com


http://www.fayobserver.com/articles/2012/04/18/1163624

The conference's two largest schools, Christopher Newport and Shenandoah, are moving to the Capital Athletic Conference and Old Dominion Athletic Conference, respectively. CNU, the only state-supported institution in the league, will remain a football-only member of the USA South for up to three seasons while the Capital adds the sport.

They will be replaced by three colleges from the Great South Conference: LaGrange and Piedmont in Georgia, and Maryville in eastern Tennessee. Peace College in Raleigh, a league member in women's athletics, has gone coed as William Peace University and will phase in men's sports over the next three years. Wiggs said she expects the USA South presidents to approve in May the addition of two other Great South schools, Huntingdon College in Montgomery, Ala., and Covenant College in Lookout Mountain, Ga.

Great News for the GSAC Men's programs...

What that does for the co-ed schools in the GSAC is another matter.

So the newly minted William Peace men's basketball team will be a full D3 member for next season (no provisional status needed). Is this correct?

http://www.peace.edu/content/page/id/1292

I believe so.  "Randolph Women's" did not have to go thru a provisional period when "Randolph College" added their men's teams.

[Pat Coleman]

Cited in "What We Are Reading" on the front page of D3baseball.com


http://www.fayobserver.com/articles/2012/04/18/1163624

The conference's two largest schools, Christopher Newport and Shenandoah, are moving to the Capital Athletic Conference and Old Dominion Athletic Conference, respectively. CNU, the only state-supported institution in the league, will remain a football-only member of the USA South for up to three seasons while the Capital adds the sport.

They will be replaced by three colleges from the Great South Conference: LaGrange and Piedmont in Georgia, and Maryville in eastern Tennessee. Peace College in Raleigh, a league member in women's athletics, has gone coed as William Peace University and will phase in men's sports over the next three years. Wiggs said she expects the USA South presidents to approve in May the addition of two other Great South schools, Huntingdon College in Montgomery, Ala., and Covenant College in Lookout Mountain, Ga.

Great News for the GSAC Men's programs...

What that does for the co-ed schools in the GSAC is another matter.

So the newly minted William Peace men's basketball team will be a full D3 member for next season (no provisional status needed). Is this correct?

http://www.peace.edu/content/page/id/1292

That's correct. Provisional status is conferred on a school, not an individual program at the school. William/Peace is a full member of D-III, so any intercollegiate sport would be eligible.

[KnightSlappy]

Cited in "What We Are Reading" on the front page of D3baseball.com


http://www.fayobserver.com/articles/2012/04/18/1163624

The conference's two largest schools, Christopher Newport and Shenandoah, are moving to the Capital Athletic Conference and Old Dominion Athletic Conference, respectively. CNU, the only state-supported institution in the league, will remain a football-only member of the USA South for up to three seasons while the Capital adds the sport.

They will be replaced by three colleges from the Great South Conference: LaGrange and Piedmont in Georgia, and Maryville in eastern Tennessee. Peace College in Raleigh, a league member in women's athletics, has gone coed as William Peace University and will phase in men's sports over the next three years. Wiggs said she expects the USA South presidents to approve in May the addition of two other Great South schools, Huntingdon College in Montgomery, Ala., and Covenant College in Lookout Mountain, Ga.

Great News for the GSAC Men's programs...

What that does for the co-ed schools in the GSAC is another matter.

So the newly minted William Peace men's basketball team will be a full D3 member for next season (no provisional status needed). Is this correct?

http://www.peace.edu/content/page/id/1292

That's correct. Provisional status is conferred on a school, not an individual program at the school. William/Peace is a full member of D-III, so any intercollegiate sport would be eligible.

And so I'm guessing they're granted some sort of waiver for not meeting the minimum number of men's sports right away?

[Ralph Turner]

And so I'm guessing they're granted some sort of waiver for not meeting the minimum number of men's sports right away?

Every school that I can remember going co-ed had a timetable for adding sports...

Wilson and Randolph come to mind.

[jeffconn]

As most of you already know, it was made official last week. Both Covenant and Huntingdon join USA South in 2013-2014. That leaves the Great South with just 4 women's colleges:

http://www.usasouth.net/general/2011-12/12huntingdonjoin
http://www.usasouth.net/general/2011-12/12covenantjoin

Salem College shouldn't have any issues finding a conference to join. Salem would be a good geographic fit for the ODAC or USA South, both which already have women's colleges. What will happen to Spelman, Wesleyan, and Agnes Scott? The 3 Atlanta area schools could go to USA South or the SAA, but would either conference want to add 3 women's colleges?

[hickory_cornhusker]

Maranatha Baptist is leaving the Northern Athletics Conference after the 2012-2013 season but remain in Division III.

http://more.mbbc.edu/crusader/mens-soccer/maranatha-to-withdraw-from-northern-athletics-conference/


The NAthCon will have 11 schools for men's sports and 12 schools for women's sports so I don't believe they are in danger of losing their AQ in any sports. Football, however, will be down to 7 teams. (Finlandia needs a home. 300 miles north of the closest member.)

The press release states that Maranatha Baptist will be looking for a new conference. But who? They are in Southeastern Wisconsin. The Midwest Conference won't take them, they are a University of Wisconsin school, they could barely compete in the NAthCon so the CCIW is out. The UMAC is a stretch. From a competitive stand point Maranatha Baptist could blend in and they used to play in the UMAC for football before the NAthCon started sponsoring football. The UMAC just lost Presentation so they could be looking for another full member but I would think North Central University in the Twin Cities would be a better choice due to geography  (Watertown to St. Paul is almost 300 miles) and NCU is already an associate member in a few sports.

[Ralph Turner]

I think that Maranatha will compete in the NCCAA and remain as an NCAA independent.

[hickory_cornhusker]

I think that Maranatha will compete in the NCCAA and remain as an NCAA independent.

If the NAthCon doesn't add anyone, football schedule could be taken care of the same way as Chapman took care of theirs before joining the SCIAC. Play as the bye opponent for each NAthCon team on their conference schedule.

[Just Bill]

I think that Maranatha will compete in the NCCAA and remain as an NCAA independent.

If the NAthCon doesn't add anyone, football schedule could be taken care of the same way as Chapman took care of theirs before joining the SCIAC. Play as the bye opponent for each NAthCon team on their conference schedule.

I don't think all 7 NathCon schools would be willing to play Maranatha anymore. I think most of the football programs are glad to have them off the schedule.

[doolittledog]

The SLIAC has 4 schools that play football in the UMAC.  Would it make more sense for them to try to play in the NATHCON? 

[Ralph Turner]

The SLIAC has 4 schools that play football in the UMAC.  Would it make more sense for them to try to play in the NATHCON?

It might end up that way when the UMAC has enough schools for its own AQ, and not needing affiliates to get to 7, or adding Finlandia as the affiliate, which is closer than the Missouri affiilates.

With the NATHCON not playing out of conference games with 11 full an affiliate members, the OWP/OOWP of several North Region teams would take a hit!

[hickory_cornhusker]

The SLIAC has 4 schools that play football in the UMAC.  Would it make more sense for them to try to play in the NATHCON?

It might end up that way when the UMAC has enough schools for its own AQ, and not needing affiliates to get to 7, or adding Finlandia as the affiliate, which is closer than the Missouri affiilates.

With the NATHCON not playing out of conference games with 11 full an affiliate members, the OWP/OOWP of several North Region teams would take a hit!

The Midwest Conference is playing a crazy nine game conference schedule with eleven teams this year. Each team gets a non-conference game (this will preserve the Coe-Cornell rivalry game). Except for Lawrence who is playing St. Norbert as a non-conference game but it will count as a conference game for St. Norbert.

[Ralph Turner]

The SLIAC has 4 schools that play football in the UMAC.  Would it make more sense for them to try to play in the NATHCON?

It might end up that way when the UMAC has enough schools for its own AQ, and not needing affiliates to get to 7, or adding Finlandia as the affiliate, which is closer than the Missouri affiilates.

With the NATHCON not playing out of conference games with 11 full an affiliate members, the OWP/OOWP of several North Region teams would take a hit!

The Midwest Conference is playing a crazy nine game conference schedule with eleven teams this year. Each team gets a non-conference game (this will preserve the Coe-Cornell rivalry game). Except for Lawrence who is playing St. Norbert as a non-conference game but it will count as a conference game for St. Norbert.

Reminds me of the 11-member football MAC in the early 2000's...

Does the 11-member MWC play double round robin 20 game schedule in basketball and leave 2 non-conference games in their 22 game schedules?

[hickory_cornhusker]

The SLIAC has 4 schools that play football in the UMAC.  Would it make more sense for them to try to play in the NATHCON?

It might end up that way when the UMAC has enough schools for its own AQ, and not needing affiliates to get to 7, or adding Finlandia as the affiliate, which is closer than the Missouri affiilates.

With the NATHCON not playing out of conference games with 11 full an affiliate members, the OWP/OOWP of several North Region teams would take a hit!

The Midwest Conference is playing a crazy nine game conference schedule with eleven teams this year. Each team gets a non-conference game (this will preserve the Coe-Cornell rivalry game). Except for Lawrence who is playing St. Norbert as a non-conference game but it will count as a conference game for St. Norbert.

Reminds me of the 11-member football MAC in the early 2000's...

Does the 11-member MWC play double round robin 20 game schedule in basketball and leave 2 non-conference games in their 22 game schedules?

It's gonna be 18 game non-full double round-robin with two teams at random not being played twice. As far as I know there aren't any protected rivalries either.