Small Colleges Starting Football

[Kira & Jaxon's Dad]

No offense taken, just pointing out that a strong (9-1) 2nd place team can (and has regularly) made the playoffs.

MTU has a hard enough time finding ONE quality Non-Conference game.  I am sure the AD (LK) is glad there are 10 teams in the conference. 

[Mr. Ypsi]

Tiger, as currently configured, the (ODAC) non-conference games that would count South Region games and teams from Administrative Region #3 (e.g., OH, IN, MI, KY, TN, AR, LA, MS, AL, FL, GA, SC, NC and VA).

I agree with your assessment that 7 is an excellent number of schools, if you can find non-conference games.  (The WIAC can't at 8 teams.) 

As to point 1, would it therefore be better to schedule a Ferrum or Shenandoah rather than a (presumably) tougher Cortland or Whitewater, assuming those matchups could even be made?

As to point 2, is that because of the different circumstances of public vs private schools, or just because the WIAC is so good that other schools don't want to schedule an almost certain loss?

I have long felt that 8 is the perfect number for football (basketball, too).  Any odd number is a mess for scheduling, since someone is always out.  6 is too few since you don't have an AQ.  10 is too many since there is only one out-of-conference game.  8 is great!

As to the WIAC (which has 8 for football), I don't think it is public/private per se.  The TOP teams probably do suffer from being too good.  I'd like to see the CCIW schedule more games with the WIAC, but they have plenty of other choices with much less risk.  I suspect the same thing is true of the MWC, MIAC, IIAC, etc.

[Ralph Turner]

Geography hurts several conferences, but the quality of the WIAC programs makes scheduling tough for some schools.  UW-Superior adding football would make the WIAC 9-team and take up one date, but open another in mid-season that they might fill with the neighboring IIAC and MIAC, which are 9-team conferences.

The NJAC schools (especially Rowan) had the same scheduling problem and have added the SUNYAC'S plus Western Connecticut to make themselves a 10-team conference.

We have geography problems in Texas causing UMHB to fly coast-to-coast and causing HSU to frequent the NWC and the WIAC.  The rest of the ASC has trouble finding games.  The SCAC has an 8-game schedule that is going to 9 in 2010 when Hendrix (Conway, AR) adds football.  So, if you want to live inside a reasonable travel budget (less than 500 miles) in the ASC, you play NAIA schools or one another.

The 7-member NWC could use another football program (having already taken affiliate Menlo on board and waiting on Pacific to commit to the process that has been under study for several years).

IMHO, the OWP and the OOWP works really best for a 7- or 8- team conference that has about 30 schools around it, like the CCIW and the ODAC.

The ODAC is lucky to have so many schools nearby.  I cannot imagine what would happen to change the ODAC's place in D3.

[Ralph Turner]

From the 2009 NCAA Annual Meeting...

Growing influence of recruiting in D-III

Favorable impact on enrollment when LaGrange added football...

LaGrange President F. Stuart Geller provided an illustration of how adding football influenced the institution's enrollment. Although Geller was initially uninterested in doing so, the faculty and athletics department eventually voted to move forward with an implementation plan for football that took 20 months. The more than 100 students who turned out on the first day of tryouts and the 3,500 fans that showed up for the first game of the program's history shattered the institution's modest goals of drawing 80 young men to try out for the team and of attracting 500 to attend the first game. The school underestimated the level of interest from the community and alumni, said Geller, who acknowledged that football has added far more to the institution than he imagined.

[Mr. Ypsi]

On the flip side, for those who hadn't heard, Blackburn is shutting down their football program.

[Ralph Turner]

On the flip side, for those who hadn't heard, Blackburn is shutting down their football program.

A good discussion of Blackburn begins on the SLIAC message board around Post 360.

One wonders whether the school will weather the economic downturn.

[Ralph Turner]

As colleges are adding football in the East Region, and the region absorbs the changes from the "Mid-Atlantic Shuffle", here are the current alignments of the full conference members and the affiliates playing football in that conference.

Full conference members

E8 (currently 6) Alfred, Hartwick, Ithaca, SJF, Utica

LL (Will be at 7 when Susquehanna moves) Hobart, Rochester, RPI, SLU, Union

MAC (Comprised of 8 football playing members from the Freedom and Commonwealth--Albright, Del. Valley, FDU-Florham, Kings, Leb. Valley, Lycoming, Widener, Wilkes)

NJAC Kean, Montclair, NJCU, Rowan, Wm Paterson (currently at 10).

The NEFC Bogan and Boyd break along the MASCAC and CCC lines nicely.

NEFC Bogan (MASCAC) Bridgewater, Fitchburg, Framingham, Mass Maritime, Westfield, Worcester (plus coast Guard and Maine Maritime) (currently at 8 ).

NEFC Boyd (Commonwealth Coast -- CCC) Curry, Endicott, Nichols, Salve Regina, Western New England (plus MIT UMass-Dartmouth and Plymouth St). (currently at 8 ).

North Atlantic Conference -- Castleton State, Husson; Maine Maritime (Bogan)


The football "affiliates" belong to the designated conferences.

CCC -- Anna Marie (NAC), [Curry, Endicott, Nichols, Salve, WNE-Boyd]

NEWMAC -- Coast Guard (Bogan), MIT (Boyd), Springfield (E8), WPI (LL)

GNAC -- Mt Ida (NAC), Norwich (NAC).

LAND -- Merchant Marine (LL), Juniata (CC), Moravian (CC) Susquehanna (CC) Catholic (ODAC).

LEC -- Mass-Dartmouth (Boyd), Plymouth State (Boyd), WCSU (NJAC)

MASCAC -- [Bridgewater, Fitchburg, Framingham, Mass Maritime, Westfield, Worcester- Bogan]

SUNYAC -- Brockport, Buffalo, Cortland, Morrisville (NJAC)

Capital -- Gallaudet (NAC)

Skyline -- NY Maritime (NAC)

As I understand it, a single-sport conference must maintain a certain number of its founding core membership.  The whole NEFC might likely dissolve if either of its divisions split or suffered massive defections.

The Empire 8 has 2009 and 2010 to find a 7th to retain the Pool A bid.
The Centennial will be at 10 members when Susquehanna joins in 2010.

['gro]

Ralph, I was looking into the exact same thing the other day when the LL board was discussing Susquehanna's future move. Thanks for putting it all together. +k.

Has the landmark conference ever thought of sponsoring football?

[Ralph Turner]

Ralph, I was looking into the exact same thing the other day when the LL board was discussing Susquehanna's future move. Thanks for putting it all together. +k.

Has the landmark conference ever thought of sponsoring football?

Thanks, gro!

The ODAC needs Catholic to be their 7th!  [There is (or has been recently) a "moratorium" on adding members to the ODAC.  Shenandoah was told "no, thanks" last year.]

The Centennial has only the bare minimum 7 members, before its three affiliates.

Only 5 of the schools play football.  Are the remaining three (or two of the three) likely to add football?

At that level of academic prestige, how likely are there to be other (football-friendly) members to be invited to the Landmark?

[Ralph Turner]

Principia is suspending football operations in 2009.

It is not money.  Principia's endowment is more than $500M.  Principia cited a lack of "experienced" players, less than 40.

(Posted for archival purposes.)

[Ron Boerger]

I would wager that if Principia's endowent was "over $500m" at the time the last NABUCO survey was done, it may be "over $350m" by now.   Going to be a lot of schools having great difficulty due to their portfolio losses and the inability to find anything secure with any sort of real return.  That is forcing even colleges that are relatively well-off to find places to save money. 

A 2005 story put their endowment at $330M; Petersen's has it at $493.7m.   They must have had a good-sized fundraising effort to increase that rapidly, unrealized market gains or no.   You just hope they (or other institutions) didn't invest anything with Bernie Madoff.

[Warren Thompson]

One wonders how many venues might be reconsidering their football programs in light of the current national financial troubles (and, for some, the lack of on-the-field success).

Texas Lutheran, for one, comes to mind (FULL DISCLOSURE: back in the Dark Ages I was a faculty member there; frankly, I wonder if TLU just might be better off without football, given that this institution, for whatever reasons, doesn't seem capable or willing to compete with, e.g., the D3 likes of Hardin-Simmons and M-HB).

[Knightstalker]

One wonders how many venues might be reconsidering their football programs in light of the current national financial troubles (and, for some, the lack of on-the-field success).

Texas Lutheran, for one, comes to mind (FULL DISCLOSURE: back in the Dark Ages I was a faculty member there; frankly, I wonder if TLU just might be better off without football, given that this institution, for whatever reasons, doesn't seem capable or willing to compete with, e.g., the D3 likes of Hardin-Simmons and M-HB).

That is a big reason that NJCU dropped football, although it was never a public admission as far as I can recall.

I have been wondering but haven't had the time to look it up, what is the net gain or loss for D3 with the dropping and adding of programs.

[Warren Thompson]

One wonders how many venues might be reconsidering their football programs in light of the current national financial troubles (and, for some, the lack of on-the-field success).

Texas Lutheran, for one, comes to mind (FULL DISCLOSURE: back in the Dark Ages I was a faculty member there; frankly, I wonder if TLU just might be better off without football, given that this institution, for whatever reasons, doesn't seem capable or willing to compete with, e.g., the D3 likes of Hardin-Simmons and M-HB).

I have been wondering but haven't had the time to look it up, what is the net gain or loss for D3 with the dropping and adding of programs.

Good question, I think.

[Ralph Turner]

One wonders how many venues might be reconsidering their football programs in light of the current national financial troubles (and, for some, the lack of on-the-field success).

Texas Lutheran, for one, comes to mind (FULL DISCLOSURE: back in the Dark Ages I was a faculty member there; frankly, I wonder if TLU just might be better off without football, given that this institution, for whatever reasons, doesn't seem capable or willing to compete with, e.g., the D3 likes of Hardin-Simmons and M-HB).

I have been wondering but haven't had the time to look it up, what is the net gain or loss for D3 with the dropping and adding of programs.

Good question, I think.

Dropping football since 2000

NJCU, Blackburn, Principia...  (EDIT:  Colorado College -- 18Jul09)

Adding football since 2000...

Louisiana College (2000), Huntingdon (2003), LaGrange (2006), St Scholastica  (2008),  NCWC (2004), ETBU (2000), Anna Marie (2009) , Castleton St (2009), BSC (2007), CNU (2001), St Vincent (2007), Wisc Lutheran (2000), Husson (2003) SUNY-Maritime (2006).

Corrections appreciated.

I googled the web site and found this article that Pat Coleman wrote.  

I left off Endicott, Becker, Rockford, Utica, and Shenandoah.