Thought this was interesting... wonder how many schools follow suit? They just made the NCAA Tournament this year.
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St. Francis D1 to D3
- Thread starter DraftCat
- Start date
Louisville should think about this.
The little guys are tired of getting poached.
I think eventually the top 50 or so power conference schools will be the only D1 schools.
AD is claiming it's too much money to send these athletes all over the country.
Between travel expenses and NIL perhaps the jig is up for the smaller schools.
Like @FtWorthCat said we may see the Power conferences sooner rather than later.
Between travel expenses and NIL perhaps the jig is up for the smaller schools.
Like @FtWorthCat said we may see the Power conferences sooner rather than later.
The ACC announced it is considering a conference-wide move to DIII, with Duke becoming an independent like Notre Dame, after the entire rest of the conference failed to survive the first day of the 2025 NCAA Tournament.
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SEC
Big East
ACC
Big Twelve
Atlantic 10 (Not all)
Some of that Gonzaga Conference
Some American Conference or whatever the Memphis conference is. I quit keeping up.
Some Mountain West ... UNLV, Nevada, New Mexico
Probably 100 teams
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Not sure if it’ll be that drastic, but I agree that eventually there’s gonna have to be some sort of sharper division between the P5 schools and the mid-majors.
The combination of the portal and NIL money is broadening the gap between them to the point where it no longer makes much sense to keep grouping them together as if they’re the same thing.
Isn't D3 non athletic scholarships?
I can see this happening to all the conferences outside the top 6-7 conferences. Eventually anyways
I bet it has something to do with the whole NIL thing, too. If I was in their shoes, I'd do the same thing. There are people out there who cherish the student-athlete experience.
Give me 4 power conferences with 20 teams each.
Play every team in conference once. Play 5 “made for TV” cross conference games.
3 televised exhibitions against lower divisions teams for their paycheck games.
Top 4 teams from each conference gets first round byes (makes conference reg season matter)….thats 16 teams.
The next 32 is straight NET/Kenpom/masseys/ combined ranking or whatever computer system…straight S curve rank 17 plays 48, 18 plays 41, etc….
the winners of those games get reseeded based on computer rankings and placed against their respective seedline matchup in the round of 32 with the 16 teams waiting (the 16 byes are also awarded their respective 1-4seeds based on their NET/computer ranking average compared to the other bye teams; so if the ACC is weaker like this season)…maybe their 4 byes are mainly 3-4 seeds w Duke being the only 1 seed).
Reg season still matters. 3/4 of D1 gets in. Top 16 get an advantage for winning their conference. Single elimination. Incentivizes the conferences to even back out too bc good coaches aren’t going to stay in a stacked league
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D2 you still have to pay scholarships to compete.
Tbh it really never made sense to start with but the little guys kept wanting a piece of the major TV contracts…but from a competitiveness standpoint, they had no real shot to win anything of value. They were playing for singular tourny wins or the one off final 4 run. Sure, it was fun to pull for the little guy when one of them got hot and made a run but there’s a reason a mid major F4 has only happened like 5 times in the history of the tournament expanding to 64+
I’m sure most those teams would rather be like FCS in football and have a chance at a championship
I'm not a fan of this drastic of change. I love my NCAA tournament though
That is correct.
Hartford did the same thing a few years back after they made the NCAA Tournament.
Or go back to the OVC from whence they came.
They have been more conferences than a truck stop whore has been in the back of a semi.
The P5 schools (SEC, Big 10, Big 12, Big East, and ACC) should have their own basketball tournament. No one outside of those conferences have won it since UNLV in 1990.
And yes I know that UConn won it as a member of the AAC, but now they are in the Big East, so I don’t count them or the team that vacated in 2013.
Have a separate tournament for the other conferences. Maybe Gonzaga could finally win a title.
And yes I know that UConn won it as a member of the AAC, but now they are in the Big East, so I don’t count them or the team that vacated in 2013.
Have a separate tournament for the other conferences. Maybe Gonzaga could finally win a title.
Only 25 of the top 130 college sports programs make a profit. The remainder lose an average of $16M annually. Going to D3 enables St. Francis to save money and have an athletic program for its students.
As others have said, no scholarships. And also, with St. Francis being private, they'll fit in with DIII competition better. 80% of D3 is private institutions.
This.
Ironically, NIL may save college academic and sports; reset ting all these other schools from trying to compete with large D1s and D2s. Less money spent on ridiculous gymnasiums and facilities; more money for students and learning. Sadly, this will mean less known schools won't make the NCAAT as often, but it's the kind of balance that is needed I think.
Some. Others have huge private donors but they use it for academics.
How does that play out for the proposed expansion of the ncaa tourney, though? I'd say, ncaa fixes nil or it ceases to exist, soon.
NIL cannot cease to exist unless Congress passes a law. NIL is the law of the land.
There is something novel to be said for an entire conference of true student athletes. Just normal students, playing sports. I'd think that is pretty fun in it's own right. Actually kinda makes me wonder if I have a fun Div III school I could get behind. Might be some fun entertainment. I love going to my old HS games.
NIL will go directly to the players. The budget deficit is overwhelming many college athletic programs. NIL is
not going to save college athletic programs. My opinion is that we will continue to see smaller institutions back away from athletics going forward. Maybe 50-60 programs survive the financial issues of college athletics
So basically like it was in the 80s and 90s, where large programs mainly competed. It's absolutely going to do that. It's not going to save smaller athletic programs. It's going to keep them out of the main events, just like they were. Now some may see that as bad, but in reality, no one is wanting to pay money to see St Francis versus Duke or St Mary's School for the Destitute vs Auburn. 9.98 times out of 10 that's going to be a blow out. People want to see UK vs KU, Duke vs Auburn, Bama vs Georgia, Florida vs FSU (when they were good), etc. They want big matchups.
It may suck if you are a fan of the smaller schools but let's be honest. They, like other sports, just don't draw the attendance to justify the cost.
Not shocked, I bet more schools more conecerned with actual students and class and not making money will do this soon. Let’s face it, these kinda schools will be raided for talent every year and they can’t come up with the money year after year to try and compete even at the Mid major level.
I think there will easily be 150 or so but that’s less than half of what it is now.
I remember the old metro conference.
Could always stay with teams in Lexington and cheer for Transylvania University. They switched from NAIA D1 to NCAA D3 back in the early 2000's, play in the Heartland Conference.
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