NCAA considers creating a 4th division

[Da Coach]

NCAA surveys Division III members about possible split into fourth division

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/news/story?id=3236037&campaign=rss&source=NCAAHeadlines

[Rusty 54]

Is this where international colleges would start out?

[squirrel]

They have already said that the initial international institutions would be able to participate at DII, and in one-division sports they could participate at the DI level.

The interesting thing is not in what this article says, but what it doesn't say.

DIII I believe is the NCAA's largest division at this point with 440 members. Granted at some of those schools, sports are an merely an activity and not competitive in any way.

Meanwhile DII membership is dwindling.

If they are projecting 40+ new members and considering a new division altogether, that smells of changes at the top and that the NCAA desires balanced membership.

[Da Coach]

The NCAA has already made it clear there will be changes made that have allowed so many schools to move to Div I. There have been too many recently that are just not competetive (see New Jersey Institute of Technology). The D2 schools want to move up to D1 to get a share of the massive amount of TV and tournament money available, compared to D2. And even the losingest teams and teams that draw a couple hundred fans get to share in some of it.

[BradleyBrave]

They have already said that the initial international institutions would be able to participate at DII, and in one-division sports they could participate at the DI level.

The interesting thing is not in what this article says, but what it doesn't say.

DIII I believe is the NCAA's largest division at this point with 440 members. Granted at some of those schools, sports are an merely an activity and not competitive in any way.

Meanwhile DII membership is dwindling.

If they are projecting 40+ new members and considering a new division altogether, that smells of changes at the top and that the NCAA desires balanced membership.

If they chopped the bottom 100 schools who field DI basketball teams it really wouldn't bother me too much. That would still leave close to 250 DI basketball schools. IMO, BU would not be in jeopardy of being dropped to DII. President Glasser has said she will do whatever it takes to keep us at the highest level athletically, so if the NCAA wants to cut out some of the lesser DI programs, so be it.

[MacabreMob]

If they chopped the bottom 100 schools who field DI basketball teams it really wouldn't bother me too much. That would still leave close to 250 DI basketball schools. IMO, BU would not be in jeopardy of being dropped to DII. President Glasser has said she will do whatever it takes to keep us at the highest level athletically, so if the NCAA wants to cut out some of the lesser DI programs, so be it.

If D1 is gonna split - BU and the MVC will remain in the upper level IMO.

Go ahead and look at the bottom conferences.

The Northeast Conference, Atlantic Sun, MEAC, Patriot, Big South, SWAC, Metro-Atlantic, Amer East, Big Sky, OVC, Summit, Southern, Sun Belt, Big West, Southland, and Independents. That totals 177 teams. And then throw in the WAC and Ivy League (17 more teams).

So sure, there are some really good teams in that bunch. The good ones remain in the upper tier, join some existing leagues forming monster conferences like the Big East, or forming new conferences.

But the MVC and Bradley will remain in the top level.

My question is.... who will the BCS teams play to pad their W's at home?

[squirrel]

I still fear that they will use football to weed out the riffraff but that's just me.

Not a lot of people do. But of all the solutions the NCAA comes up with, it's usually the worst so there you go. . .