(10-05-2016 05:00 PM)Captain Bearcat Wrote:  

(10-05-2016 02:36 PM)dbackjon Wrote:  

(10-05-2016 01:32 PM)Rube Dali Wrote:  I've been speaking with one of the people I follow on twitter(he works for Goshen College) and he told me at least three DIII members from Indiana have been reconsidering their continued membership at that level. At least one, Anderson, was named as a possible leaver. Now, nothing has been decided yet, but I get this feeling there might be more than just 3 DIII schools from Indiana looking to move on.

Upwards to DII, or to NAIA/or one of the other ones like NCCAA?

Definitely not upwards IMO. What's the benefit? All 10 of Indiana's D-3 schools are too small to have upward ambitions.

Since NAIA is roughly on par with D2, NAIA would be a move "up" too. These schools would be able to offer legitimate athletic scholarships and STILL have a smaller budget than in D3 (according to NAIA research I've seen). Remember that there's still a ton of rules and overhead for D3, and to be competitive they have to offer "leadership" scholarships - which may not technically be athletic department dollars, it still comes from somewhere.

I have heard from someone who should know that the NAIA is expecting "a lot" of applicants this year although no numbers were quoted. In recent years the applicant pool has been 4 or 5, so I would think "a lot" might be 8 to 10. And in addition to Panhandle I would expect a mix of D3's, new programs, USCAA, NCCAA and possibly another D2 thrown in. I think this year might mark the beginning of a slide of D2's who can't justify the expense moving to NAIA over the next 10 years.