Off field behavior problems, Div I vs Div II and III

[UNH SUPERFAN]

I know the playoffs are more important right now but I need some help.

Someone locally has made the assertion on the radio that behavior problems in college football is "a Division I problem" because they recruit "athlete-students" and not the other way around. I'll bet that Div II and III have their fair share of problems but I have no data to back that up (or maybe I'm wrong!).

Anyone have any info on this or know where to look? I need to correct this individual, or at least question his facts.

Thanks in advance for your help!!!

[UNHFan99]

I can tell you that the Elite Division 2 and 3 programs accept alot of students that do not academically pass the NCAA's requirements. If you are supposed to go FBS but fail your senior year then you can go to a lower division and play right away. I know of at least two players that didnt qualify that I played against in high school that went and played at the D2 level. Also and this might speak only for UNH but the UNH athletic gpa is higher than the average student at UNH's gpa. Not sure on the exact #'s but I know I have heard that before.

[BigHouseClosedEnd]

I think you are right about D2, but not D3.

Is it possible that this guy has a bias due to the UNH backup QB murder charge? What ever happened with that?

[UNH SUPERFAN]

This has NOTHING whatever to do with UNH. This is about a D-III school where I live that is starting a football program. The president of the college made the remark on radio sports in an attempt to somehow separate the type of program he is starting from what he sees as the evils of D-I football. I take exception to it because I think the D-I programs and their problems are in the limelight where the D-II and D-III programs are not.

He is going to be on a local sports talk show Saturday and I was hoping to call with some hard data about problems at the lower divisions being no less prevalent than they are at D-I.

[McNeese_beat]

This has NOTHING whatever to do with UNH. This is about a D-III school where I live that is starting a football program. The president of the college made the remark on radio sports in an attempt to somehow separate the type of program he is starting from what he sees as the evils of D-I football. I take exception to it because I think the D-I programs and their problems are in the limelight where the D-II and D-III programs are not.

He is going to be on a local sports talk show Saturday and I was hoping to call with some hard data about problems at the lower divisions being no less prevalent than they are at D-I.

D-III is pure non-scholarship athletics. I'm sure that the elite programs like St. John's and Mount Union find ways to get good players in school, my experience has generally been that D-III schools are usually small, private universities and colleges that are academically oriented.

[Mn_Moose]

It may have more to do with publicity than actual occurrences. The big names at big schools garner more press.
I think you are correct. Div 2 and Div 3 have their share of off field problems. There isn't a correlation between the amount of money a student receives for scholarship and the propensity to have off the field violations.