Centenary Drops to Div III [Archive]

TexasTerror

July 21st, 2009, 06:05 PM

First school to drop from Div I to Div III since Birmingham Southern, according to sources I have talked to just now...

The vote was held this afternoon amongst Board of Trustee members.

Will post articles and other information when informed.

TexasTerror

July 21st, 2009, 06:41 PM

First article out, Shreveport Times...

The Centenary College board of trustees voted today to drop down from NCAA Division I to NCAA Division III athletics in the next two to three years.

The vote was 31-18 in favor of dropping down, which included 16 proxy votes.

Centenary does not have a conference affiilation yet according to third-generation Centenary board of trustees member Andy Shehee.

http://shreveporttimes.com/article/20090721/SPORTS/90721021

TexasTerror

July 22nd, 2009, 08:49 AM

They are having even more conference affiliation issues at Div III!

Getting into Division III won't be as easy as saying they'd like to do so. The NCAA must approve the move and only allows about four schools per year to make the move, according to sources. It helps speed the move with conference affiliation, but the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference has already rejected Centenary and one of the Centenary trustee committees voted to spurn a membership offer to join the American Southwest Conference, which includes Louisiana College and ETBU.

http://www.shreveporttimes.com/article/20090722/SPORTS02/907220326/1001/SPORTS?GID=2

Franks Tanks

July 22nd, 2009, 09:48 AM

Hate to see a school drop from D-I, but it makes a lot of sense in their case.

Could they start a D-III FB team?? Perhaps that may be difficult a they probbaly have few D-III FB schools in the area.

TexasTerror

July 22nd, 2009, 11:36 AM

They could start Division III football.

Birmingham Southern dropped from Division I to Division III and began a football program upon their arrival. I believe a former head coach is now the head coach at South Alabama.

Centenary had some form of football "back in the day". Not too sure what level they played, if it was a club team or what...

Franks Tanks

July 22nd, 2009, 12:47 PM

TexasTerror

July 22nd, 2009, 12:51 PM

Milsaps and Birmingham Southern are in the SCAC.

Interesting mix of schools from Millsaps, DePauw, Trinity, Centre, Austin, Rhodes, Sweanee, Colorado College and Birmingham Southern.

DFW HOYA

July 22nd, 2009, 01:05 PM

Centenary drops to Division III--but why can't administrators avoid the double-speak: "repositioning" its athletic teams? Repositioning at the bottom, perhaps.

Davidson is now the second smallest.

http://www.centenary.edu/news/2009/0000273

Franks Tanks

July 22nd, 2009, 01:15 PM

Milsaps and Birmingham Southern are in the SCAC.

Interesting mix of schools from Millsaps, DePauw, Trinity, Centre, Austin, Rhodes, Sweanee, Colorado College and Birmingham Southern.

Quite spread out. Colorado College dropped their FB program at the conclusion of last season so they are out. I'm sure this league will approach Centenary about the possibiliy of D-III football as they are decently close to other members.

At the D-III level many small schools do use football to boost enrollment. At small Liberal Arts colleges the female enrollment is far outpacing the male, so football is used a tool to recruit males. Could work for Centenary

bandit

July 22nd, 2009, 01:23 PM

This was a no-brainer. Centenary belongs in D-III. I hope they have success with the move.

Will be interesting to see if the Summit adds anybody.

Thunderstruck84

July 22nd, 2009, 01:28 PM

They already are adding USD (South Dakota not San Diego) in the fall of 2011. The popular consensus is that they were going to add UND once the nickname dispute was resolved as well. Not sure if this throws a monkey wrench into or not, I would guess they'll still take UND eventually and look for another member to get up to 12 teams.

OL FU

July 22nd, 2009, 01:30 PM

Wofford, Davidson.................................We big SoCon schools need to ban together and kick those little dogs and cats outxmadx

:)

mcveyrl

July 22nd, 2009, 01:32 PM

TexasTerror

July 22nd, 2009, 01:34 PM

Centenary drops to Division III--but why can't administrators avoid the double-speak: "repositioning" its athletic teams? Repositioning at the bottom, perhaps.

It is not official. While the Board of Trustees has voted that way, there was an article linked above that showed that it will not be all too easy. They are already struggling with conference affiliation.

?????????????????????????????
xconfusedxxconfusedxxconfusedx

They are speaking of the Summit League. Looks like moderators moved this here because of that confusion - this is non-football talk.

Go...gate

July 22nd, 2009, 03:25 PM

Robert Parish may not be too happy.....

BearsCountry

July 22nd, 2009, 04:01 PM

American Southwest Conference makes sense for Centenary. They could even up their membership with the Gents.

Now to the Summit, I would assume UND is a lock, the next question is #12 - Denver or Chicago State?

bandit

July 22nd, 2009, 11:24 PM

Chicago State just got kicked out not long ago, didn't they? Or did they leave voluntarily...

Also Utah Valley State is available.

RabidRabbit

July 22nd, 2009, 11:43 PM

Chicago State just got kicked out not long ago, didn't they? Or did they leave voluntarily...

Also Utah Valley State is available.

Chicago State left voluntarily........

before they were voted out. This is a sad situation, and not a great candidate, but they are one of the few schools that are independent and core. UT-Pan American, Savannah St. are the others. Summit is now down to the minimum of core schools to keep the MBB autobid. SDSU/NDSU/UND/UVU/USD all don't help the core situation until 2016 or 2017 for the two Dakota States.

Centenary needs to move their athletics down. They simply aren't large enough to be competitive.

BearsCountry

July 22nd, 2009, 11:59 PM

Utah Valley wont be added plus they arent a core member either. Summit wants Southern Utah out, no way do they go into Utah again. Denver is a little out of the geographical core but they can be reached easily from KC and Tulsa, plus alot of other places.

TexasTerror

July 23rd, 2009, 08:22 AM

This is a sad situation, and not a great candidate, but they are one of the few schools that are independent and core. UT-Pan American, Savannah St. are the others.

Those schools are in the Great West.

The Summit League needs to just add Utah Valley and UND and call it a day.

TexasTerror

July 23rd, 2009, 08:39 AM

Today's articles

Editorial: Time to ice down those Centenary bruises
http://www.shreveporttimes.com/article/20090723/OPINION03/907230305/1058

Drop to D-3 not without controversy for Centenary
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2009/jul/22/drop-to-d-3-not-without-controversy-for-centenary/

Tim Brando: Where's the outrage over Centenary move?
http://www.shreveporttimes.com/article/20090723/SPORTS04/907230322/1001/SPORTS

Letter to the Centenary Community of Behalf of Ed Crawford, Acting Chairman, Board of Trustees
http://www.gocentenary.com/ViewArticle.dbml?&ATCLID=204763656&DB_OEM_ID=17900

Sign of The Economic Times: Centenary College Going From D-I to D-III
http://ncaabasketball.fanhouse.com/2009/07/22/sign-of-the-economic-times-centenary-college-going-from-d-i-to/

Lehigh Football Nation

July 23rd, 2009, 10:44 AM

There isn't enough discussion in these articles about the main driver of the move: that Centenary ultimately couldn't spend the money on APR compliance and therefore didn't have any choice but to go to D-III. The people who argue that pointy-headed intellectuals willed this to happen are completely missing the point: that Centenary was driven to do this, it wasn't a choice.

It's less surprising, though, that FBS/BCS schools continue to graduate less-than-academic-all-stars in sports (despite millions of spending on academic babysitters to make sure they go to class), while the real victims in APR compliance are the institutions that don't have the money to pay for babysitters.

chrisattsu

July 24th, 2009, 10:06 AM

If teams cannot move up from D2 or reclassify to FBS, can Centenary drop to D3 during the moratorium?

TexasTerror

July 24th, 2009, 11:59 AM

If teams cannot move up from D2 or reclassify to FBS, can Centenary drop to D3 during the moratorium?

Dropping down is not an issue.

The reason the moratorium was started is due to the more schools moving up, some of whom are ill-equipped to do so (i.e. FAMU's previous attempt to move up to FBS and TXST's prior attempt, which actually brought upon the new by-laws pertaining to conference membership)

Hammersmith

July 25th, 2009, 03:12 AM

Those schools are in the Great West.

The Summit League needs to just add Utah Valley and UND and call it a day.

They may be in the Great West, but, as it's not an autobid conference, they might as well be independent. Chicago State or UTPA would jump at a chance to leave the GWC for the Summit. The Summit isn't returning UVU's phone calls, so it won't be them. There seems to be a rumor that the Sun Belt is going to force Denver to make a conference decision by the end of June 2010. If they can't get into the WCC, WAC, or MWC, and if they don't want the Big Sky or the BSC doesn't want them, then it will be them and UND. If not, the Summit will probably have to hold its nose and take Chicago State plus UND.

If UND does get into the Summit soon, I wouldn't be surprised if the football arm of the Great West falls back under the umbrella of the Summit, and the non-football arm is either renamed or disbanded. With USD moving to the Summit in two years, UND will be the only school left in both arms.

TexasTerror

July 25th, 2009, 08:28 AM

There seems to be a rumor that the Sun Belt is going to force Denver to make a conference decision by the end of June 2010. If they can't get into the WCC, WAC, or MWC, and if they don't want the Big Sky or the BSC doesn't want them, then it will be them and UND. If not, the Summit will probably have to hold its nose and take Chicago State plus UND.

I love how people think there is a "rumor" about Denver. It is the truth. There are a new set of guidelines, passed by the schools in the league, that say all SBC schools must be to 15 league sports by 2012. Denver and UNO (on NCAA/Katrina waiver) are not there.

The thing is - the SBC Commish has said as recently as this past week, that they are not standing in the way of Denver leaving and seemed to be very passive about actually following through with the 'boot' (which is consistent with what I have heard in the past). So, Denver is probably going to be in the league until they find a home.

TexasTerror

July 27th, 2009, 08:05 AM

Well, this guy was certainly trying to defend Division III and say Centenary is in for it when they make the move down...

The thing that most people will find shocking is how little difference there is between the level of athletics at the low levels of Division I and the high level of Division III.

Centenary College is going to find that out in a hurry.

The school appears poised to join the American Southwest Conference. How good is that league? Well, how good is the Southeastern Conference in Division I?

If you want to win a conference championship in the ASC, you need to be good enough to win a Division III national championship.

Sorry, but Centenary isn't that good right now, even though it is Division I.

http://www.thetowntalk.com/article/20090724/SPORTS/907240316