Lincoln is leaving Division III.

If all goes according to plan, the Lions will be in the Division II Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (and playing football, by the way), in 2010-11. Although the NCAA may consider Lincoln as a Division III member during part of the reclassification process, we will not consider Lincoln a Division III member from the moment they have a scholarship athlete.

Men’s basketball coach Garfield Yuille hinted at this in an interview on Hoopsville (full audio clip) at the end of January, so it isn’t much of a surprise. But the volume of material on Lincoln’s Web site begs the question:

What happens if the CIAA doesn’t take Lincoln?

This is how university president Ivory V. Nelson termed it in his letter to the university community of Tuesday afternoon, April 11:

If invited to join, we will begin the intercollegiate athletic transition process via the NCAA. We will not petition for Division II status until we have a definitive decision from the CIAA.

Let’s hope that works out. We know Lincoln has made overtures to the CIAA before, only to be told it needed to add football as well. But Lincoln fits very well in that league.

So Lincoln: Enjoy your 36 football scholarships and your 10 basketball scholarships. I would say thanks for the memories, but shoot, Lincoln was only on the radar for about a year and a half of the nine years we’ve been running the site. The rest of the time, getting info was like pulling teeth. Memories are hard to come by.

The move would leave Division III with just two historically black colleges: Fisk and Rust.