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.
For what it’s worth, I think this is bittersweet news.
From a selfish standpoint I really enjoyed watching Lincoln’s team mature from last year to this year. Coaches Yuille and Eugene Lett are passionate about what they do and they’ve got a good thing going.
And I’ll miss interacting with SID Rob Knox who worked his keester off last season helping us bring others the Lincoln story including Myrick’s unreal performance.
I had hoped to see Lincoln continue its maturation at the Division III level. I still think there are special things in store for that program and it would’ve been fun to have it happen in my “home” region.
At the same time, Lincoln’s scheduling situation was not enviable. As an independent, they have a brutal schedule before Christmas and a vacant one after mid-January.
As Pat mentioned it was a short run on the national radar. But I enjoyed watching it and wish the best to the Lions.
Pat:
I’ve heard Lincoln was looking into the return of Football, ( and by the way, Alums and students yearned for the return of football since my days at Lincoln, during the early 1970’s), but like eveything, else I thought it was a pipe dream.
While I’m excited about the return of Football, I too would love to see the Lions compete at the DIII level. I think Lincoln would have continued to build it’s Basketball program, and the Lions Track & Field program speaks for itself. Wisconsin-Lax (T&F), Kenyon (swimming), and of course Salisbury (Lacrosse) have build “monster programs” and have maintained the DIII philosophy. With that said, as you noted, Lincoln has petitioned the CIAA (the oldest collegiate athletic conference of HBCU’s)of which Lincoln was a founding member. The CIAA is made up of all DII schools, so the Lions DIII fate was over with their petition.
With respect to CIAA admission, anything could happen, but I would say Lincoln’s chances are very good. Winston Salem State University, and North Carolina Central Univesity are planning on moving up from DII to DI, and have (or are in the process) of petitioning membership in the MEAC conference giving up their slots in the CIAA. As peviously mentioned, since Lincoln was a founding member of the CIAA, hopefully that would aid the Lions petition process. Hopefully, things will work out for the Lions, and I have have to admit, I’m excited about the return of Football at my Alma Mater and I hope everthing works out well. The exhuastive studies on the Lincoln website showed that considerable attention and detail was made before making the division switch (especially fiscal responsibilities assocoated with NCAA Football).
I will always be a followere of D3 sports, and to quote Dick Schapp on “Outside the Lines”, “DIII sports is the last real vestiges of amateur sports we have”.
Speaking of Myrick, he was drafted by the NEPA Breakers of the USBL.
And surprisingly, it looks like he’s going to report and play for them. Usually the NBA hopefuls bypass the USBL even when drafted.
He can still get drafted by the NBA anyway, right? I’m not sure he’ll get a look on draft day, with the sheer number of higher profile elligibles. However, I bet its not out of the question for him to get a camp invite, maybe a chance to play on a summer league team.
What’s the allure of moving from D-3 to D-2 (or from D-2 to D-1, for that matter)? Yes, scholarships are available at the D-2 and D-1 level, and so “better” players might be recruited, and “better” teams might be formed… but is there really THAT much difference between most D-2 schools or even many D-1 teams and the elite D-3 teams? I can tell you from my own experience (playing at Michigan Tech for one year and then UWSP) that the difference in talent was basically negligible. The Tech guys were perhaps more athletic, maybe a little bit quicker, but that was it. The players and coaches I played with/for were just as basketball savy, if not more… and MTU, the two years after I left, was ranked in the top 5, as high as #1 in Division II.
I understand, too, that the SP teams I played on were very special. But that’s where Lincoln was trying to be… and I think they were close! Why trade that for a few scholarship players, without the success? What if, after a few years, they decide that D-2 just isn’t enough, and they want to hop to D-1? They’ll be a low-to-mid-major at best. They would trade the success they’ve achieved at this level to go and compete with schools they can’t possibly compete with? I just don’t understand.
The HBCUs that Lincoln could have natural rivalries with are in Division II. There are more at the Division I (I-AA football) level. That’s the draw for them.
Just got official word that Lincoln will be Division III in 2006-07, looks like for the last time.
Thanks for the news Pat. It looks like I’ll have one more year to post here for my beloved Lincoln Lions. After Lincoln moves on, I’ll still be here to post for Salisbury (since I spent a ton of money for out of state tuition).