La Sierra’s long trip through the provisional membership process, trying to become a Division III member, took a wrong turn this past fall and finally has come to an end. The NCAA’s Division III membership committee reported that “In regards to La Sierra University, the institution that was instructed to rejoin the process as a year one institution, it is trying to do the right thing and attempting to understand what it takes to be a Division III institution.”
La Sierra, in Southern California, could have been through the four-year process and become an active member of Division III by now, in a spot of the country that could desperately use more Division III schools. Instead, the school has joined the NAIA, according to a release this week.
It isn’t easy to become a Division III school. Many of the schools that start the process are not fully prepared to do so, especially those that have to add sports, in some cases several, to make the minimum. In this case, La Sierra has finally washed out of the process.
The NAIA announced the new members in this press release this week.
http://naia.cstv.com/genrel/041510aac.html
(Four of the six inductees for the spring will become independents, including LaSierra. Roosevelt, Chicago IL, will be a member of the Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference; Southwestern Christian University, Bethany OK, will join the Midlands Collegiate Athletic Conference.)
I was trying to find the legislation that has changed while LaSierra has been trying to comply. I will appreciate someone confirming that a school must have the five men’s and five women’s teams “up-and-running” by the first year of the provisional process. That is, a school cannot add teams in the provisional years to make the minimum.
There have been other schools that have not been able to make it through the provisional process. Palm Beach Atlantic took a D-III slot and then moved to D-II. Cincinnati-Clermont has dropped the D-III effort and is in the USCAA.
As for the fallout of La Sierra dropping out, who will Chapman schedule to play in the middle of February?
Yes, I believe that is now the norm.
I think La Sierra had trouble maintaining its number of sports and minimum number of contests in each sport as well.