I just got back yesterday from the Stagg Bowl, the Division III football championship game which is played in Salem. The teams’ annual banquet is held in the Civic Center, site of the Division III men’s basketball Final Four.

The Civic Center is going through some upgrades. The new seats, which went into the side of the arena with the benches last season, are now on both sides of the arena. The old sound studio-style brown acoustic tiles are no longer part of the decor and have been replaced by blue padding on each wall. And there’s a new scoreboard, which wasn’t completely installed when we were there but will be in plenty of time for March.

McMurry is holding a news conference at this hour to announce its decision regarding its Indians nickname. The NCAA has told the university it must change its name or face sanctions regarding hosting postseason play.

Previous coverage of this issue below. When we know more, we’ll pass it along.

Alright, basketball withdrawal is painful, apparently. It’s now even invading my dreams.

The other night, amazing detail. I’m sitting courtside in Salem with Rick Seidel, broadcasting the national semifinals. Pretty good crowd on hand. NYU is playing UW-Platteville and Platteville has just taken a three to go up by two with seconds left. NYU pushes the ball up the floor and has it knocked out of bounds with 0.1 seconds left.

So NYU has to go for the tip-in. But their inbounds pass misses everyone and actually hits me in the face. Ouch.

Platteville needs to inbound the ball to advance to the finals. But they throw deep into their frontcourt to avoid the tip-in and they, too, miss everyone. So it’s still 0.1 seconds left, NYU inbounding underneath its own basket again with a chance to tip-in and tie, but Platteville deflects the inbounds pass and time expires.

And there’s still nearly four months to tipoff.

Birmingham-Southern fans, coaches, student-athletes:

Welcome to Division III.

We don’t harbor any delusions that you want to be here. From the outside, Division III doesn’t compare very favorably to Division I. But let’s be honest: Birimgham-Southern wasn’t a Division I power, and the trip from Division I mid-major to Division III isn’t as far as you might think.

Your school is giving scholarship money to more than 200 people solely based on athletic ability. When that stops, your institution will be able to redirect that money to award need-based or academic-based aid. That will raise the level of the student body and, in fact, will increase the value of your degree.

You may not think much of your likely new fellow conference members, but let’s be honest — it’s not like the Big South is populated by well-known names. High Point? UNC Asheville? Radford? Winthrop? Rhodes, Trinity University, Austin College, Colorado College and others have stellar reputations, and they are not based on being on the 13, 14 or 15 line every March … or by being the brainchild of a televangelist.

Coaches and administrators: I expect you have no desire to be in Division III. If you are at all conflicted about the Division III mission, I would suggest leaving. You can’t be half-hearted about Division III. It’s a challenge. But if you’ve ever faced a halfway-decent Division III program you know one thing: This is not glorified high school ball.

A further discussion of the issues is posted in our Q&A with Birmingham-Southern president David Pollick.