Today’s New York Times has a story about the growing unrest in Division III collegiate athletics.
The N.C.A.A.’s Division III, a group of mostly small colleges that prohibit athletic scholarships, has long been viewed as a model of the amateur ideal. But rampant growth has swelled the membership to 420, making it by far the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s biggest division, with enrollments ranging from 400 to 40,000.
The diversity has bred discord, and now the alliance is preparing to split in two, a recognition of how fractured the membership is over issues like money, national championships and the appropriate mission of athletics in higher education.
The dispute would be more suited to the major college sports landscape, except that Division III is home to many of the nation’s top small colleges, and that brings an even bigger stake to the debate: the impact a split could have on academic rankings used by prospective students and their parents.
The result could be a new Division IV or a sub-division with a lesser designation. At many Division III institutions, athletics is a leading admissions recruiting tool that has been credited with raising retention rates. Any real or perceived de-emphasis of sports could diminish applicant pools or cause prospective students to decline admission offers — major factors used in the powerful U.S. News and World Report rankings.
Splitting Division III into two or three divisions will have implications for those pursuing soccer at the next level.
A PDF version of the entire article has been added to the password protected articles section of the site.
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