Saint Francis moving to D-III

[SFspidur]

One week ago today, they were dancing in a First Four game.

Saint Francis University Announces Move from NCAA Division I Athletics to Division III Athletics - Saint Francis University Athletics

Today, Saint Francis University announced a decision by its Board of Trustees that directs the president and the leadership team to pursue a reclassification of

sfuathletics.com

 

[Section9.RowD]

St Francis's in D1 are no more .. only 2 years ago St Fran of NY did virtually the same thing

 

[SFspidur]

St Francis's in D1 are no more .. only 2 years ago St Fran of NY did virtually the same thing

Yep, we hosted St. Francis of Brooklyn in a campus game of the Fort Myers Tip-Off in their penultimate season of 2018–19. We also hosted them in the first round of the NIT back in 2015.

As for Saint Francis of PA...remember we needed a miracle comeback to force OT and then get the win in the 2019 season opener, and then went on to go 24–7 before COVID derailed things.

 

[Wood Hall]

I think there will be more schools making this choice, especially if there are decent DIII leagues in their general geographic vicinity. The President's League is solid DIII competition, and the Frankies (sorry, Red Flash is lame) will be able to travel almost everywhere by bus.

The House settlement and NIL are budget-busters for some schools, and the portal will kill you if you ever get any good players.

 

[fan2011]

Money related? Lots of smaller schools outside the top30 or so are really struggling financially. Though apparently this year has the highest number of college applicants ever so things may be changing.

 

[Section9.RowD]

Money related? Lots of smaller schools outside the top30 or so are really struggling financially. Though apparently this year has the highest number of college applicants ever so things may be changing.

< 1700 students and endowment about $55m similar to St. Catherine's K-12 girls school in Richmond so I have to think $$ is a big part of it.

 

[RichmondNative]

< 1700 students and endowment about $55m similar to St. Catherine's K-12 girls school in Richmond so I have to think $$ is a big part of it.

I have heard that a significant dip in the college aged children demographic is coming soon and the small schools are going to have a hard time surviving. Seems like a smart move to cut anything that isn’t contributing to the bottom line.

 

[wr70beh]

I have heard that a significant dip in the college aged children demographic is coming soon and the small schools are going to have a hard time surviving. Seems like a smart move to cut anything that isn’t contributing to the bottom line.

With those who think a college education is not good value for money at a small institution like St. Francis, and millennials not having kids, it's kind of a drought of kids coming through to pay tuition. I think big state schools will be fine, but the little guys at the D1 level will struggle (the NEC schools and the MAACs of the world).

 

[spider fan]

College athletics have changed dramatically over the past few years. With no restictions on transferring and paying players the concept of student athlete has become unrecognizable particularly for football and basketball at many Division 1 schools. In those cases the primacy of a student's education has morphed into the primacy of being a paid athlete. Not surprising that some schools will see the changes as prohibitively expensive and not fitting their concept of what a college education should be.