Interesting story coming out of Omaha

[89rabbit]

Here is an interesting story coming out of Omaha.

http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_np=0&u_pg=38&u_sid=1209023

Aid plan opposed by UNO's Danenhauer

BY ROB WHITE

WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER

A proposal to reduce the maximum scholarship total for NCAA Division II football programs from 36 to 24 has the University of Nebraska at Omaha concerned about its program. . . .

The Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference and the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference are co-sponsors of the proposal, which will be voted upon at the NCAA Convention in Dallas on Jan. 10.

UNO, as with most members of the North Central Conference, offers the full 36 scholarships currently allowed.

The rationale behind the proposal is that half of the institutions that fielded Division II football teams in 2000, the last season for which data is available, awarded 24 or fewer scholarships. By reducing the maximum total, it would theoretically improve competitive balance while also helping address gender equity issues.

The proposed effective date is Aug. 1, 2006.

"The most important part of the proposal is to level the playing field," RMAC Commissioner Joel Smith said. "You're seeing the same teams playing for the championship every year, and they're the ones with all 36 scholarships. And the scores are drastically different in games between the teams who have 36 scholarships and those who don't." . . .

"The thing with Division II is that we've had so many teams come up in recent years that aren't fully funded," UNO Coach Pat Behrns said. "So now, the way for them to create parity is to bring everyone down instead of building themselves up."

It's part of an overall trend of shrinking Division II football resources.

Since the study, better-funded programs like North Dakota State, South Dakota State, Northern Colorado and California-Davis have moved up to Division I-AA. NDSU, SDSU and UNC were all in the NCC with UNO.

Behrns said his program would struggle in recruiting under the proposal because the difference in tuition for in-state and out-of-state students would make it difficult to offer much scholarship money to anyone outside the state of Nebraska.

And recruiting Nebraska high school players has already become more difficult because North Dakota State and South Dakota State are able to offer full scholarships since they are I-AA programs. Those programs made recruiting in-roads in the state last season.

Smith said he understands the concern UNO has about paring one-third of its scholarship money.

"But if we stay like we are," he said. "We're going to start losing football programs." . . .



Things that make you go hmmmm. :-/ I think the good folks at SDSU and NDSU have been talking about this for some time now. I believe it was one of the reasons that we wanted to move up to D-I. ;)

Go State! ;D

[JBB]

Its an interesting article. *It sounds like DII is going to protect the smaller programs. *This move would further level the DII playing field by taking away the financial edge some of the larger DII programs seem to have. * The overall level of play may be reduced by the loss of talent, *but the division will be more competitive. *Something they have been trying to do for some time now.

This would be a great move for NDSU/SDSU recruiting and further widen the gap between regional DI-AA programs and the DIIs.

[tony]

I'm surprised half of DII schools offer 24 or more schollies, that's a lot better than I thought. You'd think that would means there's a good chance that scholarships won't get dropped this year.

Of course, with the membership trends and all, I think it's pretty obvious that schollies will get cut at some point. I think the scholarship cut folks are taking a big gamble by trying for such a huge cut all at once when a asking for a limit of 30 would have passed for sure.

I really don't think this has much chance of passage unless they phase the cut in (maybe cut by 3 a year for four years). Otherwise, if they cut scholarships by 12, nobody in the NCC could sign any kids next year except by cutting aid to upperclassmen.

[kchats]

That is why we left. Did you notice the comment from the RMAC guy that the teams with all 36 scholarships have been blowing out the teams with fewer scholarships? Seems to fly in the face of the fans of division II schools that claim they could play with any and all division I-AA schools. They might win one game like the Bison did last year when you catch the opponent overlooking you or playing poorly but if they had to play against teams with 63 scholarships every week they would wear down and get blown out. I love how fans of teams with fewer scholarships don't mention the scholarship difference when they predict a victory over the team with more but as soon as they get blownout they say well what did you expect we only have 25 scholarships. ;D I thought 36 scholarships was too few 24 would be horrible football. Do you see UNO and or UND moving up if the cut passes? ???

[MinotBison]

I think it would be difficult for UNO to move up , given who they have to compete with for players.

As for UND, they would almost have to move up. Either that, or renew their red hot rivalry with Crookston. ;D ;D