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Bison_Kent
03-07-2004, 09:03 PM
Here is an article on Savannah (Georgia) State. They made the move from DII to I-AA in football and Divisoin I in all other sports in 1999 and have yet to find a conference for any sport.

NDSU and SDSU are already ahead of them in the conference department but I think a conference for all non-football sports needs to be in place realitively soon regardless of what conference it is.

Here is the article:

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2004/03/06/sports1253EST0484.DTL

JBB
03-07-2004, 10:33 PM
They must have an open football date. We should be able to get a BB game too.

somebison
03-07-2004, 10:35 PM
They must have an open football date. *We should be able to get a BB game too.

Way to see the Silver Lining JBB :). Was Savannah St. successful at the D2 level ???

D
03-07-2004, 10:54 PM
Way to see the Silver Lining JBB *:). *Was Savannah St. successful at the D2 level ???

In hoops, in the 5 year period from the 2000-2001 season to 96-97 they won a combined 42 games, those were their last D2 years. I don't know about football, but I'd highly doubt they were that good.

wsuwarrior
03-08-2004, 12:25 AM
Wow, that was a hard read, almost depressing. I have a lot of faith the SDSU and NDSU won't have problems like that.

mojobison
03-08-2004, 12:57 AM
They had trouble with the NCAA while in D2 too:

Link (http://www.ncaa.org/releases/infractions/1998/1998040602in.htm)

They exceeded the scholarship limit in football by 28!

GCWaters
03-08-2004, 01:01 AM
I grew up an hour from Savannah (went to Georgia Southern)...Savannah State was a terrible school in a lot of ways--nothing to write home about!

filbert
03-08-2004, 01:05 AM
I'm guessing that Savannah State didn't have a consultant telling them that they were already D-I caliber.

I also sincerely doubt either NDSU or SDSU's women's basketball team will be held to 3 points in a half any time soon.

SDSU's women won a bit of respect, and showed that they belonged in the same arena in exhibitions with Colorado (currently #13) as well as Iowa.

A telling quote in the article was that Savannah State had to double the number of athletic programs in order to move to D-I.

Also the little mini-conference of NDSU, SDSU, and Northern Colorado will really help the transition in all sports. *I think you'll also see Cal Poly, UC Davis, and Southern Utah going out of their way to make the D-I transition smoother for the Dakota schools. *The GWFC is BIG...it's the proverbial foot in the door, something Savannah hasn't been able to do yet.

There will be a tough few years, but nothing like what Savannah State is suffering.

SDSUFAN
03-08-2004, 03:39 AM
I have to whole hardly agree with Filbert in that there is no mention of a consultant such as Carr And Assoiciates.

Without any kind of vision, you can end up like Savannah State. *This is what I am reading in the article.

There was no plan other than to get the D1 BB money games such as Marquette, St Louis and the Utah one was probably a good check.

It's been 40 years since some of the Civil Rights Legislation so I suspect, the historically black colleges are starting to have productive alumni earning good incomes, but *they are not at the age where they would give all they got to the school. When you are 60 plus with financial assets and no heirs, you do start to think about helping the school. *

There was no mention of what they were doing in terms of fund raising with alumni and corporate sponsors. *With that kind of financial support, they can go and attract good athletes. *Back in the old days of Seperate and not equal, the black athletes did not have the *recruiting choices that the current ones do today.

One of the best basketball players I watched was a long time ago, Dec 1957 to be precise. Tennessee A&I now Tennessee State came to the Dakotas and played USD and SDSU and maybe they had games with UND and NDSU too. *One player on that Tennessee State team *went on to have a long NBA career. His name was Dick( The Skull) Barnnet. *He got a total of 40 pts in the old SDSC Field house known as the Barn. Many of his shots were beyond the arc, and no three pointer at that time. *A gifted athlete like Barnett today would most likey be recruited by Kentucky or several of the SEC schools. *So the gifted type of athletes are very difficult for the historical black schools to recruit today.

I think this hurts all these HBC schools. I remember reading a thread over on Any given Saturday, that Florida A&M's coach felt he need to start recruiting white athletes in order to compete for the D1A national championship. I recall that was kind of a controversial thread, but the reality of it these schools need to do just the opposite of the predominately white institutions of the upper midwest namely the Dakotas do in that are trying to recruit minorities.

I did not catch the NCAA link and post when they were D2, and apparently they must not have that many problems with money if they offered 28 scholorships beyond the 36. Wow that makes them D1AA.

Apparently their reputation is not good with some of the others HBC such as Tennessee State, Bethune Cookman and other D1 blacks schools in their area. If these schools turn their back on Savannah State, well that may explain why they dont have a conference.