Divisions

12-17-90

Divisions

It was a pretty good week for Cobber sports. Our Division III Lady Cobber basketball team went to 3-0 in the Division III MIAC before being defeated by Division II North Dakota State. And our Division III wrestling team beat Mayville State, an NAIA Division II school.

We always talk about these inter-divisional rivalries like they are a big deal. And often they are. But many people don't understand why. Therefore, much as I hate it, I must devote part of this space to providing some facts.

A Primer on College Divisions: Many casual fans think the various Divisions within college athletics are, like at the high school level, a function of a school's enrollment. They think the big schools are Division I. The slightly smaller schools are Division II. And the really small schools, those with under 3,000 students, like Concordia, are Division III.

Not true.

The difference between various collegiate Divisions is, fundamentally, a difference in the amount of athletic scholarship aid a school offers its athletes. Any college, regardless of enrollment, can decide to be in any division it chooses. Pick the amount of money you want to commit to athletic scholarships each year and the rest pretty much flows from there.

The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) are the two main governing bodies of intercollegiate sports. They are organizations put together by their member institutions to set and enforce rules that will insure a semi-level playing field when schools compete against each other.

The NCAA has three basic Divisions. Division III, to which Concordia and the twelve other MIAC colleges belong, is made up of schools that offer no athletic scholarships. They can offer financial aid based on economic need and academic skill, not athletic ability.

The criteria for awarding aid to a prospective student/athlete has to be the same as that for all other prospective students.

NCAA Division II schools can offer athletic scholarships. Division I schools offer the same kind of scholarships as Division II, only more. The main difference between D-I and D-II is the number of students on "full rides" (room, board, books and tuition) at any one time.

The NAIA also has limits. But it is more geared to letting individual schools and conferences set their own level of scholarship commitment. Due to agreements between conference members, or an individual college's choice, many NAIA colleges do not offer all the scholarships that their national rules might permit. But the best NAIA teams are usually on a par with the best NCAA Division II teams.

Approx. No. of Full Rides Outstanding: Colleges Basketball Football NCAA I 209 15 95 NCAA I-AA 87 (competes in D-I) 70 NCAA II 209 12 40 NCAA III 323 0 0 One obvious result of these rules is that the schools that offer scholarships generally get the better athletes and, thus, generally, can win against those that don't.

The evaluation of high school athletes by recruiters begins early and labels are quickly attached to potential recruits. "He's a D-II or low D-I player."

"She's a high D-III or mid D-II." If someone says "He's strictly Division III," it means the prospect is unlikely to get a scholarship offer.

The sifting process is not perfect. Athletes often choose their college for reasons other than just money or the quality of competition. Some 18-year-olds actually care more about the quality of education they'll get than the quality of athletic competition they'll face. Coaching, location, and a program's tradition of winning are other factors that lure good athletes away from a "higher" division school.

That's why NDSU's Division II football team could beat some Division I teams. That's why an NDSU women's basketball team could beat a lot of Division I teams.

And that is why a Cobber program can sometimes compete with a lot of Division II and some Division I teams.

David vs Goliath and David vs David: As with the many divisions that exist elsewhere in our society, we discuss our divisions in sports, our stratifications, with great caution. People are touchy about being labeled.

As a nation, we came into being by claiming that an unlimited horizon is everyone's birthright. And this resilient idea has shaped huge chunks of our history. It is the intellectual underpinning of our historic fights about racism, sexism, religious discrimination, and distribution of wealth.

One product of this thinking is that we don't like divisions, no matter how realistic they might be. We like to think of our current strata as temporary, something to overcome. This thinking also inherently doubts those who measure quality and performance.

The David and Goliath story is rooted deep in our bones.

Goliath might have been bigger. But that did not make him better. Goliath might have even been a decent guy.

But our collective national instinct is to suspect he was a jerk. We don't like being told Goliath is better than us. The scouts all said Goliath was Division I.

Athletes deal with these measurements all the time.

Those that come to Concordia usually have some feel for where they fit in the hierarchy of college sports. It's not always comfortable to talk about. But it's a circumstance they, like almost all athletes, have to confront. There's always someone better than you.

But that depends a bit on how you measure. Concordia is proud of its Division III status. It clearly reflects the educational mission and priorities of the college.

That doesn't make us morally superior. And not all Goliaths are jerks. But we will confess to some joy in occasionally playing the role of David.

And when we do get on a level playing field, like when Concordia played St. John's on Nov. 10th in the Metrodome for a piece of the MIAC football title, the result is often a game as exciting and delightful as any you'll ever see.

These pages are maintained by Jerry Pyle pyle@cord.edu. These articles are copyrighted © and may not be published or reproduced without the express permission of Jerry Pyle.

Return to Perspectives Index Cobber Sports Home Page Concordia Home Page