GENERAL NEWS: Interesting Story About A School Going Back From Division I To Division II

Here is a story I found on the Internet and I thought it would be interesting for all of the people debating whether Grand Valley State University should move up to Division I or not. The story is written by David Coulson, Football Championship Subdivision executive director, for The Sports Network.

Here is a story about a transition from Division II to Division I that didn't quite go so well.

MOVING BACKWARDS

There have been many teams in recent years that have made the successful jump from Division II to the FCS ranks, but Winston-Salem State broke a different kind of ground last week.

The Rams, who just last Thursday welcomed ESPNU onto campus for a nationally- televised game with Florida A&M, announced on Friday that they are abandoning their move to Division I and will go back down to NCAA Division II beginning with the 2010-11 academic year.

WSSU was in the midst of its five-year transition period from Division II to Division I that began in 2004. The Rams played their first Division I game in 2006.

University trustees met in a special meeting last week and voted to accept the recommendation of Chancellor Donald J. Reaves to return to Division II.

"In the final analysis, the resources to complete the reclassification simply were not available, currently, nor prospectively, in sufficient amounts," Reaves said. "This decision is probably the hardest one I have ever had to make because I believe that WSSU belongs in Division I. If there were any reasonable way to complete this transition without diverting resources from competing academic priorities, I would have recommended that we stay the course."

Winston-Salem State has struggled to raise money in these difficult economic times and had generated a budget deficit of nearly $2 million in the past year.

The economy certainly is a factor in terms of raising money. Schools all across the country are having to find ways to raise money with dwindling funding coming from states. It seems as though Winston-Salem State perhaps wasn't quite as prepared to make that jump and now has decided to come back to Division II. It doesn't mean it might not be a good move in the future or that it hasn't been fantastic for a lot of programs, but it wasn't a good fit for Winston-Salem State University.

There are a lot of factors that go into moving up to Division I. It would have been interesting to see a feasibility study for WSSU going Division I. Something had to lead the school's administration to believe it was an appropriate jump.

Obviously, a big and financially-stable economic market is important.