FOOTBALL: D2Football.Com National Columnist Bob Eblen Has Interesting Piece On Public And Private Schools

BIG RAPIDS - Quietly, it's a big debate in a league as unique as the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference: Can small private schools compete with larger public schools?

Right here in our backyard, the GLIAC is a unique conference in that it does have larger public universities like Grand Valley State University and Wayne State University and smaller private institutions like Ashland University and Hillsdale College. Over the years, I've heard grumbling about the ability of the private schools to be able to keep pace with dominating public schools like Grand Valley that has been mostly steamrolling its opposition (particularly in football) in recent seasons.

D2football.com national columnist Bob Eblen has a column this week that obviously caught my attention (and, in that sense, I doubt I am not much different than a lot of other people who may have been intrigued by the topic of public schools vs. private schools).

Eblen starts his column this way:

I have a long held theory regarding private schools in Division II football that goes something like this:

It is an uphill battle for any private school to contend nationally in football at this level because of economics. Since it costs much more to go to a private school than it does to a public, the partial scholarship that is typical at this level leaves the prospective recruit paying more out of pocket to go to the private school.

Of course there are reasons that a student-athlete might still choose the private school, but generally speaking, the lower cost of going "public" is going to win out with recruits more often than not.

This theory has held up pretty well over the years. Just one private school (Lehigh in 1977) has ever won a D-II football national championship. It's been eight years since a private school has even won its region and advanced to the national semifinals. Outside of Carson-Newman and its three national championship game appearances in the late 90's, there really hasn't been a private school that has come close to becoming a national power.

Indeed, to some extent, the odds have always seemed to be stacked against smaller private schools in terms of high-level championship success (mainly in football).

In the past, the private schools that played in the "major" conferences seemed to be especially disadvantaged. Southwest Baptist left the MIAA because it couldn't compete. Neither Mercyhurst nor Gannon had ever had a winning record in the GLIAC before both left the league in 2008. I remember watching Augustana have some well-coached teams with a few talented front line players back in the days of the NCC. But the Vikings rarely had the depth to consistently compete with the big state schools.

I bring this issue up because I'm starting to get the sense that my theory may not be quite as solid as I once thought.

It all starts with second-ranked Abilene Christian. According to my theory, as the only private school in the LSC, ACU should not be a football powerhouse. But Chris Thomsen continues to out-recruit his counterparts in the conference when the other schools should have a built in advantage. With so much young talent in place, it doesn't seem like ACU is ready to go away any time soon.

Then you have the fact that Shaw has won two straight CIAA titles. Seton Hill reached the playoffs out of the WVIAC last season and another private school in that league-- Charleston-- appears to be the front-runner in the conference this season.

A quick peak at the GLIAC standings shows three private schools-- Findlay, Ashland, and Hillsdale-- just behind Grand Valley in the
current standings.

Bob makes good points (especially about hoping the smaller private schools continue to compete well). But, I am going to throw up some caution signs here (with respect to the GLIAC. To be fair, he does concede it could be just a coincidence.

I believe it's too early to draw many conclusions from the current makeup of the GLIAC standings as Hillsdale, Ashland and Findlay are looking pretty good right now in the top half of the division. Having seen Ashland and Findlay I can tell you those are good teams. From what I've been able to gather from Hillsdale (and having seen the Chargers last year and previous years, I expect they are good. They are ranked for a reason).

The big issue facing the aforementioned schools is simple: All seem to be entering the tough portion of back-loaded schedules.

Here is what the teams are facing from week six out.

Ashland: @Wayne State, Northwood, @Saginaw Valley, Grand Valley, Indianapolis and @Findlay
Findlay: Hillsdale, @Michigan Tech, @Grand Valley, Northern Michigan and @Saginaw Valley, Ashland
Hillsdale: @Findlay, Grand Valley, @Northern Michigan, Wayne, @Ferris and Tiffin

So, looking at the remaining schedules would seem to indicate that these teams will begin to take some lumps (for example: all three must still face GVSU, the top team in the nation).

Of the three, it appears Hillsdale's schedule looks most favorable as Ferris has struggled and Tiffin has really had a rough time. But, the game is at Ferris and the Bulldogs have performed better at home.

That was a good, thought-provoking column from Bob Eblen.

Be sure to check out D2football.com and consider participating on the message boards.