ATHLETICS (continued)

The Fighting Sioux women’s ice hockey team is playing its first season as a member of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association. The team began varsity competition in 2002-2003 and played as an NCAA Division I independent last year. UND’s Ralph Engelstad Arena hosted the WCHA Women’s Final Five tournament in March 2003.

ABOVE: The Fighting Sioux women’s basketball team played their regular season home opener Nov. 15 in the new Betty Engelstad Sioux Center. UND beat Northwest Missouri State University 73-56. BELOW: Wide receiver Caleb Johnson reaches for extra yardage during UND’s Aug. 28 home opener against Delta State University. The Statesmen, who were ranked No. 8 going into the game, fell to the Sioux 28-19 in the Alerus Center. (Athletic Department photos by Scott Gaddini) UND’s Ralph Engelstad Arena will host the NCAA Division II men’s basketball “Elite Eight” national championship tournament March 23, 24 and 26, 2005. The championship game will be broadcast nationally by CBS.

 Despite its national stature and performance record, UND could look harder at the possibility of a move to another NCAA level if a critical alteration to the Division II foundation occurs, notes UND Athletic Director Roger Thomas.

  A proposal before the NCAA convention in January 2005 would decrease the maximum number of scholarships for Division II football from 36 to 24. The impetus for that change comes from schools that cannot afford to offer the top-end amount in aid and want to “level” the playing field. The showcase Division II football programs such as UND’s are concerned about a decline in quality that could also lead to other effects.

  If the scholarship reduction measure passes, UND would ponder moving its sports program up to Division I (which in football would be I-AA), in which 63 football scholarships are allowed.

  While answering the scholarship cutback at D-II, going Division I would create a different set of situations to address. These include extensive cost increases, lessening of the likelihood of being competitive for the national championships which UND has achieved at Division II, except, perhaps, in football; ineligibility for post-season playoff participation for several years, and difficulties in forging a new conference or being admitted to an existing one.

 






    
     Thomas looks at remaining in Division II from some positive      perspectives. They include:
    1.The capability to retain the broad range of sports now offered instead of the        possibility of having to divert funding from some that are now already        marginally funded

    2.Ongoing championships at regional and national levels instead of possible        relegation to also-ran status among the higher-end Division I schools

   3. Continued enrollment of area and regional athletes

   4. Maintenance of the balance between current men’s and women’s sports that       meets federal Title IX regulations

   5.The fact that UND already has one of the premier Division I programs in the       nation in men’s hockey and has introduced the new but growing women’s       Division I hockey.

  Noting the quality of UND’s sports programs and their participants both athletically and scholastically at UND’s present Division II level, UND President Charles Kupchella said, “UND doesn’t get any better in terms of what intercollegiate athletics is meant to be.

  “We tell our athletic department to take the goals we have for all our students and tell us how they help address them as an athletic program,” he continued. “We believe what they do actually does help the student-athletes we bring here acquire skills and aptitudes that we hope all our graduates will obtain. We see athletics as integral to our curriculum.”

  Some speculate that it is unlikely that the scholarship reduction proposal will pass, in which case UND will be able to continue to offer the D-II high-end number of 36 football scholarships.

  But even if that happens, Thomas says, there remain some concerns by well-meaning fans. Many of them are troubled by the end of a century of rivalry with North Dakota State University. But, he said, for a Division II school that intends to compete for national championships in football and basketball, it is self-defeating to play Division I teams, even when you win. Those games don’t count in the Division II ranking process.

  Some also worry that the departure of NDSU, South Dakota State University, and Northern Colorado may have diminished the status of the North Central Conference, and perhaps even put its long-term viability in doubt. Yet others are vaguely disturbed by the recent success in Division II of teams that were unheard of a decade ago.

 “UND is acutely aware of all concerns,” Thomas emphasized, pointing out that the ramifications of the matter are part of the Athletic Department strategic planning program that is under way as part of the University’s overall planning update.