Rick Feldhoff writes: >It suggests that it would be very difficult to upgrade from II or III to >Div I and I believe Alabama-Birmingham, Union and perhaps Merrimack have found >this to be true. Are there any clear examples of upgrading successfully? Well, first I would suggest three things: 1) It is never easy to upgrade. 2) Each program's situation should be looked at separately. 3) Any program moving up to DivI (from DivII, III, or club) needs a minimum of four years in DivI before you can say that the move was a mistake. This is because of the recruitng cycle. Programs I would consider to have made a successful move to DivI recently (within 10 years) are: Mass Lowell, St Cloud, Alaska-Anchorage, Alaska-Fairbanks, Merrimack, Notre Dame (was club for one year), and Kent. Alabama-Huntsville might be an example of an unsuccessful one because they decided to drop back down to DivII, but it's hard to say; there were other factors besides success in DivI that played a part in this decision. I believe the book is still out on Union because they've yet to reach that four years, but things seem to be looking up. Mass Amherst seems to have a good chance at success, but they've also got a ways to go. It depends on what you consider success to be for these programs. I consider it to be ability to play with established DivI teams night in and night out. I don't think they have to be championship contenders yet. Many established DivI programs have never won championships, be they conference or national championships. Of course, I have to expound on Merrimack. :-) Merrimack actually entered HE about two years ahead of schedule, while also having lost nearly every player from the team that took two out of three from HE champion Northeastern and won a game at eventual DivI champ LSSU in the 1988 quarterfinals. On top of this, the administration did not announce its decision to allow the program to enter HE until after most of the top recruits for 1989-90 had committed, and this state of limbo made it very difficult to attract good players that season. Most of the freshmen in 1989-90 were actually recruited to play a DivI Independent schedule. This season is the first that the entire team is comprised of players recruited to play in HE. Given that, the success rate has been pretty good, I'd say. Last year's team finished 6th in HE - above BC and NU, both of whom had won HE titles within the last 5 years. And while going 0-8-0 against eventual NC$$ final four participants BU & Maine, Merrimack went 8-8-0 against the other 5 teams in HE, including winning records against Providence & Mass Lowell (2-1-0 each) and a split (2-2-0) with Northeastern. A lot of experience was lost from last year's team (12 seniors), but the talent level of this year's freshmen, I believe, far exceeds that of any freshman class ever to play at Merrimack. If the trend continues, and I see no reason to think it won't, then there could be some magical things happening in North Andover in a year or two or three. (File this post for future reference. :-)) I am really not sure what else you're looking for on the skill differential. I tend to believe the difference between DivI and everybody else has widened a good deal recently, and UMass seems to be providing proof of that. But for them to have started up this season and even be bridging the gap between DivI and DivII-III is pretty amazing. --- --- Mike Machnik [log in to unmask] Cabletron Systems, Inc. *HMM* 11/13/93 <<<<<< Color Voice of the (9-9-1) Merrimack Warriors WCCM 800 AM >>>>>>