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
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