Steve Pierce, whose time on the Florence City Council was marked by his “excitement!” over the Renaissance Tower and the city’s various and sundry infrastructure boondoggles of the 1990s, is just as “excited!” today by the University of North Alabama’s potential move to Division I athletics.
That fact should tell you just how awful of an idea it is.
From the Times Daily, an explanation of what’s required, beginning with the need for a Division I conference to invite the school before anything else can happen:
Joining a conference such as the OVC would require a sizable jump in the athletic budget. In 2008-09, the most recent reporting date, UNA spent $4.9 million on athletics, according to a school filing with the U.S. Department of Education. That figure includes coaching salaries, scholarship allotments, recruiting and operating costs.
The OVC average athletics spending, according to similar filings, was $8.89 million per school, including a low of $4.7 million by Southern Illinois-Edwardsville, which does not have a football team. Three schools topped $11 million in spending (Murray State, Eastern Kentucky, Eastern Illinois). (Emphasis mine)
Of course, much of the impetus to do this comes from the decline of Division II college football in general and UNA’s conference in particular as strong Div. II teams moved up to Division I in years past (a problem the NCAA solved by putting a moratorium on Division changes until 2011). The article quotes Mr. Johnny Williams, who headed Troy State University’s transition to Division I and whose firm completed a “feasibility study” for UNA:
“Those games are all paying out between $350,000-$700,000 for one game,” Williams said. “Also, look what it will do for the branding of Jacksonville State. It’ll help their image. It helped Troy.”
[...]
The most pressing financial issue would be finding money for the Division I application fee. The NCAA will require a fee of between $900,000 and $1.2 million just to apply to make the move to Division I. (Emphasis mine)
So basically, if UNA adds $4 million to its athletic program and pays $1 million for the right to play six away-games a year, and assuming an average of a half-million earned for each of those games, the school might earn about $3 million a year — losing $2 million the first year and $1 million every year thereafter. What’s not to love about that plan?!
The move would gain “higher visibility” for UNA at the price of losing football games to unknown Division I opponents instead of dominating Division II, where the athletic programs have enjoyed lots of success. Between that and the money-pit aspects, it’s no wonder Steve Pierce has been “excited!” about the idea for fifteen years. It’s right in character with his past “successes” — which, like this move, were all about ego.
It’s not like UNA needs the exposure. There’s no room to grow: the campus is surrounded by the city, and student levels are already at record highs. As crowded as the walkways are these days, why would the school need 30-second national ad spots on third-tier college gameday broadcasts?
Consider the long relationship of UNA to Division II. I’ve watched with dismay as Florence tore up one of the best grass fields in college football to replace it with Astroturf because UNA’s home field hosts the Division II National Championship game. The Harlon Hill Trophy (the Heisman for Division II) is awarded at a banquet every year in Florence.
UNA has always been a big fish in a small pond; that was part of the charm. A dubious move “up” would destroy all that tradition while accomplishing nothing in return but the inflation of Steve Pierce.
