Who is running the NAIA?
By Dave Schmidt – www.seniorreports.com
A story I wrote in August, 2011 CLICK HERE - The Next Dakota Athletic Conference…The TranSouth
What a shame that a quality NAIA conference will now just be an *asterisk in the world of sports. Unfortunately for the NAIA the TranSouth is not the only *asterisk, it also includes the American Mideast Conference, Dakota Athletic Conference and the Sunrise Conference. The loss of these four conferences has left the NAIA with some major geographic issues. The NAIA is basically a “no show” in the East. This makes it hard for the remaining schools in the area to schedule some sports, which is also a problem due to the number of schools moving to the NCAA as well.
The loss of membership of schools moving to D2 is to blame for some of this, but the NAIA leadership dropped the ball in helping these conferences survive. The NAIA let “pride” take over “good sense” by not allowing schools who were leaving to join NCAA to continue to participate in conference play and qualify for national tournaments. I actually had a NAIA official tell me “We don’t want those schools coming to our tournaments and bragging about there moves to the NCAA”. Had the NAIA allowed schools to continue to compete until they officially left for the NCAA they would have had a year or two extra to put a plan in place to firm up the conference, instead out the door they went.
The loss of these conferences now force the members “left behind” to join the almost 30 member schools of the Association of Independent Institutions or another surviving conference that will most likely force many long road trips. The AIA allows schools who are not part of a conference an opportunity to qualify for national championships and weekly and season honors. The AIA is where you go when you have no other viable option. 30 independent schools is not what the NAIA needs to survive, that is way to many. Scheduling as an independent makes it very difficult for these schools, especially the new NAIA members. The reason again, more “mega size conferences take away non-conference games from their schedules. The key will be lowering the number of members in the AIA and find them a conference home.
With several conferences now becoming “mega” sized does this help them in the long run? More travel is the one major downfall and that is when $4 a gallon gas becomes an issue. Those long road trips now faced by all in the conference will keep students out of the classroom for longer times. More members in a conference always give you more problems as well.
I have been told stories of where NAIA officials avoided conference meetings in the last days before they decided whether to dissolve or make and effort to stay in business. When the conference needed the NAIA officials the most they were “no-shows”. I was amazed and heard this from more then one school source. Here is a story from an AD of a school of one the conferences above that folded and he asked a high ranking NAIA official “We need some help with this situation” and the answer was “yes you do and good luck finding a new home, you’ll need it”. WOW!!!! I’ve heard from numerous other schools that have the same stories.
The NAIA members must not see a problem with the leadership they just extended the contract of the President and are allowing him to be a member of the board of directors for USA Basketball. Wow think what they would have done for him had he not lost numerous members to the NCAA and had four solid conferences disappear. Seems like I’m a little tough on him, well I am, to bad the membership hasn’t been. The President should be very, very active in helping conferences survive and retaining members. Several schools who left the NAIA for D2 tell me they had very little contact with the national office when making a choice to move. This should be a priority, ask a NAIA member school and see how much contact they have with the national office on the landscape of all these changes.
How many more conferences need to dissolve or how many schools need to leave for the NCAA before the leadership decides to save the association? I thought that NAIA schools who decide to move to D2 would have dwindled after all of the new regulations and the cost it takes to make the change, but it hasn’t. It looks like even with the early deadline to apply will not stop schools from applying for D2 and now some are considering D3. There are still many quality schools left in the NAIA, but many are disappointed with what has happened and what the future holds for them. Time for some leadership…where will it come from?
Related articles –
American
Dakota Athletic Conference -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dakota_Athletic_Conference
TranSouth Conference - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dakota_Athletic_Conference