The Future of D2 Football

[Eagle74]

The NAIA held their championship game in Ft. Worth the same weekend as D2 with an hour later start time. Would be pretty easy to put both of those in McKinney with a noon and 4 or 1 and 5 start time.

As far as moving it east of the Mississippi, Florence was fine I guess but if you think you are pulling in random D2 fans to go watch a game their team is not in you're wrong. The Florence town people showed well, but if you think someone is coming over from Delta State or Carson Newman or West Alabama to watch Ferris vs Harding or Mines vs Pitt you're way wrong.

The only place that would make sense, but isn't without 2 drawbacks is West Florida Argos stadium. Looks great and would look really good on TV. 2 problems would be potential home field advantage ( UNA had that I think) and limited seating. Capacity is 7500, and additional seating could be brought in. Additionally if its not the right match up 4k in a 7500 stadium looks OK on TV. 12k would look crazy packed and fun.

I agree that West Florida's Argo Stadium would be an excellent choice for the D2 Championship game. The Pensacola area has lots of very good restaurants, accommodations, and the super nice beaches on the Gulf of America.

[Jerry Smith]

The best National Championship experience I have ever had was in Kansas City. Mostly because of the memories built by playing in a blizzard. It was a blast to be at!

I've been to as many as I can since Northern Alabama and can say location has so little to do with it. It's the fan bases that show up that make the game an experience.

Sporting Park was a perfect size and location but Kansas in December is unpredictable.

[WarriorVoice]

I agree that West Florida's Argo Stadium would be an excellent choice for the D2 Championship game. The Pensacola area has lots of very good restaurants, accommodations, and the super nice beaches on the Gulf of America.

Gulf of America...Loser

[Horror Child]

I’ve typed this about 20 different times, and it’s hard to fully dial in what’s in my head... but what is the future of D2 football?

Right now, it feels like D2 has become a waiting room: a place for transfers and student-athletes who are academically eligible and looking for their next opportunity. If money comes calling, they’re gone. If anyone thinks athletes are staying for altruistic reasons, I think that’s denial. Loyalty to institutions is largely gone. Loyalty to coaches, though, still exists.

I also think we’re on the brink of a major divide in D2 between the haves and the have-nots. The elite programs, the ones we see in the playoffs year after year, likely won’t change much, unless they move up to FCS. Even that seems less likely now because of the financial realities.

More and more, D2 feels like a revolving door between FCS and FBS. Athletes will only “play for free” (not literally, but at a level most D2 programs can’t match financially) if they believe there’s a real shot at a championship. There will always be exceptions, but those will mostly come down to relationships and coaching ties.

At some point, recruiting stops being about building four-year programs and starts being about managing constant turnover. Development, culture, and long-term planning all get harder when rosters are in flux every year.

Similar discussion from December of 2010:

This sounds a lot like "Blueprint for a New Level of Competitive Football in the NCAA Division II Membership Structure" that came from the NCAA Division II Football Task Force in May 2006. The proposed Freedom Division playoff bracket was 16 in size for schools that offered up to 36 scholarships and the Liberty Division playoff bracket had 8 teams for schools that offered up to 18 equivalencies. I can't locate the document online, but it is referenced here.

[FoothillBison]

Even though travel is closer to Arkansas, I'd pick a Florida location 10 times out of 10 over Kansas City. But you must consider if a West Coast Team makes the final...

All the best options end up being somewhere in Texas for neutral and warmer weather conditions. My list would start with the Star in Frisco, followed by Eagle Stadium in Allen or McKinney ISD, somewhere in Houston, San Antonio, or Corpus outdoors would probably be neat. New Orleans also might work, but I do not know of many great stadiums there...

[Eagle74]

Gulf of America...Loser

So what name do you have for it, Seno Mexicano?

[ccmoney8]

As for the topic of this thread, someone said it earlier. The future of the division will be driven by 2nd order changes from D1 and FBS (why are we still calling it that?)

There was a massive expansion of FBS in the past 5-15 years at the same time as a rapid consolidation of major conferences. We're down from Power 6 to Power 4 in like 12 years. The former is driven by men's basketball, while the latter is driven by football. Schools derive athletics revenue directly from their D1 affiliation with basketball, no matter how they perform. They derive tuition dollars and unearned media from football, dependent on their success. It's not necessarily an even share, but it weighs heavily on their prioritization of one or the other.

Presbyterian college is a perfect example. They're a rural private school of 1,000 students in SC that costs about 60k a year. They transitioned from D2 to D1 several years back. They were a low-tier D2 football program, but they get 200k a year just by being in the Big South for basketball. That alone probably funds their whole athletic department since they're also a non-scholarship football program. But now they can probably recruit against any of the D2/FCS schools in the region, with NIL on the line. And they can take payoff games in basketball from Clemson, South Carolina, Cal, and UCLA, getting 5 figures for each one.

The cherry on the sundae is for every several extra football players, there's at least another student coming along to pay that sweet 60k. That's game changing money for a school of 1,000, and makes it worth losing every basketball game for the increased exposure.

All that to say, every bit of this goes away if FBS splits away and does its own basketball tournament, which it should within the next 10-15 years. The marginal football schools like Presbyterian, and many more, have nothing left to offer and get kicked to the curb. Maybe even legacy P4 schools like Vandy and Northwestern. Who knows?

The future of D2 is going to be fracturing between the few who already have the resources to adapt to an FCS level, and the ones who can't do that and will merge with NAIA/D3 powers.

As for the D2 championship game, you can just look at the attendance numbers above. Harding was the closest school in the list, and CO Mines is the next best school that recruits Texas (elite petroleum engineering program and all). The best location is going to depend every year on the destination. Probably best to just put it in a place people want to vacation in the winter.

[pm2011]

PC as a whole is struggling mightily. Low student enrollment + high cost of tuition has really crippled them in so many ways that I don't think outweigh the 'positives' to moving to D1. I know a few people who teach and work there and every year has been anxious because there are many rumors that it is too cost prohibitive for students and that they could move to D3 at some point... and it all points to them moving to D1 for the 'money' which could end up just killing the school as a whole... My fear is that it'll be another Limestone situation in 5 or so years.