U Of New Orleans Receives NCAA Approval To Move To D-II

April 25, 2011 /

One day after city officials sent a letter to the UNO provost pleading for the school’s administration to reconsider its decision to move the Privateers athletic department to Division II, the school’s application to move down in classification was formally approved Wednesday.

UNO officials received a phone call from the NCAA Division II Membership Committee confirming the news Wednesday morning, clearing the path for UNO to become a full Division II member by 2012. The 2011-12 year will serve as a ‘transitional year.’

“We are very, very excited about it,” UNO athletic director Amy Champion said. “It’s been a long day coming. We have been working on this for several months, if not longer. In all of our research we looked at all three divisions very closely — I, II and III — and we just felt like from a competitive standpoint and also from a financial standpoint, we just felt like it was the best move for us.”

The approval ends months of study and debate about in which division UNO athletics should compete. Last November, deep budget cuts during the 2009-10 fiscal year and growing deficits in the department’s auxiliary account caused officials to reevaluate the institution’s Division I future.

In December, the LSU Board of Supervisors authorized UNO to withdraw from the Sun Belt Conference by July — UNO was a founding member in 1976 — and to develop a process for transition to Division III. In late June, the school received approval from the Division III management council to proceed with its application.

But after several months of studying each classification of NCAA competition, athletic department and Privateer Athletic Foundation officials determined a move to Division II was a better option because the athletic department would be self-sufficient and be able to move into a regional conference in Division II.

Then in a last-ditch effort to keep UNO in Division I, Mayor Mitch Landrieu and city councilman Arnold Fielkow sent a letter to UNO on Monday asking university provost Joe King to delay any decision at least until a new chancellor was hired.

That letter caught UNO athletic officials by surprise, and they said they were much too deep and into reclassification to halt the process.

“The letter from the mayor actually did surprise us,” Champion said. “It’s unfortunate because our situation has been public for quite some time.

“We’ve had an open-door policy; our university has had an open door policy. It kind of shocked us (Tuesday) that he put athletics out there, and I kind of felt bad for our campus.

“So I was surprised when this came across when this UNO community and some of the supporters have had ample time and opportunity to help us remain Division I. And none of that materialized.”

To be in full compliance of Division II standards for minimum teams, UNO will add women’s golf and men’s and women’s cross country for the 2011-2012 academic calendar. UNO has not sponsored the three sports since 2005, when the impact of Hurricane Katrina reduced the University’s sports offering from 15 to six.

UNO also plans to add football by 2015.

UNO will offer athletic-based scholarships for the first time in two years. The University has not offered new athletic scholarships since prior to the 2009-10 academic year, after former Chancellor Tim Ryan’s decision to reclassify to Division III.

UNO officials are finalizing membership with the Gulf South Conference. GSC Commissioner Nate Salan said the conference has informed UNO of its intent to bring the Privateers into the league.

UNO is expected to join Alabama-Huntsville, Christian Brothers, Delta State, North Alabama, Valdosta State, West Florida, West Alabama and West Georgia in the GSC. The GSC also is expected to announce further expansion for 2012-13 and beyond, with the expectation of growing to 12 members by 2014-15.

“We are excited by the opportunity to add a large public institution in a destination city, one whose facilities are top-notch and whose sports offerings align nicely with ours,” Salant said in a statement released by UNO. “Obviously, we are especially pleased that by 2015, UNO will be playing football.”

“Given that UNO will be the only D-II school in Louisiana, it could quickly become a power across the boards, thereby strengthening our league and adding a school in the home base CoxSportsTV, the second-largest member of our GSC-TV LIVE Network.”


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