The NCAA has decided there should be a four-year moratorium on schools moving into Division I athletics.

The NCAA�s Division I, with 331 institutional members, is getting too big, its Board of Directors decided today. At the athletic association�s summer presidential committee meetings, the board imposed a four-year moratorium, effective immediately, on new applications to the NCAA�s most competitive division. The 20 institutions with pending applications will be allowed to continue that process as the division reviews its standards for membership. Also during the four-year period, colleges will not be able to move subdivisions within Division I.

There has been much discussion at SCSU about moving potentially to Division I; this moratorium will close the window for the foreseeable future. The move is largely directed towards basketball, since D-IA football has already been putting in restrictions. What it does, in short, is assure the cartel of D-I basketball programs greater profit, and reduces some of the pressure on teams trying to maintain the chimera of student-athletes from the temptation to bring marginal students to campus to compete with new schools. See also Inside Higher Ed.

Labels: economics, higher education, sports