Reduce COVID impact - go DII or DIII

Anything we're missing?
LU808
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Reduce COVID impact - go DII or DIII

Post by LU808 » Mon May 18, 2020 1:58 pm

Perhaps it's time to revisit this emotional question.


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Re: Reduce COVID impact - go DII or DIII

Post by Sundayamqb » Mon May 18, 2020 8:37 pm

LU808 wrote: Mon May 18, 2020 1:58 pm Perhaps it's time to revisit this emotional question.
I don't think this should have anything to do with COVID.

Lehigh -- given administrators' efforts to end the "work hard, play hard" mentality -- is not an Power 5 conference and never will be. It cannot compete with those schools to have football or basketball game experiences that lure students and the community.

Sadly, those days ended sometime after beanies, co-education and growth in international students.

One thing I learned at Lehigh: If you are going to do something, do it to win, and win big. A Patriot League championship is great, but it's not winning big. As the wrestling room wall used to say -- and might still say -- "WE WANT NATIONAL CHAMPIONS."

Find a way to stay DI in wrestling and maybe lacrosse. Seek a waiver if necessary.

Go DIII and compete with other universities with stellar academic reputations: Hopkins, MIT, Carnegie-Mellon, Williams, etc. Then, like is done with wrestling, BE THE BEST. Find merit aid to bring in great STUDENT-athletes.

If nothing else, this is worth looking at.
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Re: Reduce COVID impact - go DII or DIII

Post by LU808 » Tue May 19, 2020 2:24 pm

Agree...I'd move to DII and excel...btw I was a FB player 74-77.
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Re: Reduce COVID impact - go DII or DIII

Post by TMH » Tue May 19, 2020 3:41 pm

Covid-19 will certainly impact how we function athletically. If you received the email from Joe Sterrett, changes are already in progress with regard to scheduling, trips, recruiting,uniforms etc. How much of that will carry through to the future remains to be seen.

The best and probably only chance of Lehigh reclassifying is if the NCAA develops an FCS equivalent in other sports for mid major colleges. I've inquired several times on why Lehigh maintains as many sports as it does, and winning NCAA championships has never been among them. Ironically, much of it has to do with bringing to Lehigh high achieving or over achieving student athletes. Last year I believe I counted about 7-8 valedictorians among our athletes who certainly would have gone elsewhere had we not been Division 1. As compared to most schools in the NCAA system, Lehigh athletes tend to perform better than the overall Lehigh student body. Check out women's basketball for example.

Lehigh also enjoys the exposure Div 1 athletics enjoys either geographically or through the media. The 1977 Div 2 national football championship resonated well within the Lehigh community but the basketball win over Duke rocked the entire country. Division 1 allows us to play sports in some of the most iconic places and that plays well.

Thirdly, we want to be a National University, associated with the biggest and the best. Simply lowering the bar in order to achieve success has never sat well with me. If you want to be your best, compete against the best even if you lose.
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Re: Reduce COVID impact - go DII or DIII

Post by Sundayamqb » Tue May 19, 2020 9:35 pm

TMH wrote: Tue May 19, 2020 3:41 pm Lehigh also enjoys the exposure Div 1 athletics enjoys either geographically or through the media. The 1977 Div 2 national football championship resonated well within the Lehigh community but the basketball win over Duke rocked the entire country. Division 1 allows us to play sports in some of the most iconic places and that plays well.
Agreed, but ... at what cost?

The 1977 championship was D2. And it was, amazingly, 43 years ago, though it seems like yesterday.

The Duke game was eight years ago.

There have been other highlights over the years -- many PL championships -- but: Is that all there is?

I don't know a lot of details ... might be worth a bigger, public discussion.
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Re: Reduce COVID impact - go DII or DIII

Post by RichH » Tue May 19, 2020 9:47 pm

TMH wrote: Tue May 19, 2020 3:41 pm Covid-19 will certainly impact how we function athletically. If you received the email from Joe Sterrett, changes are already in progress with regard to scheduling, trips, recruiting,uniforms etc. How much of that will carry through to the future remains to be seen.

The best and probably only chance of Lehigh reclassifying is if the NCAA develops an FCS equivalent in other sports for mid major colleges. I've inquired several times on why Lehigh maintains as many sports as it does, and winning NCAA championships has never been among them. Ironically, much of it has to do with bringing to Lehigh high achieving or over achieving student athletes. Last year I believe I counted about 7-8 valedictorians among our athletes who certainly would have gone elsewhere had we not been Division 1. As compared to most schools in the NCAA system, Lehigh athletes tend to perform better than the overall Lehigh student body. Check out women's basketball for example.

Lehigh also enjoys the exposure Div 1 athletics enjoys either geographically or through the media. The 1977 Div 2 national football championship resonated well within the Lehigh community but the basketball win over Duke rocked the entire country. Division 1 allows us to play sports in some of the most iconic places and that plays well.

Thirdly, we want to be a National University, associated with the biggest and the best. Simply lowering the bar in order to achieve success has never sat well with me. If you want to be your best, compete against the best even if you lose.
Very well said. Your 3rd point hits home for me. The IvyLite time drove me crazy. I want Lehigh to be the best version of itself not a real good IvyLike university. Sports is a big part of that.
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Re: Reduce COVID impact - go DII or DIII

Post by LU808 » Thu May 21, 2020 1:39 pm

TMH wrote: Tue May 19, 2020 3:41 pm Covid-19 will certainly impact how we function athletically. If you received the email from Joe Sterrett, changes are already in progress with regard to scheduling, trips, recruiting,uniforms etc. How much of that will carry through to the future remains to be seen.

The best and probably only chance of Lehigh reclassifying is if the NCAA develops an FCS equivalent in other sports for mid major colleges. I've inquired several times on why Lehigh maintains as many sports as it does, and winning NCAA championships has never been among them. Ironically, much of it has to do with bringing to Lehigh high achieving or over achieving student athletes. Last year I believe I counted about 7-8 valedictorians among our athletes who certainly would have gone elsewhere had we not been Division 1. As compared to most schools in the NCAA system, Lehigh athletes tend to perform better than the overall Lehigh student body. Check out women's basketball for example.

Lehigh also enjoys the exposure Div 1 athletics enjoys either geographically or through the media. The 1977 Div 2 national football championship resonated well within the Lehigh community but the basketball win over Duke rocked the entire country. Division 1 allows us to play sports in some of the most iconic places and that plays well.

Thirdly, we want to be a National University, associated with the biggest and the best. Simply lowering the bar in order to achieve success has never sat well with me. If you want to be your best, compete against the best even if you lose.

I don't think the University has the stomach to do want it would take to be a Duke or Stanford in anything other than wrestling.

FB D II win is ancient history for the grey beards. For all the "kids" under 55 it doesn't register.

The Duke win was lightening in a bottle and we have drained as much PR as possible out if it. Since then we have done little nationally.

I'd rather see a series of nationally significant DII wins and championships spread out over a decade than our once and done exploits at D1.
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Re: Reduce COVID impact - go DII or DIII

Post by van » Thu May 21, 2020 2:53 pm

the idea that we would be world beaters at DII or DIII is interesting, but you might be surprised to find out that many of the athletes we now get go elsewhere and we would be no better off than we currently are and competing against podunk state, I think DII allows 36 equivalencies for football so recruiting gets pretty interesting, "Sonny, for just over $60K a year you could be a DII football star"

even Lafayette was smart enough to ditch that idea
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Re: Reduce COVID impact - go DII or DIII

Post by Sundayamqb » Thu May 21, 2020 11:31 pm

van wrote: Thu May 21, 2020 2:53 pm "Sonny, for just over $60K a year you could be a DII football star"
Lafayette did this in DI, as does (did) Georgetown in football to some degree, as I understand it. You are right: It doesn't work.

DII has its own set of odd rules -- just look at the institutions around the country in DII: They've become an unusual bunch.

Why not look at DIII -- no athletic scholarships, but you start focusing on giving money university-wide to ACADEMIC stars, those who show exemplary leadership and other non-athletic merit (combined with need). Why can't Lehigh become a Carnegie-Mellon or Amherst academically? Someone else would need to do the math on this, but in DIII you shouldn't need 75 players getting a full "athletic" ride.
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Re: Reduce COVID impact - go DII or DIII

Post by van » Fri May 22, 2020 8:15 am

Sundayamqb wrote: Thu May 21, 2020 11:31 pm
van wrote: Thu May 21, 2020 2:53 pm "Sonny, for just over $60K a year you could be a DII football star"
Lafayette did this in DI, as does (did) Georgetown in football to some degree, as I understand it. You are right: It doesn't work.

DII has its own set of odd rules -- just look at the institutions around the country in DII: They've become an unusual bunch.

Why not look at DIII -- no athletic scholarships, but you start focusing on giving money university-wide to ACADEMIC stars, those who show exemplary leadership and other non-athletic merit (combined with need). Why can't Lehigh become a Carnegie-Mellon or Amherst academically? Someone else would need to do the math on this, but in DIII you shouldn't need 75 players getting a full "athletic" ride.
a bit naive, we join the MAC or Centennial conference, give only need based scholarships, maybe recruit enough quality players to be competitive with say 55 equivalencies, save a little money based on 9 game season and shorter travel and get to rub elbows with Del Valley, Wilkes, Gettysburg, F&M, Moravian, etc, return to the 60's
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