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Message: [QUOTE="CuyahogaCuse, post: 4099914, member: 409"] Help me out here on this one. What exactly are D3 programs intended to be? My kid is going to school where he gets to be a student and a football player. No athletic scholarships are given out. They play in a 50 year old stadium. There is a real campus. The students cheer their classmates. And they know them personally. The football players share athletic facilities with the other school teams. They show up on campus three weeks before the first game. Somebody has to win the championship. If RPI or Cortland can’t compete, how is that different than the D1 playoff blowouts that are all too common? I’d say D3 is more competitive at the top than D1. At least you can make the argument. Having just gone through the D2/NAIA/D3 recruiting process, there are a whole bunch of D2 “schools” that are athletic programs that just happen to be attached to a university or college. The quality of school, in many cases, was not ideal. Most of the D3 programs have little in common with the majority of D2 schools, other than the fact the football is offered at both levels. Conversely, there are some quite good NAIA schools out there with football programs, and there’s some scholarship money to be had at that level. But i don’t think it’s a straight line to say that because the northeast schools can’t compete that the top schools should be forced to move up. Mount Union ruled the roost for nearly two decades. Next year will be the first time in nearly 20 years the Mount won’t have a class on its roster that won the national championship. There’s more competitive balance than ever. You want to be better? Do the work. Make sure your school has a great brand, because almost none of you are playing football after this level (NCAC coach). It helps in recruiting, even at this level. Get kids to buy in. (PAC coach). Develop men (OAC coach). Have a common vision (CCIW coach). And go out in pursuit of something greater than yourself. D3 is just fine. Thank you very much. 27 conferences with auto bids. Five at large bids. And a true tournament that crowns a champion. And then 99.99% of the kids go on to live real lives. Always appreciate your perspective, SWC, but think you may be a bit off on this one. [/QUOTE]

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