Division I collegiate conferences are a mess. Notre Dame gets rewarded for staying independent, the Big Ten conference actually consists of 18 teams, and athletic directors prioritize television deals over the health of their athletes.
There’s a significant number of problems with conferences still lingering, but what often gets overlooked is the trickle-down effect on smaller Division II schools. Seeing the mess that Division I conferences are, could we see a similar effect at the Division II level in the future?
“Honestly, no.” UCCS Athletic Director Nathan Gibson said, “DII has remained consistent with regionalization concepts and staying within a somewhat defined area for conferences. Regionalization is important for many reasons at DII, but the main reason is keeping costs down for travel along with minimizing missed class, which are both key priorities at DII.”
Gibson touched on something that seems to find itself at the center of every conversation we have about college athletics — money.
Money is the sole reason for crazy conference realignment at the Division I level, but in Division II, our relationship with money is not the same.
“Finances always drive conversation. But at DII, the pools of money are so much smaller than what we see at Division I. For example, there are no multi-million-dollar broadcast rights agreements at DII, so we must think differently and find ways to be creative and reasonable with the funding we have,” Gibson said.
Division I conference realignment is not based on the talent of the athletes, but rather which schools can capitalize on making the most money possible for their programs.
Take Texas and Oklahoma for example, who in 2024 moved from the Big 12, an elite NCAA Division I athletic conference to the South Eastern Conference. The move ended up earning each program a lucrative purse of $27.5 million just from revenue generated from television agreements and postseason games.
At Division II, there just isn’t that kind of incentive to pack up and move conferences the way we’re seeing in a lot of Division I programs. I’m sure we would see some movement in conferences if there was a natural urge to go where the money is. But with the pools of money being much smaller at the Division II level, those types of realignments don’t make sense at this level.
So, if conference realignment isn’t something to worry about in Division II, then what is?
“Top of mind for me are the serious issues created across college athletics regarding NIL and the Transfer Portal as those are areas that have had impacts on DII, many of which have not been positive,” Gibson said, “I am such a believer in DII athletics and we have a model that is working, so it’s difficult to see what is happening at DI and not be a bit worried about that model of athletics potentially forcing change at DII.”
Among all the debate surrounding NIL and players being paid, the stigma around college athletes has shifted from being a student-athlete (student first, athlete second) to an athlete-student (athlete first, student second).
High level Division I players are now being treated like semi-professional players, rather than the students that they are. Division I athletes are staying in college for six to eight years to make as much money as possible, but that’s just not reality Division II athletics can offer.
Division II prides themselves on getting back to the model of producing stellar students while also giving those students an opportunity to display their athletic prowess.
A model which values classroom performance as much as on field performance is what college athletics were designed to be. Every athlete plays their final game eventually, and prioritizing off the field performance over money can prepare current student athletes for the next chapter whenever their final game comes.
“The driving forces at DII remain using the resources and support we have, to ensure a balanced and well-rounded experience for our student athletes. For me, the driving force for UCCS student athletes is graduation — it is important that DII continues to define who we are, how we are different and most important the value of a DII experience.” Gibson said.
College level sports divisions. Picture by Internespo.