FSU Athletic Conference Affiliation: From the CAC to the Mountain East?

Nine months ago, Wesley College and Marymount University announced their departure from the Capital Athletic Conference (CAC) to pursue membership in a new league they are helping form. Frostburg State University has been a member of the CAC for eight years, following their addition in 2010 due to another realignment.

The new league, Atlantic East Conference, will begin play next fall. The new conference will consist of private institutions based in the Baltimore and Philadelphia area. Both Wesley and Marymount explained leaving the CAC was for the benefit of their student-athletes and to compete in a league in which private institutions shared similar value systems.

Following the departure of the two schools, the CAC will be left with just eight teams: Frostburg State University, Salisbury University, St. Mary’s College, Christopher Newport University, Penn-State Harrisburg, University of Mary Washington, York College, and Southern Virginia University, the latter of the eight being the only two private institutions. This could potentially create a problem due to the imbalance of public and private institutions, a critical characteristic in the structure of any athletic conference.

According to Frostburg State University Athletic Director Troy Dell, finding replacements for Wesley College and Marymount University “will not be a quick fix.” Following news of the two schools’ movement to a new league, a committee has been looking for nine months to fill their positions. To fill in the lack of the two teams, most Frostburg State University teams are adding two extra non-conference match-ups to still play the same amount of games.

Recently, on Monday, March 5, President Ronald Nowaczyk sent an email to the Frostburg campus updating students and faculty on the current state of the athletic conference affiliation. Since the email announcement, the notion that Frostburg would potentially compete in the NCAA Division II has created significant buzz among students, faculty, and staff.

Nowaczyk noted that Frostburg State is committed to maintaining the stability of CAC but will explore further options to protect the University’s 21 varsity sports. He also mentioned that Frostburg decided to utilize the services of Strategic Edge Athletic Consultants who would oversee “an assessment of the athletic program’s readiness to compete” at the Division II level.

Last Thursday, March 8, the FSU athletic department was approached by representatives from an NCAA Division II conference about a potential membership starting at the earliest in the Fall of 2019. The Mountain East Conference will be losing a program and is interested in Frostburg to fill the empty position. According to Dell, on Friday, March 9, the idea of adding FSU was received very favorably during the Mountain East Conference’s Presidents Meetings.

Dell credited Nowaczyk for bringing in the campus as soon as the opportunity was presented, noting, “he is very adamant about keeping it transparent.”

Strategic Edge Athletic Consulting began in 2004 and have consulted with over 100 colleges and universities, including changes with divisional affiliation. They have guided over 60 institutions through the process of changing national or divisional affiliation.

Dell said that making the transfer to become a Division II program is a lengthy process. Feb. 1 of each year marks the application deadline. Prior to application, the school must have a conference to join. Dell noted that this year the University, “went past a marker they weren’t trying to meet” and explained that the school plans to explore all options to see what is best for current and future student-athletes. Furthermore, once accepted into a new division, the school must go through a three-year provisional window in which they are not eligible to compete for championships or receive an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament.

Dell also indicated that the University has hired a consultant to assist in the process. He continued to say that he will meet with the Student Athletic Advising Council (SAAC) among other student groups and plans to see how Frostburg compares to other Division II institutions. As of now, the plan is to run both processes parallel to each other and explore every option according to Dell.

The Women’s Soccer Head Coach Brian Parker credited the athletic department: “Frostburg is doing the right thing by doing our research and just planning for some contingencies.  I don’t think anyone at FSU is intentionally seeking out a move to Division II right now but since we are geographically located between two conferences in DII, it makes sense to do our due diligence by looking into it and getting all the facts we would need to make the right decision for the school and our students.”

If Frostburg made the transition to Division II, the University would be one of two Division II programs in the state of Maryland. Bowie State University is the other school.

Head coach of the Football Program DeLane Fitzgerald noted that, “Athletes (competitors) wants to compete at the highest level; they are going to be more excited to sign with a DII program than a DIII program. There are currently five DIII football schools in the state of Maryland, but one DII football school and it is [a historically black college or university]. Going DII would give us a niche over the other schools in the state, it would make us different.”

One of the major challenges the University is facing making this decision is that this opportunity is not always available, Dell said.

Joining the Mountain East Conference would decrease the geographic footprint in athletic travel. Rather than having two or three long trips during the season, moving to Division II could potentially decrease that to one long trip. Most of the teams are from West Virginia, two are from Ohio, and one is from Virginia.

Junior guard for the women’s basketball team, Megan Kelly, noted, “the conference we are thinking about joining would be a lot of West Virginia schools, so we may not have to travel as far, but it might be difficult for our families to come to some of our away games depending on where you live.”

A major downside of the potential transition to Division II is that the Mountain East Conference does not sponsor Men’s Lacrosse or Field Hockey. Women’s Lacrosse would be sponsored in the move to Division II because of gender equity and Title IX.

Both men’s lacrosse and field hockey would compete in an affiliate conference similarly to how the Frostburg Football Team competes in the New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC), while the other sports teams compete in the CAC. This would happen over time. Field hockey presents a challenge because most of the field hockey in the nation is played in the northeast and mid-Atlantic regions.

Junior midfielder for the field hockey team Rosalie Friedman said that the change could be a good thing. The conference the University currently competes in (CAC) is very competitive, and moving to Division II could give the team a fresh start and the chance to experience playing against new teams.

Men’s lacrosse currently competes in one of the toughest conferences in Division III. Salisbury University, York College, and Christopher Newport University all currently hold national rankings according to ncaa.com.

Jimmy Lucas, sophomore attack on the men’s lacrosse team, states, “I think the CAC is a great conference with many powerhouse teams, so I think the best position for our team would be to hopefully remain a part of the CAC.”

SAAC president and sophomore attack on the women’s lacrosse team, Molly Biggers, believes that moving to Division II would present new opportunities for women’s lacrosse but thinks that staying Division III would be the best move for the school as a whole.

There would be no opportunity for men’s lacrosse and field hockey to remain in the CAC if the rest of the University moved to Division II. A piece of legislation passed by NCAA a few years ago pushed all teams from an institution into one division. The exception lies with schools that were “grandfathered in” prior to the legislation being passed.

Dell also noted the financial implications of the transition to Division II. In the transition to Division II, the University would then have the ability to fund scholarships and offer money to athletes. It has the potential to become financially draining for the school, first-year defender for Women’s Soccer Morgan Magaha said.

For many of the athletes, they viewed scholarships as a positive as it could potentially improve interest of other athletes’ perspective of playing at Frostburg State University and would also enable the school to recruit talent to compete at the Division II level.

Magaha continued to point out that a positive aspect of the move to Division II would be that it would, “make us push ourselves a little more because we know the competition is going to be a little tougher, and for women’s soccer, it would push us to become more competitive and fit to compete at a higher level.”

First-year defensive line Zach Strand of Frostburg football agreed, “I do believe that the overall talent that would be recruited would be slightly better simply because we would have to recruit in order to compete at the Division II level.”

In regard to football, more than a dozen recruits sign Division II scholarships with West Virginia and Pennsylvania schools. If the University would make the transition to Division II, it would be hard for other schools to “beat us on Maryland football recruits” Coach Fitzgerald said.

Dell added that another positive aspect of the move to Division II would be the ability to train more as a team and enable more coach-player interaction. He explained that coaches have the potential to be extremely influential in the life of a student-athlete, and in the current state in Division III, coaches are limited in the amount of interaction they can have with their players during the off-season.

Parker noted that this is an aspect that could elevate the athletics at Frostburg. As a program, there could be more time spent training the players in the off-season and schedules could be expanded. More out-of-season games could also be added.

Dell’s biggest concern with the transition to Division II lies in the provisional period as he does not want to take away the opportunity from athletes to compete for championships.

He also wants to ensure that Frostburg maintains the “student-athlete experience.” Dell plans to explore all options in hopes of picking the one that fits best with the University’s values and the student-athletes.

Coach Fitzgerald noted that, “the football coach in me says that whatever the level of play we decide to play, let’s just win one game each week every fall.”

President Nowaczyk, Dell, and the athletic department plan to be transparent with the campus community as the process continues.