Hockey great Wayne Gretzky once said "you miss 100% of the shots that you don't take," and when it comes to the case of the Grand Valley State University athletic departmnet, they are hesitating on shooting at a wide open net by not pursuing Division 1 sports.
With all the momentum that Laker athletics has built up over the last decade, Grand Valley has earned the right to flirt with the decision to move up to Division 1. In less than 50 years, the athletic department has grown from a tiny NAIA school trying to fit in, to a championship crazed program that seems content with slaughtering every poor Division 2 school that makes the mistake of appearing on the schedule that year; needless to say the program has won several national championships, finished national runners-up thirteen times and has won senven straight NACDA Learfield Sports Directors' Cups with an eighth on the way. GV has had all this success despite having an athletic budget that Senior Associate Athletic Director Lisa Sweany deems as "pretty average'' compared to other Division 2 programs. With all of this recent success along with the school's enrollment explosion, it seems a perfect fit for the department to begin the Division 1 transition process, yet one problem still exists; the school is resisting the idea.
Although there are legitimate risks with taking the next step in college sports, such as the requiremnet to update facilities and increase the athletic budget, Grand Valley's reluctance on the matter is inexcusable for a school that has been considered a top university/college on the rise. Division 1 athletics has been proven as a legitamate tool in promoting colleges to all areas of the nation and unifying students and alumni. Athletics is the unifying factor within major college institutions in our country.
According to Brennen Gorman, a Grand Valley sophomore and member of the school's Student Senate, "Having a Division 1 sports would considerably increase Grand Valleys national exposure, although Grand Valley is on the rise, not that many people are aware of the school outside the Midwest."
A plethora of statistics back up Gorman's belief. When George Mason made a Final Four run in the 2006 men's NCAA basketball tournement, the little known school received approximately $100 million in free advertising and PR for the school according to the Wall Street Journal. The miraculous run also lead to an increase of freshman applications of 22 percent and the number of admissions inquiries rose 350 percent. Pretty good for a small school that people used to mistake for nearby college James Madison. These similar spikes have been seen at other Division 0ne schools such as Boston College (after the 1984 Cotton Bowl), Gonzaga and Boise State among many others that have made the transition to Division 1. In fact teams that make the NCAA Mens Basketball Tournement see their enrollment rise by an additional one percent.
"These jumps are the result of increased media exposure that comes with competing with big name schools," Sweany said, "Whenever teams make these miraculous runs of have a string of success they become the cool school."
However according to Sweany, the biggest concern in the athletic department is that with the jump to Division 1 athletics, the possibility looms that Grand Valley would never reach high levels of success and blend in to the rest of the Diviosion 1 crowd.
"You don't see very many MAC schools winning championships," Sweany said, "You have to take into account that if we went from winning multiple championships to a middle of the pack team, your students would lose intrest and TV exposure...I would assume that we would appear on ESPN just as much as we would if we moved up."
This is where Grand Valley seems to lose logical sense in the argument. Although Grand Valley has a successful Division 2 program, their is no escaping the fact that they are a Division 2 program. There is only so spirit that you can have in Division 2 sports. The only time that Division 2 appears on TV is durning champioship playoffs, and ratings ratings for the championship game are considerably less than the average ratings for Division 1 football. In fact, the 5A High School Championship game in Texas drew higher ratings than Division 2 football did. Grand Valley actually plays games on Saturday Nights so that people can watch Division 1 football games when they come on in the afternoon.
"If anything school spirit and attandance would increase," Gorman said, "There is more intrest in Division 1 anything than Division 2...there is a reason most students here are either Michigan or Michigan State fans."
Its not like Grand Valley would even miss out on appering on national TV if they were to trend water in mediocricy. In Division 1, big time programs pay smaller schools lump sums of mney to play games against them. Ohio State paid Eastern Michigan $850,000 to play a nationally televised game of football. In 2012 the University of Michigan will pay Air Force upwards of $1 million to put them on the schedule.
Division 1 sports seem like the right fit for Grand Valley at this time. There is more exposure for the school which helps the great students who walk in and out of Grand Valley find jobs, it unifies the student body, and could very well benefit the school's enrollment, taking Grand Valley to a whole new level. Just imagine if Grand Valley has a miraculous George Mason type run.
This is a shot that Grand Valley should take.
With all the momentum that Laker athletics has built up over the last decade, Grand Valley has earned the right to flirt with the decision to move up to Division 1. In less than 50 years, the athletic department has grown from a tiny NAIA school trying to fit in, to a championship crazed program that seems content with slaughtering every poor Division 2 school that makes the mistake of appearing on the schedule that year; needless to say the program has won several national championships, finished national runners-up thirteen times and has won senven straight NACDA Learfield Sports Directors' Cups with an eighth on the way. GV has had all this success despite having an athletic budget that Senior Associate Athletic Director Lisa Sweany deems as "pretty average'' compared to other Division 2 programs. With all of this recent success along with the school's enrollment explosion, it seems a perfect fit for the department to begin the Division 1 transition process, yet one problem still exists; the school is resisting the idea.
Although there are legitimate risks with taking the next step in college sports, such as the requiremnet to update facilities and increase the athletic budget, Grand Valley's reluctance on the matter is inexcusable for a school that has been considered a top university/college on the rise. Division 1 athletics has been proven as a legitamate tool in promoting colleges to all areas of the nation and unifying students and alumni. Athletics is the unifying factor within major college institutions in our country.
According to Brennen Gorman, a Grand Valley sophomore and member of the school's Student Senate, "Having a Division 1 sports would considerably increase Grand Valleys national exposure, although Grand Valley is on the rise, not that many people are aware of the school outside the Midwest."
A plethora of statistics back up Gorman's belief. When George Mason made a Final Four run in the 2006 men's NCAA basketball tournement, the little known school received approximately $100 million in free advertising and PR for the school according to the Wall Street Journal. The miraculous run also lead to an increase of freshman applications of 22 percent and the number of admissions inquiries rose 350 percent. Pretty good for a small school that people used to mistake for nearby college James Madison. These similar spikes have been seen at other Division 0ne schools such as Boston College (after the 1984 Cotton Bowl), Gonzaga and Boise State among many others that have made the transition to Division 1. In fact teams that make the NCAA Mens Basketball Tournement see their enrollment rise by an additional one percent.
"These jumps are the result of increased media exposure that comes with competing with big name schools," Sweany said, "Whenever teams make these miraculous runs of have a string of success they become the cool school."
However according to Sweany, the biggest concern in the athletic department is that with the jump to Division 1 athletics, the possibility looms that Grand Valley would never reach high levels of success and blend in to the rest of the Diviosion 1 crowd.
"You don't see very many MAC schools winning championships," Sweany said, "You have to take into account that if we went from winning multiple championships to a middle of the pack team, your students would lose intrest and TV exposure...I would assume that we would appear on ESPN just as much as we would if we moved up."
This is where Grand Valley seems to lose logical sense in the argument. Although Grand Valley has a successful Division 2 program, their is no escaping the fact that they are a Division 2 program. There is only so spirit that you can have in Division 2 sports. The only time that Division 2 appears on TV is durning champioship playoffs, and ratings ratings for the championship game are considerably less than the average ratings for Division 1 football. In fact, the 5A High School Championship game in Texas drew higher ratings than Division 2 football did. Grand Valley actually plays games on Saturday Nights so that people can watch Division 1 football games when they come on in the afternoon.
"If anything school spirit and attandance would increase," Gorman said, "There is more intrest in Division 1 anything than Division 2...there is a reason most students here are either Michigan or Michigan State fans."
Its not like Grand Valley would even miss out on appering on national TV if they were to trend water in mediocricy. In Division 1, big time programs pay smaller schools lump sums of mney to play games against them. Ohio State paid Eastern Michigan $850,000 to play a nationally televised game of football. In 2012 the University of Michigan will pay Air Force upwards of $1 million to put them on the schedule.
Division 1 sports seem like the right fit for Grand Valley at this time. There is more exposure for the school which helps the great students who walk in and out of Grand Valley find jobs, it unifies the student body, and could very well benefit the school's enrollment, taking Grand Valley to a whole new level. Just imagine if Grand Valley has a miraculous George Mason type run.
This is a shot that Grand Valley should take.
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