D-II Football in Lisle
- Thread starter mullin17
- Start date
2 thumbs up!!! It's sad to see all those Jr.College,College Football teams in Illinois from the 80's all gone now.Nice to hear something positive
What would be the benefit of this? Always thought they were like another North Central College. Nothing wrong with that.
Being like NCC is one of the reasons why they want to move up to D2....separates them from the pack allows them a chance to also get a bigger foothold in the area as well as beyond the area. Can and will offer athletic $$$ now in all sports...it's a big step but with very limited D2 schools in this area they could become a big players down the line
This will definitely shake up the D2 recruiting trail for those Michigan and Minnesota schools who love to come in to Chicago and pick up some high level guys who haven't received as much D1 interest. With the combination of athletic facilites, giving athletic scholarship, and proximity to the city, it will definitely be a good product to sell to high level guys who are going to smaller schools. Will be interesting to see how this affects Wheaton and NCC as they are top level d3 teams in Chicagoland and year in and year out can grab some high level guys. Would love to see Coach Thorne bring a national championship back to Naperville one day.
It will have no effect on Wheaton since their recruiting base is more national and many of the local kids who do there have religious ties to the school.
I could see it taking a little bite out of NCC but taking a partial scholarship to a D2 a lot of times isn’t much better then what you are getting from financial aid at a D3 unless you are a super stud.
I think it will shake up the football recruiting trail more for the D2 Illinois schools like Quincy and McKendree. Might even impact some NAIA schools like SXU, USF, Olivet Nazarene, Robert Morris, St. Ambrose, etc. Throw non-football D2 schools like Lewis, Illinois Springfield and UW Parkside into that list for other sports.
Very true, Wheaton is a unique school. And I totally agree, I remember back when I was in the recruiting process I had some D2 offers from some private D2 schools, and they gave good money, but the school was still expensive even with a financially good offer. After playing in both D2 and D3 I always urge kids to not over look D3, but the reality is that kids love the idea of having an athletic scholarship, I see it all the time where a kid will go to a lesser NAIA or D2 school over a great D3 school because they want to sign an athletic scholarship, heck I thought the same way when I was that age too.
After being around it I get the feeling those NAIA schools are more competing the NCC's Whitewaters and good D3 schools of the world. That's an interesting point about the 2 D2 schools in IL. The NSIC and GLIAC has came down to Chicagoland and pretty much been taking care of business because a lot of the Chicagoland kids don't find Quincy and McKendree attractive places to live, and the NSIC and GLIAC player higher levels of competition. So initially you're probably right about them competing with Quincy and McKendree because they won't be competitive enough, but it's still an easier sell to kids and families that would give them an option to have their parents at every home game and the professional opportunities that come with being in Chicagoland. Will all be interesting to see play out that's for sure!
I'm sure they're probably going to restructure their financial aid and move some of the merit scholarships to athletic scholarships and I am sure this will bring excitement among the alumni and that they will have some success when making asks for donations to scholarship funds.
This what I don’t get the cost of the scholarships and the conference travel will both increase substantially, is this really worth the investment? I just don’t see it as a net positive for the school but I’m sure they are looking at other things.
D2 schools are limited to offering no more than the equivalent of 36 full rides. This means they could offer 36 full rides, 72 half rides, or 120 one-third rides if they wanted. They could break it down any way they want, as long as it doesn't exceed the equivalent financial value of 36 full rides. In addition, not all schools choose to award the maximum.
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Not all schools offer the maximum number of scholarships allowed in each sport. My daughter took a look at a D1 school for swimming. Although they were allowed a maximum of the equivalent of 14 full rides, the school chose to only offer the equivalent of one full ride that the coach spread out among his squad as he saw fit.
So, who knows exactly how much this investment is going to be?
For Benedictine, this looks like a smart move. There is only one other NCAA institution in the Chicago area that offers football scholarships, and that is Northwestern. That fact alone will have the effect of increasing the number of football players looking at the school.
That would not be good for their competitiveness to take from academic merit and put into athletic.
Reason- many of the D2’s use both merit and athletic to come up with nearly full rides for some prospects.
If you rob all the merit grants to fund your athletic scholarships- then you don’t have that bucket of money to use for the higher academic kids.
I know for a fact that D2’s use the academic merit (if the kid qualifies) and then layer on the athletic scholarship whether it is a 0.3 or a half or 0.7 athletic etc etc.
If They don’t have the merit money to draw upon - they could be at a big disadvantage compared to the U-Indy’s, Northern Michigan’s Etc etc of the world.
I am only talking in terms of football, my bad, the other sports are nice fluff.
Two perspectives...
First, this cements Lisle's position in the future configuration of the I-8 departees...The community stadium is very nice, and clearly is an opportunity for the Lions to attract opponents to play in a college stadium. A good number of I-8 athletes consider Benedictine, and moving to DII will give other DII level schools the opportunity to see the quality athletes of the I-8 schools. (I know that Lewis attracts a lot of students from the Kankakee area, and their now retired Hall of Fame Baseball Coach is a McNamara alum who has lived in Manteno since the 70's)...I suspect that Benedictine will also get some coattails from so many area schools playing there...I know Benet plays some games there as well, so it becomes a built-in recruiting advantage...
That said, is the stadium adequate? Are they going to have to sink big bucks into their facility, or abandon it for a new one?
Second, from the Benedictine football perspective, it is an enormous jump. But it clearly puts them on the map as the only Chicagoland DII football school. As long as they don't have to sink huge amounts of money into facilities, it makes perfect sense...Sports at the college level is advertising - how many high school kids in the '80s only knew of DePaul because they played basketball on WGN all the time? They will compete with the state FCS Schools for football talent which doesn't want to go so far away for school...A lot of walk-ons at the FCS schools may take partials to Benedictine instead...If they actively tap the Chicagoland market in other sports, there are opportunities to be had...
First, this cements Lisle's position in the future configuration of the I-8 departees...The community stadium is very nice, and clearly is an opportunity for the Lions to attract opponents to play in a college stadium. A good number of I-8 athletes consider Benedictine, and moving to DII will give other DII level schools the opportunity to see the quality athletes of the I-8 schools. (I know that Lewis attracts a lot of students from the Kankakee area, and their now retired Hall of Fame Baseball Coach is a McNamara alum who has lived in Manteno since the 70's)...I suspect that Benedictine will also get some coattails from so many area schools playing there...I know Benet plays some games there as well, so it becomes a built-in recruiting advantage...
That said, is the stadium adequate? Are they going to have to sink big bucks into their facility, or abandon it for a new one?
Second, from the Benedictine football perspective, it is an enormous jump. But it clearly puts them on the map as the only Chicagoland DII football school. As long as they don't have to sink huge amounts of money into facilities, it makes perfect sense...Sports at the college level is advertising - how many high school kids in the '80s only knew of DePaul because they played basketball on WGN all the time? They will compete with the state FCS Schools for football talent which doesn't want to go so far away for school...A lot of walk-ons at the FCS schools may take partials to Benedictine instead...If they actively tap the Chicagoland market in other sports, there are opportunities to be had...
See link below for info from the mid-80s concerning IBC football and Head Coach Bill Barz coming over in '84 after seven successful seasons at Mt. Carmel HS.
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1985-10-14/sports/8503100478_1_ibc-barz-carmel
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1985-10-14/sports/8503100478_1_ibc-barz-carmel
I never said to take all of it away, I said some, so let's slow our roll on saying they're going to rob all the merit grants, but since you are not going to be bringing in all of those athletes on just merit scholarship, SOME can be transitioned. If you look at Upper Iowa who transitioned from D3 to D2 many years ago, kids were still basically paying the same amount after the transition, it just was called athletic scholarship money. They made that move because they were struggling to get kids to come to school there and had find a new way to get students there, so they used athletic scholarships. Now yes, they were able to give merit money to kids who qualified, but having athletic scholarships also opened up the door for some kids that didn't have great grades and couldn't qualify for merit grants, meaning there was less need for as much merit scholarship. At the end of the day, most of the time schools do this because they think it can increase enrollment if they give student athletes athletic scholarships, because in all reality most kids are still paying similar as they would have before, and very few D2 players are close to having full rides without loans, resulting in revenue for the college/university. It will also be interesting to see how many scholarships BenU will decide to use as for D2 it is not a level playing field for scholarships.
mu understanding from current students is that tuition is going up, based on the partial scholarships, it will net out to what you would get with no scholarship and the previous tuition.
Sounds like the an old time Retailers Hi/Low pricing strategy.
A Dyson vacuum that retails for 499 at most other locations retails at ”Retailer X” for 599!! BUT Wait we are doing a big price off promotion from 599 to 499. You are saving 100 bucks!! Don’t you feel good? You got a great discount!!
A review of the GLVC schools athletic facilities websites eliminates my concerns about the Benedictine facilities. The facilities in Lisle are at a minimum in the middle of the pack of the conference, with baseball & softball possibly the best in the new conference...The football stadium/track will be comparable with everyone, not the biggest but one of the nicest...A simple 1000 seat set of bleachers on the visitors side will likely make it the nicest in the conference.
I didn't realize how poor the facilities were at DII schools. Olivet likely has nicer facilities than everyone in the GLVC (stadium seating is kind of small, but the Bears have caused everything to be greatly improved, with lots of portable bleachers that could be used at the stadium). That might be the big jump for Benedictine, which now leaps the NAIA schools by going DII. I wonder if they will cause a facilities war with Quincy, McKendree & Lewis by going DII...or if any of the NAIA schools jump as well...They will likely start taking some kids who otherwise were more interested in Olivet and St. Francis...
I didn't realize how poor the facilities were at DII schools. Olivet likely has nicer facilities than everyone in the GLVC (stadium seating is kind of small, but the Bears have caused everything to be greatly improved, with lots of portable bleachers that could be used at the stadium). That might be the big jump for Benedictine, which now leaps the NAIA schools by going DII. I wonder if they will cause a facilities war with Quincy, McKendree & Lewis by going DII...or if any of the NAIA schools jump as well...They will likely start taking some kids who otherwise were more interested in Olivet and St. Francis...
Don't know about the facilities at Benedictine, McKendree, or Lewis. I've been to Quincy, though. They have brand new football and baseball stadia (all part of the same complex), as of 3 years ago. Their basketball and volleyball arena is quite large and nicely updated. They also have a pretty decent sized field house and rec center for a school their size. Don't know anything about their facilities for other varsity sports like soccer, tennis, softball, etc.
