In mid-March the St. Francis (PA) Pink Flash had a possibility to do one thing each small D-1 school basketball program goals of: play in an NCAA match recreation. They ended up dropping a heartbreaking, 70-68, determination to Alabama State in a First 4 recreation in Dayton. It was nonetheless an enormous second for this system and a basic recreation that highlighted the fantastic thing about the First 4 video games.
It was additionally in all probability the final time — not less than for the foreseeable future — that St. Francis will ever have that chance.
Precisely one week later, this system made the surprising announcement on Tuesday that it’s dropping from Division I athletics all the best way all the way down to Division III.
The first motive given: The altering school sports activities panorama that’s now being pushed by NIL and the switch portal.
Here’s what faculty chairman Rev. Joseph Lehman said in the school’s statement regarding the decision:
“This was not a simple nor a fast determination for the Board of Trustees. The governance related to intercollegiate athletics has all the time been difficult and is just rising in complexity based mostly on realities just like the switch portal, pay-for-play, and different shifts that transfer athletics away from love of the sport. For that motive, as a Board, we purpose to greatest present sources and assist to our student-athletes on this altering setting that aligns with our mission, Catholic establishment, and our neighborhood’s expectations.”
In numerous methods, it’s comprehensible for a faculty like St. Francis.
It was all the time one of many smaller D-I colleges, and in 2024, it had fewer than 2,000 college students enrolled. Additionally it is situated within the small city of Loretto, Pennsylvania, with a inhabitants of simply 1,168 folks, and is hours away from one other main metropolis. Pittsburgh is roughly two hours away, whereas Philadelphia is 4 hours away. It would not have the cash or name-brand energy to draw gamers, it is not in a super location, it would not have the amenities to compete with energy colleges and success has all the time been tough to return by.
Regardless of being a D-I basketball faculty because the mid-Nineteen Fifties, this 12 months’s match look was solely the second in program historical past (having additionally gone through the 1990-91 season). It didn’t win a recreation in both look.
The one motive the Pink Flash made it this season is as a result of they went on a very surprising convention match run to win the NEC title. That they had a dropping report through the common season (16-17) and haven’t really had a profitable report since profitable 22 video games through the 2019-20 season. Total this system has had just six winning seasons since the 1990-91 season.
The larger-picture query is that if different smaller colleges in St. Francis’ place will comply with an identical path.
The dearth of upsets on this 12 months’s match is already being attributed to the NIL and switch portal panorama, making it practically inconceivable for smaller colleges to maintain the kind of high-end expertise who can swing a recreation and result in a Cinderella-type run by way of the match.
St. Francis (PA) may simply be the tip of the iceberg for what’s about to occur in school sports activities with smaller colleges.
