PDA

View Full Version : Look Back at I-AA Move: Jacksonville St



TexasTerror
July 27th, 2006, 07:01 PM
Considering we have loads of discussion about moves from Div II to I-AA and even a school that dropped from Div I to Div III...thought this would be a good read! A look back at Jacksonville St's move...look at some of the reasons for the moves (very similar to why North Dakota wants to move up, peer institutions)...

A look back at move from D-II

By Jered Staubs
News staff writer
07-26-2006

The Jacksonville State University Gamecocks won the 1992 Division II football national championship, and moved to Division I in all sports shortly thereafter.

The program had risen to the top of Division II athletics, having captured 51 conference championships, and six national championships — two in baseball, two in gymnastics, one in football, and one in basketball — at that level.

The landscape of Division II was changing, and several teams were making the leap to Division I. Schools such as Tennessee-Chattanooga, Georgia Southern, and Samford made the move in the late 1980s and early ‘90s.

Jim Bennett, who has been on the board of trustees since before JSU’s ascension to Division I, said it was one of the signs that a change might be in order.

“The teams we consider our peer institutions (were moving to) the Division I and I-AA football level,” Bennett said. “This was a consideration when the board of trustees approved (the initial meeting).”

http://www.jaxnews.com/news/2006/jn-localnews-0726-0-6g26k1322.htm