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OLIVER KIMOKEO | OPINION EDITOR
APU has built a pedigree of athletic achievements over the years, and now may be the time to leave behind its National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) tradition and begin a new one in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA).
The Cougars have captured the last five NAIA Director’s Cups, which are awarded to the schools who perform the best across all sports in a single year. A sixth consecutive Director’s Cup may be on the way this year, and APU has finished in the top five for 11 straight years now.
In addition, APU is the premier program of the Golden State Athletic Conference (GSAC), winning 101 GSAC titles since the conference of mostly Southern California private institutions formed in 1986.
So, it came as a relative surprise when the GSAC announced in August 2009 that its schools, including APU, are exploring NCAA Division II membership. The process is still ongoing and no school has been accepted to be a part of the NCAA yet.
What’s the difference between the two associations? The biggest difference is name recognition. Many people are aware of the NCAA and some of the nation’s most noteworthy universities take part in Division I competition. Professional sports leagues have a tremendous respect for the NCAA and draft their most talented prospects for multi-million dollar contracts every year.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the spectrum, hardly anyone is aware of the NAIA, unless there’s a personal affiliation with the association. It’s regarded as the minor leagues for college competition, and in many ways, that label is proven to be true.
The NCAA and the NAIA have two different systems of overseeing college competition, and depending on the athletic department, it’s either one or the other that fits a certain university in the best capacity.
The APU athletic department has an important decision to make once the results of their recent consultation come into knowledge during the month of February. If the Cougars believe moving into the NCAA Division II is indeed a positive direction for future competition, they’ll present their case to APU President Jon Wallace.
Even though the consultations may outline possible roadblocks for APU along the way, the right decision is for APU to pursue NCAA Division II membership for many compelling reasons.
Why the NAIA doesn’t fit the needs of APU anymore
Nowadays, the NAIA works best for upstart programs, providing a good base for schools establishing intercollegiate athletics teams. The reason why is that the NAIA has less regulations for schools to follow in order to be eligible for competition.
The NAIA’s postseason qualifying system for most sports favors conference winners instead of at-large selections. And that includes every single conference, some which are more inferior to the GSAC, the Cougars’ home conference.
While the utilitarian approach helps all schools in gaining playoff experience, the system hurts stronger conferences such as the GSAC. For three consecutive years, there has been at least one instance where APU deserved to make nationals, but an at-large spot was not available for their participation.
In 2007, women’s volleyball was ranked No. 5 of an all-GSAC top 5 in the NAIA. Because there were only four available tournament berths to offer to the GSAC that year, APU did not receive an invitation and 16 of the 20 tournament participants were ranked below the Cougars.
In 2008, men’s soccer was also ranked No. 5, but did not receive a playoff spot in the 31-team national tournament. Granted, it was a special situation in which the Cougars offered a GSAC Tournament Final postponement to Westmont in the wake of the Tea Fires. However, since the postponed game occurred after the NAIA set the playoff field, the NAIA established the GSAC final as a play-in game, giving a playoff position only to the winner.
In 2009, men’s soccer had a final ranking of No. 14 and finished 16-3 in overall matches, with only a pair of losses to Biola and another loss to The Master’s. The squad was strong enough to defeat national semifinalist and No. 3-ranked Simon Fraser. Despite only losing to GSAC teams in the season and being the No. 3 conference team, there were not enough at-large seeds for APU to participate in the 31-team tournament.
Offering this evidence is not to say the Cougars deserve to play in every national tournament, but it’s to illustrate that the NAIA harms stronger conferences in selecting playoff seeds. It’s a travesty that top 10 teams have not been allowed to compete in postseason tournaments because the GSAC features a set of four or five elite teams.
The tournament fields are generally larger in the NCAA, preventing these qualification anomalies from occurring.
In addition, the NAIA lacks the marketing muscle the NCAA provides its teams. The NAIA only nationally televises its championship and semifinals games in football and basketball, and even so, it’s CBS College Sports Network—it’s not ESPN, a channel available to all cable and satellite subscribers.
Which is the reason why the general public is not aware of the NAIA. There is hardly any exposure, whether it is in sports section newsprint or radio and television broadcasts. The NAIA website doesn’t help the cause. Its content is cluttered, disorganized and it’s difficult to find information. No wonder there’s a perception of the NAIA as “minor league.”
The NAIA does serve a worthy function, helping colleges build their programs from the ground up. Unfortunately for the association, some schools see their membership as just a rung to move higher on the NCAA ladder.
APU has been loyal to the NAIA through the years, but the NCAA offers the Cougars many benefits that the NAIA can’t give the university.
Why the NCAA’s Division II is the right fit for the Cougars
On a competitive level, the talent of Cougar athletics matches Division II well. If the Cougars are granted membership, they’ll regularly compete for playoff seeds and possibly could be Director’s Cup contenders on the Division II level.
Historically, most Cougar teams have a solid record against Division II competition. That is to say, they can handle the heat in the kitchen well. They won’t be intimidated playing teams at this higher level.
It’s true that the NCAA has more regulations for APU to comply with than the NAIA, but regulation is a good thing. Corruption occurs when there are rules to be bent, and by holding athletics programs to a higher standard, the NCAA improves the quality of play and competition for all schools.
These regulations include how much schools can practice during the season and how much contact the coach can have with the players. Even so, the NCAA will allow APU to conduct team Bible studies because the university is a religious institution. The culture of Cougar Athletics will not shift much, and even if it does, the shift will be in a positive direction rather than a negative direction.
Another excellent reason to move into the NCAA is that Division II has a greater presence on the Pacific coast. The Pacific West Conference (PWC), currently consiting of nine teams located in Arizona, California, Hawaii, and Utah, has indicated interest in accepting APU in its conference. There’s the possibility of additional GSAC schools joining Division II, and the PWC may welcome those schools into its conference as well.
The PWC does not currently sponsor football but the Great Northwest Athletic Conference (GNAC) does and could sponsor the Cougar football program. It could be a good fit for both sides, as the GNAC only has four football members. As a NAIA independent, Cougar football played all four GNAC schools in the 2009 season.
This final reason to join Division II is the clincher, elevating the athletic department’s decision to no-brainer status. NCAA provides funding to schools for playoff participation— the NAIA does not.
Since APU is a regular playoff participant in all sports, the university must incur all costs on their own behalf from travel to lodging. By participating in NCAA tournaments, APU could potentially save an estimated $100,000 plus each year. The surplus could be put into different areas of the department to help improve the overall program.
The bottom line
This is the right time for APU to consider NCAA membership. The Cougars have proven themselves well in the NAIA, earning the last five Director’s Cups. There is nothing left for APU to prove by staying in the NAIA. APU cannot wait for the NAIA to improve itself. The Cougars have already waited long enough.
The NAIA cannot be the NCAA, in structure, exposure, or regulation, because the NCAA is too strong of an entity. For instance, there are 1,281 institutions in all three levels of the NCAA, while the NAIA has 307 members. The NCAA operates on a budget of $661 million dollars while the NAIA only operates on a budget of $3 million.
The NAIA is too far behind and APU is too far ahead in its advancement to consider otherwise.
Tradition may dictate that APU should stay in the NAIA, but new traditions can be created. APU won’t be the first school to make the jump from the NAIA to the NCAA, and they certainly won’t be the last.
Should other GSAC programs make the jump or not with APU, the Cougars can still maintain their GSAC rivalries with Biola, California Baptist, Westmont, Fresno Pacific, Concordia and Point Loma Nazarene through non-conference games.
The Cougars have the ball in their court. It’s time to swish the basket on a slam-dunk decision.
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