It seems like someone bearing a striking resemblance to me and has the same writing style very recently looked at where each current school in the Horizon League looks as far as its status in the conference, which also included whether or not there had been discussions about moving down to Division II in some cases.
Oh wait. That was really me. Sorry. I was too busy delving into my delusions of grandeur thinking about a mythical Toledo-to-the-Horizon-League move.
But, as it turns out, someone else heard some rumblings about Division II, as it every league team dropping down. That someone is Braden Keith, the editor-in-chief of SwimSwam, which is one of the foremost outlets for swimming news in the world. Folks at Cleveland State may remember SwimSwam’s coverage of the Viking swim team’s coaching turnover in 2019.
His, tweet, however, suggests a collective sentiment from member schools about where they stand in the NCAA.
As it turns out, this speculation lasted all of four hours. Horizon League associate commissioner Shawn Sullivan was clear about this idea in his response.
Not that he needed any back-up here, but his retort was only bolstered by Matt Brown, whose Extra Points newsletter is go-to source for college sports figures and fans alike, specifically on the subject of conference realignment. Here’s what he had to say:
Make no mistake, the landscape of college athletics is changing. But to the extent that an entire Division I conference in planning to drop divisions? The logistics of such a move alone would make such a transition next to impossible.
And, of course, at least one school, Wright State, already had this thought after the pandemic, which forced them to drop sports temporarily. But the school thought the better of it, opting instead to add new sports and stand pat in D1.
The significant investments across the Horizon League in recent years also add another layer of skepticism to a drop in divisions. Northern Kentucky just added multiple new sports, Milwaukee recently opened its new multi-million dollar practice facility, the OHOW Center, and Oakland is moving forward with a practice facility of its own. There’s also the project to build new state-of-the-art facilities, including an arena, on the campus of IU-Indy.
Let’s not forget the existing make-up of coaches and student-athletes. Salaries within the HL far outpace even the highest ones in Division II. And the athletes? Certainly there are some who excelled in D2 (e.g. NKU’s Josh Dilling and Daniel Gherezgher, Robert Morris’ Josh Omojafo, three-fourths of the IU-Indy roster, etc.). But Division I is the highest level, be it the power conference or mid-majors.
Basically, a drop in divisions would mean that every single team at every single school would essentially have to start from scratch. New coaches (as the current ones who likely seek other D1 jobs), new athletes, new everyone, really.
It’s true that money in college athletics is going to dictate the NCAA’s direction in the years to come. There’s no doubt about it. And there may be one day when there may very well be a great schism of sorts between the power conference and everyone else. But until that happens, aside from a handful of outliers, Division I will remain what it is, and the Horizon League will be in it.
But just in case everything goes completely to pot and the conference does do something drastic (which is as likely to happen as it is Toledo joins), just remember that as long as there’s a Horizon League, there will always be a HoriZone Roundtable.
