Starting Block: What Else is Ahead For Merrimack After Beating Big Ten Team?

Needing to be rooted in reality, what more is in store for new Northeast Conference member Merrimack (Mass.) after the Warriors stunned Big Ten Conference member Northwestern in their second game at the NCAA Division I level? As a small college, Merrimack defeated DI opponents Army, Harvard, Hofstra, Northeastern and Yale in the 1970s and 1980s, but this probably is an edict that Northwestern is judged to being back to status as Big Ten laughingstock as safe-space weak as school's student newspaper editorial apologizing to snowflake students for coverage of campus visit from former U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Only nine of the first 40 schools moving up to compete at DI in the 21st Century posted a winning record in their debut campaign. The average first-year mark for the last 40 newcomers is 10-19.

In 2008-09, South Dakota became the only school to reach the 20-win plateau in its first DI season since Stephen F. Austin achieved the feat in 1986-87. Eight of the nine best first-year seasons occurred in the 1970s when 40 of the 70 institutions elevating their programs to DI during the decade promptly posted winning records.

In 1971-72, Southwestern Louisiana, subsequently known as Louisiana-Lafayette and University of Louisiana, became the only school ever to finish in the Top 10 of the final DI rankings the year after placing in the Top 10 of the final Division II poll. The Ragin' Cajuns were one of three schools from the Pelican State to win at least 80% of their games in inaugural campaign at the DI level in the 1970s (joined by Southern and McNeese State). But it wasn't long before USL was prohibited from fielding a formal team for two seasons (1973-74 and 1974-75) as part of an NCAA probation.

Alabama State (22-6 in 1982-83) is the only school since the 1970s to win more than three-fourths of its games in its DI debut campaign. With UC-San Diego slated to join ranks next season as member of the Big West Conference, following is a first-year summary of schools moving up to the major-college ranks after the initial season of NCAA classification in 1947-48:

*Evansville had an abbreviated schedule because of a plane crash.