Give Up the Ghost: Schools That Should Contemplate De-emphasizing From DI

You cannot be serious! What's the point if you're going to be this inept? Army hasn't had a single-digit defeat season since 1977-78. After St. Francis (N.Y.) dropped all sports a couple of years ago, biting the big-time dust after winning only 36.4% of its basketball games covering the previous seven seasons, Army was left with two other schools (The Citadel plus William & Mary) as the only longstanding major-college programs failing to compete in the NCAA Tournament since the first year of the national playoffs in 1939.

At any rate, the trio of never-been-there schools possess unofficial tenure and shouldn't exit Division I because they've been around from the start. Dartmouth, despite no winning record overall or in Ivy League competition in 21st Century (23 seasons) until last campaign, also gets a pass because frequent cellar dweller is a member of a prestigious conference. But are there other schools that should consider de-emphasizing?

There's always a Colgate in the mix making one hesitate kicking a program to the lower-level curb. The Raiders registered at least 23 victories five of the last seven seasons (going 14-2 in COVID-ridden 2020-21) after suffering nine consecutive losing campaigns from 2008-09 through 2016-17. There also were a couple of other feel-good, rags-to-riches stories. How about Fordham posting a gaudy 25-8 record three seasons ago after only two winning marks (2006-07 and 2015-16) in previous 30 seasons and Kennesaw State going 26-9 three years ago in the wake of all losing records in its first 16 seasons competing at the DI level.

But most of the newcomers recently moving up to DI aren't like California Baptist, which posted winning records each of its first five seasons at higher level before falling just under .500 two years ago. For some institutions, it can't get much worse and they should strongly consider returning to a lower classification such as what Hartford did. After Cal State Northridge, Maine, Marist, South Carolina State, Southeast Missouri, Stetson, Western Carolina and Western Illinois escaped category by reaching the 20-win plateau in the past two seasons, following is an alphabetical list of schools that probably should give up the DI ghost: