by Patrick Drengwitz

The football team is 7-1, field hockey is perfect in conference play, women’s soccer has won nine of their last 11 games and last season and lacrosse became nine-time national champions.

This is not to say the other sports  teams aren’t doing exceptionally well this season but rather raises the question: Why, with all this success, is Salisbury University still in Division III? The answer is simple: a philosophy.

For decades, SU has enjoyed a fine athletic tradition that has included All-Americans and several national championships. Michael Vienna, SU’s Director of Athletics and Recreation since 1989, laid out the facts supporting SU’s decision to remain in Division III.

“Here at SU, we have integrated ourselves within the Division III style of play based on our philosophy that student athletes should be given the same treatment and attention as any other student enrolled,” Vienna said.

As opposed to Division III, Division I schools shell out massive amounts of money in scholarships to attract student-athletes to their programs.

The first issue that comes with moving up a division is the increase in expenses. For example, the only Division II in Maryland is Bowie State, and far too many Division II schools SU would play are further away than the teams we currently play. Thus, travel expenses would increase dramatically, and students would have to be pulled out of classes earlier to reach opponents’ schools in time for games.

An increase in expenses would also become a problem when the school finds the need to hire more faculty as full-time assistant coaches.

“Division II schools are likely to have at least two full-time assistant coaches for their teams, a luxury that SU has actually prospered without for many years,” Vienna said.

SU would also face the issue of building up a reputation in the new division, something that poses a threat to the number of students who are recruited to SU as players.

For example, if we were to move to a division in which most, if not all the schools were fairly unknown to prospective SU students, it would be tough to convince these young athletes to enroll here. The problem would not likely linger for more than five years, but those five years worth of reputation-building could prove very costly in drawing students to SU to compete in Division II competition.

Lastly, “SU sponsors nine men’s sports and 10 women’s sports, whereas a Division II conference such as the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference sponsors only five men’s sports and seven women’s sports,” Vienna said. “The problem here is finding games for the teams that are left without opponents in this conference.”

“My opinion is actually that D3, (for field hockey at least), is more competitive than D2 anyway.” said senior field hockey player Caitlin Walker. “I guess because the schools are larger, the teams have a better chance of having a lot of talented players.”

Based on our Division III philosophy, SU is right where it is for reasons that stress overall achievement in student-athlete performance, cost-effectiveness and game opportunities.