Wittenberg University Athletics Director Garnett Purnell is glad the NCAA is addressing the identity problem that can be as much a part of Division III sports as Saturday football games.Many know Division III schools as the ones that don’t offer athletic scholarships, he said, but perceptions are sketchy after that. They may not realize the volume of D-III schools – 447 of them – or that the division sponsors 13 national sports championships for men and 14 for women.
Observers may also be unaware of Division III’s mission to create an environment where student-athletes can balance academics with sports away from the pressures that typically come with an athletic scholarship at the major colleges.
“People just don’t know about us,” said Purnell, athletics director for 12 years at Wittenberg, a 1,900-student private university in Springfield. “We’re the best-kept secret that doesn’t want to be the best-kept secret anymore.”
Vital expense
The NCAA is spending $600,000 this school year and has pledged the same amount next year to help Division III members with a national branding campaign. Members, including 21 colleges in Ohio, can receive $1,000 a year for promotional videos and signs, banners and backdrops for gyms, stadiums and other venues.
It may not be much compared with the $100 million-plus athletics budgets at Division I mega-schools such as Ohio State University and University of Texas, but it is a step in the right direction, said Purnell during a recent press tour in Columbus.
Athletics remains a key recruiting tool for D-III colleges, helping bring in tuition that is vital to their stability, said Thomas Chema, president of 1,200-student Hiram College, southeast of Cleveland.
“We’re still driven by student revenue,” he said, “and our customers – the students – still want to play their sport. They will not come to us unless we offer them the opportunity to continue (in athletics).”
D-III schools offer an average of 17 sports, according to the NCAA, and they subsidize much of that with tuition and other sources outside athletics. For example, Wittenberg is spending $1.8 million on athletics this year, Purnell said. About $400,000 comes from gate receipts, concessions, fundraising and alumni gifts, with the rest from the university budget.
Division III schools continued their financial commitments to athletics even during the recession, seeing their value to those who participate and campus communities, said Dale Knobel, president of Denison University in Granville, which offers 17 sports to its 2,200 students.
“It’s strictly an expense for us,” he said. “We invest the same resources in it as we do in other areas in which we invest. We think athletics are an integrated part of the educational experience.”
Knobel estimated from a quarter to a third of Denison’s student body plays on its sports teams, and those who don’t participate likely know someone who does.
“Virtually the whole student body has a connection with athletics,” he said.
The student in student-athlete
Among the marketing points in the NCAA’s campaign is how academics are the primary focus at Division III schools. The schools conduct shorter practices and playing seasons than Divisions I and II, and prohibit redshirting that keeps students in school an extra year. They also emphasize regional competition to minimize travel and time away from the classroom. For example, Wittenberg, Hiram and Denison are among the seven Ohio schools that compete in the North Coast Athletic Conference, with three colleges from western Pennsylvania and Indiana.
The NCAA campaign puts a spotlight on the character lessons – teamwork, discipline, perseverance and leadership – that D-III students can gain from athletics.
“We can offer something that companies consider when they are looking for well-rounded individuals they want to be part of their organization,” Purnell said. “That’s the individual we’ve been developing the last four years.”
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