The Future of Division II

Another significant source of revenue is the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament, which earned more than $900 million in 2024. Some of that trickles down to the lower divisions, but the lion's share stays with the big conferences and their schools.

The current TV deal for the basketball tournament expires in 2032. Steve Murray, commissioner of the Division II Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference, in which IUP competes, said he expects changes that could have far-reaching effects on Division II.

"I think they'll start negotiating a new deal by 2029," he said. "I think whatever deal they make will tell you a lot about what the future of Division II and the NCAA will look like."

While Division I schools, fueled by billion-dollar TV deals, push these changes, Division II schools are left with strained budgets, disrupted rosters, and fundamental questions about whether some programs can survive in this new world. The conferences these schools compete in also face uncertainty, because some of their operational budgets come from Division I.

And now and then, there are rumblings that the Power 4 conferences are talking about breaking away from the NCAA and creating their own for-profit governing body. If that were to happen, what would become of Division II?

In 2020, the PSAC Board of Directors asked Murray to develop a contingency plan in case funding from Division I schools was unexpectedly cut. As a result, the PSAC now has enough financial reserves to operate independently for a short time. However, it would need to decide what to do in the long term. Disbanding, sponsoring fewer sports, and merging with another conference could be among the options.

Transfer Mania

Fortunately for Tortorella and the IUP football program, the player who got the call from Texas couldn't accept the offer-because of NCAA rules. In Division I, student-athletes have five calendar years to play four seasons of a sport, and this player had already been in college longer than that, so his eligibility had run out.

That didn't stop the Division I coach from trying.

"It's a shotgun approach," Tortorella said. "Those coaches just call a bunch of players and hope some of them transfer."

This kind of hunting expedition puts a lot of stress on young people who might not be equipped to make a sound decision when faced with such an offer.

On one hand, they know they can excel on Division II playing fields and courts, and they're making progress toward a degree; on the other, cash is king, and the need to make money now trumps any academic work the student-athlete might be undertaking.

"They may not play much or have a championship experience, but they'll chase the money," Garzarelli said. "For some families, that's hard to turn down."

Transferring up to Division I may sound like a solid career move, and in the short term, it may be. However, it could also slow a student-athlete's academic progress. Considering that only about 2 percent of college athletes become professional athletes, a college degree should be the goal, although often it's not.

"I think the most important thing is that institutions need to be more vigilant about prioritizing the needs of student-athletes as students and learners," Segar said. "So, we have to balance both realities: the desire of student-athletes to benefit from their talents and our responsibility to support and educate them.

"Educating students is key. We need to prepare them to be successful, wherever they go."

An Uncertain Future

All of this leaves schools like IUP-which has been a Division II institution since the NCAA adopted the three-division system in 1973-wondering what the future holds for athletics.

"The problem is the [NCAA] membership dictates the legislation," Garzarelli said, "and when a Power 4 school doesn't like the legislation, they sue the NCAA. They're suing against the legislation they helped create. Until the membership decides what it wants and how it wants to be governed, the NCAA is going to keep having issues."

The House v. NCAA settlement, which more or less allows schools to create payrolls for their student-athletes, is Division I-only right now. But it could eventually make its way to Division II, creating an even wider gap between the haves and the have-nots.

Driscoll said that's a future that fans of IUP Athletics certainly won't like.

"If paying our student-athletes becomes a requirement," he said, "we'll likely see [Division II] sports disappear. That means fewer students getting the chance to go to college to earn a degree."

But Murray isn't sure the future would be that bleak.

"I don't think it would change that much," he said. "I don't see schools dropping sports. I just see them having conversations about how we want to approach this. The NAIA [National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics] is out there as a possibility. Some schools depend on sports for enrollment, so they wouldn't want to give that up. They'll just have to find a way to do it within their means."

For now, Division II schools face an uncertain future as they wait for Division I to settle its affairs.

"The next 7 to 10 years will be interesting to watch," Murray said. "Once the curtain was pulled by Division I, there was no stopping it."

While the transfer portal, NIL money, House settlement, and revised transfer rules have muddied the college sports water more than ever, Driscoll is sure of one thing.

"We've lost something," he said, "and I don't know if we can get it back."