ESPN: Sustained success requires different approach for NCAA D-II, D-III level

ESPN – Sustained success requires different approach for NCAA D-II, D-III level – College Sports: “Unlike their Division I contemporaries, schools like Grand Valley State, Williams, University of California at San Diego (runner-up in last year’s Division II Directors’ Cup standings) and Middlebury (Vt.) College (Division III runner-up in ‘06-07) must sustain excellence out of the public eye. There are no multibillion dollar television contracts in Divisions II and III, and most athletes at those levels of competition will not make it to the NFL, NBA, Major League Baseball or the Olympics.

” ‘There’s not necessarily a magic formula,’ Middlebury athletic director Erin Quinn explains. ‘For starters, we have an attractive school, and that’s helped our athletic programs get better. Plus, our physical location attracts the active, outdoorsy student, so you don’t have to change the student body to attract a certain kind of student-athlete. You don’t have to make some sort of compromise.’ “

Also at ESPN: In another part of the series on college athletics, Erin Quinn is quoted in a story on the relatively minor impact of boosters on Division III athletic programs.