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| Photo by Joe Fusco, d3photography.com |
The Louisiana College athletic department announced on Wednesday that it has formally applied for admission to the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics, with an eye on joining the Southern States Athletic Conference for all sponsored sports except football, which aims to join the Sooner Athletic Conference.
“After the better part of the past year analyzing the college’s athletic program, in addition to numerous conversations with director of athletics, coach Reni Mason, and with our Board of Trustees and other external stakeholders, we have decided to apply to the NAIA. This move was supported unanimously by the college’s Board of Trustees,” said Louisiana College president Rick Brewer.
Louisiana College has fewer than 900 full-time undergraduate students as of its most recent filing available from the U.S. Department of Education. It offers 15 intercollegiate sports, a total which it could reduce as a member of the NAIA.
The move leaves the American Southwest Conference with 11 members in the fall of 2021, assuming no further changes. With associate members, the ASC would retain nine football programs.
“This move reflects a desire to provide our student-athletes an outstanding experience as we believe LC’s athletic programs will be competitive in each sport with the genuine opportunity to compete for conference and national titles,” continued Brewer. “The college’s best days in athletics was during the 1970s, ‘80s, and ‘90s when it competed in the NAIA for conference and post-season titles in women’s basketball, men’s basketball, and baseball.”
During its previous stay in the NAIA, Louisiana College was a member of the Gulf Coast Athletic Conference.
“I fully embrace the opportunity to move to the NAIA. This will allow all of our athletic programs a fresh start, a chance to rekindle some old rivalries that have sat simmering in the background for the past two decades, and an opportunity to create some new ones with some familiar adversaries,” said Mason. “This move will also allow us to create a stronger footprint in our state.”
If Louisiana College is accepted into the SSAC, it would restart old rivalries with former GCAC foes Loyola University New Orleans, University of Mobile, and William Carey University, all of which are currently in the SSAC. While the decision to seek inclusion into the SSAC wouldn’t make Louisiana College and NAIA & fellow Rapides Parish institution LSU Alexandria conference foes, moving to the NAIA would mean a chance for the two teams to compete against each other more often on more even terms, one of those terms being the ability to offer athletic scholarships upon completion of the move.
Brewer said, “Competing against LSUA in most of our sports will enhance support for both institutions from our CENLA neighbors.”
Should Louisiana College join the SAC for football and SSAC for all remaining sports, it would allow LC to spread its brand through athletics from the desert southwest of Arizona through the plains of Oklahoma to Georgia and Florida through conference competition. LC would retain the title of having the only non-Division I college football program in the state of Louisiana.
Should the NAIA, SSAC, and SAC approve Louisiana College’s applications, the school anticipates starting play in the NAIA and those conferences at the start of the 2021-22 academic year.