UNO’s ill-conceived drop from Division I rescued

    Over the past three years, I watched athletics at the University of New Orleans go into a near death spiral.
    I never understood how almost three years ago, a rigged student vote on an athletic fee increase, set up to fail, was the excuse the school administration used to sell the LSU Board of Supervisors on an ill-conceived move to Division III non-scholarship athletics.
    I never understood how the LSU board would give then-UNO chancellor Dr. Tim Ryan permission to make a move without a detailed plan. Especially since in December 2009, there was only one Division III school in the state, Louisiana College in Pineville.
    UNO, a school strapped for cash, would have spent more money traveling in Division III than in Division I.
    I never understood how an administration, post-Tim Ryan, would somehow decide that a move to the Division II Gulf South Conference would be the best path. I waited with much anticipation (not) for that big rivalry to brew between UNO and West Alabama.
    I never understood how the school said it could no longer fund Division I athletics yet launch a $2.5 million renovation of Maestri Field. The field as it was would already be one of the best ballparks in Division II.
    I never understood how UNO director of athletics Amy Champion could claim indigence on one hand and then talk of playing Division II football.
    How could you claim you have no money, then form a football committee with hopes of getting a stadium built on campus?
    I never understood how the Privateer Athletic Foundation could also arrive at the notion that UNO could no longer compete in Division I.
    My suggestion was simple. Raise money and sell season tickets. Pull yourself up by the bootstraps and go get it.
    I still don’t understand how Southeastern and Nicholls State can be Division I in everything but football, and UNO could not.
    I never understood how on the morning of March 8, some members of the UNO athletics staff cried when told of the decision to stay Division I. They were not tears of joy.
    But, finally, on the afternoon of March 8, UNO President Dr. Peter Foss announced that the University of New Orleans would stay D-I.
    Foss said athletics would get a little less than 2 percent of a $124 million university budget.                     

    Foss said success in athletics would help attract students and reverse UNO’s declining enrollment post-Katrina.
    That day, UNO athletics reminded me of Tom Hanks in the movie “Castaway.” After floating aimlessly on a raft in the ocean, with no food or water, an entire athletic department was miraculously rescued.
    If only some who work in the department itself felt that way.
    Ed Daniels is sports director of ABC26 WGNO. He can be reached at [email protected].