A Tale of Two Presidents: The Rise and Fall of Division I Athletics at Birmingham-Southern College

Abstract

In 1999, Birmingham-Southern College (BSC) announced that they were leaving the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics to join the highest rank of the National Collegiate Athletic Association-Division I. While competing in Division I, the size of BSC’s athletic budget was in the bottom 10 per cent. By 2006, the Board of Trustees at Birmingham-Southern voted to reclassify to Division III. Why did Birmingham-Southern decide to enter Division I? How did the academic mission of Birmingham-Southern play a role in the rise to Division I or the fall to Division III? What role, if any, did the presidents of Birmingham-Southern play in its joining and leaving Division I? One reason Birmingham-Southern decided to compete at the Division I level was because their leaders believed in the ‘Flutie Factor’, which is the concept that athletic success will benefit the entire institution. BSC’s transition into Division I during 1999 suggests that the commercialization of big-time college athletics encourages presidents to overemphasize athletics, and that they face little opposition when doing so. Moreover, the opposition to BSC’s reclassification into Division III during 2006 suggests that presidents face more resistance when attempting to lead their college into a less prestigious level of competition, even if the move better fits the college’s academic mission.