Sunday, December 30, 2007

NJIT made the New York Times

Ok Roz and Galen, I know you are lurking out there  Anyway in today's New York Times there was an article titled "Have Team Will Travel, Losing Badly". http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/30/sports/ncaabasketball/30bluehose.html?_r=1&ex=1356670800&en=28acef94e4d54ebc&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&oref=slogin

It is about  the basektball team of Presbyterian College in South Carolina which has made the transition to Divison I and now has a record of 1-15.  I am reading through the article and there is a reference to the NJIT basketball team in a similar predicament.

Robert Altenkirch, president of the New Jersey Institute of Technology, says he is glad to have moved up. His team is 0-13 in its second year in Division I, but he said it would all be worth it. In an e-mail message, Altenkirch wrote, “The decision was made in fall 2002 to begin the transition process to Division I so we could align athletically with our academic peers and gain national visibility at the same time, which you can’t do in Division II.”

As bleak as it seems for N.J.I.T.’s season, there is no better example of the rewards that the transition holds than the 4,800-student Belmont University in Nashville, which started playing 11 years ago in Division I. On the court, Belmont has earned two straight bids to the N.C.A.A. tournament. Off the court, its enrollment has grown 61 percent in seven years, and its academic standards have risen as well; the university’s president, Bob Fisher, cites sports as a factor.

Will the NJIT basketball team make it to the big dance in the years to come?  If Belmont University can do it, so can we!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Haha - no.  NJIT basketball is going nowhere anytime soon.  

 
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