On Sept. 30, 2022, the University of Indianapolis Interim President Phil Terry issued an email to the UIndy community about athletics, stating that no changes will be made regarding changing from Division II at that time. However, on Nov. 16, 2022, Terry sent out an update email, declaring that the Board of Trustees concluded UIndy will remain in Division II athletics. Terry said many factors came into play when figuring out this decision, but the high level of talent in the athletic programs was not an issue.
“We’ve got a premier athletic program, with premier coaches, premier athletes; it is DI quality, so we had no concerns about moving to DI in terms of the quality of our athletic program…,” Terry said. “[However] we, like a number of universities, have challenges on the horizon. We see [a] declining percentage of high school seniors going to college. That’s especially true in Indiana; we’re much lower than [the] national average, so we see that trend. It’s not a good trend.”
However, Terry said the words in the email stating that the University will not pursue Division II “at this time” were done intentionally. This would allow UIndy to potentially make the switch down the road, according to Terry.
“It’s [going DI] a work in progress…, We’ve got to get it implemented,” Terry said. “We’ve got to make sure that it’s going to be successful before we can make the decision to go DI… It’s going to be well thought out; it’s going to be resourced. We’re going to have the resources to do it. Once we get those plans and the resources in place, we’ll do it.”
Currently, UIndy’s athletic programs are in the Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC) in DII. As of right now, the university will not be changing their conference, Terry said.
“We’ve told the GLVC that we are staying put at this time,” Terry said. “Again, that’s not a commitment forever…. The GLVC has some challenges for us…. We’ve been a founding member of that, and so they’ve got a great affinity for that program. We’ve got a great affinity for the leadership of that program, and for the other college presidents. So it would be tough to leave, but we also have to look at the long-term realities of how that league is developing.”
In addition to the decision to stay in DII, UIndy hired an expert that has worked within the NCAA, who helped give the best advice possible, according to Terry. Given it was a long process, Terry said he was thankful for the UIndy community’s help with these steps.
“I wanted to give a word of thanks to the community, the students, the faculty, the athletics, the student-athletes, the athletic staff for helping us work through this process and also being tolerant of the time it took to get it resolved,” Terry said. “It took a long time. But as mentioned before, we wanted to make sure we did this right for the university. But we really thank the community for being engaged on this and making sure we understood the facts that were available to them and their opinions about it.”
