The Fayette Tribune, Oak Hill, W.Va.

Sports

July 14, 2011

NCAA again turns down WVU Tech

By Steve Keenan Sports Editor

WVU Tech’s hopes to once again find itself under the NCAA’s sports umbrella have been dashed for a second straight year.

Tech officials announced earlier this week that the NCAA has again rejected the school’s application for NCAA Division II membership.

“Obviously we are very disappointed with this result,” said Athletics Director Frank Pergolizzi. “The NCAA Division II membership process continues to be an extremely competitive one. We thought our application itself was pretty well-done.

“During the coming months we will continue to assess the intercollegiate athletics landscape and attempt to determine the most advantageous direction for the future of our program. We’ve got some serious decisions to make that are obviously important decisions. We have to evaluate a number of alternatives.”

Tech was a charter member of the West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference in 1924 and remained with that league until it opted to move to NAIA Division I status as a member of the Kentucky-based Mid-South Conference over five years ago.

For now, the Golden Bears will remain in the Mid-South, which Pergolizzi calls a “great league” with “quality academic institutions with quality people.”

Future options could be to reapply to the NCAA again (the next application would be due by June 1, 2012) or perhaps explore membership in another conference with NAIA ties. The AD says he is aware of other conferences but hasn’t researched them.

“We’ve been upfront (with MSC members) about our interest in getting back in the NCAA and the WVIAC,” Pergolizzi said, referring to reconnecting with the history and tradition Tech had as a long-standing member of the WVIAC.

While assessing the NCAA rejection, Pergolizzi says 300 student-athletes competing in 12 sports (seven men and five women) are still poised to hit the fields and courts for Tech in the coming school year. “We’re still going to have athletes show up Aug. 10 anxious to get their year started.”

And he says one of the obvious goals for 2011-12 is simple. “We wish we could be more competitive. This is going to be a year where (several) new coaches have a year under their belts and have a whole recruiting season (behind them). We hope to see some tangible signs of progress.”

— E-mail:

skeenan@register-herald.com

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