Over the summer the UNA Board of Trustees will come to a decision on the move to Division I athletics.

The decision is important for athletics because the Gulf South Conference will lose six of its members: Arkansas Tech, Arkansas-Monticello, Harding, Henderson State, Ouachita Baptist and Southern Arkansas, which could create scheduling difficulties for UNA athletics.

“The earliest that a decision could possibly be made would be at the board’s June 13 board meeting,” said Josh Woods, director of UNA communications. “However, whether the decision is made then will then depend on the outcome of the May 20 retreat and the progress made on the strategic plan being developed for a potential move to Division I.”

“It is important to repopulate the conference,” said UNA Athletics Director Mark Linder. “The reason you belong to a conference is for scheduling purposes and for championships. That’s the main reason why you affiliate with conferences, so you don’t have to go out and schedule all of your intercollegiate athletic programs as an independent.”

The other option is to go Division I. If UNA makes the move, the football team will join the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), while the other sports will simply be Division I

UNA will have to receive an official invite from a Division I conference in order to join. The school will also have to pay an application fee of $1.3 to $1.4 million at the beginning of the process.

The two Division I conferences closest to UNA are the Ohio Valley Conference (OVC) and the Sun Belt Conference. The OVC is in the FCS while the Sun Belt is in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS).

UNA would also have to add two new sports to the program if the move up is made.

“There are two or three sports we’re looking at,” said Linder. “Women’s golf I think would be popular in this area. I think we should probably take a look at women’s bowling. It’s an emerging sport. It would be in our best interest to add two women’s sports for Title IX reasons. We need to make sure we are addressing the needs of the underrepresented gender.”

The school would then have to increase its athletic budget in order to be competitive in the division. The current sporting facilities are good enough to make the switch, but some improvements may be needed.

“Every facility we have now is good for Division II, so it could function as a Division I facility,” said Linder. “Whether we stay Division II or go Division I we need to improve our facilities.

“The tennis courts, we need to improve them. We need to get a soccer locker room. We need to expand our weight room. As far as the number of seats for spectators, we won’t have to add,” Linder added.

UNA would also have to meet the regulations of the Academic Performance Rate (APR). APR is a performance test on Division I schools which rates the graduation rate of student athletes at the school.

If any school in question does not have a graduation rate of 50 percent or above, the school will be penalized.