It is an all too familiar story in the Division III NCAA championships. A conference and tournament champion from Ohio with an outstanding record and high D3Hoops.com rating has to travel hundreds of miles to play one of the NCAA’s fair-haired children in an early round on its home court.
It has happened again this year.
Ohio Northern’s women’s basketball team, rated No. 3 in the nation and loser of a single game all season, powering its way through the Ohio Athletic Conference – a league strong enough to generate championship teams and, this season, an at-large qualifier in
Otterbein – must travel 270 miles to No. 2 Hope (Mich.) for its
first-round game against Hanover (Ind.) tonight. A win means a likely second-round game Saturday against Hope on its home floor, assuming the host defeats Wheaton (Ill.).
For years now, high-achieving Ohio colleges have had to make
long journeys in this tournament so that certain favorites like Hope and Washington
(Mo.) can get the home court advantage. If the decision is about money, well,
since the NCAA is involved, that’s hardly a surprise. If the integrity of the
tournament is damaged, so what?
Elsewhere in the women’s tournament, at-large qualifier
Otterbein faces Marysville (Tenn.) in its first round game, played on DePauw’s home floor
at Greencastle, Ind. – a shorter trip (236 miles) than its conference champion
faces. The winner of that game plays the winner of the DePauw-LaRoche (Pa.)
game on Saturday.
The men’s Division III tournament operates on a different
calendar, as there is no final four but a final eight playoff incorporating
quarterfinals, semifinals, and finals on a neutral site in Atlanta. The first
round is the only game played this weekend, and thus there are more hosting
opportunities. On Saturday, North Coast Athletic Conference tournament champion
Ohio Wesleyan hosts St. Vincent (Pa.), while regular season champion
Wooster hosts Penn State-Behrend. The only traveling school this weekend is Ohio Athletic
Conference tournament champion
Marietta, which travels to Dickinson (Pa.), a
307-mile jaunt.
Only one AICUO member qualified in NAIA Division II
basketball.
Lourdes’s men’s team will play Indiana Wesleyan on the morning of
March 7. Lourdes wins the long-distance travel award at 718 miles, as all NAIA
tourney games take place, as they have for many years, at the College of the
Ozarks in Point Lookout, Mo. In case you were wondering, Ozarks qualified in
that tournament as the team with the most losses, 12.
--rpb
On February 26, Ohio legislators had the opportunity to meet and mingle
with 42 independent college students and advisors during the 6th Annual
Independent College Day at the Ohio Statehouse. This event brought students
from eight campuses to Columbus to advocate on behalf of AICUO members and
raise awareness of Ohio's independent colleges and universities. 
The night before the second Independent College Day (March 6) the weather forecast
was predicting 4-8 inches of snow in the Central Ohio area. This was a
little much for many of the campuses set to appear in Columbus, but two
campuses (Tiffin University and Baldwin Wallace University) braved the icy
roads and slush to make it south. AICUO staff, with only sixteen students
and two advisors in the quiver, commenced a day of advocacy on behalf of
independent colleges and universities. 
Immediately after breakfast and set-up of the display tables in the
Atrium, the students spent the morning in the Ohio House Finance Subcommittee
on Higher Education; the students witnessed the testimony of AICUO President,
Todd Jones, as well as testimony from public sector side with testimony from
IUC (inter-University Council) President, Bruce Johnson. The students
then had the opportunity to meet and chat with staff or legislators from 39
legislative offices about their experiences with independent colleges and why
it is so important to maintain a role for them within the higher education
policy-making. Student advocates also had the chance to witness House and
Senate sessions in the afternoon. 