The NCAA Championships Committee will have heard a recommendation by the NCAA Division II football committee by the end of the day today on whether the Division II National Championship football game will return to Florence, Ala., or move elsewhere.
One of those ‘elsewheres’ has been confirmed as Pittsburg State University.
According to Bill Kroenke, PSU assistant athletic director for marketing and promotions, the university submitted a bid in the fall in conjunction with the city of Pittsburg and the Crawford County Convention and Visitors Bureau.
But a recent conference call between the NCAA and the Shoals National Championship Committee started to raise questions as to whether it was a slam dunk for the game to return to northern Alabama.
“One day I felt really good about our bid and the history of the game for the past 23 years,” said Mickey Haddock, who handles the game day operations for the Shoals committee. “The next day, I got to thinking that if you are looking for a new venue, it appears that Pittsburg State really fits their mold for that.”
Haddock is part of the committee that was formed in 1986 to help plan out the festivities of the game when it was moved from McAllen, Texas. The 2009 season will mark the 24th straight time the game has been held at the Shoals, but Haddock said that the contract expires after that game.
The primary question for both Florence and Pittsburg was regarding the facilities.
Kroenke said that the NCAA raised questions about making Carnie Smith Stadium a “neutral” site for the game.
“There has been some follow-up that the NCAA has conducted since the fall,” Kroenke said. “They asked about our field. Of course they want a neutral field to play on and they wanted us to elaborate on our bid which was relatively straightforward.”
That means removing the Gorilla logo at the 50-yard line and the “Pitt State” and “Gorillas” wording in each of the end zones.
“It is very, very complicated on the options,” Kroenke said. “We have already painted our field, but we presented the NCAA with three choices and there might be another one that might come up or it might become a non-issue.”
According to Pitt State officials at the time, when the university made a bid in 2004, an issue with the NCAA was hotel and convention space in Pittsburg.
