SIU Edwardsville eager to take cuts against Division I competition

EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. — Another big Division II fish is about to go swimming in a larger pond.

Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, which has won 16 national championships in NCAA Division II and one in Division I, will begin competing against a Division I slate in the 2008-09 school year.

The university will be in a period of transition before it can compete as a full member of the OVC in 2011-12, and it will be eligible for NCAA postseason play in 2012-13.

The exception is women's softball, which will get the green light for both in 2010-11.

That program won SIUE's most recent national title in 2007, which was the school's first since a women's tennis crown in 1989.

"I guess I'm biased, but we won a Division II national title, so I'm ready to go to Division I and compete at that level," said Amanda Pucel, who just completed her junior season on the softball team. "In the fall, during our preseason, we play a lot of Division I teams, and we hold our own against them. I'm excited to see the level of competition at the Division I level."

Of SIUE's 17 titles, which includes a Division I men's soccer title in 1979, 12 were won during the 1980s and nine of those came in men's or women's tennis.

In the Ohio Valley Conference, SIUE is joining a league that collectively has three Division I national championships, all by Murray State and all by the rifle team (1978, 1985 and 1987).

The OVC represents a bigger pond, but not exactly the ocean.

"Obviously, the level of competition is going to be significantly increased," SIUE chancellor Dr. Vaughn Vandegrift said. "Frankly, we expect to take our lumps for a while, more so in some sports than others, but that's all part of the transition.

"We really are a Division I school everywhere else. If you're going to be big-time Division I, you have to be prepared to succeed in it, and I think we will. I think people will hear from us."