By Neil Schmidt
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Dave Bezold talks with reporters Thursday after being named NKU's men's basketball coach. He has been an assistant coach under Ken Shields. The Cincinnati Enquirer/ERNEST COLEMAN

HIGHLAND HEIGHTS - The last time Northern Kentucky University named a men's basketball coach, it was a middling commuter school with a bare-bones athletic budget.

The successful 16-year run of retiring coach Ken Shields and the university's unimpeded growth lent a different light to Dave Bezold's appointment Thursday.

With funding nearly secured for a proposed $53 million arena, the Norse now are freely addressing a long-rumored climb to the NCAA Division I level.

"This campus has dreamed big dreams over the last few years, and we're going to do it with athletics also," said James Votruba, NKU's president.

"This is my seventh year, and this is the first time I've said to intercollegiate athletics and its leadership, 'I want you to prepare to go to Division I. We're going to do it.' "

DIV. I BLUEPRINT

• Schools must sponsor at least 14 sports. NKU has 13. • Schools must maintain a minimum scholarship total - roughly 80, depending on the breakdown of sports. NKU has the equivalent of 69 scholarships; it would need an extra $130,000 to $140,000 in grants to reach 80. • Schools moving to Division I have a four-year provisional period in which they're ineligible for postseason competition. Currently, schools are required to wait an additional two years before any teams can play in the postseason, plus six more years (for a total of 12 years) for men's basketball. But this week the NCAA Management Council voted to eliminate those additional years past the four-year provisional period. That vote must be approved by the NCAA's board of directors in June, but no resistance is expected there. • James Votruba, NKU's president, estimates it will take an additional $2 million to $3 million for the school to upgrade to Division I.

It's a jump the school has mulled for more than 25 years. Division I is the promised land of the nation's largest and most visible institutions, SportsCenter highlights, March Madness and merchandising millions.

The university has succeeded at the smaller Division II level, and a climb to Division I could garner greater prestige, national exposure and increased enrollment. It would put it on the same playing field as regional brethren Xavier, Cincinnati and Miami.

"We can be quite happy if we choose to stay in Division II and compete for championships," Bezold said. "But there's a stigma attached when you're Division II. ... Division I isn't so much about athletics as what it does for the visibility of the school as a whole."

NKU has an enrollment of 14,285 and is at least as large as many Division I schools. It has 34,000 alumni, 85 percent of whom live in Greater Cincinnati.

In the past decade, the Norse have won a women's basketball national championship, reached the national finals in men's basketball (twice) and women's soccer, and reached the national semifinals in volleyball. In the past five years, its annual athletic spending has increased from $1.8 million - then last in the Great Lakes Valley Conference - to a $2.7 million figure that's in the league's top half.

The school has seemingly outgrown 32-year-old Regents Hall, its 1,685-seat basketball arena. Its new building would seat 8,000 to 10,000 fans, also filling the void in Northern Kentucky for a large facility that could host concerts, high school championships and graduations.

Funding is on hold until the state's budget is approved, though Votruba said he thinks approval will come soon if not this spring.

NKU administrators say a climb to Division I wouldn't happen without a new arena. Yet if they get it, that facility would all but demand a corresponding climb in divisions.

"Once you have the arena, it's unrealistic to think you can support it with a Division II program," athletic director Jane Meier said. "There are economic issues tied to it. And I honestly believe our university, our area, is ready for us to make a leap."

NKU isn't alone in coveting the limelight. There were only 193 D-I members in 1969, but the ranks swelled to 257 in '79, 293 in '89 and 326 this school year.

The NCAA began stiffening requirements for moving up, particularly in lengthening the time schools must wait before being eligible for men's basketball postseason play. Yet NKU got good news this week when the NCAA Management Council voted to cut that provisional period for men's basketball from 12 years down to four years.

"After the NCAA signed its billion-dollar contract with CBS (for the men's basketball tournament), so many schools jumped on the bandwagon to go D-I," said Scott Eaton, NKU's associate athletic director. "It's good that they've revisited that and will not penalize schools that are just making the move for sound reasons, rather than for the CBS contract."

Most schools begin their transition with an "exploratory" year, then start their four-year provisional period.

E-mail nschmidt@enquirer.com