ATLANTA (July 17, 2025) – As part of Shawnee State’s reclassification to NCAA Division II and membership in the Mountain East Conference, Collegiate Consulting completed a comprehensive Division II Feasibility Study for Shawnee State University. The 115-page study was completed in February 2025. Shawnee State will begin reclassification in the 2026-27 athletic year.
Collegiate Consulting’s analysis compared Shawnee State’s intercollegiate athletic program to member-institutions in the MEC, reviewing current members, sports sponsorship, athletic budgets, operating budgets, competitiveness, coaching staff and salary, travel, and protocol to join.
Shawnee State is currently a member of the River States Conference in the NAIA and sponsors twenty-one varsity programs. Over the past five years athletics has been a consistent top 80 NAIA Learfield Director’s Cup institution. The institution, which is in Portsmouth, Ohio, has a total student population of 3,300 students.
The institution currently spends $3.18 million to support athletics. Collegiate Consulting provided an assessment; comparison of the newly instituted expedited DII membership process (two years with Oct. 1 application) and development of a reclassification pro-forma to support a successful move to DII and the MEC.
Collegiate Consulting managing director Russell Wright stated, “We were thrilled to have worked with President Braun, Gerald (Cadogan – AD) and their team to support Shawnee State’s invitation to the MEC and pending application to Division II.”
Collegiate Consulting has completed 40+ NCAA Division II Feasibility Studies for NAIA, DIII, Canadian and NJCAA institutions since the firm’s inception, with Shawnee State to become the 22nd program to move forward with DII reclassification.