Will Mercyhurst sports fit in with other Northeast Conference teams? What key stats say
The question begged itself 10 years ago.
Why, Joe Spano wondered, were Mercyhurst University’s athletic programs competing in NCAA Division II? Many schools that “looked like” Mercyhurst, the then-Laker baseball coach reasoned, competed in Division I.
A decade after a group of Mercyhurst coaches and administrators posed the above question, Spano — now the university’s director of athletics — announced plans to jump from D-II to D-I, leaving the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference for the Northeast Conference.
What makes Mercyhurst positioned to make such a move? Based on several key metrics, the university is more like its new NEC peers than those from the PSAC.
Mercyhurst spends like NEC schools
According to U.S. Department of Education data from 2022, Mercyhurst’s athletic expenses totaled approximately $16.6 million.
The eight other schools that will make up the NEC in 2024-25 spent an average of $17.8 million on athletics. The PSAC’s 17 other schools, however, spent an average of $7.5 million on athletics.
Those figures include an average of $3.5 million spent by NEC schools on football, whereas PSAC schools averaged $1.2 million spent on football. Mercyhurst spent $2.51 million.
NEC schools also pay their coaches more.
Head coaches of varsity male NEC teams were paid $84,587 on average and head coaches of female teams made $65,989. PSAC head coaches made $65,929 and $53,710, respectively, on average.
Mercyhurst paid head coaches of male teams an average of $50,914 and those of female teams $36,190. Those figures were less than every PSAC school except Shepherd and Pitt-Johnstown, but they didn’t lag far behind NEC members Saint Francis ($57,772; $42,037) and Le Moyne ($53,951; $50,473).
Mercyhurst's staff of 54 assistant coaches, 17 of which work full time, resemble an NEC athletic department, which on average employs 17 full time and 48 total assistants. PSAC schools employ, on average, eight full time and 35 total assistants.
Mercyhurst's size resembles NEC schools
The PSAC’s 17 schools have an average population of 4,027 students. NEC schools, meanwhile, average 2,726 students.
Mercyhurst has 2,246.
The conferences are shockingly similar in terms of student-athlete population: NEC schools enroll an average of 544 student-athletes and PSAC schools average 540. That means, like Mercyhurst and its 670 student-athletes, a higher percentage of students at NEC schools participate in athletics.
New NEC members catching up
NEC commissioner Noreen Morris insisted during her recent trip to Mercyhurst that the school’s athletic programs can and will thrive in D-I.
“It’s really important to us that we have a school that aligns with where we see athletics, how it plays into the student-athlete experience, and that it’s part of the educational experience,” Morris said. “When we looked under the cover, (Mercyhurst) fit that connection really well with the (NEC).”
The 2023-24 academic year is the last in the NEC for Merrimack and Sacred Heart. They’ll be replaced by Mercyhurst and Chicago State to keep NEC membership at nine schools.
Also new to the NEC are Stonehill and Le Moyne, which joined in 2022 and 2023, respectively. Stonehill resembles Mercyhurst in key categories: It has 2,438 students and 678 student-athletes, and it spent $12.2 million on athletics in 2022, including $1.8 million on football.
Le Moyne’s athletic budget lagged at $8.5 million, but it only had 429 student-athletes and no football team. Chicago State, which services just 260 student-athletes without football, spent $8.3 million.
Spending money, however, doesn't win games. Neither does having more students than the opponent.
Stonehill and Le Moyne have shown that immediate success in D-I is possible. Can Mercyhurst follow a similar path?
“Just like Division II, you’re selling an experience,” Mercyhurst football coach Ryan Riemedio said. “I think if we can continue to let (recruits) know what kind of academics they’re going to receive here at Mercyhurst, who we’re going to be playing and things like that, I think that’s really the excitement that comes along with it.”
Contact Jeff Uveino at juveino@gannett.com. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, @realjuveino.
This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Mercyhurst's athletic budget, size match up with other NEC teams
