How will Mercyhurst University's decision to go Division I impact Gannon and Edinboro?

Google Maps lists 3.1 miles as the distance between the Gannon and Mercyhurst University campuses.

That didn’t change April 4, when Mercyhurst officials announced the school’s decision to fully transition from Division II sports to Division I.

Starting this fall, the Lakers’ NCAA-sanctioned programs will compete in the Northeast Conference. They’ll be one of nine full-time members in the league, which was founded as the ECAC Metro Conference in 1981.

The league, based in Somerset, New Jersey, changed its name to the Northeast Conference (NEC) in 1988.

However, what did change upon Mercyhurst’s announcement was the consistent athletic schedule between the Lakers and Golden Knights. Barring some anomalous scheduling, more than a half century of play will cease between the soon-to-be former PSAC West Division rivals come the end of the NCAA’s current spring sports season.

Gannon athletic director Lisa Goddard McGuirk made that clear in comments to the Erie Times-News the day after Mercyhurst’s announcement.

“We truly believe Division II athletics provide us the best student-athlete experience,” she said. “We have no plans to change that.”

Edinboro University also will experience the ripple effect of Mercyhurst’s decision.

The Fighting Scots, like Gannon, will remain a PSAC West member. But they could gain a geographic rival when it comes to men’s wrestling.

Mercyhurst will switch to the same Division I status in that sport, which Edinboro has competed at since 1986.

Likely done, though, are the schools’ athletic meetings off the mat.

The Times-News sought comment from Edinboro athletic director Katherine Robbins about Mercyhurst’s announcement, but messages to her weren’t returned.

More: How Mercyhurst athletic programs will make the jump to Division I, Northeast Conference

Edinboro coaches' reactions

Matt Hill recently completed his sixth season as Edinboro’s wrestling coach. It’s the same program he competed for as a 2007 graduate.

Mercyhurst’s announcement surprised Hill. Although initially pleased that Pennsylvania will have another Division I program, and even more so one the Scots annually could face, he expressed a level of caution about its decision.

“I hope their administrators and leadership have a good game plan,” Hill said.

While Edinboro-Mercyhurst wrestling duals are now possible, football and basketball games between them are now extreme longshots.

Edinboro football coach Jake Nulph was cognizant of a talent gap that would exist if the NEC Lakers faced the PSAC Scots. That’s because his resume has connections to western Pennsylvania’s three current NEC schools.

Nulph played and coached for Robert Morris University, served multiple seasons on the coaching staff for St. Francis University and was Duquesne University’s special teams coordinator for one season.

Nulph said he has no issue with Edinboro recruiting the region’s same talent as Mercyhurst. He reasoned some of those who don’t end up with the Lakers, who will compete at the NCAA’s FCS level, would have the Division II Scots as a fallback.

“If you look at it on paper,” Nulph said, “we should be looking at the same players. We could steal a couple of them because their recruiting base has to go to the next tier.”

Edinboro’s 2023-24 men’s basketball season was Justin Jennings’ first as its coach. He graduated from Penn State Behrend, where he played for the Lions in the mid-2000s.

Jennings was familiar with Gary Manchel, who will be Mercyhurst’s coach for its first season of Division I action, long before last season.

“I was still a player at Behrend when Gary started at Mercyhurst,” Jennings said. “We (the Lions) used to go over there and play pickup games with their guys, so I knew him casually.

“I obviously got to know him a lot better these last 12 months.”

Jennings said he’d heard rumblings Mercyhurst contemplated the move it made. It was the seemingly abruptness of it that staggered him.

Jennings said the Lakers’ decision will impact the players being recruited more than him.

“It will take away one Division II option for the local kids,” he said. “But Gary also recruited a lot of guys from outside the area, so from a recruiting standpoint I don’t think it’ll affect us that much.”

Gannon coaches' reactions

Mercyhurst’s announcement came a week after the Gannon men’s and women’s basketball teams competed in the national quarterfinals of their respective Division II tournaments.

It also happened the same day Easton Bazzoli was introduced as the Knights’ next men’s basketball coach. Bazzoli was an assistant to Jordan Fee, who resigned after one season.

While Gannon will have a new men’s coach next season, Cleve Wright returns for a sixth straight season in his second stint in charge of its women’s team.

Wright spoke with the Times-News by phone the day after Mercyhurst’s announcement. He was in Cleveland, where NCAA coaches and personnel from around the country gathered for the Final Four of the Division I women’s basketball tournament.

Wright didn’t believe the Lakers’ decision will significantly impact Gannon’s future fortunes in that sport.

“Yes, we were both Division II schools in Erie,” Wright said, “but Gannon is different than Mercyhurst. That’s not a negative or a positive. We’re just different universities.”

Erik Raeburn, Gannon’s football coach, had no heads-up on Mercyhurst’s move. While he lamented the likely end of Niagara Cup football games between the schools, finding an 11th hour replacement for Mercyhurst on the Knights’ 2024 schedule was his immediate concern.

Gannon was to host the Lakers on Oct. 19.

“That’s the only (negative) for now,” Raeburn said. “We’ll put the feelers out and hopefully find someone who has an open date.”

As for recruiting, Raeburn indicated Mercyhurst’s decision won’t affect how the Knights recruit.

That vital aspect of the job will remain a forever challenge.

“It’s hard to recruit good players no matter where you’re at,” Raeburn said. “Talk to coaches at Ohio State, and they’ll also tell you it’s hard to get them. Same as Michigan and same as Georgia.”

Moving on from Mercyhurst

McGuirk mentioned another reason Gannon will stand pat when it comes to its NCAA affiliation level.

It was the 1995-96 academic year when the PSAC began awarding the Dixon Cup to a member school that accumulated the most points based on regular season records and playoffs for all collective athletic programs.

The trophy was named in honor of the late Fitz Eugene Dixon Jr., who died in 2006 at age 82. He was the original board chairman (1983-2000) for Pennsylvania’s State System of Higher Education.

McGuirk, on behalf of the Knights’ entire athletic staff, was presented the Dixon Cup in 2022 and 2023.

Gannon, with an overall average of 13.54 points, led the PSAC’s standings at the conclusion of the conference's winter sports season. East Stroudsburg University was second at 12.42.

Should the Knights maintain first place by the end of the current spring sports season, they’d be the first school to win three in a row since Shippensburg University (2002-05).

Mercyhurst or no Mercyhurst, such consistent results are why Gannon plans to stay in its Division II lane.

“It was always great to have that local competition which draws interest from the fans and community,” McGuirk said. “Even though Mercyhurst is leaving the PSAC, we’re still fortunate to have another (Edinboro) in our county. Other rivals in the PSAC will emerge.”

More: How Erin Vandiver plans to build Gannon into a national women's wrestling power

Contact Mike Copper at mcopper@timesnews.com. Follow him on X @ETNcopper.

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Gannon, Edinboro athletic personnel react to Mercyhurst's move to D-I