New College of Florida approved to join NAIA athletic association, will compete in 2024-25

Just six months after launching an athletics department, New College of Florida was approved to join the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics in a unanimous recommendation to the NAIA's Council of Presidents on Monday.

The New College of Florida Mighty Banyans will compete in the Sun Conference of the NAIA starting July 1, 2024, with colleges such as Ave Maria University, College of Coastal Georgia, Keiser University and Savannah College of Art and Design. The college was among five selected to join the NAIA on Monday, along with Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College, Baptist Bible College, Defiance College and Spartanburg Methodist College.

While the NAIA's announcement said New College would have 12 sports for its inaugural season, the college's website lists six: baseball, softball, men’s and women's basketball, and men’s and women’s soccer. By the time the college joins the NAIA in July, the athletics department aims to add six more sports: men's and women's golf, men's and women's lacrosse, beach volleyball and indoor volleyball, the college's athletic director Mariano Jimenez said.

New College, which has undergone a conservative overhaul spearheaded by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to turn the school into a "classical" liberal arts college akin to the conservative, Christian Hillsdale College in Michigan, hurried to recruit athletes in an effort to boost enrollment, but to the detriment of the college's academic standing and national ranking.

This year, the college fell 24 spots in U.S. News and World Report's ranking of national liberal arts colleges, and one-third of the newest class of students were athletes who largely performed worse on standardized testing and grade point average. Of the more than 100 athletes recruited to the school, about 70 were recruited to play baseball.

Athletic Director Jimenez on the NAIA's impact on New College

Jimenez said many schools that apply to the NAIA are first considered for associate membership before being given full membership. But New College impressed the membership committee, he said, given the pace at which the program is being built.

"They were not expecting us to be as prepared as we were, and I really think that speaks to President Corcoran's leadership," Jimenez said, referring to New College Interim President Richard Corcoran. "I really think it speaks to the amazing people that are on campus, that are here, the people that we brought in and added on. They were blown away by our vision for athletics here and our vision for being the number one liberal arts college in the country."

The NAIA is a national athletic association made up largely of small colleges that compete in 16 sports and 28 annual championships. Florida colleges that compete in the NAIA include Warner University, Southeastern University and Keiser University.

Being an NAIA member gives the program more legitimacy and helps attract more student-athletes to New College, he said. The NAIA membership also helps the program with scheduling, since the Sun Conference sets its own schedules. As of this year, New College plays most of its games on the road since the athletic department had to schedule games with colleges on its own.

New College also hopes to develop more on-campus athletic facilities to accommodate more teams and programs, Jimenez said. While there weren't details immediately available, he said the program now must go to Florida's Board of Governors and the college's Board of Trustees to seek facilities.

The campus of New College has minimal athletic facilities as of the fall semester, with the teams traveling off-campus to practice at IMG Academy or other nearby complexes. Before the creation of an athletic department, the college only had intramural sports such as powerlifting, sailing, swimming, tennis, basketball and soccer.

Jimenez said he understood there were divisions in the New College community about the addition of athletics and the new leadership as a whole. However, he hoped people would put aside political disagreements to rally around the students and the student-athletes.

"A lot of people were apprehensive and I totally understand that," he said. "I'm hoping that people will give this, will give me, will give us collectively a chance so we can rally around something together and build a community."

Opposition to New College in NAIA

Even prior to its acceptance, the college advertised itself to prospective students and athletes as a member of the NAIA, a fact that many opponents to the changes at New College pointed out in their vocal opposition to the college's NAIA application. More than 800 people signed a change.org petition asking the NAIA to deny the college's application, given the political circumstances surrounding the addition of athletics at the school.

"We, the undersigned, do not oppose adding intercollegiate sports at New College..." the petition's open letter read. "We are writing because adding sports to New College in 2023 has come as part of a political effort to destroy a place that, since 1960, has been a center for freethinking scholarship and diverse people for generations and in recent years a haven for LGBTQ+ students in Florida."

Several New College athletic teams have already competed in games against NAIA opponents this season.

Prior to the NAIA vote Monday, New College's basketball team announced its schedule on Sept. 29, which included NAIA opponents with one exhibition game against Florida Gulf Coast University, which is an NCAA Division 1 program.

Mike Sanderson, a New College alumnus active in the opposition to the college's new DeSantis-appointed leadership, submitted a report to the NAIA titled "Report on the Misuse of NAIA Membership for Political Payback" detailing "unethical statements and actions of David Hoag of the Sun Conference regarding potential membership of New College of Florida."

In the report, Sanderson asked the NAIA to account for actions taken by New College's DeSantis-appointed leadership, to reject the school's application and to aid student-athletes who were "misled" by New College and those who recruited them to the school.

This is a developing story, check back for updates.

Follow Herald-Tribune Education Reporter Steven Walker on Twitter at @swalker_7. He can be reached at sbwalker@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: New College of Florida officially joins NAIA athletic association