As first reported by FootballScoop.com, the Trinity International University football program has come to an end. The school has decided to move to online classes and move away from traditional classes. TIU becomes the second NAIA program this season to drop from last year’s list of football playing schools.
Unless I’m stupid, and the probability is high, TIU never came out and said their athletic programs are shutting down at the end of this year. The closest I or the guys at the scoop have found is this blurb from the student FAQ regarding the changes at the school.
I’m a student on an athletic scholarship at Trinity. If I decide to stay on at the school through TIU Online, will my scholarship continue?
If you are a student-athlete who decides to stay enrolled online at Trinity, the Financial Aid Office will work with you to maintain similar out-of-pocket expenses for tuition and fees as you previously had as a student-athlete living on campus. The Financial Aid team will have to work with student-athletes on a case-by-case basis, but you will not have to pay more out-of-pocket to finish out your degree online.
REIMAGINING THE FUTURE – TIU Website.
It seems like a rather odd way to inform the public that you are no longer going to have a football program. The other issue I have is this is not a decision that happened overnight. It’s not like TIU woke up a week ago and said, “Yep, we’re going online with our classes.
So it seems rather disingenuous to hire Mel Mills as your football coach on January 13th. Again, this switch to online didn’t happen overnight and it also didn’t happen in the last month either. Hopefully Coach Mills and all of the student athletes land on their feet soon.
I hate to see a football program leave the NAIA. People forget this program started in 1989 with Lezlie Frazier as their head coach. YES. . .that Lezlie Frazier. After Frazier, Andy Lambert took over the program and kept TIU relevant in a competitive Mid States Football Association. Derek DeWitt took over the program to go 8-3 in 2004 to make the NAIA Championship Series for the second time in school history. That proved to be the last time the Trojans were above .500.
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