SCRANTON — It seemed like a pipedream years ago when conversations about the possibility began. But Thursday morning it became a reality.
At a press conference, Lackawanna College athletics announced it received and accepted an invitation to become a member of the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference. That means Lackawanna will transition from the National Junior College Athletic Association to the NCAA Division II in the coming years.
Dr. Jill A. Murray, president of Lackawanna College, made the announcement at the Lackawanna College Student Union. Lackawanna Director of Athletics Erik Larson and PSAC Commissioner Steve Murray were also among those on hand.
Moving to NCAA Division II will allow Lackawanna to expand its two-year athletic programs into four-year programs, giving its student-athletes more opportunities to complete their bachelor’s degrees while competing at an elite level.
“The opportunity to have students for four years consistently is a real pleasure for us,” Dr. Murray said. “The turnover of students at the NJCAA level is difficult at times. You get them, you work with them, they’re in good shape and then they have to leave and we have to start over again. So this four-year extended model is terrific for us. And with the addition of our master’s degrees now, a student will have that fifth year of eligibility and can stay. It allows us to grow our undergraduate population and our graduate population.”
Larson added that the move is not just about athletics.
“It’s about enhancing the entire Lackawanna College experience for our students,” Larson said. “We are anticipating and planning for membership into the PSAC to boost our enrollment, boost the college community and community engagement in the region. Athletics is the catalyst, but I think the benefits, I think, will be felt college-wide.
“This has been years in the making.”
Talk about moving to NCAA Division II began in-house in late 2017, early 2018. The school hired a consultant who specializes in transferring colleges to Division II and Lackawanna started to formulate a plan.
Then, the COVID-19 pandemic hit and everything was put on hold until about two years ago when the plan was resurrected.
When the initial conversations began, Lackawanna reached out to the PSAC to inquire about joining the conference. At the time, however, the conference was full at 18 members.
Two things happened in the meantime. First, Lackawanna announced a merger with Peirce College in Philadelphia last August that takes effect July 1.
“Some of their programs are coming over. Their IT program, some of their health science programs and their master’s degrees now become ours as of next Tuesday,” Dr. Murray said. “That helps us have that package ready in a way that we would have had to start it ourselves from scratch. To go through all these levels of approvals, we don’t have to do that now.”
Lackawanna College football Head Coach Mark Duda speaks during the press conference in the Lackawanna College Student Union in downtown Scranton Thursday, June 26, 2025. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
Second, Mercyhurst University in Erie left the PSAC to move up to NCAA Division I last fall. That left the conference with an opening. The time was right to invite Lackawanna.
“We’re excited to get back to 18 and 16 football-playing schools,” Commissioner Murray said. “That’s very much an important issue to us: to eliminate bye dates. Also, Lackawanna brings stability to the northeast side of the state. We looked into their financials as any conference would. Lackawanna is in very good financial shape, which in this day and age to say that about an academic institution is very rare. Also, this is the 35th largest media market in the United States and that’s not a joke. That’s important for us.
“I think it also provides kids that are from Lackawanna, Luzerne and up into Pike County a little more of an option to attend a four-year and participate at Division II. I think that’s important for the state because there was a little bit of a gap in this corner. So basically now we have all four corners.”
For the 2025-26 season, Lackawanna will continue to play a junior college schedule. Beginning in 2026-27, it will transition to four-year competition.
“In order to apply for membership to the NCAA, you cannot file an application without a conference invitation,” Larson said. “So receiving the invitation from the PSAC is a huge step for us. It allows us to make the next step in order to apply for membership into the NCAA. The application time frame can be a minimum of two years or up to three years. A lot of that is depending on the criteria you meet pending the application. So in all likelihood, we could be looking at 2030 before we could be a full-fledged member of the NCAA and be eligible to compete for championships in the PSAC.”
During the transition, the PSAC will assist Lackawanna with scheduling.
“If the PSAC provides everybody in the league with a 10-game schedule, they’ll have a 10-game schedule. Five home, five away,” Commissioner Murray said. “Basketball, if they play everybody twice, they’ll play everybody in our Eastern Division twice. The only thing is for what we see as a two-year period, they will not have access to junior college or PSAC championships. Once they begin membership in Division II, they can be in our tournament. If they win the conference championship, the second-place team would go; they can’t get the automatic qualifier in the first three years. That’s an NCAA thing.”
Lackawanna is the third school nationally to transition from the NJCAA directly to NCAA Division II and the first to do so with a football program.
Falcons football coach Mark Duda is excited about the news.
“It certainly is an upgrade in many respects,” Duda said. “Our schedule will be more consistent and closer to home. The PSAC is an awesome football conference and has been for a long time. I think it’s great for the school, it’s certainly great for the football program and great for the kids, too. I think we might even have a situation where we get more local kids for the first time in a long time.”
Besides football, Lackawanna currently has teams in baseball, men’s and women’s basketball, men’s and women’s soccer, men’s and women’s wrestling, softball and women’s volleyball. But Larson said the plan during the transition is to bring back sports the school had previously, such as cross country, golf, tennis, as well as potentially adding sports offered in the PSAC. The conference has 11 men’s sports — baseball, basketball, cross country, football, golf, soccer, swimming, tennis, indoor and outdoor track and field, wrestling — and 12 women’s sports — basketball, cross country, field hockey, golf, lacrosse, soccer, softball, swimming, tennis, indoor and outdoor track and field and volleyball.
“There are facility improvement plans that are being established,” Larson said. “Once those things are put together and additional facilities are established, we’d like to add additional programs as we go along. It’s going to be a multi-year process and it’s not going to happen overnight.”
Founded in 1951 and headquartered in Lock Haven, the PSAC features 17 schools in Pennsylvania and West Virginia: Bloomsburg, California (Pa.), Clarion, East Stroudsburg University, Edinboro, Gannon University, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Kutztown University, Lock Haven, Mansfield, Millersville University, the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown, Seton Hill University, Shepherd University, Shippensburg University, Slippery Rock University and West Chester University.
Originally Published: June 26, 2025 at 10:01 AM EDT