Oklahoma City University hoping to return to NCAA Division I

Friday, June 16th 2006, 2:57 pm

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ Oklahoma City University officials say today they hope to return the school to NCAA Division One status, more than two decades after the school dropped from Division One to the NAIA.

After releasing the results of a feasibility study about such a move, OCU President Tom McDaniel said it likely would be sometime in 2008 before the university was ready to apply for Division One membership, and that OCU would remain in the NAIA until that application was made.

Oklahoma City University previously competed in NCAA Division One through the 1984-85 school year.

For financial reasons, OCU left the NCAA in 1985 and joined the NAIA. Since then, OCU has enjoyed great success, winning 28 NAIA team championships.

McDaniel says a move to Division One would be expensive financially but that he was confident OCU would be able to obtain the funding.