As the marquee program at St. Vincent College, men's basketball will be the sport most affected by the school's decision to move to NCAA Division III.

The Bearcats, who will join the Presidents' Athletic Conference as a provisional member in 2006-07, will be hard-pressed to maintain their national profile in Division III.

Division III programs aren't allowed to offer athletic scholarships. The Bearcats were among the elite for many years in NAIA Division II, which permits athletic grants.

St. Vincent won't begin to compete for PAC championships or participate in Division II playoffs until 2010-11, when it no longer has any players with an athletic scholarship.

"It's a good move for St. Vincent," St. Vincent coach D.P. Harris said. "For the men's basketball program, it's a big change. Most people would bail out. I'm not going to do that. I'm staying. I made a commitment to St. Vincent."

Harris was concerned that some of the current players might transfer because St. Vincent basketball is changing direction.

"They made a commitment to me, I made a commitment to them," he said. "They're staying."

St. Vincent, which will remain a member of the American Mideast Conference this season, returns starters 6-foot-11 Jeff Mallory and 6-4 Ian McCollough from a 25-5 team that reached the Sweet 16 of the national tournament for the second consecutive year.

"We have every intention of going back to the tournament," said Harris, who is 52-12 in two seasons as head coach. He was an assistant the previous six years under Bernie Matthews. "We've been to the national tournament six times."

St. Vincent will be following a similar path taken by Waynesburg and Westminster, neither of whom has enjoyed the same success in the PAC as they did in NAIA Division II.

"Maybe I'm naive, but I really believe I can win a Division III national championship," Harris said. "Kids want to go where they can win, and it's our job to convince them to come to St. Vincent because we're going to play for championships."

Before making the move to Division III, St. Vincent officials explored the possibility of joining the Division I Northeast Conference that includes Robert Morris and St. Francis, Pa. But the NEC voted not to expand, eliminating that option.

"I was devastated to hear we didn't get into the Northeast Conference," Harris said. "The NEC didn't know what they missed."

The switch to Division III will change Harris' recruiting philosophy.

"We're not going to be able to go after the same kind of player we could get before," he said. "We're going to take a better look at local players than we did in the past."

In past years, Harris spent much of his summer looking for players at camps in places such as Las Vegas, Chicago and Detroit.

"Not this summer," he said. "We're trying to get the word out to coaches and players that St. Vincent is making a change and will be looking at different players. I don't know enough about Division III yet. I'm still trying to figure it out.

"We're not going into this blind."

To better understand Division III basketball, Harris plans to send an assistant coach to scout each PAC team once or twice this season.

"We're going into the PAC to be successful," he said. "I'm still going to come into my office each morning at 6 a.m. I expect to see my assistants there. I'm not changing. A big part of this is how the men's basketball program accepts Division III and accepts the challenge.

"We want to change the perception of Division III basketball in the district."

Star running back out

Edinboro's Andre Burke, who rushed for a school-record 1,713 yards and 19 touchdowns last season as a junior, has been suspended from school after being charged with distribution of drugs. Burke, a graduate of Wilkinsburg High School, isn't expected to return to Edinboro in the fall. ... Edinboro, which was 9-3 and reached the second round of the NCAA Division II playoffs last year, is ranked 8th in Street & Smith's and 18th in Lindy's preseason polls. Offensive tackle Greg Bzorek (6-6, 318), a senior from Knoch, is first-team All-American in both publications.