PITTSBURGH — Saint Francis University was one of the Cinderella stories of the NCAA Tournament.

The Red Flash had a losing record but got hot at the right time to win the Northeast Conference Tournament championship and clinch the conference’s automatic bid into the Big Dance.

Then, in its First Four game, Saint Francis played valiantly but lost by two points to Alabama State due to a 90-foot baseball pass and last-second layup. It was a heartbreaker, but at least for about a week, the tiny school from Loretto, Pa., was one of the stories of the NCAA Tournament field.

Who knew that heartbreak would become even greater, considering it might be the last time the Red Flash will ever play in the NCAA Tournament, at least the big one that everyone follows.

The school announced Tuesday that it will reclassify to Division III starting in 2026-27, meaning next season will be the last time the Red Flash compete as a Division I program in all sports. The basketball teams have been a Division I fixture for quite some time, and while the men have only been to the NCAA Tournament twice, the women have been there 12 times.

Saint Francis will go from competing in the NEC to the Presidents’ Athletic Conference (PAC) against the likes of Chatham, Grove City, Washington & Jefferson, Geneva and Westminster, among others. It’s a major drop in competition and a major change for the school’s fan base and alumni.

"This was not an easy nor a quick decision for the Board of Trustees," stated Chairman and the Very Rev. Joseph Lehman, T.O.R., Ph.D. in a statement. "The governance associated with intercollegiate athletics has always been complicated and is only growing in complexity based on realities like the transfer portal, pay-for-play, and other shifts that move athletics away from love of the game.

“For that reason, as a Board, we aim to best provide resources and support to our student-athletes in this changing environment that aligns with our mission, Catholic institution, and our community's expectations."

I’ll summarize Lehman’s thoughts in one word: money.

St. Francis (N.Y.) and Hartford are two other schools that come to mind that have made similar moves, although St. Francis just said ‘heck with it’ and dropped sports altogether.

Make no mistake, though — there will be more to follow.

The cost of playing D-1 is skyrocketing, at least for the schools trying to do it right, and it won’t change any time soon.

It’s one thing if a school is a member of a Power Four conference because, financially, it is still viable. There are even a number of schools outside the Power Four and conferences like the Big East that have proven they will be able to figure out how to continue to compete at the highest level in the era of NIL/team payrolls and everything else.

And by moving from D-I to D-III, Saint Francis has prioritized its academics and the schools' financial well-being.

The move will represent a major savings in athletic scholarships, travel costs, some coaching costs, and, to a lesser extent, NIL. Athletics will now become a tool to recruit students — tuition-paying students — instead of the other way around, and teams will load up their rosters with warm bodies like we see at so many D-III schools.

A small Catholic school like Saint Francis, unless one of its alumni becomes Jed Clampett and decides to share all of his newfound wealth with the athletic department, just cannot compete. It isn’t anything the school has done wrong, it is just reality that schools increasingly are feeling the pressure to find new revenue streams and new ways to fund what has essentially become player payrolls.

Robert Morris also found this out to a lesser extent, and I am sure every mid- to low-major is wrestling with the same issues on different levels.

The Colonials haven’t even gotten done celebrating their incredible season, yet their two best players are already in the transfer portal and no doubt will get paid far more than Robert Morris’ collective could afford to pay them. The scary thing is that the athletic department did a great job of increasing the NIL pool for Andy Toole to use this year, and it is still not close to good enough to compete with the big schools.

“But Paul, what about the academics, student-athletes and the pursuit of a degree?”

I’m sorry, but give me a minute to clean up my desk. I just spit my water out because I was laughing so hard. None of that matters anymore, and the sooner you, I and everyone else embrace that, the sooner we will all begin to appreciate and enjoy college athletics again.

The harsh reality is players want to be paid, and they should be paid. Players want to be paid handsomely, and those who earn it should be. This is a model that some schools will figure out while others, like Saint Francis, punt on it and decide going to D-III is a much better and much more financially sensible option.

D-III schools don’t give out athletic scholarships, they don’t travel (for the most part) all over the place, and there is no real NIL to deal with. I mean, I suppose if Rik-N-Nik’s pizza in Ebensburg wants to hand out $25 coupons to future Red Flash athletes, that might give them a leg up. At the D-III level, student-athletes are — gasp — actually students first, athletes second.

Most D-III schools are high academic schools, and that fits with Saint Francis’s mission. Now, there is a lot less pressure on the school to raise millions and millions of dollars every year to try and compete at a level above what they are probably capable of.

The NCAA Tournament is a wonderful idea and one of the best events every year. But it is increasingly selling pipe dreams to smaller schools that don’t have the funding necessary to compete for players.

My guess is one of two things will happen over the next five to seven years: either there will be a lot fewer D-I schools competing in basketball as more schools like Saint Francis decide to drop down and out of the arm’s race — or there will come along a model similar to the FCS in football. The FCS teams still offer some scholarships and play against major conference teams but have limited scholarship numbers and fewer expenses.

It is a sad day for Saint Francis and its fans because, in essence, it got priced out of the world of D-I basketball (and FCS football).

But it also might be a warning that there comes a time when the cost of doing business is no longer viable for many schools.

We aren’t there quite yet, but we are definitely getting there, and the more it costs to field a team, the more likely it is that many D-I teams won’t survive.

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