This season has been one of significance, both in terms of accolades and milestones for the University of Southern Indiana Athletics Program.

From the launch of the Archie’s Army reward app, which has rejuvenated the sports engagement program to the Arena sponsorship deal with Liberty Federal Credit Union, many aspects of this program have gone under significant change. However, one thing has remained constant at this program, the consistent determination and tenacity to aspire for excellence.

This past year, the university celebrated its 45th anniversary of reaching Division II status as an athletic program. This is a notable accolade, as next season, USI is on track to be officially recognized as a fully-transitioned Division I program.

However, it’s important to remember the accomplishments and stories of USI’s Division II days, but also as guidance for the coming years for the coming years and beyond. In Division II, USI won national championships in Mens Basketball (1995), Baseball (2010 and 2014) and Softball (2018). Additionally, USI won a staggering 268 NCAA Great Lakes Vally Conference Titles (regular season and tournament) between 1979 to 2022. Notably, in Mens Track and Field, USI won 70 individual GLVC championships, while the Womens team won 65.

Back in August, USI Athletics was awarded the Ohio Valley Conferences Institutional Achievement Award. This award recognized the university for having the highest percentage of student-athletes with a grade point average at or above 3.25 throughout the previous school year. Moreover, the USI mens basketball and softball teams were celebrated for their academic work respectively.

However, USI’s off the field excellence doesn’t end there. USI’s Archie’s Army, released its rewards app, which our lifestyle editor Katie Hurst covered in detail. This application allows USI Students and fans to engage with each other during games and earn points which can be redeemed for prizes such as keychains, hats, magnets, and pint glasses.

This promotional devices has directly given students and members of the Tri-State area additional incentives to attending games and a sense of accomplishment with the points system.

Additionally, the applications also had the added effect of growing the overall engagement and interest of the athletics program. As a whole, the presence of Archie’s Army has seen significant growth this year. In fact, the program features a list of over 200 members who have over 2,900 Archie’s Army reward points.

Each member of this list has attended at least 14.5 sporting events, with some having upwards of 50 events attended. These are just basic statistics that are available to the public, so take the information at face value, but from an outsider’s perspective, the program seems to be working. It could always be tweaked in the future, as a social media element could be added to even further grow engagement between the fans and the teams that they support.

Moving forward to October, the USI athletics program reached a unique milestone.

The university announced that the naming rights for the university’s arena had been purchased by Liberty Federal Credit Union for $10 million on Oct 31st, a deal set for the next 20 years. Liberty Federal Credit Union, an institution headquartered in Evansville, is committed to the success of USI’s athletic programs.

This deal was the first naming deal for the athletics program since the arena’s construction in 2019. It is believed that the deal could inspired a trend of naming rights deals for the athletic program’s swimming, baseball and softball facilities in the future.

USI Athletics and the University of Southern Indiana continue to look towards the future, but will always be mindful of its storied past, in an effort to remain on the cutting edge in the ever-changing challenge of competing in college athletics.