North Alabama fires Bobby Champagne ahead of D-I move

According to ESPN’s Jeff Borzello, North Alabama has fired longtime head coach Bobby Champagne. The UNA Lions are a Division II program right now but will officially join the Division I Atlantic Sun Conference this off-season.

Champagne has been the Lions’ head coach since 2003, going to the Division II NCAA Tournament four times. Prior to his role at UNA, Champagne served as an assistant at UTEP, Louisiana, under Kelvin Sampson at Oklahoma and Washington State and under Lefty Driesell at Georgia State. He is a graduate of South Alabama.

North Alabama will fill a vacancy in the Atlantic Sun created by USC Upstate‘s departure to the Big South. Upstate will also go into a new conference with new personnel, as interim HC Kyle Perry and AD Julio Freire were let go earlier this month.