Jim Engles was calling from the airport, because while his NJIT team's incredible victory over 17th-ranked Michigan certainly was big-time, its travel itinerary for the trip home to Newark was anything but.

A chartered flight with first-class seats? Not for the Highlanders. They had coach tickets and a connection in Indianapolis after stunning the Wolverines, but Engles certainly wasn't complaining about that.

He would save his one gripe for something much more important: How does NJIT, a university with a sterling academic reputation that has done everything the NCAA has asked since becoming a Division 1 school eight years ago, still not have a spot in a conference somewhere?

"We're not Notre Dame football, staying independent for a reason and making millions and millions," Engles said. "We're not that.

"These kids deserve to be in a conference. They deserve to have a championship to play for at the end of the season. We shouldn't be the only Division 1 basketball team at the independent level."



NJIT did have a spot, albiet an ill-fitting one geographically, in the Great West Conference, but that league folded in July 2013 when its other four remaining members found a different home. NJIT was left out.

It's been searching ever since, but for whatever reason, the leagues that would be the most logical fit -- the Northeast Conference, or the America East, or the MAAC -- have declined to give the Highlanders a spot.

There are 344 Division 1 programs in men's college basketball, and 343 of them are in a conference. How does the NCAA, all high and mighty in its supporting student athletes, let that happen?

Maybe this upset over Michigan, which ESPN likened to Chaminade shocking Virginia and Ralph Sampson more than 30 years ago, will change that. When was the last time an NEC team had a victory like that, over a ranked team in a hostile environment, with the Big Ten Network cameras documenting every play?

And Michigan only ended up on NJIT's schedule out of desperation. "We played them because we couldn't get on the schedule for Seton Hall and Rutgers this year," Engles said. When the rest of college basketball is just heating up, NJIT will play only two games after Feb. 16 because nobody else is looking for games that time of year.

That's life as the lone Division 1 independent. That's life at a Newark school known for its research and academics, but in the words of Michigan coach Jim Beilein, "a lot of people probably didn't know (NJIT) was Division 1."

He called the 72-70 loss for his Wolverines "humbling," but he has no idea. Humbling is a 51-game losing streak and a 1-30 record your first year as a head coach. Humbling is trying to recruit with a facility that looks like a small high school gym and with no shot at the NCAAs.

"We're trying to get into the America East or the Northeast (Conference), but I want to get in the Big Ten now. Open up a spot for us," Engles joked in Ann Arbor, using his moment in the spotlight as best he could. "It's great to experience this. My guys deserve it. They're smart kids, they work very hard, and anytime they get rewarded for their hard work, it's great to see."

Now, here's something else that will be great to see: NJIT in a conference next season.

Steve Politi may be reached at spoliti@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @StevePoliti. Find NJ.com on Facebook.