Quote from: Captain_Joe08 on February 24, 2024, 02:41:14 AMWhat killed Finlandia was being basically being in Michigan Tech's back yard and being on an island in the D3 landscape along with offering limited majors.
Iowa Wesleyan tried to make do in D3 but struggled to be even
remotely competitive in football before dropping back down to NAIA.
Stritch was a shocker....They had strong athletic programs when I was at WLC over a decade ago but the decline and then the pandemic finished it off.
Never got a good read on Silver Lake but again the Pandemic basically took that school out. They tried to make the jump back into the NAIA after being in the USCAA for years (former Lake Michigan Conference member btw).
Two other major factors that hurt Finlandia were:
a) they did not make recruting the Upper Peninsula high schools a priority. Concentrating on recruitment of players from Detroit and even out-of-state southern states was not helpful. Too much attrition occured each year due to difficulty in adjusting to the weather and culture if being so far north. Even though a great number of U.P. high schools are 8- man foitball programs, and although Finlandia would obviously never have been a power, they would have aleast been competitive inbtheir last league eventually, IMO and,
b) Recruiting coaching staff from Div I former players and, again, especially those from southern states such as Florida, etc, wasn't helpful. Why woukd guys who were used to larger programs and warm weather want to go to a northern state with snow and cold and stay fir an extended time? They didn't and that turnover was difficult as well.