MBB: Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference

Started by N, March 01, 2005, 04:11:19 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 3 Guests are viewing this topic.

Dave 'd-mac' McHugh

Host of Hoopsville. USBWA Executive Board member. Broadcast Director for D3sports.com. Broadcaster for NCAA.com & several colleges. PA Announcer for Gophers & Brigade. Follow me on Twitter: @davemchugh or @d3hoopsville.

SportsFanBob

Man..... Illinois Tech coming behind from double digits without big man Max Hisatake. Excited to see how play from big man Rico and Jake D can spark the Hawks against the tough 3-2 zone of MSOE. I know I'll be there.

My prediction is IIT comes up big, and CUW wins easily.

Quote from: Ryan Stoppable on February 21, 2019, 11:46:05 AM
NACC Tournament First Round
#6 Edgewood 70
#3 Aurora 73

#5 Rockford 68
#4 Illinois Tech 75

So the semifinals on Saturday will pit CUW vs. Aurora at 3:30pm, followed by MSOE hosting IIT at 5:45.
D3 Sports Fan and Student-Athlete advocate

2007-2008 Intramural Ice Hockey Champ
2011-2012 NACC Fantasy Champ
2014-2015 Volunteer HS Coach (Hinsdale Central)

SportsFanBob

Big Upset by Aurora vs CUW.....

Loved watching both games....

Disappointed in MSOEs fan base for a home game.... Lots of parent support but very uninspired students who just wanted to go study for their math quiz. IIT fans made a big drive to Milwaukee and shook the gym. Making it basically a home game for the Hawks.

Shoutout Max Hisatake, Calvin Schmitz and Ahmad Muhammad for the Hawks in huge games.

See you tomorrow, where the stakes are a tourney bid.
D3 Sports Fan and Student-Athlete advocate

2007-2008 Intramural Ice Hockey Champ
2011-2012 NACC Fantasy Champ
2014-2015 Volunteer HS Coach (Hinsdale Central)

Greek Tragedy

So is the NACC going to play nice with Benedictine or make them jump through a bunch of hoops? How about the NCAA for that matter.
Pointers
Breed of a Champion
2004, 2005, 2010 and 2015 National Champions

Fantasy Leagues Commissioner

TGHIJGSTO!!!

Dave 'd-mac' McHugh

Quote from: Greek Tragedy on March 19, 2019, 11:45:34 AM
So is the NACC going to play nice with Benedictine or make them jump through a bunch of hoops? How about the NCAA for that matter.

It is all done at this point. Benedictine is a full time DIII member. The NCAA is not making them jump through any hoops as they didn't actually leave. The conference limited awards and post-season play this year, but otherwise they are a full member moving forward.
Host of Hoopsville. USBWA Executive Board member. Broadcast Director for D3sports.com. Broadcaster for NCAA.com & several colleges. PA Announcer for Gophers & Brigade. Follow me on Twitter: @davemchugh or @d3hoopsville.

RFMichigan

By the way, Concordia - Chicago hired a new men's basketball coach. Steve Kollar, formerly the coach at Blackburn.

gbpuckfan

SNC leaving the Midwest conference:


St. Norbert Athletics to Join Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference

From Asst. AD/Athletics Communications, April 3, 2019 |
by Dan Lukes, dan.lukes@snc.edu, (920) 403-4077

DE PERE - St. Norbert College's intercollegiate athletics program will join the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference, the conference announced today. The Green Knights will compete in the NACC beginning in the 2020-21 school year.

"Extensive study of our athletic department and the quality of academic experience for our student-athletes led us to explore Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference membership," St. Norbert College President Brian Bruess said. "Our student-athletes will be spending significantly less time away from campus allowing for a more integrated student experience."

"St. Norbert College is a fine academic institution with a strong record of athletic success and a deep commitment to student achievement," said Dr. Scott Flanagan, Edgewood College president and President of the NACC's Executive Committee. "Those reasons, along with their location near our current geographical area, make St. Norbert an exceptional fit for the NACC. We are excited to welcome St. Norbert to the conference."

The NACC, of which St. Norbert was already an affiliate member for men’s volleyball, consists of 13 schools in Wisconsin and Illinois. Wisconsin members include Alverno College, Milwaukee School of Engineering and Wisconsin Lutheran College (all of Milwaukee), Concordia University Wisconsin (Mequon), Edgewood College (Madison), Lakeland University (Plymouth) and Marian University (Fond du Lac). Illinois members include Concordia University Chicago and Dominican University (both of River Forest), Aurora University (Aurora), Benedictine University (Lisle), Illinois Institute of Technology (Chicago) and Rockford University (Rockford). St. Norbert is already partners in the Northern Collegiate Hockey Association with MSOE, Concordia Wisconsin, Marian and Aurora.

"We are very pleased to have St. Norbert College join the NACC as our 14th full-time member," said NACC Commissioner Dr. G. Steven Larson. "St. Norbert brings a commitment to both academics and athletics that mirrors the core values of the NACC. They will be a strong partner as we continue to grow into our expanded geographic footprint."

"A vibrant and competitive program will enhance our student-athletes' overall experience," St. Norbert athletics director Tim Bald said. "With significantly less travel, our student-athletes will have more occasions to engage with our faculty and the community of St. Norbert College."

The move to the NACC will end membership in the Midwest Conference, which has nine other members located in Wisconsin (Lawrence University, Ripon College and Beloit College), Illinois (Lake Forest College, Knox College, Monmouth College and Illinois College) and Iowa (Cornell College and Grinnell College). The Green Knights won 121 Midwest Conference championships in 14 different sports while appearing in 66 NCAA Division III Tournaments after joining the league full-time in 1983. St. Norbert also won 19 Midwest Conference All-Sports Trophies - 15 for women and four for men - despite not fielding men’s and women’s swimming until 2018-19.

"We will miss our many rivalries and relationships built over nearly four decades as a Midwest Conference member and aim to maintain many as non-conference competition in the future," Bruess said. "We are looking forward to growing our existing relationships with NACC members."

"Our reduced travel in a smaller geographic footprint will be less strenuous on our student-athletes, coaching staff and support staff," Bald said. "We are still aligned with institutions of similar academic excellence and missions, while easing demands on schedules and budgets."

St. Norbert will reacquaint itself with long-running series against NACC schools dating prior to World War II. The Green Knights began men’s basketball series with Concordia Wisconsin in 1924-25, with Lakeland in 1932-33 and with MSOE in 1933-34.

St. Norbert has a 23-sport athletics program, with 19 of those competing in every championship the NACC sponsors. Men's NACC champions are sponsored in baseball, basketball, cross country, football, golf, soccer, tennis, track and field (indoor and outdoor) and volleyball. Women's NACC champions are sponsored in basketball, cross country, golf, soccer, softball, tennis, track and field (indoor and outdoor) and volleyball.
St. Norbert College Green Knights
NCAA D3 Hockey National Champions 2008, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2018
Midwest Conf. football champs: 85, 87, 88, 89, 99, 00, 01, 02, 03, 04, 06, 07, 10, 12, 13, 15, 18

Just Bill

14 women's programs and 13 men's programs is getting pretty crowded. Scheduling should be interesting.
"That seems silly and pointless..." - Hoops Fan

The first and still most accurate description of the D3 Championship BeltTM thread.

RFMichigan

#3128
I'm not sure how good the Midwest Conference is in basketball from top to bottom, but the NACC is adding a school that has won their league eight times out of the last 10 and over the same time period has won at least half of their conference's football championships, plus 9 out of the last 10 seasons have finished either first or second in their division in baseball. (Sorry - these are all men's sports.) This is a MAJOR deal for men's sports in the NACC. If I'm a coach in almost any men's sport in the NACC I'm not sure I'm all that excited to see St. Norbert added to the conference, especially if I'm at a program that has a legitimate chance to win the conference in basketball or football from year to year. St. Norbert will now be a major hurdle in getting to the NCAA tournaments.

From an outsider's viewpoint and from St. Norbert's perspective, I guess I can see the reasoning for entering the NACC. Although it may seem to be a lateral move strictly as far as athletic competition, as someone said in another post the travel isn't as long as some of the trips they take in the Midwest Conference and it might get you into the Chicago and Milwaukee markets more readily. I'd love to hear some other thoughts from other posters "in the know".

judgetrainer

SNC will be an interesting challenge in the NACC, I think. They have routinely been at the top of the heap of the Midwest Conference for football, men's and women's basketball, baseball, women's volleyball, softball.

I am not well acquainted with NACC (I'm a Lawrence alum from a LONG time ago) but I really do think SNC will be very competitive. It is a loss for the Midwest.

Gregory Sager

Quote from: RFMichigan on April 03, 2019, 04:04:57 PM
I'm not sure how good the Midwest Conference is in basketball from top to bottom, but the NACC is adding a school that has won their league eight times out of the last 10 and over the same time period has won at least half of their conference's football championships, plus 9 out of the last 10 seasons have finished either first or second in their division in baseball. (Sorry - these are all men's sports.) This is a MAJOR deal for men's sports in the NACC. If I'm a coach in almost any men's sport in the NACC I'm not sure I'm not all that excited to see St. Norbert added to the conference, especially if I'm at a program that has a legitimate chance to win the conference in basketball or football from year to year. St. Norbert will now be a major hurdle in getting to the NCAA tournaments.

That's one way to look at it. Another way to look at it is that adding St. Norbert is going to make the NACC better. The league's overall non-conference records will improve. Multiple-bid postseasons may become more frequent. Competition will be fiercer. Every school and every program will be forced to up its game.

Across the board, the NACC was slightly superior to the MWC, but not by much; the main difference lay mostly in the fact that the NACC has produced a few outlier programs that have achieved excellence on the national stage at one point or another (Concordia IL in baseball, Dominican in men's soccer, Benedictine in men's basketball, etc.), while the MWC never really has. But, since SNC was consistently at or near the top of the MWC in the all-sports standings over the thirty-odd years that it was in the league, the balance has now tipped dramatically in the NACC's favor.

The one problem is that the NACC is getting larger and even more unwieldy. I don't see how it can avoid going to divisions in the women's sports in which every school fields a team, since women-only Alverno is a NACC member, because the league will now be up to 14 teams in those sports. And the league will have to seriously consider whether it should go to two unbalanced divisions in men's sports such as basketball, baseball, and soccer in which it will now have 13 teams.

Quote from: RFMichigan on April 03, 2019, 04:04:57 PMFrom an outsider's viewpoint and from St. Norbert's perspective, I guess I can see the reasoning for entering the NACC. Although it may seem to be a lateral move strictly as far as athletic competition, as someone said in another post the travel isn't as long as some of the trips they take in the Midwest Conference and it might get you into the Chicago and Milwaukee markets more readily. I'd love to hear some other thoughts from other posters "in the know".

It's a tradeoff for SNC. The association with the MWC was useful from an academic perspective, because the MWC contains some of the most elite liberal arts colleges in the heartland. Seven of the 14 members of the prestigious Associated Colleges of the Midwest are MWC members. That's nice company to keep, even if your school doesn't itself measure up to it. The MWC's reputation in that sense will be hard for SNC to part with. But an equally-potent argument from an academic perspective can be made that reducing travel for SNC student-athletes will cut down on their lost class time.

But I think that, given the current budgetary climate with which small liberal-arts schools have to deal, this is likely a decision driven more by economics than anything else. And you've spelled out the two reasons -- reduced travel and improved visibility in the Chicagoland and Milwaukee-area markets -- why this move makes financial sense for SNC.
"To see what is in front of one's nose is a constant struggle." -- George Orwell

judgetrainer

I would just like to thank Gregory Sager for noticing and mentioning the ACM. In fact, the MWC grew out of the ACM nearly a century ago.

I still don't have enough posts to do this officially but ++++

huskereddy

It's actually the other way around -- the MWC predates the ACM by some 36 years (1921 vs 1958). While it certainly makes sense to think that the association with the ACM schools could be a benefit, it could also be an albatross.

Once Cornell rejoined the MWC, it meant that 8 of 11 members were also members of the ACM. Since that time, Carroll (not an ACM member) has retreated to their former home in the CCIW and SNC has announced their exit to the NACC. Would it be fair to say that the remaining non-ACM member of the MWC - Illinois College - might be on the clock? They face travel extremes similar to - if not worse than - that of SNC. It's roughly two hours from Jacksonville to their nearest MWC opponent/s (Knox/Monmouth) and no other MWC school is within 200 miles. The closest MWC school to Illinois College - past or present - is Millikin (74 miles), whose membership lasted roughly three years.

Quote from: judgetrainer on April 04, 2019, 01:39:45 PM
I would just like to thank Gregory Sager for noticing and mentioning the ACM. In fact, the MWC grew out of the ACM nearly a century ago.

Gregory Sager

Illinois College was also a charter member of the CCIW (which began as the CCI, since there were no Wisconsin members at the time). I'm not sure that the CCIW would welcome Illinois College back into the fold the way that it welcomed Carroll. It was stretching the CCIW's footprint a bit to re-admit Carroll. It would stretch it a lot to re-admit IC. Everybody already gripes about having to make the trip to Millikin as it is (aside from the Illinois Wesleyan people), and IC's over an hour beyond Millikin. I suspect that the NACC would have the same reservations about admitting IC as a new member.

The SLIAC would be a great geographic fit for IC, but: a) the SLIAC doesn't sponsor football; and b) I doubt that MacMurray College would want its crosstown rival to join its league.
"To see what is in front of one's nose is a constant struggle." -- George Orwell

huskereddy

Just imagine if Carthage was still in Carthage, Illinois...