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Messages - hickory_cornhusker

#16
Quote from: Gregory Sager on April 11, 2021, 09:30:41 AM
Quote from: Ron Boerger on April 10, 2021, 09:11:58 AM
In 2004 there was an article in the Houston Chronicle recommending Rice take the D3 route but I don't know if the school ever seriously considered the possibility.   According to this 2017 Chronicle article, it was a number of possible alternatives put on the table, none of which were apparently pursued.

It would've been interesting to see what would've happened if Rice had considered the change after the massive shakeup a little over a decade ago that made the SCAC a Texas-centric conference and the newly-minted SAA a more southeastern-oriented conference centered around former SCAC members. There are certainly more options for a wealthy and high-academic-cachet university such as Rice to find a D3 league "nearby" (in Texas, the word "nearby" ought to always be put in quotes ;)) containing schools that have a somewhat similar academic profile than there were before.

Nearby isn't even necessary for them. Rice and Tulane are UAA type schools I don't know if Rice and/or Tulane went D3 they would want to (Johns Hopkins doesn't want to) or the UAA would even have wanted them but they would fit right in.
#17
Quote from: Next Man Up on February 18, 2021, 08:49:09 PM
Carthage new athletic nickname down to three finalists;
1. Firebirds
2. Fire
3. Lakehawks
Board of Trusters will reportedly make the final decision this weekend.

I'm disappointed War Elephants is no longer in the running.
#18
Quote from: Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan) on December 07, 2020, 10:04:04 AM

If you talk to System coaches who've really committed to it, the point is maximizing fun.  They get as many guys as they can onto the floor for meaningful minutes and guys get to take (and sometimes make) shots.  Both Greenville and Grinnell had some real success early on - the question is, once the conference adjusts and figures out how to play against it, does that success continue.  With Grinnell, they sort of regressed a bit.  After the initial wave, they had their best success when they had above average talent.

The challenge for a top team to switch to something like this is depth.  If you've got five guys who are significantly better than the rest (and most of their opponents), you'd like them to play as many minutes as they can.  When Grinnell had John Grotberg and Dave Arseneault Jr playing, those guys got significantly more than "typical" System minutes (closer to 30 per game than 20).  They were taking extra shifts and basically getting on the floor as soon as they had caught their breath.

The System works best with 15 relatively interchangable guys - which lends itself to programs that aren't typically in the running for the very best basketball players.

This led to the cliche on MWC webcasts: "Another line change for Grinnell."
#19
Quote from: Baldini on October 04, 2020, 07:28:52 AM
Quote from: Inkblot on October 02, 2020, 03:35:13 PM
Finlandia is joining the UMAC for football: https://umacathletics.com/news/2020/9/30/umac-adds-finlandia-as-associate-football-member-for-2021-season.aspx

Those will be some mighty long road trips for Greenville and Westminster to Finlandia and Finlandia back the other way.

While Greenville and Westminster are longer road trips than anything they have now in the MIAA, UNW-St Paul and Crown are shorter than any current road trip with Martin Luther and UM-Morris in line with current MIAA trips.
#20
Quote from: John Gleich on July 14, 2020, 01:50:04 AM
Quote from: jamtod on July 13, 2020, 10:00:57 PM
Quote from: Mr. Ypsi on July 13, 2020, 06:02:16 PM
Quote from: Gregory Sager on July 13, 2020, 04:51:20 PM
This is a good day for the league, though, because a good guy got the job that he earned and deserves.

Congrats to you as well, Steve. And, just as was the case with your old man, I wish you all the luck in the world ... 363 days a year. ;)

What if NPU meets him in the conference tourney?  and in the post-season?  Or are you willing to forfeit the regular season games as long as you win when it REALLY counts? ;D

The college basketball gods will ensure that you can't meet a rival 4x in a year, as we saw with Tommie-Johnnie 4.0 this year. Although I'm certain we would have been victorious

It's happened at least twice to my knowledge... Both times in 2003-04, ironically. UWSP played UW Oshkosh twice in the regular season, once in the conference tournament, and once in Vegas at a Christmas tournament.
That same year, Williams and Amherst played once in the NESCAC, once in the "Little Three" matchup, once in the NESCAC tournament, and in Salem in the National Semi's.

In fact, it's probably on the likely(ish) end for teams that meet in the NCAA tournament from the same conference.
Ironically, Wheaton and Augie only met three times in 2018-19, as North Central prevented the meeting by dispatching the Thunder in the second round of the CCIW tournament, before they could meet the hosts for a (then third, to be followed by fourth)... Time.

In 2006-07 Calvin and Hope faced each other 5 times. Hope won in an early season tourney, they split the regular season, Calvin won the conference tournament final and Hope won the NCAA 2nd Round game.
#21
Quote from: OzJohnnie on July 01, 2020, 11:13:03 AM
12%-14% of North Carolinians are CV anti-body positive based on widespread community testing.  1/3 of the way to herd immunity.

https://www.wakehealth.edu/Coronavirus/COVID-19-Community-Research-Partnership/Updates-and-Data

Where have you seen herd immunity will only take 36-42% (3 times 12-14)? Everything I've seen is 65% or higher needed for herd immunity.
#22
Quote from: Ron Boerger on June 28, 2020, 08:11:31 AM
Quote from: hickory_cornhusker on June 27, 2020, 06:49:06 PM
Quote from: PlaySimple on June 27, 2020, 08:59:54 AM
I've heard that TCNJ has canceled fall sports. I did not see a statement on the school's athletic web site to confirm this.

TCNJ is usually a strong side so this is pretty significant.

Almost: https://tcnjathletics.com/news/2020/6/27/general-tcnj-athletics-fall-semester-statement.aspx
Looks like volleyball, cross country, and swimming can continue. The rest are cancelled for the fall semester.

TCNJ doesn't offer volleyball as a varsity sport.  It would have been a striking exception to allow it to continue with the other sports they have cancelled.

You're right. I just looked at the list of sports they offer and just assumed volleyball would be on there since every athletic program of a similar size has volleyball.
#23
Quote from: PlaySimple on June 27, 2020, 08:59:54 AM
I've heard that TCNJ has canceled fall sports. I did not see a statement on the school's athletic web site to confirm this.

TCNJ is usually a strong side so this is pretty significant.

Almost: https://tcnjathletics.com/news/2020/6/27/general-tcnj-athletics-fall-semester-statement.aspx
Looks like volleyball, cross country, and swimming can continue. The rest are cancelled for the fall semester.
#24
Quote from: huskereddy on June 10, 2020, 02:01:20 AM
Quote from: Gregory Sager on June 09, 2020, 06:46:34 PM
I don't think that that's necessarily true. Remember, this is football we're talking about, a sport with a minimal number of contests per season and exclusively weekend travel. At most, a conference only plays a single round-robin in football. That means that Greenville and Westminster would each only have to make a trip every other year to Ashland, WI to play Northland. Now, if the UMAC sweetened the deal for Finlandia by offering full membership in all sports (realistically the only way that Finlandia would ditch the closer travel and better competition of MIAA football), then the two SLIAC schools would each make one trip per year to the shores of Lake Superior, alternating between Northland and Finlandia. And one trip per year is hardly a deal-breaker. Plus, given that it's a Minnesota-based conference, the Panthers and Blue Jays gridders are already used to long road trips, anyway.
Finlandia to the UMAC could make sense in a football-only context - with or without Northland/Superior. You may, as Gregory Sager suggests, trade level of competition, but I don't necessarily agree on the closer travel. You'd have a minimum of four UMAC opponents (Crown, UNW, Morris, MLC - all 460 miles or less from Houghton) that are closer than all but one current MIAA opponent (Alma - 445 miles; all others are 525+). Also, if Finlandia only travels to one of the SLIAC schools each year (and vice-versa), it's certainly a workable proposition. WCMO and Greenville would just be trading one 10+ hour trip (CSS) for another (Finlandia). It might then also serve as an entry point for full membership. Who knows?

It makes more sense with these travel numbers to invite Finlandia for football only. In my mind I was thinking there was no way Minnesota schools are as close to Finlandia as the MIAA schools, that's why I thought the UMAC would need to sweeten the deal because of increased travel and invite Finlandia for everything. Apparently travel would be largely irrelevant.

Moving to the UMAC would be beneficial for Finlandia from a competition stand point. Being in a stronger conference is only a good thing if you are competitive. Unfortunately Finlandia has not been competitive in the MIAA the past couple of years.
#25
Quote from: doolittledog on June 09, 2020, 02:43:50 PM
Quote from: Baldini on June 09, 2020, 02:23:18 PM
Hard to come up with potential schools to join the UMAC. For the past few years I had thought that UM-Crookston would be a candidate to join D3 and the UMAC would be a good fit, but they dropped football and are staying put in D2. Had some hope that Macalester would come aboard, but they are headed back to MIAC. Former members Rockford and Eureka probably have little reason to depart the NACC. Tough road ahead for the UMAC and football I believe.

Also hard to come up with potential conferences for UMAC football schools to join. 

What scenarios would be more likely?
A - The remaining UMAC football schools just carry on as-is?
B - Current UMAC schools without football add the sport?
C - Remaining UMAC football schools look at moves to other conferences?  And as affiliate members for football...or full conference moves?

Simplest (though not great) solution I came up with is invite Finlandia for everything. They play in the MIAA for football but they will be in the CAC-ACCA for everything else. The travel would be rough, especially heading down U.S. Hwy. 2 in February. But there is no other schools that are currently D3 and likely to be willing to join.
#26
Multi-Regional Topics / Re: Conference changes
June 09, 2020, 01:35:45 PM
If I'm counting correctly, this is going to drop the UMAC football conference down to six members.

Crown
MN-Morris
Martin Luther
Northwestern-STP
Westminster
Greenville
MacMurray closed
St. Scholastica headed to MIAC
Iowa Wesleyan headed to NAIA
#27
Quote from: WW on May 31, 2020, 04:57:53 PM
Quote from: formerd3db on May 31, 2020, 11:26:34 AM
Quote from: fredfalcon on May 27, 2020, 12:00:09 PM
About Ray Cross's statement re UW system classes opening in the fall (and thereby football scheduling):  a May 30 Wall St. Journal article on the possibility of NCAA football in the fall said that it's the state's governor plus the university presidents who have the primary say.

The system a.d. and individual school a.d's, not so much. UWRF situation maybe more complicated now with current chancellor moving to Missouri Southern and a temporary chancellor assuming duties July 1.

The WSJ article discussed only D1 football scheduling possibilities.

On that same line of thought (and I may have missed any discussion of such here on this board, so my apologies if this has been discussed earlier here), the University of Wisconsin announced it will not allow this year's spring senior atletes to return for 2021 if they wanted to despite the NCAA's decision  allowing athletes in that situation to do so. Does this apply also to the DIII Wisconsin University schools also or was this only the DI Wisconsin's  (Madison) decision?  And if the latter is the situation, has anyone heard what your Wisconsin DIII schools are thinking about doing in that regard?

Haven't heard, but I doubt it will affect a lot of people. You already get 5 years to play 4 in D3. My hunch is most WIAC schools would be against it. There are only so many seats on the bus.

Most would just be fifth year seniors which doesn't matter much for D3 in the grand scheme of things with no scholarships. It would affect student athletes who were going to be 5th year seniors and now could come back for a sixth year which I can't imagine will be many. I don't know how the coaches would react to someone coming back for a sixth year but I doubt many schools are going to turn down good tuition money when school starts again.
#28
I would flip the schedule so the two full crossover weeks are in the front of the schedule. That way you don't have the championship weekend schedule locked into place three weeks out. Also with his schedule there is a possibility of five rematches played back to back weeks. There is still one possible but not all five.
#29
I have a question: If this gets really bad and 20-30 schools close, would we see Division 3 tournaments reduce the number of teams in the bracket? I know football is way above the 6.5 ratio right now and I think women's and maybe men's basketball as well but what about a sport like baseball or ice hockey that has been adding teams recently? Would ice hockey drop back to 11 or even 10 teams to maintain the ratio? Would baseball possibly drop to 52-54 for the same reason?
#30
Multi-Regional Topics / Re: 2020 NCAA Tournament
March 09, 2020, 03:39:44 PM
Quote from: Dave 'd-mac' McHugh on March 09, 2020, 02:28:18 PM
The debacle showed up a few years ago when SUNY Geneseo was awarded hosting of the Sectional when somehow the NCAA thought Hope could get there in under 500 miles ... then it was quickly realized the committee had been given bad intel from those above them. The mileage was as if Hope went through Detroit and Canada around the upper part of Lake Erie.

That was changed a few hours later to a school (which I can't remember) in Ohio instead.

They also have to make sure it doesn't use ferries. Back when 200 mikes was the range for a way to be in-region and in-region was the record used and not overall record, the program said Hope and Carthage are less than 200 miles from each other but the only way that was possible was a ferry ride across Lake Michigan, in December.