Quote from: OzJohnnie on May 07, 2019, 10:54:01 pm

I don't like the COL terminology.  Other than STO who seem in peak whinge mode, I reckon many of these schools have serious issues and legit complaints.  It's just football, remember.  The most expensive sport at a school.  It's one thing to be dominated and another to be run out of business (which I believe is a legit concern for some "COL" members).

I think that many MIAC programs feel that they are taken advantage of in football, rather than partnered with.  It's not just the fact that UST recruits a lot of players, it's the fact that recruiting is seems unfairly competitive and is at the deliberate expense of partner MIAC programs.  I suspect they feel like UST is not merely competitive but is perhaps approaches being uncollaborative, even vindictive, in football.

I suspect it's not just being thrashed on the field, but having it rubbed in the faces of their players and parents.  Anyone should take getting beat, even badly, particularly by programs committed to national competitiveness in this extremely competitive D3 era.  It's a whole 'nother thing to have it rubbed in your face.  Students, parents and alumni would have little interest in paying high fees so that their kids can be punching bags in some juvenile rivalry between coaches.

To be frank, this whole "UST and other high achieving programs are the real victims of these whinging losers" schtick is ludicrous.  The real people getting lost in the shuffle of all this whinging and big-noting are the students and parents going into debt do give themselves a leg up in life.  They don't need to put up with this bulls***t.  And as long as UST and STO and whomever keep carrying on like porkchops then UST will be on a one-way train out of here.  Because UST football success is of zero significance compared to the missions of the liberal arts institutions in Minnesota.

I'm of the strong opinion that UST should stay.  The apparent inability of UST (and the media supporters) to show even an ounce of humility is what will ensure they do not.

This was an almost frighteningly lucid, well-reasoned, and sensible post for this thread.

Quote from: skunks_sidekick on March 07, 2019, 11:15:39 am

Every time I think I have my better half convinced to make a journey to Oz, a story like this pops up on social media.  She immediately shoves her phone in my face to show me, and says "no way in HELL".   

www.fox13news.com/trending/enormous-spider-climbs-into-car-unbeknownst-to-driver

Ha!  The beloved huntsman spider.  They don't spin webs, instead they sneak around and hunt prey.  Mrs Oz absolutely hates them and if I ever want to go full Saudi Arabia then I need only show her this video and she'll never get in a car again.

I have two great huntsman stories that involve her.  In one we were driving down the freeway in a just-picked-up rental on vacation when a huntsman about 3/4's the size of the one in the video climbed up out of the vent in front of her as a passenger, scuttled across the window and climbed back down into the vent in front of me driving.  On the inside of the car.  Her fear reactions (paralysed then screaming hysterically then spasmodically trying to open the door on a freeway-bound car) were hilarious (if not a little dangerous).

The other was one that occurred when she was alone shopping at the local shops.  She's walking down the sidewalk and sees a huge (as she relays it, four inches across) huntsman slowly climbing up a shop window.  She steps forward to have a close look, thinking the glass can protect her and help her overcome her uncontrollable fear of those beasts.  As she's in tight getting a really good look she realises she's looking at the behemoth's back, not it's belly.  She claims she had her face about one foot away from the monster when she realised what was really going on.  She nearly collapsed on the spot.


I still bring both up and chuckle.  She gets pretty angry when I do. 

PS:  Bama should move to a higher division. 🤗

My favorite memory of a football win over Elmhurst is from the year before that, 1998, when the Vikings beat the 'jays at Hedstrand Field, 18-15. After the game I was walking down the Foster Avenue sidewalk back to campus amidst the clack-clack-clack of cleats on concrete, as football players from both teams trudged back to their respective locker rooms in the gym basement a block away. One Elmhurst player was walking in front of me alongside his parents, and he was practically sobbing as he said, "I can't believe this. We lost to North Park, and now I have to walk down a city sidewalk to get to my locker room."

I thought that he was a little overwrought, especially considering that both teams walked off the field with 2-4 records (en route to matching 2-7 final ledgers). You'd think that the players from both programs would've been numbed by all of the losses that they suffered in that era. But what tickled me is that he seemed even more put out by the fact that he had to walk on a city sidewalk to get back to the locker room than he was by either the loss or the fact that it had come at the hands of NPU.

Quote from: txtiger1 on July 31, 2018, 12:23:06 pm

Anybody have interesting pre-conference games this year? ETBU has nationally ranked UW-Platteville up first, who will be an excellent first win.

UMHB opens the year in Reading, Pennsylvania against Albright. The Lion appear to be a solid team out of the MAC, have gone 8-3 the last 2 seasons and won their league in 2015. Can't say I follow the MAC or them regularly but their will be extra challenge of them having already played a game when the Cru comes to town which always makes me nervous.

The answer for those who didn't look it up... jousting.

Rich history of the sport and such here in Maryland, believe it or not.