Iowa Wesleyan to apply to DIII

Started by CKBeber329, October 17, 2011, 10:44:25 AM

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CKBeber329


Pat Coleman

Yep. Should be interesting, because that won't give their football team a home, and if they want to join the UMAC for football they may have trouble because the UMAC already has 10 football programs.

http://www.d3sports.com/notables/2011/10/iowa-wesleyan-applies-to-d3
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Quote from: old 40 on September 25, 2007, 08:23:57 PMLet's discuss (sports) in a positive way, sometimes kidding each other with no disrespect.

Ron Boerger

Maybe they could play football in the SCAC  ;)

doolittledog

Quote from: Pat Coleman on October 17, 2011, 10:58:04 AM
Yep. Should be interesting, because that won't give their football team a home, and if they want to join the UMAC for football they may have trouble because the UMAC already has 10 football programs.

http://www.d3sports.com/notables/2011/10/iowa-wesleyan-applies-to-d3

The NAIA board mentioned Culver-Stockton was looking into D3 and the SLIAC as a possibility.  That would give the SLIAC 6 teams with the addition of Iowa Wesleyan?  Is that the magic number?  Or would they need a miracle like Principia or Blackburn bringing back their programs?

Pat Coleman

Well, they need to have seven. But if they have four, they can try to add other teams for football only to get to seven. I wouldn't encourage that for the SLIAC, though. They have a decent arrangement with the UMAC.
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Quote from: old 40 on September 25, 2007, 08:23:57 PMLet's discuss (sports) in a positive way, sometimes kidding each other with no disrespect.

Ralph Turner


doolittledog

Iowa Wesleyan has been accepted into the SLIAC.

http://www.sliac.org/Releases/2011-12/iwc_120811

That would make 5 of the 10 SLIAC schools with a football program.  Should be interesting if the SLIAC continues their football affiliation with the UMAC or if they try to form a football conference on their own. 

Gregory Sager

The five SLIAC schools with football programs will stay in the UMAC until they get two more SLIAC compatriots to join them on the gridiron. What would be the sense in breaking away from the UMAC at this point? They'd still be two schools short.
"To see what is in front of one's nose is a constant struggle." -- George Orwell

Gray Fox

Too bad Mckendree decided to go D2.  Their long term president, Jim Dennis, has D3 ties in that he played football at Occidental where his father had coached the Raisin Bowl victory and was later athletic director.  His son also played at Oxy.  Had the Bearcats joined the SLIAC, the SLIAC  would need only one more. :-\
Fierce When Roused

KnightSlappy

Iowa Wesleyan has been accepted into the exploratory program for '12-13:

http://www.ncaa.org/wps/wcm/connect/public/ncaa/resources/latest+news/2012/february/diii+panel+suggests+consequences+for+not+meeting+conference+requirements

Joining them will be:

Alfred State College (Alfred, N.Y.)
Berea College (Berea, Ky.)
Illinois Institute of Technology (Chicago, Ill.)

Ralph Turner

Does Alfred State offer football in D-III?

Which conference would be the best fit for Alfred?  SUNYAC? Or the NEAC and be a football affiliate somewhere?

Berea has the endowment (huge endowment) to join the SAA. Are they a better fit in the SAA or the Heartland?

What are people's thoughts on the IIT and IWU?

Gregory Sager

Quote from: Ralph Turner on March 08, 2012, 04:05:37 PM
Does Alfred State offer football in D-III?

I don't see why it shouldn't. I don't think that there'll be any additional costs involved, or at least they'll be minimal. The Pioneers will probably have to travel farther for road games than they are now in their largely juco-based schedule, but that'll probably be it as far as budget needs are concerned.

Quote from: Ralph Turner on March 08, 2012, 04:05:37 PMWhich conference would be the best fit for Alfred?  SUNYAC? Or the NEAC and be a football affiliate somewhere?

Alfred State would probably want to go SUNYAC, because it's a more established league and it's geographically more compact. But I'm not sure that the SUNYAC is looking to expand. The NEAC might be the best bet, although it's a league that currently has ten teams for most men's sports and twelve for most women's sports, which means that Alfred State would be causing an imbalance. Football is even more problematic, since neither the SUNYAC nor the NEAC offers the sport. And the two leagues that are the most logical home for the football Pioneers, the New England Football Conference and the NJAC, might not be good fits, again because of imbalance. The NEFC has two eight-team divisions already, and the NJAC is a ten-team league at the moment.

Quote from: Ralph Turner on March 08, 2012, 04:05:37 PMBerea has the endowment (huge endowment) to join the SAA. Are they a better fit in the SAA or the Heartland?

The SAA already has eight schools lined up, so the imbalance thing rears its ugly head again, although my impression is that Berea is academically up to par with the SAA schools. Berea would be the eleventh school in the Heartland, but I think that Transylvania might advocate adding Berea as a travel partner.

Quote from: Ralph Turner on March 08, 2012, 04:05:37 PMWhat are people's thoughts on the IIT and IWU?

It seems to me that the SLIAC is working to manage its ungainly new geographic footprint by having the two far-flung schools to east and west, Spalding and Iowa Wesleyan, respectively, play their contests against each other on the campuses of Webster and Fontbonne in St. Louis, near the halfway point between Spalding and IWC. I would imagine that if Iowa Wesleyan retains its football program, it'll attempt to follow the lead of the other SLIAC schools that carry football by applying for associate membership status in the UMAC for gridiron purposes.

Illinois Tech is a baffling case. It carries ten sports, five apiece on the men's side and the women's side, but it dropped what everyone who follows college athletics would consider to be the core sport, basketball, three years ago. It dropped both the men's program and the women's program. It seems obvious that IIT will seek to re-establish those two programs, both to make itself attractive to a prospective conference and to get up to the new twelve-sport minimum for D3. It just seemed weird, though, that IIT dropped the two basketball programs in the first place ... since it was inevitable that it would have to either add them all over again sooner or later, or else drop sports altogether. Turns out that it was "sooner" rather than later.

(I wonder if the drastically different sorts of institutions with which IIT shares the CCAC's Division One is what prompted the school's administration to drop basketball.)

The NAthCon, home of IIT's nearest analogous school (MSOE), would seem to be the logical place for IIT to land if/when it enters D3.
"To see what is in front of one's nose is a constant struggle." -- George Orwell

Gregory Sager

One other thought: If Canton State goes through the four-year probationary pipeline as well (it's currently concluding an exploratory year), the Kangaroos might be a good entry partner with Alfred State in order to redress those imbalance issues.
"To see what is in front of one's nose is a constant struggle." -- George Orwell

cush

I always thought Berea would be a good fit going d3. However, I'm not sure how that will work at the d3 level given everybody at the school has a free scholarship. What conference to join? Heartland or SAA seems like the best bet and i would think both would gladly offer them a spot. Heartland could go to 12 with TM.  Also think the saa should really try to get to 10 members with W&L too but if they don't want to move, transylvania really also fits their profile and would compact travel with 3 school's in kentucky.

http://news.blogs.wlu.edu/2012/01/10/remember-when-the-cac-is-born/




hickory_cornhusker

Quote from: cush on March 09, 2012, 11:55:31 AM
I always thought Berea would be a good fit going d3. However, I'm not sure how that will work at the d3 level given everybody at the school has a free scholarship. What conference to join? Heartland or SAA seems like the best bet and i would think both would gladly offer them a spot. Heartland could go to 12 with TM.  Also think the saa should really try to get to 10 members with W&L too but if they don't want to move, transylvania really also fits their profile and would compact travel with 3 school's in kentucky.

http://news.blogs.wlu.edu/2012/01/10/remember-when-the-cac-is-born/

It would work fine in Division III. The rule in Division III is that you are treated the same whether you play a sport or not. At Berea you get a scholarship if you attend there whether you  play a sport or not. Granted other schools may be hesitant to let them join their conference but under Division III rules they would be fine.