Quote from: Kuiper on August 21, 2025, 01:54:40 PM

Quote from: Pat Coleman on August 18, 2025, 05:46:35 PMThis story on Mount Union football misspells Larry Kehres' name, as well as the name of the Mount Union alumnus who most recently coached a Super Bowl champ.

https://www.flofootball.com/articles/14451873-mount-union-football-has-what-it-takes-to-win-now-it-just-wants-the-title

Here's a story from FloCollege on UW-Plattesville Football.  Did it do any better?

Hold on, hold on, hold on...
The WIAC is not a FloSports conference so this seems...weird. Especially considering the "Subscribe To Watch WIAC Football In 2025" link.

Quote from: y_jack_lok on August 21, 2025, 02:39:17 PM

Quote from: Flying Dutch Fan on August 21, 2025, 01:40:49 PMMIAA press release on an interesting approach to increasing revenue.

https://miaa.org/news/2025/8/21/miaa-launches-new-collaboration-with-brentwood-partners.aspx

Sounds like they're spending money in order to make money. At least with FloSports the schools (and conferences??) simply get money. At least I assume that's how it works. I hope this approach works for the MIAA. Will be interesting to see how it goes.

Honestly, I'm not really sure what the approach is but the press release certainly contains words!

With frequent use of words like partnering/partnership ideally this deal would see the conference only be paying out of some kind of value add and that the conference can expect an ROI on this deal.

Overnght is another streamer of niche sports.

https://www.overnght.com/

I don't know to what extent they may be a direct competitor with FloSports but it is my understanding they have been in contact with at least one D3 conference in the past (and not one that has signed with Flo).

Quote from: WUPHF on August 16, 2025, 03:39:34 PM

Quote from: y_jack_lok on August 16, 2025, 01:46:26 PMIn this just posted 25 minute ODAC Podcast, most of the final nine minutes (and a few seconds) is devoted to the conference's partnership with FloSports.

Thanks for sharing! The podcast illustrates the points that have fascinated me from the beginning, the promise of the promotion of the athletes...

I have wasted more time than I care to admit, looking for evidence of this on Twitter and YouTube and I am surprised how little content Flo Sports is providing.  Maybe the content is on other platforms or is also behind the paywall (I still need to subscribe), but that makes no sense if the goal is the promotion of the athletes.

This podcast is interesting in that they also suggest that the Flo Sports platform will diversity the viewership.  That is to, fans from other colleges and universities that subscribe to Flo may watch other contests because they are in the Flo ecosystem.  I do not buy that...  Please correct me if that is not what they were saying.

The last three minutes of the ODAC podcast hits on what I *think* is largely this additional promotion component and even acknowledges that much of this is yet to come and not even particularly pinned down yet. (concerning if the conferences are really hinging on this being a key part of the agreement yet have no contractual terms holding Flo to much of anything...)

It seems the vision is that Flo will be producing additional content that adds to the kind of work many school athletic sites are already doing and maybe allows for some additional storytelling or highlighting that a conference office might like to see but doesn't have content staff to produce on their own.

Flo has already been providing some web content, though I can't say that I have seen anything that I would consider substantive. It's mostly thin cookie-cutter preview/"how to watch" articles (example) or a summary of a newly released Top 25 poll. (example)

Unfortunately, these read like content from some of the sports blog content farms you'll find around the internet who are adept at using surface level stats and team records to pump out a large volume of content - a far cry from the "documentary" style features suggested in the ODAC podcast.

For example, one last basketball season's articles following the release of a D3Hoops.com Top 25 in early February contained this gem (link):

QuoteTrine dropped five spots after the inexcusable loss to them 11-6, Calvin

The need for an editor aside, this very much reads as someone who tried to offer analysis based on records and previous rankings alone rather than really knowing the ins-and-outs of the D3 basketball season. The article doesn't even recognize it as the D3HOOPS.COM Top 25, much less provide a link. I know the #d3hoops community did roast the Flo twitter accounts about this and they did start (kind of?) giving acknowledgement.

Maybe we start seeing something of higher quality and value when fall sports gets underway. Maybe.

MIAA preseason poll is out.

1. Alma (10 pts, 4 first place votes)
2. Hope (11 pts, 4 first place votes)
3. Adrian (23 pts)
4. Trine (25 pts)
5. Albion (26 pts)
6. Olivet (42 pts)
7. Calvin (43 pts)
8. Kalamazoo (44 pts)

The poll points create very distinct tiers with the order essentially a toss-up within each tier.
Tier 1: Alma, Hope
Tier 2: Adrian, Trine, Albion
Tier 3: Olivet, Calvin, Kalamazoo

Quote from: Flying Dutch Fan on July 15, 2025, 11:19:36 AMOlivet schedule has beem posted:  https://www.olivetcomets.com/sports/mbkb/2025-26/schedule

Non-cons at home vs Heidelberg and UWSP

Non-cons on the road at Ohio Northern, Northwestern Ohio (NAIA), Central MI (D1), Rose-Hulman, and Findlay OH (D2)

Non-cons at neutral sites with John Carroll, Ohio Wesleyan, Muskingum, and WashU

Olivet has added a game at Carthage on December 19.

Quote from: Flying Dutch Fan on July 31, 2025, 12:33:36 PMAlma has posted their schedule:

Exhibitions vs Oakland U and SVSU

Non-cons at home vs North Park, Carthage, Concordia Chicago, Westminster, and UW Whitewater

Non-cons on the road at Ohio Wesleyan, Denison, Manchester, Linfield, Pacific, and Capital.  The Linfield and Pacific games will take the Scots to Oregon Dec 12 & 13.

https://almascots.com/sports/mens-basketball/schedule

sigh

We Are D3 will be back in action in the TBT semifinals Thursday at 8 pm ET on FS1.
You are invited to come hang out with The D3 Datacast as we host a pregame livestream starting at 7 pm ET. The link for that stream is already active here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-kNiELx7V0

Quote from: jknezek on July 16, 2025, 01:03:35 PMAnd this is the kind of stupidity that happens when people don't understand that if Flo does go bankrupt, or just decides that the model doesn't work, you won't get the rights back right away even if they stop paying you. See regional sports networks. There could be several years, depending on the contracts, where schools won't have the right to broadcast their own games, and Flo won't do it either.

There is nothing, nothing, about this that is a good idea other than the AD, or really the conference commissioners, wandering over to the conference meeting one afternoon claiming "found money". It's such a short-term, eyes closed, non-strategic, idea... it's almost a hallmark of how small colleges and universities are being run these days, badly, and with more than whiff of desperation and no idea how to adapt to the problems they are facing.

For what it's worth (probably not much in this discussion), Flo says they are profitable: https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Articles/2025/06/30/flosports-likes-to-see-where-sports-streaming-industry-is-headed/

Quote from: Flying Dutch Fan on July 15, 2025, 11:19:36 AMOlivet schedule has beem posted:  https://www.olivetcomets.com/sports/mbkb/2025-26/schedule

Non-cons at home vs Heidelberg and UWSP

Non-cons on the road at Ohio Northern, Northwestern Ohio (NAIA), Central MI (D1), Rose-Hulman, and Findlay OH (D2)

Non-cons at neutral sites with John Carroll, Ohio Wesleyan, Muskingum, and WashU

The more I look at this the less I like it. Maybe Olivet takes a nice step forward this year (very possible!) but as I sit here now I'm wondering if Olivet would be favored in any of these non-conference games. Not a great development for those of us wanting to see the league develop a better "middle class" with more of the league hitting conference play with a .500 or better record against D3 opponents.

Curiously, the CMU and Findlay games are marked as exhibitions but you have to include them in the overall count to get to 25 games overall. Maybe there is more to come.

Quote from: Flying Dutch Fan on July 03, 2025, 09:06:50 AMAlbion schedule - albeit with 6 TBDs for 3 non-con tournaments (Westminster schedule does show Albion playing Westminster and Thiel @ Westminster on Nov 14 & 15) so really only 4 TBDs :

https://gobrits.com/sports/mens-basketball/schedule

What is known for non-con is home games vs Manchester and Ohio Northern, and road games at Westminster, Mount St Joseph, Ill Tech, and Aurora, and a neutral site game vs Thiel

The Albion MBB account had a social media post a few days ago that listed Westminster (PA) and Allegheny for the Otterbein Classic. Sets up a somewhat similar situation Calvin faced last season by playing at UW-Oshkosh and also meeting up at a neutral event.

The Albion Tournament will consist of Albion, Illinois Wesleyan, Kenyon and Wisconsin Lutheran.

I'm wondering if we will see Colorado College pop up on another MIAA non-conference schedule. The CC women's team is playing in the Calvin/Hope Classic the weekend the men's team will play at Calvin. Have to imagine the men's team will get a second game on that trip and we know it isn't Hope.

Quote from: Pat Coleman on June 27, 2025, 11:40:23 AMThat is definitely interesting to ponder Marymount going back to the C2C. They were not competitive with Salisbury and Mary Washington in their long years in the CAC and it didn't get better when CNU came in. I don't think those things will have changed. Meanwhile, Marymount has won the commissioner's cup three years running in the AEC.

I readily admit my view of all these things is often skewed by my MBB lens and that the considerations are much, much wider but Marymount MBB is still scheduling those C2C schools so it wasn't a "run and hide" situation. Though, perhaps being able to play those schools in non-conference then go on to have conference championship aspirations in the AEC gives Marymount the best of both worlds.

Just interesting things to think about in the here and now as it seems there will be more turns of the AEC carousel one way or another.

Quote from: Ralph Turner on June 26, 2025, 03:30:44 PMWith Marywood moving to the MAC, where do the remaining teams in the AEC assimilate? In the pecking order of the Mid-Atlantic states, I peruse the AEC not to be a destination for neighboring schools in the shuffle and Marywood and Neumann were happy to be invited.
Please comment and advise.

The movement of St. Elizabeth into the AEC tells me they are a rung above the UEC in the conference ladder. I think the large UEC move with the CSAC a couple years ago was a smart pre-emptive strike against the forces we've seen at play in recent years but take a look at our running list here and it's only been bad news for the conference since.

Surely there will some kind of next move coming for the AEC and I'm interested to see what it is. Might Marymount be attractive to the ODAC should they want to replace Ferrum? Would Marymount consider the C2C as that conference starts to look more regional?

Even with a Marymount (or other) move out, maybe other UEC schools follow St. Elizabeth to keep the AEC afloat.

Quote from: Kuiper on June 20, 2025, 01:03:06 PM

Quote from: ziggy on June 20, 2025, 12:47:42 PMThe genie is out of the bottle, it's just a matter of seeing down the line if there will be total holdouts (there are programs out there keen to do what they can to self-monetize) and if the conferences that do go this route all end up on one platform of are fragmented between multiple.

The interesting part of UAA going with FloSports is that Rochester already had its own paywall for streaming of their games.  So, either that wasn't very successful (or revenue was too volatile to be helpful for budgeting) or, assuming the UAA needed unanimous consent from its members to go this route, FloSports offered a better deal that got Rochester more than they were getting in their best years from their own streaming fees.

Rochester's paywall was a form of self-monetization but I meant to refer to advertising and sponsorships that keep the stream available for free while also being able to bring in some revenue from it.