Quote from: Gregory Sager on September 18, 2025, 11:26:13 AMMSOE is hardly a walk in the park. The Raiders repped the NACC in last season's D3 tourney and gave Gustavus Adolphus a legitimate battle in the first round up in Saint Peter before falling by a score of 2-1. In fact, the Raiders went to the other side of the lake and thumped Calvin at Zuidema Field, 5-1, in this year's season opener. They'll contend for the NACC title again this season, which is not the same thing at all as being a top-half UAA team -- but there's always two or three NACC teams every year that have to be taken seriously by teams from tougher conferences.

MSOE is definitely progressing, but swapping them in for the likes of Calvin is a purposeful move to have a more winnable game, regardless of MSOE's result with Calvin this season. It is soccer and anyone can be beaten on any given day (look at UC's relatively dismal performances against Carthage over the years, for example). My point is the Maroons used to put together the hardest/top 3 schedule in the nation consistently, and they are shifting away from that for more winnable games. My confidence in the program is at a low ebb, as this feels like a return to the old days of UC being a middle of the pack, average-to-decently good kind of team whose time in the national spotlight is behind them.

Quote from: kansas hokie on September 18, 2025, 08:46:54 AMChicago has played a TOUGH schedule and done well with it, they will be strong. Wash U also talented, North Park win is a good one for them. Brandeis still in there too with Case.

Emory non-con will be a stellar record it seems so if they don't win UAA then it's at least two bids.

if we used today's Massey ratings in place of NPI and gave out bids today...UAA would have 5.

Last year, at large cut-off was 35, right now those 5 are all top 25 teams in Massey. Remember, United Soccer coaches poll makes no real impact in bids now, it's fun to look at, but means nothing in the end. We'll see what NPI says in a month.

I don't quite agree on UChicago. When you look at this year's schedule versus the previous decade or so, they have subtly shifted to easier non-con opponents than in years past (adding MSOE and Aurora and not playing Calvin, for example). I don't blame them, they need wins. Their previous coaching regimes (Babst/Flinn/Sitch) always scheduled the hardest possible slate because they were testing themselves for the postseason and knew they were good enough to win 80 percent of those games or more.
Unfortunately, UChicago is still in rebuild mode after last year's disaster season. Their defense is quite impressive, but their anemic offense will be their undoing. They're likely a middle of the pack UAA team at this point, and I don't see them making the postseason, which is the minimum standard for a program of their caliber. Trust me, I'd love to see the Maroons return to their former glory, but it could take years to get there.

Quote from: IC798891 on July 16, 2025, 11:18:44 AM

Quote from: Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan) on July 16, 2025, 10:33:22 AM

Quote from: IC798891 on July 16, 2025, 09:54:14 AMWhen a significant change happens that is going to positively impact a segment of people and negatively impact another segment of people, getting the opinions of both segments of people to tell the complete story is literally Journalism 101.

Again, it's a press release.  The only intent is to shape the narrative that this is good; they do not want to give space for another opinion.  The point is to try and convince people this is good for everyone.

Do you hear yourself? It's NOT good for everyone. People are telling you, directly, that this is NOT good for them.

That's the other side of this shift of the entire model of D3 sports — ignoring those voices is journalistic negligence

Frankly, journalism has nothing to do with it. The employees putting out these press releases (SIDs/Athletic Communications) are being told to announce the deal, put in a nice quote that makes the endeavor sound positive, and that's that. I bet the majority of SIDs oppose these Flo deals, but it's not their job to push back. Their AD tells them what to do, and they do it. Just like any other job under the sun, you do what your boss tells you to do, or you no longer have a job.

If you want a journalistic callout of Flo, look to the local city newspaper or the university student newspaper. But don't put any of this on the hardworking SIDs, who bust their humps with 60-80 hour work weeks 9-10 months a year, doing everything they can to serve the student-athletes.

Quote from: HansenRatings on June 27, 2025, 03:51:30 PM

Quote from: DriftlessDuhawk on June 27, 2025, 02:02:31 PMYeah, Logan and I have very similar sources, as these are the two schools I was referring to. The only thing I would add is that with Luther leaving, the conference is looking to move to a "travel partner" approach for all non-football sports.

With that being said, adding both Monmouth and Northwestern doesn't really work with that idea, and so the league would rather expand in one direction by getting two schools. So, either looking for an additional school in western Illinois or another one in the Twin Cities area.

I said this before, but I think Augustana would make a lot of sense for both parties. They're a good fit for the ARC geographically & fit the mold of the current institutions, and if Monmouth gets/accepts an invitation, that would be a good travel partner for them.

I'm not sure who else from the Twin Cities area would make sense, either for the ARC or for a school potentially looking for greener pastures.

Augustana is not leaving the CCIW. Unless their president forces a move, not gonna happen.

Quote from: Gregory Sager on June 24, 2025, 01:44:45 PM

Quote from: HansenRatings on June 09, 2025, 11:22:21 AMAnother thing from the President's interview, which I've been wondering about, is that the MWC doesn't sponsor wrestling. Seemed like they're going to try for an affiliate membership in the ARC. I think the CCIW would probably be the next best option.

Dubuque and Transylvania were CCIW men's lacrosse associates in the not-too-distant past, and Chicago was the dominant program in CCIW women's lacrosse as an associate before leaving to become an independent last year.

UChicago WLAX wanted to stay, CCIW office or the member schools gave them the boot.

Quote from: Ron Boerger on June 23, 2025, 12:10:33 PMAccording to the Department of Education's EADA data for 2024, the athletic expenses for UChicago totalled $8.2 million ($8,210,820 to be exact).  I respectfully ask you to describe how the $30K each of the UAA schools likely got for the upcoming season (that has been the going rate) counts as a "significant boost to their budget."  Maybe they got twice the going rate, which seems unlikely, but even if so that would represent less than 1% of total expenditures.

Also according to EADA, the head coaches of UChicago's men's teams receive, on average, the sixth highest amount across all of Division III ($90,636).  The head coaches of women's teams also rank sixth-highest overall ($89,226).  D3 coaching is not where anyone goes to make much money with the average, across the division (for the 406 schools reporting to EADA) for men's team coaches, being $42.4K.

This $30K number you're throwing around is not what they're all getting. They're getting a cut of the PPV, it's gonna be more. How much more I do not know. Feel free to reach out to the schools and ask.

Respectfully, travel takes up a huge portion of the budget at UAA schools. The budget is allocated to 20+ sports. You know how much of that $8 million is earmarked for live streaming? Not as much as you'd think. Equipment costs and labor costs add up when you're streaming 100+ events per year, especially if you're paying experienced people who cost more than the average college student with a pulse. Ask any SID in the industry and they'll say that it's gotten harder and harder to find good help. Students are valuing their free time more than making a low-paying side gig.

Average salary is always going to be skewed by long-time coaches who have been there 20+ years, which UChicago has plenty of. As for how many times pay/location has been a factor to coaching/staff candidates dropping out of consideration, it's a large number.

I'm not carrying the water for Flo, far from it. I don't like the deal at all. But I can understand why the schools did it, even if it's going to likely bite them later with alumni donations.

The days of free streaming are ending across the college landscape. It stinks for the fans, but it's a financial reality that the athletic departments are trying to deal with. Everyone is tightening their belts.
While the "rich UAA schools" have plenty of endowment money, that really has nothing to do with this agreement. As we all know, endowment money is earmarked to very specific things, and those things are not operations budget.

As a former UChicago employee, I can only speak for my experience at that school. All other schools have their own unique challenges. The thing that was most galling in my time there was the fact that operations budget and employee compensation was so out of sync with total spending. UChicago has received hundreds of millions of dollars in gifts for capital projects as well as establishing new majors/buildings/programs. They've been buying up any open space they can in Hyde Park since they are totally landlocked.
But that spending spree has the consequences of needing more of the most expensive line item of all: personnel/employees. Operations budget has lagged behind for a good 15 years at this point, and it has resulted in 4 hiring freezes in the last 13 years, plus budget cuts in the pre-COVID times.
UChicago, frankly, does not compensate as well as you think. Between that and the increasing cost of living in Chicago, and they lose out on a lot of people for that reason when they do searches for coaches/athletic staff.

My point is, when you all talk down about the drop in the bucket nature of this agreement, you're not seeing the full picture. This might be very financially advantageous to the athletic departments which are already being squeezed (especially with the cost of conference-game flights/travels).
I don't agree with the Flo agreement due to the cost to consumer and Flo's reputation and the potential fallout with nickel and diming alumni. But the 8 UAA schools would not be doing this together unless it was a significant boost to their budget.

Quote from: deiscanton on June 22, 2025, 09:03:14 AMThe UAA has decided to go with the Flo for the next 5 years.  On June 20, the UAA announced an exclusive 5 year deal to have all of their teams exclusively streamed on FloSports.  Which means that I will have to buy FloCollege as a necessary streaming package for at least the fall soccer and winter basketball seasons. 

If there is one silver lining to this, it will be that I can finally watch all Brandeis home games on my Roku TV again provided that I pay the FloCollege subscription fees.

http://uaasports.info/news/2025/6/20/general-uaa-and-flosports-enter-exclusive-media-rights-agreement.aspx

The days of free streaming are ending across the college landscape. Equipment and labor costs for schools are significant and this is how they will offset those costs. It stinks for the fans, but it's a financial reality that the athletic departments are trying to deal with.

Quote from: GusD on June 10, 2025, 02:53:58 PM

Quote from: HansenRatings on June 10, 2025, 11:38:10 AM

Quote from: Little Giant 89 on June 09, 2025, 12:35:31 PM

Quote from: The Third Division on May 28, 2025, 01:41:45 PMIt should be "The College of North Central That Is North Central of Absolutely Nothing"

Not even in the center of Naperville, or DuPage County for that matter.

In 1926, when then name was adopted, the college would have been nearly directly North of the population center of the United States.

And in 1926 when Naperville was a sleepy small town of about 4,500 NCC, being adjacent to downtown, was certainly right in the center of Naperville.
Currently, it's in the northern part of the city as over the years the population has expanded in a southerly direction. Wheaton, to Naperville's north, also grew southward forcing Naperville to expand mostly in the same direction into Will County now as well as DuPage.

Boy, I know the boards are hopping when we're diving into the minutiae of city planning and historical population trends. Time for me to dust off my treatise on local flora and their influence on arthropod proliferation.

Quote from: bopol on March 05, 2025, 09:07:16 PMThe trouble with the system is that it doesn't work against good teams.  They won't panic, they have players that can bring it up the court in pressure and can make good passes and find the layup.  Hence, Grinnell will be competitive in their conference and against weaker competition, but can't get over the top.  It's a path to take a bad team to above average - a load of 17-8 seasons...but it won't make a Top 25 team.

I guess the coach is slowing it down a bit...this ain't the Grinnell you've seen in the past.

I remember a 2009 Grinnell game versus Wheaton. The Thunder won 130-109 and set a school single-game record with an 80% field goal percentage (52 of 65). Tim McCrary scored 32 points on 13-of-15 shooting, Kent Raymond scored 31 points on 10-for-13 shooting, and even the offensively-challenged Jake Carwell scored a career-high 25 points on 12-for-14 shooting.

Quote from: Green Beer on March 06, 2025, 09:57:42 AMYeah. I can't see why a top tier would even want to play in "the system." Sure, there is technically a starting 5 at the beginning of the game, but the best player gets no more playing time than the bottom 10th player (assuming I understand the rotation correctly). It's truly selfless play. If you're an elite player, you're sacrificing your stats and potential personal achievements for the good of the entire team. I'm not saying it's impossible, just hard for me to visualize. Good on you if you can embrace that mindset.

Uhhh the best players in the system do not do the sacrificing: they do the shooting. John Grotberg (Class of 2009) averaged almost 30 points per game and scored nearly 3,000 career points. 4 of their guys in the last 20 years scored more than 2,000 career points.
Remember when Jack Taylor scored over 100 points in a game TWICE?

Quote from: faunch on March 04, 2025, 09:12:30 AM

Quote from: Retired Old Rat on March 03, 2025, 06:16:39 PM

Quote from: scottiedawg on March 03, 2025, 02:04:04 PM

Quote from: faunch on March 03, 2025, 01:46:58 PMHow does U of Chicago get to host with an 18-7 record, pool C bid and 34 NPI?

Because Illinois Wesleyan women's basketball are hosting.

St. Johns got jobbed because Chicago is within 500 miles of all three schools in the pod, St. Johns is not.

I guess the good news is St. Johns often does not do well with home court advantage.  Still, I'd have liked the opportunity to attend a game.

On google maps SJU is 498 miles from U of Chicago.

The NCAA is all about that 500 mile radius for making pairings, and has been for decades. Carnegie Mellon out in Pittsburgh has traveled to play NCAA tennis at UChicago multiple times over the years. All about saving costs on the flights.
UChicago's central location in the D3 landscape makes them ideal to host NCAA postseason in many sports. Being a major metro hub means anyone can get there.

Good to see Knoche back at UChicago to get the program back on track, after Gilcrist's trainwreck tenure.

https://athletics.uchicago.edu/news/2025/2/5/general-craig-knoche-named-head-football-coach-at-the-university-of-chicago.aspx

Not basketball related, but just saw the sad news of the passing of Wheaton College's legendary soccer coach Joe Bean. He will be greatly missed.

https://athletics.wheaton.edu/news/2025/2/13/mens-soccer-wheaton-college-remembers-former-mens-soccer-coach-joe-bean-1939-2025.aspx

A sad day for soccer and the Wheaton College community with the passing of legendary coach Joe Bean.
A great coach and better man. He will be greatly missed.

https://athletics.wheaton.edu/news/2025/2/13/mens-soccer-wheaton-college-remembers-former-mens-soccer-coach-joe-bean-1939-2025.aspx