Quote from: Gregory Sager on September 01, 2026, 03:55:24 PMCarson Lewis is your nephew? Had a chance to talk with him once last season. Seems like a nice young man.

Thanks for the 411 on how NAIAs make the financials work. Speaking of nephews, I had one who was on a basketball scholarship at Goshen a few years ago. I couldn't figure out how a classic small and underfunded school like Goshen made it work. Seems reasonable that they're doing the same sort of maneuvering with merit-based aid as Defiance (and probably a lot of other small NAIA schools).

Yup my brother and I played at Defiance in the late 90's Carson is at NP, my youngest is a freshman playing at Rose.  We want a non conference game between them! you got a couple good young QB's will be interesting to see how you replace your 2 WR's from last year...that 4.3 speed they had isnt something you see in D3!

Quote from: Gregory Sager on August 31, 2026, 04:13:46 PMI suspect that Manchester might be leaving D3 for the NAIA for the same reason as Defiance: financial ill health. Manchester can now drop below the 6-6 sponsorship threshold mandated by D3 if it feels that that sort of belt-tightening is necessary. The Crossroads League doesn't sponsor football, so I wouldn't be surprised if Man U decides to jettison its football program.l

I had to look up 6-6 Sponsorship, had not heard that term before.  I don't think that is likely the play here as they currently have 9 Mens and 9 Women sports and their undergrad admissions per google is between 915-988 and if undergrad is under 1,000 you only have to be at 5-5.  As a Defiance grad it was 100% about money in the move to the NAIA and they way they did it was different than what I had thought it would be. (below is my research, no information from the school directly)

• Improve Financials by Adding not subtracting - moved Cheer/Dance and Esports from Club to Varsity, added Men's Volleyball, Women's Bowling, Women's Flag Football, Women's Wrestling, Coed Powerlifting as Varsity sports since the moved to NAIA.  less restrictions in NAIA making it easier to add.  more sports = more students and more tuition
• Reduced Travel Costs outside of Football - eliminate long trips for all of the smaller sports.  pretty sure football is similar to how it was in D3
• Increase number of students via scholarship but without increasing total Aid - Most say adding scholarships are expensive, but not if you reduce merit at the same time.  you can give the same total aid $ but athletic scholarships can add flexibility to where you invest.  Merit is a game to maximize tuition based on a parents ability to pay, schools that market how much merit they provide typically overprices their baseline tuition, the average net spend is what matters.  Defiance actually reduced its tuition by 25% driving more people to apply but I doubt it really changed the net price to attend.  More flexibility with scholarships vs merit and a lower list price of tuition = increase in total number of students.  In the first year enrollment increase 11% and freshman was up something like 80% and numbers for this year are projected to have another similar increase over last year. 

The move is not for everyone and I absolutely was questioning it when it happened but it sounds like things have dramatically improved at the school so kudos to the admin for pulling it off.  I am still a D3 guy! 

Good Luck to North Park this year.  My nephew was your QB the back half of last year so I will be following the Vikings!

https://heartlandconf.org/news/2026/7/30/general-hcac-and-oac-announce-innovative-strategic-alliance-to-support-division-iii-student-athletes.aspx

Interesting conference alliance between HCAC and OAC just announced.  https://heartlandconf.org/news/2026/7/30/general-hcac-and-oac-announce-innovative-strategic-alliance-to-support-division-iii-student-athletes.aspx

I am guessing this isn't so Manchester Football finally gets a crack at Mount Union 

very creative way to protect against the inevitable moves some schools will be making (aka Defiance to NAIA) or protects against the risk of closure due to financial issues.   Pretty sure that why Bluffton tired a partial merger with Findlay that fell apart.  I had not heard of OAC schools in financial trouble but protects against more like JC moving leagues.

saw Westminster play at Case Western week 3 this year.  Big Physical team with a solid running game.  dynamic skill guy that can score anywhere, housed a Kickoff right as Case made a comeback.  pretty sure it was their RB.  Lot could have changed from 2 mo ago but will be a good matchup for MSJ.  this one will be dictated in the trenches

Quote from: sac on October 01, 2025, 11:17:11 PM

Quote from: ziggy on September 30, 2025, 11:18:11 AM

Quote from: sac on September 29, 2025, 06:24:03 PMI believe that play will be used as a "learning video" at future referee jamborees.

In light of this, how shocking would it be if the league doesn't adopt an instant replay system next season?

I say this cynically because how can you not, but would replay have even made a difference to the referee when they are making a subjective ruling on a rule they don't seem to grasp very well.  ie "football move"

As an Ohio State fan I still hate Refs and their grasp of "Football Move" with the fumble that was overturned vs Clemson in the semifinals a couple years ago.  (but at least I did not have to experience playing against Burrow's LSU in the Natty!).

Judgement calls are always painful on replay.   My POV Hope 100% got screwed and I probably would have been thrown out of the game if I was playing just based on what I would have said!  But 24hr rule has to kick in for the players and move on because the league is still wide open and cant let it hangover to another week.

Quote from: GrizFan on September 12, 2025, 03:36:56 PM

Quote from: 70_dc_alum on September 11, 2025, 03:44:37 PMI was shocked at the Franklin ONU game.  Does Leonard have them back or did ONU have a bad day letting up a fast start?  will be fun to see over the next few weeks.  Ill be at the ONU vs Hiedelberg game on Sat so will have an in person view.  ONU QB I have know for years and has one of the best arms I have ever seen and he got them back into it before they ran out of time

Franklin looked much improved, and they played with enthusiasm which has been lacking for 5 years.  I don't think that they can keep up with Hope, but they should be a much more competitive team this season.  The ONU QB may have a strong arm, but he has horrible accuracy.  He missed a lot of open receivers. As a former Springboro Panther coach, I was secretly rooting for him.     

As a current Springboro coach (7th grade) and my kid is a sr WR  I too was pulling for him 🤣. Crazy first half tonight vs Wayne.

I was at the Rose game, Depauw may have graduated a lot from their defense but they are just as good as they were last year and that is going to finish as a top 10 defense.  They have an impressive power running game, with a physical OL.  Rose will be fine as the season moves on and the O gets some experience.

I was shocked at the Franklin ONU game.  Does Leonard have them back or did ONU have a bad day letting up a fast start?  will be fun to see over the next few weeks.  Ill be at the ONU vs Hiedelberg game on Sat so will have an in person view.  ONU QB I have know for years and has one of the best arms I have ever seen and he got them back into it before they ran out of time

Quote from: DagarmanSpartan on July 17, 2025, 05:14:37 PMGlad to hear your son had such a good impression.  What position does he play, and what is he interested in studying?  Has he already made an application for admission?

He is a WR, plays Slot and does hold an offer from CWRU and others in that same academic tier.  Looking to go into Biology/Chemistry/PreMed so clearly a great school for him.  Not a 4.5 speed demon but advanced technical route runner that will catch everything in traffic across the middle.  We play in one of the bigger schools in the state down here in SW Ohio and have one of the best Jr QB's in Midwest (power4 Recruit that will explode this year in rankings) with a couple outside WR's that are 4.5 burners which will be tough to defend. If you protect the deep my boy will eat you alive underneath and if you double down on him will go overtop. 

Even if he blows up this year he wants to stay D3 for academics and CWRU is in the top 3.  We will likely be there for a gameday visit for that first home game vs Westminster.

Im just happy to have the chance to get back to the D3 boards cause my school Defiance went NAIA and they have been really bad for the last 20yrs so I had nothing to talk about     

I attended the CWRU prospect camp this weekend with my son who is going into his Sr yr of High School.  Was my first time there, great campus and cool stadium.  Great coaching staff...left a great impression on him.

I went to the MSJ v Rose game.  Rose had their chances, dropped multiple INTs in the first half that could have changed the way the game went.  The game was won in the trenches, MSJ QB had all day to throw and had a ton of room to take off an scramble as they just ran the ends up & the Rose QB was under pressure the whole game.  In the running game MSJ pounded the rock and put the game away especially in the second half.  When you own the trenches you win most of the time.  Been a long time since i have been to a d3 game, my kid is now starting recruiting, it was a great time.   

Defiance first year in the NAIA is still HCAC heavy with the 2024 schedule released.  love it still ends with Bluffton.  Wish it still had @MSJ but my kid goes to Rose so maybe i can go nuisance Sokol there.

2024 Defiance Football Schedule
Sept. 7 at Concordia (Mich.), 1 p.m.
Sept. 14 at Saint Francis (Ind.), 6 p.m.
Sept. 21 vs. Judson (Ill.), 1 p.m. (Home Opener)
Sept. 28 vs. Siena Heights, 1 p.m.
Oct. 5 vs. Manchester, 1 p.m. (Homecoming)
Oct. 12 at Saint Xavier, 2 p.m.
Oct. 19 at Rose-Hulman, 1:30 p.m.
Nov. 2 at Taylor (Ind.), 1 p.m.
Nov. 9 vs. Hanover, 1 p.m. (Senior Day)
Nov. 16 at Bluffton, 1:30 p.m.

I have not figured this one out either outside it allows Bluffton to take advantage of a larger resource pool which reduces their costs.  the whole the schools combine but keep their mascots and Bluffton stays D3 and Findlay stays D2 with no changes to athletic teams has me wondering what this is really.  is it still 2 separate schools but merged administration?  Agree this is likely the first step of a larger plan.  would imagine this hurts bluffton recruiting, why go where they may no longer exist in a short time frame...if not then why isn't their more info of what is happening

Quote from: Darryl Nester on October 13, 2023, 02:39:34 PM

Quote from: GrizFan on October 07, 2023, 03:12:22 PM

Quote from: dc_has_been on October 05, 2023, 10:48:43 AM
It seems to be the right move for Defiance due to all the current issues they are dealing with (i.e., accreditation, enrollment, and so on).  Hopefully, this changes their trajectory as an academic institution.

Schools with enrollment and financial issues do NOT makes moves which drastically increase their costs.  Schools tend to move from D2 or NAIA to D3 when they need to cut costs or if they have financial issues.  Defiance has accreditation, enrollment and financial issues.  Now they have to find a way to fund 36 full ride football scholarships plus hundreds of other scholarships just to be competitive.  Moving to D2 may gain prestige but NOT a move to a less prestigious NAIA.  Just ask Thomas More!  Big mistake!

I don't have any additional input about what they will have to spend scholarship-wise in order to be competitive, but at the recent HCAC administrative meeting*, their AD summarized what they had considered in making the decision, and one expected benefit of the move is a considerably reduced travel budget: They will be near the geographic center of their new conference (the WHAC), with their maximum travel time in the neighborhood of three hours—so no overnight stays for conference play. (And as a side benefit, less missed class time.)

Regarding the NAIA being less prestigious, I don't disagree. I recall when Bluffton, Defiance, and other members of the old HBCC made the transition from NAIA to NCAA D3 thirty-plus years ago, and how not long after that, the NCAA had to put a pause on letting in NAIA schools.

*I cannot share everything that was said in that meeting, of course, but this particular item did not feel confidential.

they have stated the less travel expense as a key reason in the announcements they put out explaining the move.  Reality is only Hanover and Transylvania are the only 2 overnights that you have to do as MSJ is right at 3hrs. The new conference for football has Olivet Nazarene, Judson, St Francis IL all over in the Chicago Area which is about 4hrs.  Its not really a factor for football but all of the other sports I can see how this will be a lot better.   

When it comes to Scholarships, in one of the letter's they send out  I think it said they will be giving out close the same grant money as before but now it can be packaged up differently so their costs do not increase but they have a lot more flexibility on how to give it out.   if done correctly i can see how this can be leveraged to increase enrollment.  hand out a bunch of partial athletic scholarships to folks that may not have qualified for needs/merit grants before.  Spend the same amount but spread the wealth and get more to attend. 

Will be interesting to see how this all pans out.  I have no idea who I am supposed to hate now that its all new teams.  I am going with disliking Sienna Heights just cause they are in Adrian.  Either way that game for the Hammer this year with Bluffton will be huge and could determine who owns the hammer forever!

been away from the boards for a while but came back just to say DC got screwed on that last call.  he was in by a yard!

it's amazing what a little experience will do for a team and the Defiance offense finally has some seasoned vets playing.  looking forward to seeing them in the top half of the league standings.