The CCIW's collective ERA right now is 6.35. That's not an indication of the strength of opposing non-conference hitters, either, because after one weekend of CCIW play the league's collective ERA through nine games is 6.29.

The league's overall ERA is up around eight-tenths of a run over last season, and the CCIW-only ERA is up about a run and a half.

Either the recruitment of position players has improved, or it's getting harder and harder to find good pitching for this league.

Quote from: Ron Boerger on March 25, 2025, 01:24:49 PMWish them well.  Their endowment is tiny ($63.0M in the latest NACUBO report)

That's not particularly tiny by D3 standards. There are plenty of D3 institutions with endowments smaller than $63m.

Quote from: Ron Boerger on March 25, 2025, 01:24:49 PMand with 1639 undergrads (per the DoE Scorecard) they really had no business in D1.

That said, they should get a nice little check for making March Madness even though they lost their play-in game.

D3 is clearly a better fit for St. Francis than D1, and the PAC is an ideal league for the Red Flash in terms of geography and institutional profile. They will probably miss D1 men's basketball competition pretty keenly -- this year's D1 tourney play-in appearance was not the sudden emergence of a johnny-come-lately, as the Red Flash have appeared in the NIT once and the CIT three times over the past decade. It's a program that has been playing with the big boys since the very beginnings of scholarship college basketball back in the dim mists of time. It's also the alma mater of the great Maurice Stokes, the stellar NBA Rookie of the Year and Basketball Hall of Famer whose career, and ultimately life, was cut short by a tragic injury suffered on the court; the Red Flash's home court, DeGol Arena, is located in the Maurice Stokes Athletic Center.

I suspect that St. Francis is the canary in the coal mine with regard to undersized D1 schools with modest endowments. I think we'll see a bunch of schools with similar profiles reclassify from D1, although I doubt that all of them will follow St. Francis's path and become D3 schools.

Arizona high school basketball has six classifications, with 6A being the biggest schools and 1A being the smallest. Each classification has its own state tournament, with the 16 highest-rated teams from among the small-school classifications in the state (3A, 2A, and 1A) playing not in their own classifications' tournaments but in a separate tournament called the Copper Division. The school from which these Wheaton-bound brothers hail, Valley Christian, won the Copper Division tournament this season.

I don't have any more of an idea how good these brothers are than anybody else who contributes to this board, but I do know that the Grier brothers don't appear to be the best players on their team. I say that because they have a teammate who is a junior who averaged over 27 ppg this season.

Speaking as the former editor-in-chief of his alma mater's student newspaper, that's a remarkably well-researched, well-written, and highly informative piece of journalism. The author and The Bachelor are to be commended.

Yeah, that's my bad. I meant PacWest, not GSAC. My point about APU avoiding future orphanhood by joining the SCIAC, rather than already being an orphan, stands.

Quote from: Ralph Turner on March 16, 2025, 03:48:56 PM

Quote from: ziggy on March 14, 2025, 10:44:51 AM

Quote from: Ralph Turner on February 19, 2025, 07:28:35 PMHmmm.  What is the C2C item on the agenda?

I think we have an answer to this now that the report has been posted, assuming I am reading and understanding everything correctly...

First, from the meeting report:

QuoteRequest from the Coast-To-Coast Athletic Conference. The committee approved the request from the Coast-To-Coast Conference to waive the current application of Bylaw 20.9.1.2 (composition of conference) and apply the new legislated standard immediately.

One of the legislative items at the D3 Convention in January was to align the membership standards between multi-sport and single-sport conferences. Previously a multi-sport conference required a minimum of seven members while a single-sport conference required six. The legislative action item changed this to require six across the board.

With six core members for the 2024-2025 academic year I believe this would have been year one of the grace period for retaining the conference's automatic qualifier to national tournaments. It seems that is no longer the case with an approved waiver to apply the new standard immediately.

Now, the C2C will fall below six with Mount Mary departing for NAIA but my interpretation of the situation is that this waiver delaying the AQ grace period will be enough for the C2C to avoid any seasons without Pool A access between losing Mount Mary and Regent and JWU-Charlotte reaching Provisional Year 3 and counting toward the membership total required by the bylaws.

A beautiful Sunday afternoon pondering the metaphysical contemplations on a secular humanist C2C fan expressing gratitude to the late Pat Robertson for founding Regent University, helping the conference to preserve its Pool A status.

Obviously a case of Pat using his pull from the Great Beyond to divert the path of a hurricane away from the C2C.   

Quote from: jknezek on March 17, 2025, 03:41:31 PMThat's a good pickup for the SCIAC. Should ease scheduling.

Definitely, and while Kuiper is right about Azusa Pacific not being up to par with the rest of the SCIAC in terms of academic reputation this is perhaps a response to the ongoing problem of being an island conference in terms of D3 geography. Gray Fox might want to chime in on this, but in some respects this looks a bit like Chapman, Pt. 2 in terms of SCIAC expansion. I mean, the island conference problem is only going to get worse, because in this current financial climate for D3 schools I have to think that cross-continental travel for D3 athletic programs for anything other than national tournaments and meets will diminish.

The big question for me in terms of APU joining the SCIAC is how the Cougars will fit into the SCIAC landscape in terms of actual competition. APU has flexed a lot of muscle since the days when Christian Okoye was running roughshod over NAIA tacklers as a Cougar RB in the early '80s. APU was a major all-sports power in NAIA before it moved to D2, and it's finished in the Top 20 every year of D2's version of the Learfield Directors' Cup and won all of the Commissioner's Cup trophies in the GSAC since joining that league. Granted, the GSAC isn't what it used to be in terms of D2 competition since losing all-sports powerhouses such as Grand Canyon and Cal Baptist over the past dozen years, but that's still impressive -- and it makes me wonder if APU is going to be the 600-pound gorilla of the SCIAC, even after the scholarships are gone.

Quote from: jknezek on March 17, 2025, 03:41:31 PMI'd love to see DIII pick up a D2 conference in the southeast and fill in some holes. Something like D2's SIAC moving to D3 would really help with scheduling for the the southeastern D3s. And I still struggle to see the benefits of D2 for smaller private schools.

Everytime I hear about an E&H or a Ferrum I just shake my head. I get it, they are trying to stand out in a crowded D3 environment, but I find it hard to believe it makes economic sense.

Enthusiastically agree on both counts.

Quote from: jknezek on March 17, 2025, 03:41:31 PMGood job picking up Azusa Pacific. They were a D2 orphan, so it makes sense.

Only in football, and only in a theoretical future sense. That orphanhood would've only existed had APU stayed in its current league, D2's Great Southwest Athletic Conference, because the GSAC doesn't sponsor football. The decisions to transition to D3 and the SCIAC, and to reinstate the Cougars football program after abandoning it half a decade ago, seem to have been made in tandem -- or at least that's how Azusa Pacific is presenting it.

Quote from: Kuiper on March 11, 2025, 06:59:40 PMInteresting data on DIII enrollment/financial issues in the midwestern conferences

https://x.com/d3bubble/status/1899076542493315516

Ohio schools have suffered brutal drops in enrollment over the last decade.  John Carroll with a 25% drop and Wittenberg and Capital with 32% drops?

Trine is the glaring outlier of robust health in that list.

Moral of the story: Put a golf course on your campus.

Quote from: BigPoppa on February 27, 2025, 07:26:51 PMThis seems like a baseball trip to the Hawaiian Islands could be in the future for the Vikings. Would be great for those kids to get to play in front their home state family and friends.

Would be great for their play-by-play broadcaster to go with them to call the games as well.

Quote from: Pat Coleman on February 26, 2025, 10:58:26 AMI would trim that to F&M, Wooster and Hope. Hampden-Sydney has had a couple of big peaks of competitiveness but they were practically two decades apart. Augustana I could see in there especially with the historical aspect, though.

Augustana is 44-19 in D3 tourney play, and those 44 wins put Augie in the top five all-time in tourney victories. Augie's .698 winning percentage in the tournament is in the top ten all-time for programs that have played at least ten D3 tournament games. Augie has appeared in six Final Fours, which is tied for third-best all-time. And the Rock Islanders have played in four national championship games (and lost them all, of course; they're the Buffalo Bills or the Minnesota Vikings of D3 men's basketball); that ties them with Williams, UW-Oshkosh, UW-Platteville, UWSP, and Wittenberg behind only North Park for second place in that important category. And let's not overlook the fact that Augustana and Wittenberg are the only programs in D3 men's basketball that have reached the Final Four in four different decades, or that Augie and Witt are the only programs in D3 MBB that have played in a national championship game in three different decades.

(Wittenberg has a similar pedigree to Augie's, except that the Tigers have actually won a national championship. Among other things, Witt is tied with Hope for the most D3 tourney appearances, each having had their ticket to the dance punched 30 times. But I can see why people would omit Witt from these blueblood conversations, given that since the COVID stoppage Witt is only four games above .500 with zero D3 tourney appearances.)

Anyone who's going to indulge in this dubious "who's a D3 men's basketball blueblood and who isn't?" exercise has to admit that Augustana is one of the best programs to never have won a title.

Quote from: Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan) on February 26, 2025, 01:09:12 PM1) There's no major incompatible with athletics at the D3 level, IF both the professors and the coaches are willing to be flexible.

2) You can't use a one off example for any general argument.  Because one person does something does not mean everyone can do it.

3) This is only an issue if a student changes course during their college experience, otherwise it was a failure of communication during the recruitment process.

Yes, on all three points!

Quote from: IC798891 on February 26, 2025, 12:48:51 PM

Quote from: Gregory Sager on February 25, 2025, 04:32:23 PM

Quote from: IC798891 on February 25, 2025, 03:52:21 PM

Quote from: Gregory Sager on February 25, 2025, 02:21:31 PMIn short, if it was possible in the past to study pre-med or engineering and still play a sport, and that's now impossible in spite of the fact that the school's academic demands haven't changed, then there is a problem with that sport from an academic (i.e., the paramount objective of being a college student) point of view.

I disagree with the idea that seems to be getting floated here, namely "If every single major a school offers isn't possible for all student-athlete then it proves that the school's emphasis on that sport reflects a fundamental problem that must be fixed."

That's not what I said, though. I've already stated that some majors (e.g., music) are historically incompatible with athletic participation because of time management and resource inflexibility.

Quote from: IC798891 on February 25, 2025, 03:52:21 PM2, Certain majors may be largely incompatible with other time-intensive activities, such as athletics, but that is not, in and of itself, indicative of misguided athletic-centric priorities by the institution.

I guess that we have to agree to disagree, then, because where there's one major that all of a sudden becomes a no-go due to a coach-mandated increased demand upon a student-athlete's time, there's more. Next thing you know, you've got a team filled with business majors and communications majors because the student-athletes ran out of viable options for balancing schoolwork and athletics (and because they're steered into those choices by the coaches and by their older teammates).

This is just slippery slope crap.

If you can't see the difference between someone pointing out that being pre-med may be difficult to pull off because and "The entire team is all business majors because what else could they possibly study?" then you're not discussing the problem in good faith.

If I wanted to engage in such bad faith arguments, I could point out that Myron Rolle completed his pre-med requirements in 2.5 years, earning a Rhodes scholarship in the process, while playing All-American football for Florida State, so prove to me that a backup D3 shortstop not wanting to major in engineering comes down to coach pressure, rather than a personal skill issue with regard to studying inefficiently.

I resent your insinuations. I don't see why I have to defend my integrity to you. If you can't discuss this politely without impugning my honesty, then this conversation is over.

A lotta thank-yous to send out:

* To Rico Powell, who made his one and only season as a Viking a memorable one. For all of his multitude of basketball talents, in the end it'll be the combative fierceness he demonstrated, both on the floor underneath the basket and off the floor trying to overcome his injuries, that I remember most about him.

* To TJ Gardner and Taijon Barry, a couple of guys who came in as juco transfers a season ago and were basically stuck playing supporting roles off of the bench. This season they earned the chance to be big-minutes guys and to make something of their senior years, and they each grabbed that opportunity with both hands. They were two of the biggest reasons why North Park outperformed the CCIW preseason prediction for the Vikings so dramatically.

* To Kyren Gardner, who also came in as a juco guy two years ago and announced his arrival in startling fashion with that crowd-gasp dunk at DePaul in the preseason exhibition game. Kyren really started to round out his game at the end of this season; it's just a shame that he doesn't have another year left to build upon it.

* To John Gaines, who struggled with a hand injury suffered in December and couldn't really get himself going, and finally had to pack it in, have a cast put on, and call it a season: Thanks for your efforts, and for being so supportive of your teammates even after being sidelined to street clothes.

* And especially to the trio who arrived at Foster & Kedzie three years ago and represent the most seasoned of the Vikings seniors: Preston Bax III, Lance Nelson, and Davante Robinson. Preston was the defensive ace at the front of the press and the team's wild card; Lance is one of the best glue players to ever wear Vikings royal blue and gold; and Davante arrived as a spot-up sharpshooter and ended up being a lot more than just a one-trick pony thanks to all of the hard work he put in to make himself a more complete player. Thank you, especially, gentlemen, because you were here for the entire ride from the point when Sean and Ed took over the program and started breathing new life into it with that memorable 2022-23 run to the Sweet Sixteen.

Again, thanks to you all for your hard work and your efforts. God bless you, and lots of happiness ahead for each of you.

Quote from: lmitzel on February 25, 2025, 11:14:44 PMMaybe the most underrated part that we leave out: North Park's Tristan Arneaud missed a fast break layup with maybe about 30 seconds left that would have totally changed the calculus of that ending, then proceeded to foul Terrance Moncrief, who hit both free throws to make it 91-89 and setting up the photo finish.

I felt terrible for Tristan for rimming out that cherry-picker layup attempt, but, as my broadcast partner Aaron Coleman said, "That's why you use the backboard."

Quote from: lmitzel on February 25, 2025, 11:14:44 PMGood job on the call as always tonight, Greg!

Thanks, Lucas!