FB: North Coast Athletic Conference

[ADL70]

Don't see any Texans on the roster.  Bunches from Cali and Fla though.

[Bishopleftiesdad]

Yeah OWU has never drawn very strongly from Texas.

[GillCJ1]

Well, if there are any OWU lurkers here planning to make the trip down to Belton, I wish you safe travels and a great time.  The current weather outlook shows 50% chance of rain/thunderstorms and 88 as the high.  Of course, this far out, it could go either way.  Here's hoping for good playing conditions!

[DFWCrufan]

Gotta com on down, at least once for the Cruthedral

[umhb2001]

Any write ups or video interviews of the team? Does the SID create game-day notes?

[wally_wabash]

Any write ups or video interviews of the team? Does the SID create game-day notes?

Pretty sweet preview in Kickoff.   

[HCAlum86]

Only week of the year where we can cheer for all NCAC teams in the same weekend. Good luck to everyone; I also am excited to see how OWU fares on the journey to Texas.

To the CRU posters on here, I stopped through your campus at the tail end of last year. First class facility and some of the friendliest people in Belton, TX.

[Desertraider]

Out of curiosity - any fears of Hiram cutting athletic programs (specifically football) in the near future? I know they are on financial watch and had to make cost cuts to close a budget shortfall. I am just wondering how far they may go moving forward.

[Bishopleftiesdad]

Not sure it is a problem Raider. Here is an article from 2015 about the watch list.
http://www.ohio.com/news/break-news/hiram-among-hundreds-of-u-s-colleges-under-federal-monitoring-for-financial-management-1.579436
I could no find anything more recent. There is no mention of cutting programs,

[HCAlum86]

Out of curiosity - any fears of Hiram cutting athletic programs (specifically football) in the near future? I know they are on financial watch and had to make cost cuts to close a budget shortfall. I am just wondering how far they may go moving forward.

Actually, I have heard rumblings of the exact opposite. From what I have heard, expansion of the lacrosse, baseball, softball, and football programs are prioritized to bring more stable admission trends. Not certain what awaits the other sports.

Right now, the budget will affect niche classes as well as some campus life offerings.

We shall see, I like the new president. We're in good hands. She puts quality over quantity which will pay off in the long term.

[Desertraider]

Not sure it is a problem Raider. Here is an article from 2015 about the watch list.
http://www.ohio.com/news/break-news/hiram-among-hundreds-of-u-s-colleges-under-federal-monitoring-for-financial-management-1.579436
I could no find anything more recent. There is no mention of cutting programs,

I saw that article but I also saw this one:
http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2016/08/hiram_college_lays_off_13_as_i.html#incart_river_home

[Dr. Acula]

This part at the end was interesting...

"Hiram also has dropped the requirement of the SAT or ACT for prospective students who have taken college preparatory classes and have a 2.8 or higher grade point average." 

[HCAlum86]

This part at the end was interesting...

"Hiram also has dropped the requirement of the SAT or ACT for prospective students who have taken college preparatory classes and have a 2.8 or higher grade point average."

I've heard that as well. A tad misleading, however, as they've began requiring early applications for the honors programs such as the Garfield Institute. Further, scholarship recipients will be required to maintain a 3.0 to keep their scholarship as is.

[formerd3db]

Not sure it is a problem Raider. Here is an article from 2015 about the watch list.
http://www.ohio.com/news/break-news/hiram-among-hundreds-of-u-s-colleges-under-federal-monitoring-for-financial-management-1.579436
I could no find anything more recent. There is no mention of cutting programs,

Out of curiosity - any fears of Hiram cutting athletic programs (specifically football) in the near future? I know they are on financial watch and had to make cost cuts to close a budget shortfall. I am just wondering how far they may go moving forward.

Actually, I have heard rumblings of the exact opposite. From what I have heard, expansion of the lacrosse, baseball, softball, and football programs are prioritized to bring more stable admission trends. Not certain what awaits the other sports.

Right now, the budget will affect niche classes as well as some campus life offerings.

We shall see, I like the new president. We're in good hands. She puts quality over quantity which will pay off in the long term.

Out of curiosity - any fears of Hiram cutting athletic programs (specifically football) in the near future? I know they are on financial watch and had to make cost cuts to close a budget shortfall. I am just wondering how far they may go moving forward.

A most important and challenging situation.  However, it can be done.  Just a few short years ago, Adrian College in our MIAA faced the very same problems.  With enrollment dipping well below 1,000 students for the first time in decades, the new (and current President) proposed a very innovative yet somewhat controversial plan for the college, which received much "flack" from other administrators and even coaches in the league and many others, yet was supported by Adrian's Trustees.  Adrian added men's and women's lacrosse and men's and women's ice hockey as well as individual skating as varsity sports (actually, men's lacrosse had been a full club-collegiate sport in the National Collegiate Lacrosse Association for several years).  By bringing in some 30 student-athletes for each of these sports, it bolstered and now has sustained enrollment in the 1700 range, which is where they want to stay as I understand it (they could be more, but desire to remain at that level at least for now).  This was obviously helped by building their own on-campus ice arena which was essentially financed by two huge donations and is thus paid for.  By renting this out also for public skating time, this brings in additional revenue.  Despite no athletic scholarships, this model has sustained itself and definitely helps pay for the cost of running these sports, including coaching salaries.  Student-athletes, especially in hockey, are now constitute a steady contribution to the enrollment and financial income to the school.  This has been successful such that they even have 3 club-collegiate hockey teams, 2 DIII and 1 DII (in addition to the NCAA varsity) which play in front of their full arena, which is quite amazing (one of the DIII teams has won the national championship twice and the NCAA varsity has made it to the DIII Frozen Four).

Overall, I can't believe that Hiram couldn't be successful with a similar plan.  It can be done.  It appears that perhaps with the support of the sports as HCAlum has mentioned that it might be leaning that way?  Anyway, thanks for the update info.

[smedindy]

It would be sad for Hiram to drop programs. I think their unique program should be marketed a bit more to prospective students and that could also help admissons.