FB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[Mr. Ypsi]

sflzman,

Not that it really matters (and matters even less now), but I'm still curious - was Mason's fumble at the end of the game a give-away or a take-away?  That chintzy new scoreboard of yours doesn't even have slo-mo close-up replay, and it all happened within a sea of very large bodies!

Speaking of the scoreboard (which is VERY nice, despite my crack above), you might want to cue your scoreboard operator to be more careful during pre-game check-out.  As I walked by the stadium, the scoreboard read: Scots 0, Guests 99.  I reported the incident to the Titan faithful, and all agreed it sounded like a pretty good omen!

[ThunderHead]

From my experience, at the D3 level, the MIAA isn't all that well respected within the midwest by the high school athletes. As a result, most guys would rather look toward a D2 opportunity (regardless of how far fetched playing time is) rather then go down to the D3 level.

Rather D3 football is that bad or not, the truth is perception is reality when it comes to 17 year old kids leaving high school.

I agree with fromerd3er, this most likely will not change anytime in the near future. Then again, not so long ago, GVSU wasn't looked at as a viable spot to play football at either. So who knows.

[D306]

GVSU is a HOT school right now, and has more than enough people to be a D1 school. More students than many D1 schools.

GVSU became well know for football. through 2 events from what I see. 
First thing was a few Detroit Lions players back in the day attended GVSU and were local Michigan guys. great free pub. Had several very good coachs in a row whom have moved on to bigger and better football programs.

Second thing GVSU brought in and brings in many D1 guys who did not get playing time, so they are looking for the playing time,in Junior / Senior years. GVSU also brings in a lot of Juco players.
Built a great team and the recruiting improved, the Campus is also extremely nice, Academic Reputation and the area are growing very fast.

Hillsdale is a great option I see many high level potential MIAA students go to Hillsdale, they have won the GVSU game 2-3 years in a row now. Great academic school. on par with or superior to the MIAA.

These 2 schools have pulled a large number of the SE Michigan talent that in the past had attended MIAA schools.  There is a couple NIAI schools as well, and another that just brought on football, in Ann Arbor area.

This combined with the comments that many have posted pull a lot of the talent away. Ohio D2 schools, and some of the higher caliper Ohio. Indiana schools are pulling great lakes area talent.

last thought recently Wayne State has re appeared in the Football world, nice stadium, pulling a lot of SE Michigan talent with live at home cut cost thoughts in this tight economy.

[OC_SID]

sflzman:

Hey, I should know this, yet somehow do not recall right now (that could be for several reasons , some of which I don't want to admit !).  In following up on the previously asked question by another poster, why did Alma schedule W&L this year?  Was it because they just hadn't filled their last non-conference spot or did someone cancel out on them?  Of course, we know that the Adrian/UW-W game was cancelled and the reason for their long distance trip out east, but I can't remember the reason for Alma's putting W&L on their schedule.  Please enlighten us sflzman, if you can/are able to.  Thanks.

Well originally there was a home and home with Capital (i think) starting last year, but they cancelled and we scheduled Kentucky Wesleyan (the arrogant D2 team that we went down and nearly beat with the awful QB situation last year) but after last year's scare, and the fact that they'd have to come up here they cancelled on us which left an empty schedule space to be filled....

KY Wesleyan is VERY arrogant and very beatable.  They were NAIA and had the same arrogance when I played against them in 1998 and 1999.

I wondered why Alma's schedule was like that.  Thanks for the info.  Hopefully next year's schedule doesn't have 6 road games.   

Six road games is a bummer!

Olivet has six road games this year. It is home, away, away, away, bye week, away, home, away, home, away, home.

And in 2012, we will also have six road games. It is away, away, away, home, home, away, bye week, home, home, away and away.

[sac]

 
I wonder how much the MIAA talent pool is depleted by the number of solid D2 schools in the state / region.  I think this conversation has come up before.

GVSU, Ferris State and SVSU have large rosters for D2  (at least I think)  filled with walk-on's who would do well in D3.  All 3 have over 100 players listed, several players without numbers.

Michigan has 8 D2 programs, compare that to Indiana (4), Illinois(3), Ohio(5) and Wisconsin(1) and its easy to see what a difference it makes in level of competition.

That's between 200 to 300 kids who could be scattered across MIAA rosters.

I did not realize there were 8 D2 schools in Michigan, although in hindsight I can see it.  You have a huge D2 powerhouse like Grand Valley smack dab in the middle of MIAA country.  And with all those D2 schools able to offer at least partial athletic scholarships I have to believe they snag a few kids that might otherwise go to an MIAA school.  I suspect tuition is less in many of the D2 schools as well.  Take just a small number of these kids and place them on some MIAA D3 teams I wonder how much it would turn a program around.  I know this sounds like I am making excuses but it makes me wonder how much of a factor that is.

6 of the 8 GLIAC football playing Michigan schools are state schools, Hillsdale and Northwood are private.  So yes tuition is significantly less for those 6 schools, in some cases 1/4 or less.

btw the 8 schools are Grand Valley State, Saginaw Valley State, Ferris State, Wayne State, Hillsdale, Northwood, Northern Michigan and Michigan Tech.

Tech's football program has been close to the budget axe for some time and has had low numbers......but since their cross river D3 neighbor Finlandia will be adding football I don't think numbers is an issue anymore (or money).

[sac]

Olivet has six road games this year. It is home, away, away, away, bye week, away, home, away, home, away, home.

And in 2012, we will also have six road games. It is away, away, away, home, home, away, bye week, home, home, away and away.

Good thing Olivet spent all that money improving their home field and facilities. 

[sflzman]

sflzman,

Not that it really matters (and matters even less now), but I'm still curious - was Mason's fumble at the end of the game a give-away or a take-away?  That chintzy new scoreboard of yours doesn't even have slo-mo close-up replay, and it all happened within a sea of very large bodies!

Speaking of the scoreboard (which is VERY nice, despite my crack above), you might want to cue your scoreboard operator to be more careful during pre-game check-out.  As I walked by the stadium, the scoreboard read: Scots 0, Guests 99.  I reported the incident to the Titan faithful, and all agreed it sounded like a pretty good omen!

I believe it was a take away but I can't tell you for sure 

[sflzman]

Washington and Lee looks good on offense. We had a TD called back for holding. Down 7-0

http://firstteambroadcasting.com/watch/wlu1/ for video

[jknezek]

Don't you just love First Team Broadcasting! I love being able to watch W&L games from home in AL. Tough luck on the holding penalty and the overthrows for Alma so far. They look a little confused defensively as well. W&L is a tough offense to play if you don't see something similar on a regular basis.

[sflzman]

Don't you just love First Team Broadcasting! I love being able to watch W&L games from home in AL. Tough luck on the holding penalty and the overthrows for Alma so far. They look a little confused defensively as well. W&L is a tough offense to play if you don't see something similar on a regular basis.

That was a great game. Wish we could have held on. That offense is ridiculous for you guys. The holding penalty really hurts though 

[jknezek]

I kept up a pretty good running commentary through the first 3 quarters on the ODAC board and missed the 4th quarter comeback because I had to go take care of my 2 year old daughter. Great game to watch, although as I re-read my comments it was really frustrating to watch both defenses get absolutely over-run. We also had no answer for your kick-off team! Holy cow you were getting great field position! Some of your receivers, especially number 1, are really good. If your QB had come out of the gate a little bit better I think we would have been in trouble. Blame that on a long bus trip as I'm pretty sure you win this one at home.

I liked your big back, Mason? It is tough to run on W&L because they get so much practice against it during the week. Even still, I could see his potential. That being said, you guys going all out throwing made too much sense as we had no answer. If you score instead of throwing the interception late that game is over. Good luck on the rest of your season. I think we are in for a tough time as any coach that watches film of our first four games is going to see that throwing against us is pretty easy. F&M, Centre and you all had great success. Sewanee, who runs an option, got nowhere in a really beneficial match up for us.

[sac]

The Dutchmen have a 2 game non-conference winning streak.

Hope 28 Lakeland 14

[Mr. Ypsi]

Heartbreaking losses for Alma and Albion today.  Good win for Hope and a double-monkeystomp for Kazoo!   Adrian leads CURF (yeah, I know they now go by CUC, but they are in River Forest, NOT Chicago!) 16-14 at the half.

As for Olivet - I'm all for MIAA schools upgrading their schedules, but consecutive games @Elmhurst, @NCC, and @Wheaton?!!  What's up for next year - @UMU, @UMHB, and @UWW?!  (BTW, Elmhurst, NCC, and Wheaton are all within ten miles of each other - perhaps the team should have just relocated to Chicagoland for 3 weeks and save bus travel! )  Kidding aside, good game today, considering the opponent - after last week I was afraid Wheaton might put 90 on you just to show up archrival NCC!  And scheduling Elmhust was not a bad move despite the result this year - they often start 3-0 then go 2-5 in the CCIW.  But NCC and Wheaton?  I admire your coach's guts, but question his sanity.

[sflzman]

I kept up a pretty good running commentary through the first 3 quarters on the ODAC board and missed the 4th quarter comeback because I had to go take care of my 2 year old daughter. Great game to watch, although as I re-read my comments it was really frustrating to watch both defenses get absolutely over-run. We also had no answer for your kick-off team! Holy cow you were getting great field position! Some of your receivers, especially number 1, are really good. If your QB had come out of the gate a little bit better I think we would have been in trouble. Blame that on a long bus trip as I'm pretty sure you win this one at home.

I liked your big back, Mason? It is tough to run on W&L because they get so much practice against it during the week. Even still, I could see his potential. That being said, you guys going all out throwing made too much sense as we had no answer. If you score instead of throwing the interception late that game is over. Good luck on the rest of your season. I think we are in for a tough time as any coach that watches film of our first four games is going to see that throwing against us is pretty easy. F&M, Centre and you all had great success. Sewanee, who runs an option, got nowhere in a really beneficial match up for us.

Though you say you couldn't stop our pass, we couldnt stop your offense pass or run! Your offense is greatly run since you hardly ever see it in d3. No matter how hard we work against a scout team nothing prepares you for the real deal.

Henderson (#1) is a very good reciever from Hot Springs, AR. His 6-6 frame has made him our favorite target. I agree with you that if Leister (QB) had been able to come out of the gates better it would have been beneficial. It kills that he missed twice to go deep into the W&L zone on the first drive and the one he hit was called back for holding.

All three of our games have been lost with tournovers in the red zone (INT against Heidelberg. Fumble against IWU. INT against W&L), and we have 5 red zone tournovers on the season (or did we have two today? That'd make it 6 on the season).

If we could convert better in the red zone we would be 4-0 right now!!!

Either way I see this as something positive for the Scots and I really feel like I can pick them in pick'ems 6/7 weeks the rest of the year (obviously not the bye week!  )

[Mr. Ypsi]

I kept up a pretty good running commentary through the first 3 quarters on the ODAC board and missed the 4th quarter comeback because I had to go take care of my 2 year old daughter. Great game to watch, although as I re-read my comments it was really frustrating to watch both defenses get absolutely over-run. We also had no answer for your kick-off team! Holy cow you were getting great field position! Some of your receivers, especially number 1, are really good. If your QB had come out of the gate a little bit better I think we would have been in trouble. Blame that on a long bus trip as I'm pretty sure you win this one at home.

I liked your big back, Mason? It is tough to run on W&L because they get so much practice against it during the week. Even still, I could see his potential. That being said, you guys going all out throwing made too much sense as we had no answer. If you score instead of throwing the interception late that game is over. Good luck on the rest of your season. I think we are in for a tough time as any coach that watches film of our first four games is going to see that throwing against us is pretty easy. F&M, Centre and you all had great success. Sewanee, who runs an option, got nowhere in a really beneficial match up for us.

Though you say you couldn't stop our pass, we couldnt stop your offense pass or run! Your offense is greatly run since you hardly ever see it in d3. No matter how hard we work against a scout team nothing prepares you for the real deal.

Henderson (#1) is a very good reciever from Hot Springs, AR. His 6-6 frame has made him our favorite target. I agree with you that if Leister (QB) had been able to come out of the gates better it would have been beneficial. It kills that he missed twice to go deep into the W&L zone on the first drive and the one he hit was called back for holding.

All three of our games have been lost with tournovers in the red zone (INT against Heidelberg. Fumble against IWU. INT against W&L), and we have 5 red zone tournovers on the season (or did we have two today? That'd make it 6 on the season).

If we could convert better in the red zone we would be 4-0 right now!!!

Either way I see this as something positive for the Scots and I really feel like I can pick them in pick'ems 6/7 weeks the rest of the year (obviously not the bye week!  )

Gosh - you've gotten so discouraged you can't even pick the Scots to beat 'bye'?!!