FB: Upper Midwest Athletic Conference

[mac_7_seven]

MacMurray Football moves to Upper Midwest Athletic Conference in Fall 2009
MacMurray College Football Highlanders will compete in the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC) after spending one-year under the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SLIAC). Read more

Any truth to this?  I got this from Mac's web site.  Story will not open on site.

[Hawks88]

MacMurray Football moves to Upper Midwest Athletic Conference in Fall 2009
MacMurray College Football Highlanders will compete in the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC) after spending one-year under the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SLIAC). Read more

Any truth to this?  I got this from Mac's web site.  Story will not open on site.

I see that too, here's the link(http://www.mac.edu/news/index.asp) to the page of news releases but I also can't get to the rest of the story. I guess that would mean that they are dumping the SLIAC schedule and we all have to go find another game again? That stinks. Also wonder if they are the only one doing this?

[Gray Fox]

I emailed the SID and webmaster.  I hope they fix it soon.

[Pat Coleman]

I don't see it on there now at all.

2009 is really, really short notice for a school to pull out of a conference schedule. And since MacMurray has to play a SLIAC schedule in the rest of its sports, that's a big deal.

[Gray Fox]

You are right.  It is gone.  They never even wrote.

[mac_7_seven]

Yes they removed it from the site.  Think they jumped the gun because nothing was on either conference web page?  Typical Mac though never respond to anyones question.

[Hawks88]

2009 is really, really short notice for a school to pull out of a conference schedule. And since MacMurray has to play a SLIAC schedule in the rest of its sports, that's a big deal.

This is what I was thinking when I wondered if they were the only one pulling out.

[Pat Coleman]

I asked the SLIAC for comment and got a response with a decline to comment.

That in and of itself doesn't mean anything in particular, could be that Mac is doing it but hadn't let the league know, or that there's some re-merger talk, or none of the above.

[The Forgotten Man]

According to my son, their AD was notified yesterday (Tuesday) that the SLIAC would not be sponsoring football THIS year. His coach has no idea whether any team, other than Huntingdon, will honor their commitment to play this year either.

Thanks SLIAC

[Ralph Turner]

Let's see if the story is the same on April 2nd as it was on April 1st.   

As for football, I still maintain that the UMAC SLIAC affiliation will be the most successful, and that the GSAC schools should affiliate with the USA South.  A UMAC-SLIAC affiliation will have a Pool A bid in 2 years after the affiliation.

I hate that Huntingdon and LaGrange are caught in the middle of this, but that looks like what is happening.

[Pat Coleman]

According to my son, their AD was notified yesterday (Tuesday) that the SLIAC would not be sponsoring football THIS year. His coach has no idea whether any team, other than Huntingdon, will honor their commitment to play this year either.

Thanks SLIAC

I got a fairly boilerplate statement from the UMAC which didn't answer the specific question but said basically that they are always looking for new membership to ease scheduling concerns and provide a route to the AQ.

[The Forgotten Man]

Let's see if the story is the same on April 2nd as it was on April 1st.   

As for football, I still maintain that the UMAC SLIAC affiliation will be the most successful, and that the GSAC schools should affiliate with the USA South.  A UMAC-SLIAC affiliation will have a Pool A bid in 2 years after the affiliation.

I hate that Huntingdon and LaGrange are caught in the middle of this, but that looks like what is happening.

His coach is not the joking type. My son was pretty disappointed when he talked to me a little while ago.

I understand what you are saying about affiliations and I sure didn't like traveling all the way to Illinois for all those games last year, but to do this on such extremely short notice is just plain low class. And what kind of message does it send to these young men?

[Hawks88]

I was told Tuesday that our schedule was still set but that there is no SLIAC. I looked and several of the UMAC teams have 2009 schedules posted that don't include the SLIAC teams so I don't think there will be any games dropped at this point or there would be a bunch of schools besides HC and LC left hanging.
I do think this has been in the works for a while. Remember when Blackburn and Principia had just made their announcements and we were told that the conference schedule would have to be redone, a few days later Westminster had a schedule posted with Dome Day for week 9. When the new conference schedule came out, it had HC and LC playing each other week 9 and the others that had schedules posted had week 9 open. Now Eureka has posted a schedule with Dome Day week 9 and Greenville has Northwestern showing in week 9. Westminster doesn't show Dome Day yet but still shows week 9 open with 9 games on the schedule.
Not sure what all this means except we probably still have ten games but I am assuming that the ex-SLIAC games might not be considered in region at this point since it isn't going to be an actual conference. That would leave HC with 4 region games and LC with 3 or 4(does BSC count yet?). Not good. Maybe something could be worked out to swap some SCAC teams in there.

[The Forgotten Man]

I wouldn't go by any posted schedules at this point.

I am told that as of yesterday, the coach did not know if the former SLIAC teams (other than HC) would honor their commitment to play the games on the schedule. He was waiting to hear from them by COB today.

He told the boys that he would see to it that they play ten games, one way or another.

I think you are right though, the games played with them will technically be viewed as out of region. Really stinks for HC and LC.

If they were going to do this, they should have had the guts to announce it sooner.

[Pat Coleman]

BSC counts this year as a regional game.