FB: Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[badgerwarhawk]

Their mens soccer team is already a member of the WIAC though I don't think they would be interested in becoming a full member.  It would be nice if we could persuade them to join in baseball so we can keep enough teams to continue to qualify for an automatic bid to the post season.  Though it's still a ways away Superior's departure will eventually cost us the bid if we're unable to replace them.   

[AO]

Finlandia (no early 'd') is in the western UP (near Houghton and Mich Tech).  I suspect they're more likely to be Packers fans than Lions fans.  They are closer to many West teams than to any Michigan team - I won't claim credit for the switch, but I long lobbied for them to become a West team instead of a GL team.

Since WIAC is exclusively public schools of the Wisconsin persuasion, I seriously doubt they are lobbying for that membership.  UMAC perhaps?

I think they've applied to the UMAC and will actually play a conference hoops schedule once superior joins to make an even 10 teams.  11 for football is too many to have a non-conference+full round robin and the travel is a bit much.

[wally_wabash]

Their mens soccer team is already a member of the WIAC though I don't think they would be interested in becoming a full member. It would be nice if we could persuade them to join in baseball so we can keep enough teams to continue to qualify for an automatic bid to the post season.  Though it's still a ways away Superior's departure will eventually cost us the bid if we're unable to replace them.

I think baseball is a little different than football in this regard.  We finally had a non-AQ team make the field through Pool C for the first time in football this past year (it only took being 10-0 to make that happen), but I believe this has been going on in baseball for a long time with teams from non-AQ leagues making the field. Not being in an AQ league isn't quite the death sentence to postseason aspirations in baseball as it is for football. 

[voice]

New UWW head coach Kevin Bullis is working nicely in putting together his coaching staff. Will have the details within the next couple of weeks

[wesleydad]

bleedpurple, all is well.  moving along with the school year.  just finished coaching wrestling for the season and due to a lack of interest by other staff members I get to coach girl's softball this year.  Looking forward to warmer weather, which I am sure you all in Wisconsin are chuckling at.  It will be as cold in the Philly area tomorrow as it was when I visited UWW on 06.  Only positive that day was that we did not have to by ice to keep the beer cold in the trunk of the car.  Oh, and my son did catch the only TD Wesley scored that day.  But I digress.

Were the UWW faithful surprised by the choice for coach?  Will be interesting to see if the high level will continue.  How fast can Sept get here?

Glad things are well.  Girl's softball should be fun to coach, especially if you have a pitcher! Over the last couple of years, I've caught a couple of girl's high school fast-pitch games. Man, the girls' skills are night and day from back in my time. 

The hiring process was really interesting. UW-W did a real thorough job and through public forums, whoever wanted to take the time to meet and hear from the candidates had an opportunity to do so.  A number of the candidates were very impressive.  While some may have been surprised by the results, not too many were. Coach Bullis has always been liked and respected at UW-W. Looking retroactively, while most of us realized he was a strong internal candidate, he may have been even stronger than we suspected. He demonstrated great vision, a plan with specifics, passion, and a firm understanding of how things work and how to get things done and succeed in the UW-W context. I think it is fair to say that the people that were most involved in the process were the least surprised by the decision. Not because of inside information, but because Kevin did a great job of seizing the opportunity before him in the process. I am convinced that UW-W will be very well coached and that the kids will play exceptionally hard for KB. Players tend to love him.

Bleed, I am in middle school and we may have a pitcher which will at least let us play more than 3 innings with the run rules.  She is having some issues though, so she may end up not playing.  If that happens all we will be able to do is make it fun because I teach in an area that does not have rec softball leagues so the girls will have little to no skill.

Thanks for the thoughts on the new coach.  As with any change it is always fun to see what happens especially when the changes occur with the best team in D3.

[jete2]

I'd pay the $12.00, or whatever, to watch the Delaware / Wisconsin Purple People Eaters play two years in a row.

UWW doesn't charge for their stream, not sure about wesley. They're not going to play each other anyways. But, there's always Whitewater/Finlandia!! Yippee!! Maybe they should bring back a combined Waldorf, Midland Lutheran and Dakota State instead.

We can only play those who answer the phone.  Trust me we've reached out to far, far better competition than these you've mentioned and gotten no interest what-so-ever.  I like to see Wesley scheduled but given the current state of affairs regarding state funding to their public universities I suspect we'll see fewer and fewer longer trips. 

Personally I give Findlandia a hell of a lot of credit for scheduling three WIAC schools right out of the gate.  I totally suspect they could have found considerably easier opponents to fill those dates.  Rather than mock them we should be gratefull imo. 

Excuse me for laughing my ass off but the irony of a St Johns supporter talking about a fan base bashing another fan base is just too frickin' funny.  Hello pot, my name is kettle and we're black.

The truth of the matter is Wesley did reach out to UWW to play next year in Dover. UWW turned down that offer. Wesley offered a home and home and was willing to travel to Whitewater in 2016.

Me? Mocking? How could you say such a thing!!  Seriously, Whitewater must really be hard pressed looking for games to take one against a start-up program like Finlandia. Not going to be pretty to watch, but neither were the games against the NAIA schools I mentioned (I was actually mocking them - sorry for the confusion).  I think Finlandia actually would welcome an invitation for admission into the WIAC. Where is Finlandia in the UP anyway? How much further is it than a trip to Superior. Is it Findlandia or Finlandia? What do you think bw, could the three games to start their football life be like campaigning for admission to the WIAC? Probably wouldn't be good for baseball, but the other sports, it might work out. It would be 1 less NC game to worry about.

Speaking of oz, he reminds me of this guy...they both have many questions about them to answer, and many of them are remarkably similar - just replace haircut with oz (and a little grammar fix) and see where it leads.

Finlandia (no early 'd') is in the western UP (near Houghton and Mich Tech).  I suspect they're more likely to be Packers fans than Lions fans.  They are closer to many West teams than to any Michigan team - I won't claim credit for the switch, but I long lobbied for them to become a West team instead of a GL team.

Since WIAC is exclusively public schools of the Wisconsin persuasion, I seriously doubt they are lobbying for that membership.  UMAC perhaps?

[emma17]

Jete2
I think your post was mixed into the thread- I believe you posted that Wesley did reach out to UWW.
I wouldn't be surprised if they did. Although I think it's a big risk from the perspective of qualifying for the playoffs, the other side of that coin is perhaps Wesley feels their program would benefit long term from playing UWW.

As for UWW- I don't see the value to them in accepting. I think the WIAC has proven to prepare UWW for the postseason.

[jete2]

Yes, Emma17, that was my post mixed in the thread. Perhaps it would be a risk for Wesley but I think they feel they can win the NJAC outright.  And if they can't win the NJAC then they don't deserve to go to the playoffs.  A game with UWW would be much more beneficial than a game against Apprentice (as I saw posted earlier) for Wesley.  It would also be great for the fans of each school.  How does playing Finlandia as a start up program benefit UWW?  It would be really nice to see the top tier teams step out of their comfort zone and play each other out of conference.

[bleedpurple]

Jete2
I think your post was mixed into the thread- I believe you posted that Wesley did reach out to UWW.
I wouldn't be surprised if they did. Although I think it's a big risk from the perspective of qualifying for the playoffs, the other side of that coin is perhaps Wesley feels their program would benefit long term from playing UWW.

As for UWW- I don't see the value to them in accepting. I think the WIAC has proven to prepare UWW for the postseason.

The value in playing a Wesley in september isn't found in preparing for post-season, it is found in preparing the team for WIAC play. Is it risky? Yes. Would it be great for fans? Yes. I understand why UWW may not do it. However, personally I would love to see them do it. Maybe it's not wise, but on the other hand, if it's true that Wesley reached out and UWW said no, then I think UWW fans need to scale back our complaining that no one will play us. If true, the the most we can whine about is that no teams good enough to provide some resistance but not good enough to have a chance to beat us will play us. Or if it has to do with the Uncertainty of budget issues, maybe we say it is hard to schedule games with viable teams within an affordable distance. I look forward to trying to verify that Wesley reached out. I understand that North Central is looking for a game September 5th. Maybe a better fit expense-wise?

[jete2]

bleedpurple, I can assure you it is true as I have a very close family member in the Wesley Athletic Dept. UWW cited they could not travel more than 500 miles until further notice.  They couldn't even do a home and home. 

[bleedpurple]

bleedpurple, I can assure you it is true as I have a very close family member in the Wesley Athletic Dept. UWW cited they could not travel more than 500 miles until further notice.  They couldn't even do a home and home.

I'm not saying it isn't true, it is just the kind of thing that makes sense to check out on our end, that's all.  At this point, there is a lot of budget uncertainty going on.  It will sort itself out, but until it does, I could see the reluctance to make future travel commitments.  So just to clarify your account, when Wesley inquired, UW-W's response wasn't "No thanks", it was more "We can't". 

[jete2]

bleedpurple, I can assure you it is true as I have a very close family member in the Wesley Athletic Dept. UWW cited they could not travel more than 500 miles until further notice.  They couldn't even do a home and home.

I'm not saying it isn't true, it is just the kind of thing that makes sense to check out on our end, that's all.  At this point, there is a lot of budget uncertainty going on.  It will sort itself out, but until it does, I could see the reluctance to make future travel commitments.  So just to clarify your account, when Wesley inquired, UW-W's response wasn't "No thanks", it was more "We can't". 

Yes, that is correct, "We can't".

[bleedpurple]

bleedpurple, I can assure you it is true as I have a very close family member in the Wesley Athletic Dept. UWW cited they could not travel more than 500 miles until further notice.  They couldn't even do a home and home.

I'm not saying it isn't true, it is just the kind of thing that makes sense to check out on our end, that's all.  At this point, there is a lot of budget uncertainty going on.  It will sort itself out, but until it does, I could see the reluctance to make future travel commitments.  So just to clarify your account, when Wesley inquired, UW-W's response wasn't "No thanks", it was more "We can't". 

Yes, that is correct, "We can't".

Gotcha. Thanks, Jete2.

[emma17]

Yes, Emma17, that was my post mixed in the thread. Perhaps it would be a risk for Wesley but I think they feel they can win the NJAC outright.  And if they can't win the NJAC then they don't deserve to go to the playoffs.  A game with UWW would be much more beneficial than a game against Apprentice (as I saw posted earlier) for Wesley.  It would also be great for the fans of each school.  How does playing Finlandia as a start up program benefit UWW?  It would be really nice to see the top tier teams step out of their comfort zone and play each other out of conference.

I understand your position about the sentence in bold, I'm just not on the same side of the fence of that theory.  I'm not one to think a team has to go undefeated in the regular season (or in conference) in order to be crowned the champion.  There are all kinds of reasons Wesley could lose a game in conference.  Heck, both Mt Union and UWW were within seconds of losing conference games this year.  IMO, if they had, they'd still have been the favorites in nearly every playoff game they played. 

UWW played Waldorf to open the 2014 season and the same question could have been asked "does playing Waldorf benefit UWW"? 
Probably not the same as if UWW could play a mid level CCIW team, but there is still benefit.  It's the first game of the season and all kinds of processes need to be worked out- as such, any game is a benefit to a degree. 

As a fan, heck yes I'd like to see UWW v Wesley in the regular season, or UWW - North Central.  But these three teams have legitimate playoff expectations (not just hopes), and from the perspective of achieving the goal, I don't see reason for any of them to play each other.  Unless of course the selection process for Pool C were to change. 

[bleedpurple]

Yes, Emma17, that was my post mixed in the thread. Perhaps it would be a risk for Wesley but I think they feel they can win the NJAC outright.  And if they can't win the NJAC then they don't deserve to go to the playoffs.  A game with UWW would be much more beneficial than a game against Apprentice (as I saw posted earlier) for Wesley.  It would also be great for the fans of each school.  How does playing Finlandia as a start up program benefit UWW?  It would be really nice to see the top tier teams step out of their comfort zone and play each other out of conference.

I understand your position about the sentence in bold, I'm just not on the same side of the fence of that theory.  I'm not one to think a team has to go undefeated in the regular season (or in conference) in order to be crowned the champion.  There are all kinds of reasons Wesley could lose a game in conference.  Heck, both Mt Union and UWW were within seconds of losing conference games this year.  IMO, if they had, they'd still have been the favorites in nearly every playoff game they played. 

UWW played Waldorf to open the 2014 season and the same question could have been asked "does playing Waldorf benefit UWW"? 
Probably not the same as if UWW could play a mid level CCIW team, but there is still benefit.  It's the first game of the season and all kinds of processes need to be worked out- as such, any game is a benefit to a degree. 

As a fan, heck yes I'd like to see UWW v Wesley in the regular season, or UWW - North Central.  But these three teams have legitimate playoff expectations (not just hopes), and from the perspective of achieving the goal, I don't see reason for any of them to play each other.  Unless of course the selection process for Pool C were to change.

Just an additional perspective, I'm not sure how valid: I have seen some posters who seem to feel that a competitive loss to UW-W or Mount Union is not like a normal loss when it comes to playoff selection. If this is true, then a 2 loss Wesley team (with one of the losses to UW-W)  would still be in pretty good shape for a Pool C. I recognize that this is no sure thing and National Committees vary by year, but just a thought to throw out there. If it's true, scheduling UW-W or Mount may not be quite as risky as it would seem.