FB: Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[OzJohnnie]

[grboob]

Got a summer place an hour of the The Mackinac Bridge in the UP.  Actually, one late summer night back in the day I believe I saw that Troll as I f sped across the Bridge -- no traffic in sight, per usual in the UP.

Back to football,  maybe Finlandia's Coach Tim Driscoll formerly  of Michigan Tech a DII top 25 program in nearby Houghton might bled a few players away for the upstart program? 

[grboob]

Guys trying to find the Troll on the Mackinac Bridge OR looking north to see where Finlandia U is??

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ueZWsLj3oTI

[Mr. Ypsi]

Hey, for almost the entire of the length of it, it is damned WET down there!

I think I'll stick to Ypsi (south [under] the bridge to yoopers).

But I do appreciate them letting me go north for pasties and smoked whitefish - and some of the best scenery in the world.

[grboob]

Amen.  Try to go all the way UP North to Copper Harbor.. That's only about 50 miles north of Finlandia

[bleedpurple]

I see that according to BW's report on the baseball board, Lake Bachar pitched 6 innings, striking out 10 and walking 2, giving up 6 hits and one earned run in earning a victory against Elmhurst this past week. Bachar is UW-W's kicker and is playing college baseball for the first time this spring.

[voice]

I see that according to BW's report on the baseball board, Lake Bachar pitched 6 innings, striking out 10 and walking 2, giving up 6 hits and one earned run in earning a victory against Elmhurst this past week. Bachar is UW-W's kicker and is playing college baseball for the first time this spring.

Lake's fast ball is consistently in the upper 80s and occasionally in the lower 90s on the radar gun. And yes he's a kicker!!

[voice]

The Kevin Bullis era kicks off on Wednesday when spring practice gets underway.

[KitchenSink]

Schedule is out for UWW:

Non-Conf
At Belhaven 9/12  (Oooops)
Finlandia 9/19
at Morningside 9/24

Conf Schedule
10/3 Platteville (home)
10/10 Oshkosh (away)
10/16 LaCrosse (home)  FRIDAY NIGHT
10/24 Stevens Point (away)
10/31 Eau Claire (home)
11/7 River Falls (away)
11/14 Stout (home)

[bman]

Better make sure they are well hydrated for that 6/12 game...its gonna be a scorcher...

[02 Warhawk]

D3football.com tweet....

UW-Whitewater couldn't find anyone who played #d3fb last season willing to play them non-conference in 2015: http://t.co/DUw4mRoNt4 #manup

I'm just the messenger. 

[wally_wabash]

Some twitter chatter about schedules today, particularly UWWs schedule.  I wanted to drop some details and maybe dispel some myths about what you gain by playing UMU or UWW in the non-league portion of your schedule.  But first, a quick question:

bleed- were you able to either confirm or debunk the chatter regarding a proposed home and home with Wesley that UWW wouldn't agree to?  I think that's important to know before we #manup the entire division.  To the point- there may be teams willing to play UWW, but UWW has to be willing to do things like offer a return game.  Not everybody is going volunteer for a one night stand at the Perk, nor should they. 

It's been floated that there is a massive advantage to playing UWW or UMU because to be the best you have to paly the best or whatever.  Maybe...I'm not sold.  I think it's useful, I don't think that's the thing that puts a program over the top.  Yes, UWW played UMU in 2002 and 2003 and then 24 months later they were a fixture in Salem.  This doesn't happen to everybody.  In fact, it doesn't happen to anybody else.  I did a quick and dirty look at who Mount Union (since 1999) and UWW (since 2005) played in their non-league schedules and I added in the five-year records of those teams in seasons immediately following their games with the division's heavyweights.  The results:

vs. Mount Union:
1999- Albion, 27-13 (5-year record after this game)
2000- Allegheny, 25-26
2001- Allegheny, 27-25
2002- UWW, 56-9
2003- UWW, 62-8
2004- Wash U, 30-22
2005- Wash U, 29-21
2006- Averett, 20-30
2007- Averett, 21-29
2008- SJF, 44-14*
2009- SJF, 46-13*
2010- UW-Oshkosh, 34-10 (2011-present)
2011- UW-Oshkosh, 27-7 (2012-present)
2012- Franklin, 16-7* (2013-present)
2013- Franklin, 8-3* (2014-present)
2014- Bethany, TBD

vs. UWW:
2005- St. Norbert, 43-10*
2005- Lakeland, 26-25
2006- Lakeland, 25-26
2006- UMHB, 28-10*
2007- Lakeland, 21-26
2007- UMHB, 59-7*
2008- Puget Sound, 3-42
2009- Puget Sound, 7-38
2010- Adrian, 31-11
2011- Franklin, 25-10*
2012- Wash U, 12-9
2012- Buffalo St., 13-8
2013- Wash U, 4-6
2013- Buffalo St., 8-3
2014- Franklin, TBD*
2015- TCNJ, TBD

The teams that I have asterisked on this list are teams that have really strong post-UMU/UWW records.  But we're looking for meaningful improvement that might be attributed, to some degree, to having played against these two powerhouse teams.  The asterisked teams were already established and were carrying excellent year-over-year win-loss records prior to playing these games.  So we can't really say playing UMU/UWW made them demonstrably better: they were already really good. 

The rest of the list isn't exactly a murderer's row of Division III football teams.  In a reasonably objective analysis here, I would say that teams that have benefitted perhaps/maybe/somewhat from these non-league games are '02/'03 UWW (obviously), '10/'11 UW-Oshkosh (although put a pin in this one...remains to be seen if UW-O has a legitimate beefy program here or if their w/l spike has a lot to do with a transcendent player), and 2010 Adrian.   Where it really matters, in the win/loss records, one team played these kinds of games and catapulted to the top of the division, two more appear to have significantly strengthened their positions, and the other 13 are either treading water (playoff caliber teams, but still not really touching the UMU/UWW level of excellence) or are otherwise fairly inconsequential in the macroscopic view of the division. 

As an aside here, maybe it's not just about getting that experience against the best, but there can be some other benefits to playing a team likely to win 10 games (or even 9 games in a bad year).  You get a nice SOS bump out of the deal which can help you on Selection Sunday.  However, I believe Wash U is the only team on our list here that has ever received an at-large bid (2013).  Their result against UWW (a tight loss) was no doubt about as good of a loss as you can have, but even then if we are to take that season's regional rankings leading into the final week of games, Wash U wasn't getting in unless Millsaps lost (they did) and that that loss happened to be against a common opponent (Rhodes, and it was).  That's amazing parlay right there.  So can you get some kind of edge with the committee by playing one of these teams?  In 2013, we saw it in the selections and we heard it from the commissioner- it was a resounding YES.  In 2014 (and many other years going back in time), the answer has been NO.  That inconsistency is frustrating and I think most coaches and ADs who strategize about their scheduling would fall on the side of preferring to be 9-1 in the at-large pool (with that loss to the league champion, obviously), than being 8-2 with an extra loss to UWW/UMU.  Historically (and yes I know there are a few exceptions), 9-1 is a better deal, regardless of the other criteria. 

So this is all kind of a way to look at the ideas here that 1) playing UWW or UMU is an automatic boon to your program.  It isn't.  It was for UWW for sure.  But what else happened in the early/mid 2000s at UWW that flipped the switch?  It wasn't just that they went and played a game with Mount Union and everything worked out.  There is a ton of administrative muscle behind that program.  Yes, the Mount Union games helped.  But the Mount Union game doesn't matter without the institutional support.  2) Playing September games with Mount Union or UWW is a matter of manliness or courage or whatever- it isn't.  The risk/reward for 98% of the division for playing a September game with those teams simply isn't worth it.  Find yourself in the at-large pool and there is very little evidence that having played one of those teams and lost helps.  Even find yourself in the automatic qualifier pool and it can still hurt- does Franklin have to play at Wabash in the 2014 championship if they don't lose to UWW?  Maybe it still plays out that way, but seeding 9-1 Franklin and 9-1 Wabash probably isn't as obvious as it was with 8-2 Franklin. 

In the end, the system doesn't incentivize people playing non-league games with those two schools.  The risk/reward isn't there and the data don't really support the notion that just lining up against those dudes will turn your program into the next powerhouse (if it did, coaches would be leaping over one another to get games with those teams).  So I don't think it's a matter of teams needing to #manup.  The reasons why you don't schedule those games are plentiful and are plenty reasonable.  Does it suck for UWW that they can't get a full D3 schedule?  Sure does.  What sucks worse is not having six national championship trophies.   

That was long...thanks for indulging.   

[jknezek]

Interesting and well done Wally. +K

[02 Warhawk]

So this is all kind of a way to look at the ideas here that 1) playing UWW or UMU is an automatic boon to your program.  It isn't.

Not sure who you are trying to convince here, becuase I think everyone agrees that just playing UWW/UMU isn't an "automatic boon to your program". Many other factors helped UWW on its way to where they are now.

Interesting to see the numbers though.

[badgerwarhawk]

Thank you for taking the time to put that together Wally.

I can't address and have no first hand knowledge of any discussion with Wesley.  What Coach Bullis has told me is that we've gotten inquiries from teams that only want to schedule a single game and we're not wanting to do that for several reasons not the least of which is the difficultly it creates in trying to fill our schedule year in and year out.

For the record Adrian cancelled the return game we had originally scheduled with them.  Their head coach was upset with a passing play we had called during the second half which in his opinion was unsporting.  He threatened to cancel immediately afterward but didn't actually inform our staff the game had been canceled until it made it almost impossible to find a replacement.  We weren't able to fill our schedule until late in July that year.