FB: Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[WW]

It will be interesting to see how this plays out. Will a small (in comparison to UWW) Catholic school of 3,000 students with no real history of football success and a $40,000 annual cost take many good athletes from UWW? Even with some scholarship money, we're not talking full-ride, so it's a discount off the MSRP of $40k.

I'm old, biased and confused, but if I had the skill set to play D2/Championship level D3, I think I'd pick UWW with student aide over Benedictine with partial scholarship. Unless the Catholic education was an important factor.

y

With Emma on this one. Why is Benedictine even doing this? Does anyone know the extra expenses typically involved moving from D3 to D2? Their D3 success looks moderate and their facilities look moderate. If they wanted to pour more money into football, maybe they should have poured it into staff and facilities and just tried to be really good in D3. They are really on a D-2 Island. I also disagree that mama and papa will be happy. They may be able to watch their kids' home games (in basically a high school type stadium), but the away games will be a beast to get to compared to most of UW-W's road games.

My guess is they've identified what they believe is a market opportunity in the Chicago area and that the switch to D2 could raise its market profile and ultimately increase enrollment and revenue. Their facilities are nice — I'd agree that at some point they'd need to seat more folks though. I don't know the costs associated with going D2 other than the skolly equivalencies they'd be giving out but those would be to kids that wouldn't be at BU without one.

Never underestimate the power of ego. Lots of kids make decisions based on the level of play when other factors (total cost/quality of degree, for example) would favor other routes.

I'm wondering what kind of splash they can make with their 36 full equivalencies to start. A typical D2 would divvy those up over the 5-year path to graduation, so about 7 a year. BU could, in theory, issue all 36 it's first year... could they?

[doolittledog]

Upper Iowa moved from D3 to D2 after the 2002-03 school year.  For some of the reasons Benedictine is making the move.  It was a market opportunity for UIU to stand out as the only D2 school in Iowa, as Benedictine sees they could stand out in the crowd of Chicagoland colleges.  The Upper Iowa administration will say their fundraising has increased.  They have a nice new football stadium.  Their on-campus enrollment has climbed from about 600 to a little over 800.  Upper Iowa is now bringing in Iowa recruits that once would have gone to Wartburg/Luther/Dubuque/Coe.  A good year for them in football is about 6-5 with a lot of 3-8 and 2-9 seasons in the mix.  in D3 a typical season would have been 2-8 or 3-7. 

Is it worth it?  Has it made a huge difference for UIU?  Maybe, maybe not.   

The conference Benedictine is looking to move to is a lower tier conference with a number of former NAIA schools that more closely resemble a D3 school than the Northwest Missouri or Grand Valley State type schools many of us associate as a typical D2 school.  The Benedictine facilities would fit right in with that conference. 

[UWO Titan 78]

If done correctly, the move to D2 could be beneficial for Benedictine. I have no idea if they will do it correctly. I think a lot of kids love the idea of being on "scholarship" even if it is only a partial one. The location of the school and the facilities are good. I know this is a football board, but I really think this will help them in basketball, because the scholarship money will go further in basketball. Lewis and UW-Parkside recruit this area hard, and Chicago is still a huge producer of basketball talent. As far as football is concerned, it certainly won't help the WIAC schools. I don't necessarily think it will hurt them dramatically, but losing even one top player to a D2 school will still hurt programs. If four years ago, Kasper or Hecker decided to go the D2 route, this would've impacted the Titans dramatically. I think anytime you add another viable option close to the recruiting area, there is the potential for players to choose that program over yours.

[MiacMan]

Concordia University in St. Paul did it a few years back, 15/20? It worked out pretty well for them. I knew their AD at the time of the transition. He told me they did it because they would be the only D2 school in the twin cities metro area. He saw their program as a real niche option for student-athletes. Outside of the U of M, they would be and still are the only scholarship school in the metro. They will definitely take some athletes from UWW and other's in the area but probably not enough to really feel any pain. I know what they will do, as does Concordia, if they really want somebody they get them to apply for all of the financial aid (Fed., State, grant programs) and then provide the remainder in Athletic scholarship. This essentially give the athlete a "free ride" They can be pretty crafty with their offers.

[badgerwarhawk]

Though I don't doubt we may lose a player or two we've had multiple transfers from Concordia U - St Paul in the past few years.

[02 Warhawk]

Though I don't doubt we may lose a player or two we've had multiple transfers from Concordia U - St Paul in the past few years.

We'll get transfers now from Benedictine!

[Desertraider]

It will be interesting to see how this plays out. Will a small (in comparison to UWW) Catholic school of 3,000 students with no real history of football success and a $40,000 annual cost take many good athletes from UWW? Even with some scholarship money, we're not talking full-ride, so it's a discount off the MSRP of $40k.

I'm old, biased and confused, but if I had the skill set to play D2/Championship level D3, I think I'd pick UWW with student aide over Benedictine with partial scholarship. Unless the Catholic education was an important factor.

If its that important go to UWW and just smack your hands with a ruler every now and then for the Catholic experience. 

[Desertraider]

In all seriousness UWW has so much in their favor that losing players to a D2 like Benedictine should not even be a thought. Look at the tuition comparison and then look at the UWW pedigree. Mount has a few D2s around them - none can match the football side of the equation but the tuitions are relatively equal. In that case maybe the "scholarship" money becomes more of a persuasion for the D2s.

I guess I see it more like if the player chooses Walsh, Malone, NDC over Mount Union - then they probably wouldn't have made it Mount to begin with. It's more than talent to be a Raider. Its the player and their mental makeup. UWW is the same. It takes more than talent to be a Warhawk.

[emma17]

Desert, your viewpoint is not only logical and appreciated, it's also a heck of a recruiting slogan. 
I'm starting to see D2 Benedictine as a terrific opportunity for advancing UWW's championship (national as opposed to conference) aspirations.

[emma17]

Trying to crack through the UWW secret code on recruits, not having much luck. I did find one site that showed three "commits", one is a QB. With this being Cali's last go-round, and UWW not playing a backup QB last year (unless you count the designed runs), it appears they are in need of QB's. A good time for guys to come to UWW.

[bleedpurple]

Trying to crack through the UWW secret code on recruits, not having much luck. I did find one site that showed three "commits", one is a QB. With this being Cali's last go-round, and UWW not playing a backup QB last year (unless you count the designed runs), it appears they are in need of QB's. A good time for guys to come to UWW.

Since you brought it up in this manner, we might as well present the full picture, so it doesn't appear UW-W didn't just capriciously choose to  not play a backup QB last year.  The first four games weren't conducive to back-up playing time. Game 5, when our back-up was clearly given an expanded role, he tore his ACL. Because our Number 4 guy quit a few days into camp (a freshman who just decided he didn't like football enough to pay the price), that left us with Cole and back up Ryan Curran. We moved an athletic freshman WR to the position to take reps and play in the JV games, but he is highly regarded as a WR and the plan is to move him back there.  I'm guessing we would have given Ryan more reps over the final 5 games, but he is graduating this May and won't be back. So over the final 5 games, the only QB we had value in getting reps for in terms of 2018 was Cole.

[Veracity]

There was a lot of disfunction last season on the offensive side of the ball. Play calling, receivers as running backs, line play, penalties. The backup wasn't told he was starting game 5 until the night before. This hopefully will be rectified by spring ball.

[emma17]

There was a lot of disfunction last season on the offensive side of the ball. Play calling, receivers as running backs, line play, penalties. The backup wasn't told he was starting game 5 until the night before. This hopefully will be rectified by spring ball.

Discombobulating to say the least.
Not sure if your comment about line play is referring to the preseason AA center playing left tackle during the "what the heck kind of snap is that" early season games, that bothered me but I'm sure there is a term paper length explanation for it.

[bleedpurple]

Discombobulating

The word "discombobulating" is confusing to me.

[emma17]

Discombobulating

The word "discombobulating" is confusing to me.

That's certainly understandable given the amount of exposure you had to the 2017 UWW offensive plan.