FB: Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[DuffMan]

Worse homers than the SJU crew? 

[Pat Coleman]

Not sure what was more painful, listening to the two homers that called the game for Berry or watching UWW's offense today. Either way, both were pretty bad.

A win is a win I guess.

I was also a bit disgusted with the homerism on the call. Most specifically them claiming the reason they lost was UWW is a state school and has more advantages than everyone else. That view has been debunked and seriously played out. Heck, they're not even the biggest school in the conference and not even close to biggest school on D3. Georgia is supposed to be a hotbed for football recruits, keep them in state Berry.

Hats off to berry for taking the game, I hope it helps them see how much farther they need to come. They were competitive, but I think UWW had a game plan to not lose, vs give them a whoopin.

You didn't mention all the calls they felt went in UWW's favor, like the PI in the end zone they railed against for a long while or every good official's ball spot seem to be handed to help the Warhawks.

My bad, how could I have forgotten that. It only went on for a few quarters. Sorry. My bad.

It was an important call, not a bad call.  There's a difference.  If they wanted to play the coulda, shoulda, woulda game, they needed to find a different hill to die on.

Because this is pass interference:

They were bad. The shots at Wisconsin public schools, high enrollment "having their advantages". Only UWW getting pass interference calls. Brutal to listen to. Plus they had no clue how forward progress works.

I think even Pat commented about them on social media

I did. Imagine if a team from the 3 could somehow beat a WIAC team? Huh ...

[bleedpurple]

Interesting note in the Top 25 poll. Stout lost it's one Top 25 vote and didn't gain any others after beating a team that had 10 Top 25 votes.  On the MIAC Board, Pat suggested this might be because of their previous loss to Wartburg.

With Stout's win over Gustavus Adolphus, the MIAC and CCIW are each left with only two teams receiving votes in the Top 25 poll.  That essentially means that without a colossal upset, there is ONE game in each conference all year that is likely to have national impact.  Contrast that to the season WIAC fans are looking forward to!

In the spirit of D-I's conference realignment bonanza, I have a proposal.  It involves "trading" schools with the MIAC and the CCIW.  I will hate saying goodbye to the schools we are losing and I wish them well in the future. But I know to get quality, you have to give up quality.

My Proposed Trades:

To the MIAC:  UW-Stout and UW-Eau Claire
To the WIAC:  St. John's and Bethel

That leaves the MIAC (or the newly named MIWAC) composed of:

Stout
Eau Claire
Gustavus Adolphus
Concordia Morehead
Carleton
Augsburg
St. Olaf
Hamline
St. Scholastica
Hamline

Seems like there may be quite a few competitive games in that mix

To the CCIW:  UW-Platteville and UW-Stevens Point
To the WIAC:  North Central and Wheaton

That puts the CCIW list of schools at:

Platteville
Stevens Point
Wash U
Illinois Wesleyan
Augustana
Carroll
Millikan
Carthage
Elmhurst
North Park

Again, quite a few competitive games in that mix.

That leaves the WIAC (or the newly named WIMAC) at:

UW-W
UW-LaCrosse
UW-Oshkosh
UW-River Falls
St. John's
Bethel
North Central
Wheaton

I don't see a game in the mix that isn't a playoff-type game.  Now THAT would be a fun football season!

[repete]

Fun to speculate. The thing about the WIAC is that other teams there are more likely to rise to the top tier than those from the SJU/Bethel or NCC/Wheaton leagues.

Throw things for a real loop and make it like soccer with two divisions and the top two of the lower division replaces the bottom two of the first division each season. There's likely a good reason not to, but I am not yet caffeinated.

Of course, the Berry folks have already spotted one major flaw. No private college can compete with those big, bad state schools where there isn't a D2 school within 5,000 miles.

[bleedpurple]

Fun to speculate. The thing about the WIAC is that other teams there are more likely to rise to the top tier than those from the SJU/Bethel or NCC/Wheaton leagues.

Throw things for a real loop and make it like soccer with two divisions and the top two of the lower division replaces the bottom two of the first division each season. There's likely a good reason not to, but I am not yet caffeinated.

Of course, the Berry folks have already spotted one major flaw. No private college can compete with those big, bad state schools where there isn't a D2 school within 5,000 miles.[/color]

That's true!  I really wish the Berry announcers would pass that along to teams like St. John's, Bethel, NCC, and Wheaton (not to mention the many other private national powers).  Those schools just can't seem to get that through their heads. 

[palum]

Interesting note in the Top 25 poll. Stout lost it's one Top 25 vote and didn't gain any others after beating a team that had 10 Top 25 votes.  On the MIAC Board, Pat suggested this might be because of their previous loss to Wartburg.

With Stout's win over Gustavus Adolphus, the MIAC and CCIW are each left with only two teams receiving votes in the Top 25 poll.  That essentially means that without a colossal upset, there is ONE game in each conference all year that is likely to have national impact.  Contrast that to the season WIAC fans are looking forward to!

In the spirit of D-I's conference realignment bonanza, I have a proposal.  It involves "trading" schools with the MIAC and the CCIW.  I will hate saying goodbye to the schools we are losing and I wish them well in the future. But I know to get quality, you have to give up quality.

My Proposed Trades:

To the MIAC:  UW-Stout and UW-Eau Claire
To the WIAC:  St. John's and Bethel

That leaves the MIAC (or the newly named MIWAC) composed of:

Stout
Eau Claire
Gustavus Adolphus
Concordia Morehead
Carleton
Augsburg
St. Olaf
Hamline
St. Scholastica
Hamline

Seems like there may be quite a few competitive games in that mix

To the CCIW:  UW-Platteville and UW-Stevens Point
To the WIAC:  North Central and Wheaton

That puts the CCIW list of schools at:

Platteville
Stevens Point
Wash U
Illinois Wesleyan
Augustana
Carroll
Millikan
Carthage
Elmhurst
North Park

Again, quite a few competitive games in that mix.

That leaves the WIAC (or the newly named WIMAC) at:

UW-W
UW-LaCrosse
UW-Oshkosh
UW-River Falls
St. John's
Bethel
North Central
Wheaton

I don't see a game in the mix that isn't a playoff-type game.  Now THAT would be a fun football season!

BP,
That UWSP bus trip to Millikan and Washington U is a long one maybe you could substitute St. Norbert and Ripon to make things a little more compact. Just a thought.

[DuffMan]

I don't see a game in the mix that isn't a playoff-type game.  Now THAT would be a fun football season!

I don't think my heart could handle the stress! 

[bleedpurple]

Interesting note in the Top 25 poll. Stout lost it's one Top 25 vote and didn't gain any others after beating a team that had 10 Top 25 votes.  On the MIAC Board, Pat suggested this might be because of their previous loss to Wartburg.

With Stout's win over Gustavus Adolphus, the MIAC and CCIW are each left with only two teams receiving votes in the Top 25 poll.  That essentially means that without a colossal upset, there is ONE game in each conference all year that is likely to have national impact.  Contrast that to the season WIAC fans are looking forward to!

In the spirit of D-I's conference realignment bonanza, I have a proposal.  It involves "trading" schools with the MIAC and the CCIW.  I will hate saying goodbye to the schools we are losing and I wish them well in the future. But I know to get quality, you have to give up quality.

My Proposed Trades:

To the MIAC:  UW-Stout and UW-Eau Claire
To the WIAC:  St. John's and Bethel

That leaves the MIAC (or the newly named MIWAC) composed of:

Stout
Eau Claire
Gustavus Adolphus
Concordia Morehead
Carleton
Augsburg
St. Olaf
Hamline
St. Scholastica
Hamline

Seems like there may be quite a few competitive games in that mix

To the CCIW:  UW-Platteville and UW-Stevens Point
To the WIAC:  North Central and Wheaton

That puts the CCIW list of schools at:

Platteville
Stevens Point
Wash U
Illinois Wesleyan
Augustana
Carroll
Millikan
Carthage
Elmhurst
North Park

Again, quite a few competitive games in that mix.

That leaves the WIAC (or the newly named WIMAC) at:

UW-W
UW-LaCrosse
UW-Oshkosh
UW-River Falls
St. John's
Bethel
North Central
Wheaton

I don't see a game in the mix that isn't a playoff-type game.  Now THAT would be a fun football season!

BP,
That UWSP bus trip to Millikan and Washington U is a long one maybe you could substitute St. Norbert and Ripon to make things a little more compact. Just a thought.

I like it!  Maybe we have to send Wash U back to the SAA and send Millikan over to the NCAC!

[retagent]

So, with 5 schools in the Top 30, convince me again that the WIAC has no advantages.

[02 Warhawk]

They do. For the thousandth time...WI has only one scholarship offering football program in the state.

That's a recruiting advantage that even Lance talked about.

[bleedpurple]

So, with 5 schools in the Top 30, convince me again that the WIAC has no advantages.

I think the tenor of the argument as I understand it is not whether the WIAC has advantages. Heck, privates have their advantages too, just different ones. (UMHB had an 82 million dollar donation that led to the Cruthedral. Pretty sure no WIAC school has had an 82 million dollar donation).

I believe the argument is whether the advantage is so great that it cannot be overcome by other schools with the commitment from administration, vision, plan, and leadership.  I think there are a number of football programs, St. John's included, that have had more success than any WIAC school over the past 20 years, save one.

I think the other critique of the Berry announcers' comments about "big bad state schools" is just a lack of respect for whininess.  Whining is weak.  Get better. 

There is no such thing as an equal playing field in life.  In spite of much public whining about that in our culture today, there never will be. Run the race marked out for you with passion and commitment and excellence and you will succeed.  Rely on excuses and whine about the playing field and you will fail. It's not really that complicated.

[formerd3db]

bp:

Your last paragraph is excellent and says it for everthing. And we know where that philosophy is from. +k to you!

[OzJohnnie]

Meh, they're announcers.  Let them whinge.

Berry football chose the contest, made a good showing and should be commended for doing so.  Playing UWW is never easy.  Beating UWW is even more difficult, but not impossible

The topic of D3 football performance has been done to death, but it's always fun to go around again.  D3 has 3 1/2 tiers of programs.  The seven or eight programs really committed to national competitiveness with focus, money and institutional support; the 20 or so lagging just behind; the great unwashed; the easy beats.

What happens on the field and in front of the announcers is just the end point of all the work that goes to getting there.  And all that work doesn't have one special secret, like money or territory advantage or legacy.  All those help, of course, but there's no one secret sauce.  In the end, it's the whole program being focused enough to reach the top of the nationally competitive pile.  And the effort/money/staffing/talent needed to get there is very high and always rising.  The guys behind have to run twice as fast to get to the front, but no one is stopping them.  It's there for the taking if an institution is committed to doing it.  Berry had a good look and should be commended.  The announcers were essentially complaining that it's too hard.  Lucky for Berry they aren't the AD or program people.

[02 Warhawk]

It's funny b/c this narrative would never have come to light if UWW hadn't have stepped up and put an end to Mount Union's reign of terror. God forbid a public school experience success playing in a private school dominated division of sports that is D3. Without being criticized for their enrollment size, tuition costs and academic standards.

I thought we've moved on from this....

[02 Warhawk]

Meh, they're announcers.  Let them whinge.

Berry football chose the contest, made a good showing and should be commended for doing so.  Playing UWW is never easy.  Beating UWW is even more difficult, but not impossible

The topic of D3 football performance has been done to death, but it's always fun to go around again.  D3 has 3 1/2 tiers of programs.  The seven or eight programs really committed to national competitiveness with focus, money and institutional support; the 20 or so lagging just behind; the great unwashed; the easy beats.

What happens on the field and in front of the announcers is just the end point of all the work that goes to getting there.  And all that work doesn't have one special secret, like money or territory advantage or legacy.  All those help, of course, but there's no one secret sauce.  In the end, it's the whole program being focused enough to reach the top of the nationally competitive pile.  And the effort/money/staffing/talent needed to get there is very high and always rising.  The guys behind have to run twice as fast to get to the front, but no one is stopping them.  It's there for the taking if an institution is committed to doing it.  Berry had a good look and should be commended.  The announcers were essentially complaining that it's too hard.  Lucky for Berry they aren't the AD or program people.

+1 for the use of "whinge". Probably my favorite of auzzie terms