FB: American Rivers Conference

[footballdaddy]

Sending birthday wishes to my friendly rival Purple Haze. 

Thanks!!!!!   

I'll hoist a fine malted barley beverage in your honor tonight.

BTW, would you come back to Iowa if we have Sierra Nevada on our mobile Endowment fund entertainment venue?

[doolittledog]

Sending birthday wishes to my friendly rival Purple Haze. 

Thanks!!!!!   

I'll hoist a fine malted barley beverage in your honor tonight.

BTW, would you come back to Iowa if we have Sierra Nevada on our mobile Endowment fund entertainment venue?

My wife is on to you guys...no solo trips by me to anything Wartburg related in the future

[AZDutchman]

Back in my foolish misguided days of my youth, I was confronted by people such as....Candy Cotton. I have decided to dig down deep into a complete unselfishness to rescue all of you from the evil temptation that all of you may be faced with and lead you to salvation. I will drive the distance required to pick up this bus and bring it home. This way your minds with be free by the division of many miles and Doolittledog can join you again with the blessings from Mrs. Doolittledog.

You're Welcome! 

[footballdaddy]

Your noble quest to help your fellow man is more than admirable. But you should know by now that being supporters of Wartburg, our souls will always be somewhat suspect in their purity. We cannot in good concience let someone so pure as a Central parent be endangered in any way. I know you have faltered before, but now you are as clean as a newborn, and should stay that way. Let us take this spiritual bullet for you, as many times as it is neccessary, until we run out of beer or endowments.
 

[footballdaddy]

My biggest fear is that tomorrow we will be confronted with a large group of inebreated men with handfuls of $1 bills demanding "Where's the bus!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

[AZDutchman]

Your noble quest to help your fellow man is more than admirable. But you should know by now that being supporters of Wartburg, our souls will always be somewhat suspect in their purity. We cannot in good concience let someone so pure as a Central parent be endangered in any way. I know you have faltered before, but now you are as clean as a newborn, and should stay that way. Let us take this spiritual bullet for you, as many times as it is neccessary, until we run out of beer or endowments.

I must now give you my thanks. I should have known when an event that had to do with Wartburg, that my new found mind would have been edged with the possibility of some corruption.

I now understand were, the ever so wise, Mrs. D was coming from. When I suggested to Mrs. AZD to the possibility of going to the Wartburg game this season, there wasn't any drawn out explanation or reasoning to picking a different game....just a quick and simple No.

When I wrote the previous message, my mind was not clear. I have strapped on my Bible Belt again, like a Super Hero and his cape, and will have my guard ready for the presence of such impurities. I will do the Dutch Dodge to keep myself from getting hit with something like this in the future.

[AZDutchman]

To my fellow Dutch Fans,

Do not worry about tomorrows game. I have been in contact with the Central coaches and made them well aware of the Duhawks tactics of holding onto their key players and playing them during certain quarters of the game. Special gloves with mini suction cups have been sent and received for those who may find the ball a little "greasy". I also sent a special ingredient to be added to the Gatorade to give them that extra explosive punch to keep them zooming around on the field.

It will be a good victory tomorrow, but just keep this information top secret and confidential between us. 

[Fannosaurus Rex]

It wouldn't surprise me at all to hear that something called, "The Stripper Bus," turns up in your town on the day your team plays Simpson.  Low living follows them every where they go.

[Old Dutch]

Good luck and health to all IIAC teams this weekend. 

Go Dutch  Please hang on to the d*** ball.

Interesting note in the DMR this morning:

IOWA WESLEYAN: The Board of Trustees of Iowa Wesleyan College voted Friday to apply for membership in NCAA Division III by Jan. 15, 2012.

Iowa Wesleyan, located in Mount Pleasant, is currently an NAIA program.

The move came as a result of a recommendation of the board's Enrollment Management and Athletics Task Force, which focuses on developing recommendations to help build student enrollment through recruitment and retention strategies.

[hazzben]

Good luck and health to all IIAC teams this weekend. 

Go Dutch  Please hang on to the d*** ball.

Interesting note in the DMR this morning:

IOWA WESLEYAN: The Board of Trustees of Iowa Wesleyan College voted Friday to apply for membership in NCAA Division III by Jan. 15, 2012.

Iowa Wesleyan, located in Mount Pleasant, is currently an NAIA program.

The move came as a result of a recommendation of the board's Enrollment Management and Athletics Task Force, which focuses on developing recommendations to help build student enrollment through recruitment and retention strategies.

That is interesting. If they're heading DIII I can only imagine they'd be interested in the IIAC. Going independent would be a strange move. A different area for the conference in regards to recruiting as well, as they'd be the only school in the SE portion of the state. But also another long road trip for BV.

[doolittledog]

Good luck and health to all IIAC teams this weekend. 

Go Dutch  Please hang on to the d*** ball.

Interesting note in the DMR this morning:

IOWA WESLEYAN: The Board of Trustees of Iowa Wesleyan College voted Friday to apply for membership in NCAA Division III by Jan. 15, 2012.

Iowa Wesleyan, located in Mount Pleasant, is currently an NAIA program.

The move came as a result of a recommendation of the board's Enrollment Management and Athletics Task Force, which focuses on developing recommendations to help build student enrollment through recruitment and retention strategies.

Hmm, that is interesting news.  I suspect this is not a coincidence that Cornell is leaving and now we get the news Iowa Wesleyan is moving to D3.  Could the IIAC be replacing one Methodist school for another???  I hope so, 9 schools is a good number for our conference.  And I imagine that would make warthog happy to have a conference school so close to his home. 

[hazzben]

Some very interesting developments going on within the Iowa small college ranks. Is this the small college version of football realignment at play on the plains?!?

Iowa Wesleyan going DIII is intriguing and mystifying. They don't really seem to be a great fit for the IIAC. Small even for small colleges (850 enrollment). Academically not very strong. Known within NAIA circles as a renegade school recruiting some 'iffy' student athletes. When you're seen as a renegade within the NAIA that's saying something!

But there have also been some back room discussions going on and gaining steam with the western Iowa NAIA schools as well. Apparently Morningside, Dordt, Northwestern and Briar Cliff have been conducting some informal inquires on what it would look like for them to move DIII. They've been talking to one another and brainstorming. The intent seems to be that if they made such a move they'd try to join the IIAC and explore making a western/eastern division set up. (note: I have no idea how open the IIAC is to this idea) One of their major questions centers around what the dynamics of such a change would entail. What sort of cultural and philosophical differences would be involved in a switch like this. An obvious one is a change in the way aid is rewarded. No athletic scholarships, but an increase in general scholarships and grants for example. Another major difference is the money these schools would save with postseason participation. In the current NAIA set up a school like USF bidding for and then hosting 3 playoff football games at times cost them upwards of $100,000/yr! Schools like Morningside and NWC are used to sending teams deep into the postseason and doubt look favorably upon the possibility of doing this on someone else's dime.

There are some NCAA DIII connections at a few of the schools. E.g.: Morningside head coach has ONU connections. NWC president has some Simpson connections.

Two very different options at stake here.

Option A: Add 1 team (Iowa Wesleyan) to replace 1 team (Cornell). No change in conference size (or school colors  ), but the teams changing hands couldn't be more different in ethos. As much as Cornell may have seen themselves as too academic for the IIAC (not saying I agree with their assessment), IW would seem to be even less an academic fit in the opposite direction. Minimal shift in competitive balance as IW is not very strong in this regard.

Key Question: Is Iowa Wesleyan a good fit for the IIAC?

Option B: Add 4 teams (Morningside, Northwestern, Dordt and Briar Cliff) to replace 1 team (Cornell). This move isn't so much about replacing a team as it would be a total shift in the conferences mentality. The academics of Morningside, NWC and Dordt would be a nice fit in the IIAC. BV would finally have some friends to play with from their own neighborhood. The IIAC would go from a 9 team to a 12 team conference. Do they eliminate nonconference football games altogether, set up an East and West division and rotate the school you don't play each year? Do you establish a B1G/SEC cross division rival that you play every year along with the other teams in your division?. (E.g. NWC v. Central) Or do you go the way of the B1G and only play 8 or 9 conference games so that there can still be some nonconference action? Obviously this could have major implications for the scheduling of quite a few DIII conferences (CCIW, MIAC, WIAC, MWC, etc.) This option would big a major step for the 4 schools and the IIAC. It would also, at first glance, make the IIAC one of the premier athletic conferences in DIII. Morningside and NWC alone would bring real program rich traditions in sports like basketball, football, volleyball, etc. This would also give the IIAC the total corner on prestige, cache, name recognition and media coverage in the state. They'd be highly visible from the Mississippi to Des Moines to the Missouri and truly represent all of Iowa, rather than primarily Central and Eastern Iowa as they do now (they're really an afterthought in Western/NWestern Iowa right now).

Key Questions: Is the IIAC ready to make a bold move with major in state and regional implications?
How serious are the Western 4 about switching.
Would such a move be the straw that broke the NAIA's back? They'd be losing some of the best schools out of their premier conference. At some point the decades long bloodletting of NAIA to NCAA becomes fatal for this organization. Would this exodus of schools be the fatal blow?

Side Note: Can you tell how much I love intrigue like this? I just wasted a good hour of my day typing and coloring for you IIAC boys! Also, my source regarding the Western schools is pretty solid.

Let the debate begin...

[Bird Dog]

Being ignorant about football but never letting that stop me from chiming in here goes.  Iowa Wesleyan is in the Midwest Collegiate Conference but plays football in the Mid States Football Association (two divisions).  Wm. Penn, Grandview, St. Ambrose, Waldorf and Ia. Wesleyan are the members of the Midwest Collegiate Conference that play football.  The other five schools in the football league are located in Ill.?.  William Penn and St. Ambrose are ranked in the NAIA top 15   

I think the real prizes in this league are St. Ambrose and Grandview.  I don't think Ambrose would come over because they are centrally located in the league.  Grandview and Waldorf would be a good geographical fit to the IIAC in consideration for BV.  (.  None of these schools have wrestling or swimming of course they would like us to add bowling as they have bowling teams. 

[AZDutchman]

Now that's what I'm talking about! They need to be careful of the Duhawks strategy in the second half. All those players that are rested are going to be ready to go!

[Klompen]

Agreed!  A much better showing today.  42-7 at the half tells me that the team and coaches finally came ready and fired up to play.  I'm liking the fact that they are also doing something other than Snead running on 4th down.  Snead's stats today are out of this world.  It looks like the team as a whole decided to play like a first place conference contender.  I feared they may have dropped to pretender.  Now if they would just be consistent.  Can they play a whole game?  Can they play week after week at peak form?  They have been real up and down so far, so still not convinced they have turned the corner, but in this half, they were clicking on all cylinders.  Then again, this is Loras, can they do this against Cornell, Simpson and WB?