FB: American Rivers Conference

[Mr. Ypsi]

AQs go only to conference champs, not divisional champs (as Ralph's ASC, with 16 teams, is sorely aware).

[Though I believe the NEFC Bogan and NEFC Boyd each get an AQ.  Apparently they have some sort of structure to be two conferences, rather than divisions of the same conference, but I have no knowledge of how.]

[KCDutch]

A question to the intelligentsia of the IIAC...

These are the schools in the exploratory year...

Doane, Concordia-NE, Hastings and William Jewell...

Are any of those schools likely candidates?

You can throw in full member Neb Wes if you like.

I think you can forget William Jewell...it's a good school BUT it would involve A LOT of travel for sports (the closest school would be 3 hours away).  Also, Cedar Rapids or Dubuque would have to drop the claim of having the most bars in a metro w/ a conference school.

[Ralph Turner]

AQs go only to conference champs, not divisional champs (as Ralph's ASC, with 16 teams, is sorely aware).

[Though I believe the NEFC Bogan and NEFC Boyd each get an AQ.  Apparently they have some sort of structure to be two conferences, rather than divisions of the same conference, but I have no knowledge of how.]

The NEFC is one of the single sport conferences that grandfathered (and the ACFC was one that was not) when the Pools were established.

I believe that the Boyd and the Bogan Divisions compete for one Pool A bid in football.

Mr Ypsi is right about the ASC.  By geographic isolation, we have to stay at 15-teams.  We cannot find the teams to add on both sides of the ASC to permit a split!

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/94/D3_football_map.gif

How close are those schools that you are speculating as new members?

(Grinnell ain't comin', tho'!)

[doolittledog]

A question to the intelligentsia of the IIAC...

These are the schools in the exploratory year...

Doane, Concordia-NE, Hastings and William Jewell...

Are any of those schools likely candidates?

You can throw in full member Neb Wes if you like.

William Jewell just announced they are going D2, not the GLIAC but some other conference with Great Lakes in the name.  

I can't imagine the IIAC adding in schools from other states.  But who knows.  

The heartland of the NAIA has been Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska and Iowa.  If the NAIA is now losing teams in those states I think the NAIA is in big big trouble.  The question would then be...What does the NCAA do with all these schools?  D3 already has 238 football schools.  D2 has something around 140.  What you would do with the 90 NAIA schools that still have football is a big big question to get answered.  

For me, I would really hope that if the IIAC does add to the league that they only add one more team and then cap it at 10 members.  

[sportsknight]

I am firmly on the anti-expansion side of things.  I think the 9 school set-up right now is very good, and has proven to be since 2004.  Just consider the amount of success IIAC teams have seen in the past 6 years (Central/Wartburg football, Loras/Wartburg soccer, Wartburg cross country, Loras men's basketball, Simpson women's basketball, wrestling throughout the league, Wartburg baseball, Wartburg/Loras/UD track, Wartburg golf, etc.) and I think it is pretty apparent that the IIAC has found a very good balance between in-league competition and opportunities to compete against the rest of the nation.

That said, I think that, among many other factors, whether a school offers wrestling should be a big consideration in any expansion talk.  The Iowa Conference is far and away the premiere wrestling league in Division III and the last thing we need is one blatant bottom-feeder that is an automatic win for the rest of the league.  Of the schools already mentioned, the only one that I know for sure that has wrestling is Grand View, which just started a program this year.  While I don't think that it will take long for former Wartburg assistant Nick Mitchell to develop a top-notch program, it will take a few seasons for them to be competitive in their own league, much less the IIAC.  I wanted to look up those other schools mentioned, but my stolen internet connection is working very slowly right now.

[Ralph Turner]

The school's mentioned as possible new members would need to spend one year in the exploratory phase, and then 4 years as a provisional.  This year may be too late to get something started, so we are looking at a new full member in 2015-16 at the earliest.

[Mr. Ypsi]

The school's mentioned as possible new members would need to spend one year in the exploratory phase, and then 4 years as a provisional.  This year may be too late to get something started, so we are looking at a new full member in 2015-16 at the earliest.

Unless the newbie was Grinnell.

Personally I've always thought 8 was the perfect size - no scheduling problems and a great balance of non-con and conference games for both fball and bball.  Maybe the discussion should be who to vote off the island! 

(Yeah, I'm a troublemaker. )

[Ralph Turner]

The school's mentioned as possible new members would need to spend one year in the exploratory phase, and then 4 years as a provisional.  This year may be too late to get something started, so we are looking at a new full member in 2015-16 at the earliest.

Unless the newbie was Grinnell.

Personally I've always thought 8 was the perfect size - no scheduling problems and a great balance of non-con and conference games for both fball and bball.  Maybe the discussion should be who to vote off the island! 

(Yeah, I'm a troublemaker. )

Grinnell in the IIAC?  Grinnell sends its rejects to the IIAC!

BTW, when was Grinnell last in the IIAC?  Supposedly, never

D3Football Map

[Mr. Ypsi]

The school's mentioned as possible new members would need to spend one year in the exploratory phase, and then 4 years as a provisional.  This year may be too late to get something started, so we are looking at a new full member in 2015-16 at the earliest.

Unless the newbie was Grinnell.

Personally I've always thought 8 was the perfect size - no scheduling problems and a great balance of non-con and conference games for both fball and bball.  Maybe the discussion should be who to vote off the island! 

(Yeah, I'm a troublemaker. )

Grinnell in the IIAC?  Grinnell sends its rejects to the IIAC!

BTW, when was Grinnell last in the IIAC?

D3Football Map

Are you sure you wanted to post that on the IIAC board?  Ever seen an overnight drop in karma of 1,000?

[Ralph Turner]

The school's mentioned as possible new members would need to spend one year in the exploratory phase, and then 4 years as a provisional.  This year may be too late to get something started, so we are looking at a new full member in 2015-16 at the earliest.

Unless the newbie was Grinnell.

Personally I've always thought 8 was the perfect size - no scheduling problems and a great balance of non-con and conference games for both fball and bball.  Maybe the discussion should be who to vote off the island! 

(Yeah, I'm a troublemaker. )

Grinnell in the IIAC?  Grinnell sends its rejects to the IIAC!

BTW, when was Grinnell last in the IIAC?

D3Football Map

Are you sure you wanted to post that on the IIAC board?  Ever seen an overnight drop in karma of 1,000?

Yeah, I stated it.  I will stick by it.   

What IIAC does and what Grinnell does are mutually exclusive!

I did find that the D-IV discussions anticipated that the IIAC would join the MWC in moving to D-IV! Maybe not rejects, just the ones they threw back! 

[doolittledog]

The school's mentioned as possible new members would need to spend one year in the exploratory phase, and then 4 years as a provisional.  This year may be too late to get something started, so we are looking at a new full member in 2015-16 at the earliest.

Unless the newbie was Grinnell.

Personally I've always thought 8 was the perfect size - no scheduling problems and a great balance of non-con and conference games for both fball and bball.  Maybe the discussion should be who to vote off the island! 

(Yeah, I'm a troublemaker. )

Oh no you didn't!!!

A few years ago there was talk of kicking Dubuque out because of their lack of competitiveness in EVERY sport.  Dubuque has upgraded their academics, facilities and while they haven't necesarily been winning conference championships, they are making the conference post season tournaments in almost every sport.  Cornell gets that talk occasionally now, but they have the capacity to become more competitive as well.  Their new AD was the commisioner of the IIAC, I don't see them going anywhere either. 

So, in a nutshell.  I don't want anyone to leave the conference.  I think things are fine just they way they are in the conference.  If we do add to the conference I think we should stop at 1 additional team.  Grinnell would be the easy choice.  If it's not them we need to be carefull and not just choose anybody, which seems to be the intention of the conference to do their due diligence.  Let's stay in-state as far as adding someone. 

You have the doolittle approval for...
Grinnell - already D3
Northwestern - strong academics, strong athletics...just beat BV in wrestling, close to BV
Waldorf - um, hmm, have played BV in Luther a lot over the years???
St. Ambrose - strong academics, strong athletics, former conference member, rival of Loras
Graceland - um, hmm, near the Missouri border, the state I was born???
Grand View - located in Des Moines, wrestling team is ranked 19th in NAIA

doolittle say no thanks to...
Morningside - their fans were almost rioting in the streets when they left D2 for NAIA...no way they would like D3
Briar Cliff - small school, weak in most sports...though they are ranked 17th in wrestling
Dordt - just don't like the name
Billy Penn - not much of a school...though Dubuque got 5 of their 9 conference wins against them in the 90's!!!
Iowa Wesleyan - Billy Penn light

Now that I have the banging screen porch door locked...I am going back to bed. 

[Ralph Turner]

Doolittle, thanks for the discussion of the attributes of your neighbors.  +1! 

Grinnell had the biggest endowment of those listed last year.  (I have not seen 2009 numbers yet.)

Coe and Cornell left the MWC in 1997.  Would the Grinnell administration make the same move in favor of less missed class time or budgetary constraints?

Thanks, in advance.

[Purple Heys]

The school's mentioned as possible new members would need to spend one year in the exploratory phase, and then 4 years as a provisional.  This year may be too late to get something started, so we are looking at a new full member in 2015-16 at the earliest.

Unless the newbie was Grinnell.

Personally I've always thought 8 was the perfect size - no scheduling problems and a great balance of non-con and conference games for both fball and bball.  Maybe the discussion should be who to vote off the island! 

(Yeah, I'm a troublemaker. )

Grinnell in the IIAC?  Grinnell sends its rejects to the IIAC!

BTW, when was Grinnell last in the IIAC?  Supposedly, never

D3Football Map

Wow...who got Mr. Turner all ginned up and dissing the IIAC?   

[Purple Heys]

The school's mentioned as possible new members would need to spend one year in the exploratory phase, and then 4 years as a provisional.  This year may be too late to get something started, so we are looking at a new full member in 2015-16 at the earliest.

Unless the newbie was Grinnell.

Personally I've always thought 8 was the perfect size - no scheduling problems and a great balance of non-con and conference games for both fball and bball.  Maybe the discussion should be who to vote off the island! 

(Yeah, I'm a troublemaker. )

Grinnell in the IIAC?  Grinnell sends its rejects to the IIAC!

BTW, when was Grinnell last in the IIAC?  Supposedly, never

D3Football Map

I can't see that there are too many Grinnell "rejects" floating round the IIAC when Grinnell student population is 88% out of state.

[Purple Heys]

Grinnell is well endowed compared to any school including its MWC counterparts.

I'm not sure how endowment size is relevant...unless attracting a conference member is like attracting a mate, in which case endowment (read: large) becomes one of the first considerations.   8)

I would think a college president would have a concern for missed instruction time and travel budgets.  In which case proximity becomes an unimpeachable factor.

I guess I get back to my original position as to maintaining the status quo.  What is the actual motivation for the IIAC to expand?