FB: American Rivers Conference

[Just Bill]

The NAIA will always have a place because of the sports sponsorship requirements of the NCAA. To be a D-III member schools have to sponsor...

Six men's sports (including at least one team sport in each playing season: fall, winter, spring)
Six women's sports (including at least one team sport in each playing season: fall, winter, spring)
(If their enrollment is less than 1,000 then they can have just five sports for each gender)

12 sports is a high threshold for many schools to reach. (Division II requires a minimum of 10 sports.) For the NAIA, there's no minimum sport sponsorship threshold. There will always be schools who just simply want to have a couple of basketball teams, or doesn't have the enrollment to meet the NCAA requirements.

[Gregory Sager]

The start-up costs for a football program simply do not make it feasible for UW-Superior to start one at this point, even though the possibility would exist somewhere down the road for the program to begin paying for itself. Moreover, the current climate of economic austerity surrounding the UW system would keep the idea of starting a football program at UW-Superior from gaining any traction.

[judgetrainer]

Remember that not all sports are revenue positive. Hockey and lacrosse tend to be full tuition students (they attract students from wealthier families). Football and basketball, not so much. Just because you add a body does not mean positive things to the bottom line.

[badgerwarhawk]

When Superior dropped football the main problem was numbers.  I don't recall exactly but I believe they only had thirty some healthy players when they made the decision. The conference required a football program for membership buy granted an exception to them. Now money would be an issue as well.. 

[warthog]

I borrowed this data from poster 5 Words Or Less on the IIAC men's basketball board:

Nebraska Wesleyan's current travel distances:
Briar Cliff – 154
College of St. Mary – 55
Concordia – 30
Dakota Wesleyan – 306
Doane – 28
Dordt – 197
Hastings – 107
Midland – 51
Morningside – 149
Mount Marty – 181
Northwestern – 192
11 schools = 1,450 total miles
Average = 132 miles

Nebraska Wesleyan's future travel distances:
Buena Vista – 360
Central – 235
Coe – 320
Dubuque – 390
Loras – 390
Luther – 390
Simpson – 210
Wartburg – 330
8 schools = 2,625 miles
Average = 328 miles

Lincoln (NWU) to Storm Lake (BV) - 150 miles

[warthog]

Nebraska doesn't have tons of small private colleges.  I would think there would be some value and possible stability if the IIAC could get either/both Concordia in Seward, Nebraska and Midland in Fremont, Nebraska to join the league.

[doolittledog]

I think something that made Nebraska Wesleyan attractive to the IIAC is they are already a D3 school, which these other schools are not.

[Fannosaurus Rex]

I don't know why I even waste my time on this site if I have to read in today's Chicago Tribune that the world's second best brewery is Toppling Goliath in Decorah.  I thought this was supposed to be a place to share.  On the other hand, the article in the Trib didn't say what is the world's best brewery so what are they hiding?

[Gregory Sager]

Remember that not all sports are revenue positive. Hockey and lacrosse tend to be full tuition students (they attract students from wealthier families). Football and basketball, not so much. Just because you add a body does not mean positive things to the bottom line.

It's a little different for a UW campus such as UW-Superior, though, because the amount of aid given out to UW students is extremely limited. Everybody plays what is essentially the sticker price, or close to it, unless he or she has a scholarship.

I borrowed this data from poster 5 Words Or Less on the IIAC men's basketball board:

Nebraska Wesleyan's current travel distances:
Briar Cliff – 154
College of St. Mary – 55
Concordia – 30
Dakota Wesleyan – 306
Doane – 28
Dordt – 197
Hastings – 107
Midland – 51
Morningside – 149
Mount Marty – 181
Northwestern – 192
11 schools = 1,450 total miles
Average = 132 miles

Nebraska Wesleyan's future travel distances:
Buena Vista – 360
Central – 235
Coe – 320
Dubuque – 390
Loras – 390
Luther – 390
Simpson – 210
Wartburg – 330
8 schools = 2,625 miles
Average = 328 miles

Lincoln (NWU) to Storm Lake (BV) - 150 miles

Yeah, that was corrected in the IIAC basketball room. It's actually 173 miles, according to Google Maps.

Nebraska doesn't have tons of small private colleges.  I would think there would be some value and possible stability if the IIAC could get either/both Concordia in Seward, Nebraska and Midland in Fremont, Nebraska to join the league.

As doolittledog pointed out, the fact that NWU is already an NCAA D3 member puts that school in a different category than the ones that you mentioned. You don't just simply hop from one organization to the other anymore. D3 has a four-year provisional period, each year of which has certain markers that have to be met -- and D3 can and will hold back provisional members if those markers are not reached. Plus, the maximum number of schools that can enter the provisional pipeline in any given school year has been capped at four. So attempting to switch from NAIA to NCAA D3 carries no guarantees.

Several Nebraska NAIA schools did an exploratory year of investigating NCAA D3 membership earlier in this decade but decided not to pursue the matter afterwards. If I remember correctly, those schools were Concordia (NE), Hastings, and Doane.

If the IIAC is able to woo a potential new member away from the NAIA and the GPAC -- or if an NAIA/GPAC member were to approach the IIAC of its own accord and state that it was willing to move from the NAIA and the GPAC to NCAA D3 if the IIAC was willing to offer potential membership -- then there's no reason why the list of potential defectors should only include Concordia (NE) and Midland. I'd say that eight of the ten remaining coed schools in the GPAC would be viable potential defectors to D3 and the IIAC, with Dakota Wesleyan and Yankton (both of which are in South Dakota) probably the only two that wouldn't be good geographical fits.

[doolittledog]

I don't know why I even waste my time on this site if I have to read in today's Chicago Tribune that the world's second best brewery is Toppling Goliath in Decorah.  I thought this was supposed to be a place to share.  On the other hand, the article in the Trib didn't say what is the world's best brewery so what are they hiding?

And you discover this news in the year that Central plays Luther in Pella...darn the luck 

[5 Words or Less]

Several Nebraska NAIA schools did an exploratory year of investigating NCAA D3 membership earlier in this decade but decided not to pursue the matter afterwards. If I remember correctly, those schools were Concordia (NE), Hastings, and Doane.

NWU's coach will miss trio

NWU football coach Brian Keller said the move will bring challenges ... "I will miss the close relationship with Matt Franzen at Doane, Tony Harper at Hastings, Vance Winter at Concordia — all the football coaches in the GPAC who get together a couple of times a year."

[5 Words or Less]

US News' institutional summaries

• Concordia (NE) - http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/concordia-university-nebraska-2541
• Doane - http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/doane-college-2544
• Hastings - http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/hastings-2548
• Nebraska Wesleyan - http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/nebraska-wesleyan-university-2555

[5 Words or Less]

I don't know why I even waste my time on this site if I have to read in today's Chicago Tribune that the world's second best brewery is Toppling Goliath in Decorah.  I thought this was supposed to be a place to share.  On the other hand, the article in the Trib didn't say what is the world's best brewery so what are they hiding?

And you discover this news in the year that Central plays Luther in Pella...darn the luck 

Second brewery opening in Decorah  www.pulpitrockbrewing.com

[Old Dutch]

I don't know why I even waste my time on this site if I have to read in today's Chicago Tribune that the world's second best brewery is Toppling Goliath in Decorah.  I thought this was supposed to be a place to share.  On the other hand, the article in the Trib didn't say what is the world's best brewery so what are they hiding?

Quite obviously its Sam Adams, Boston Mass.

I am a fan of TG.  The go to Lager is Dorothy's  a great beer with a steak.  With your moniker Rex you may like the , nice easy drinking IPA. I could go on, but this is a football board.

[5 Words or Less]

Clarke adding football & lacrosse
http://www.clarke.edu/page.aspx?id=31822
http://www.kcrg.com/subject/news/clarke-university-to-add-football-team-in-2018-20150130