FB: American Rivers Conference

[doolittledog]

I'm afraid you're all overreacting to one game. My model has the IIAC as the 4th best conference in the Midwest, behind the WIAC, CCIW, and MIAC. They're also ranked the 4th best conference in the COUNTRY. Our views of the IIAC on the national scale may be skewed merely because IIAC teams are middle-of-the-road in their own region. Just have to remember that it's a damn good region. The only team to get past the "Midwest Region Champ" (UWW/UWO/UST/Bethel) in the playoffs over the last decade has been Mount Union.

Fixed it for ya!  (I need to live in the past after this season  )

Agree on the assessment though. If the IIAC was out East they'd be a force, IMO. And in the North I'd slot them right behind CCIW & OAC and before NCAC. The fact that they've got 4 teams (Wart, Coe, UD, & Central) who have been a threat and won the league over the last decade speaks to parity and decent depth. Wartburg has had some outstanding teams that were definitely Top 5ish in quality.

Bottom line, the West/Midwest is just a brutal grinder. Throw in Linfield and the proximity to the CCIW and the number of times the IIAC is going to get a brutal draw in the first two rounds skews the quality of the conference.

I think one thing that hurts the IIAC is the perception of BVU in Western Iowa. In terms of football, for recruits they're an afterthought. Which means the rest of the IIAC can tend to be as well, for any HS senior who isn't well informed about small college football (which is sadly, probably most of them). There are a lot of really good HS teams/players in Western Iowa (e.g. Heelan, Spirit Lake, Storm Lake, SBL, Western, W. Lyon, C. Lyon, BHRV, etc.), but I just don't see the IIAC recruiting them hard. Bethel has landed some outstanding players from that area, but it was almost never down to us vs. an IIAC school. We were usually going up against a GPAC or a NSIC team. That seems like an untapped resource for some IIAC schools.

Good point about BVU. I tend to agree. I interviewed there before I took my engineering job, and when I looked at their roster before the interview, I noticed they got most of their players from East of I-35, as does the rest of the conference. I thought that Omaha/Sioux City was a bit of an untapped market for BVU individually (they only had one player from Omaha, 2.5 hours away), and if they could consistently field teams on the level of those NAIA schools, it would probably help the perception of the conference in Western Iowa.

How much of that is on BVU though?  BVU is losing on-campus enrollment at a steady rate.  I realize population decline, especially in the western part of the state is something to consider.  But I'm told they now only have about 900 students in Storm Lake.  This is a school with an endowment near $150 million.  They have the resources to offer some pretty competitive financial packages to up their on-campus population.  They have the resources to pump into athletics if they so desired.  Look where BVU falls in the all-sports trophy.  Usually dead last by a wide margin.  Their coaches are not well paid, which would lead you to believe the rest of their budget is fairly low as well.  Hadachek left BVU in the 90's because he was making more $ selling Advocare.  Osterberger moved from BVU to Loras in 2008 and went from $40k to $60k in salary.  At that same time we know Simpson had offered $80k to a HC candidate. 

I know BVU is on an island out there.  And it would be easy for them to say they are at a disadvantage being in a sparsely populated part of the state and surrounded by NAIA schools.  But maybe they need to take a look in the mirror.  You can compete against NAIA and D2 schools for recruits.  NAIA and D2 don't offer full rides.  It doesn't take parents long to figure out the out-of-pocket expense is the same when you're talking D3-D2-NAIA.  NWU is on an island as well.  Sparsely populated state, surrounded by NAIA schools.  They compete just fine. 

[HansenRatings]

All good points. I was looking at it purely from the football perspective. Small schools need bodies and need to minimize recruiting costs. Most students are willing to travel ~3 hours for school. Omaha is by far the densest locale for football-playing high schoolers (and has fewer DIII/NAIA schools within 3 hours of it than does Des Moines, meaning there should be less competition), and BVU was making recruiting harder than it had to be. You could visit 1 or 2 more schools/day in an area like that, and probably visit with more students per school (because they're bigger schools) than you would traversing Western Iowa. UW-Platteville established themselves as the 2nd-3rd best WIAC team after they shifted their recruiting focus to Chicago (~3.25 hours away).

[hazzben]

All good points. Between Omaha, Sioux City and Sioux Falls, there are plenty of 'good sized' metros to recruit that are within 2.5 hrs (Des Moines is as well). It probably has a lot to do with institutional support at BVU. If you're not making much money as an HC (Hadachek's Advocare money is the outlier, he making more there than most D1 assistants do), chances are you've got a pittance going to coordinators and assistants. Which means offseason recruiting is probably close to a one man show.

Bottom line though, for BVU and the IIAC in general, Western Iowa is almost entirely overlooked. Anecdotal story. When I was being recruited, and my younger brother a few years later, we had offers from NWC, USF, Navy, Morningside, SDSU, USD and Bethel. Several were for full tuition or full rides. We chose Bethel for a variety of factors, and it worked out great for both of us. But we heard almost nothing from any IIAC schools. My dad had been an IIAC official for 10 years at that point. I went on a recruiting visit to Central due to my own interest, but it was tepid interest on their part. In addition, for our teammates who went on to play small college ball (several who were all conference and all american), it was a similar story. Almost zero IIAC interest. I can think of one kid, covering the 8-10 years around when the two of us were in HS, who went to an IIAC school, Simpson (he ended up an AA Olineman for them by the way). That out of what I'd conservatively spitball to be have been 30+ Iowa kids who played small college ball from those HS teams. Anecdotal, I know, but there are players to be had between I-29 and I-35 if IIAC teams are willing to look.

[coocooforcoekohawk]

Whoot! Whoot!
All West Region
Coach of the Year
Tyler Staker

[doolittledog]

BVU coaching search...

http://ncaamarket.ncaa.org/jobs/8611952/head-football-coach

Under "Responsibilities" Lead and attend team practices and home/away contests.

From "About Buena Vista University" With an enrollment of 800 full-time residential students

[doolittledog]

Because there's no actual news out there.  I decided to waste time at work and look up IIAC attendance.  Yes, these are guestimates, some good/some bad, some just outright lies!

BVU
St Johns 2,300
Simpson 1,765
Luther....3,200
Dubuque 1,875
Neb Wes.2,010
Average..2,230

Central
BVU........1,500
Dubuque 2,000
Wartburg 2,500
Simpson..2,000
Average...2,000

Coe
UW-River Falls 2,908
Loras..............3,819
Wartburg.........3,819 (amazing, the exact same attendance 2 weeks in a row) 
Central............4,037
BVU................4,867
Average..........3,890

Dubuque
Bethel....2,530
Simpson 2,253
Neb Wes 2,619
Coe........4,211
Wartburg 3,119
Average..2,946

Loras
Elmhurst 2,297
Central...2,975
BVU.......2,679
Luther....1,670
Dubuque 2,300

Luther
UW-La Crosse 925
Dubuque........965
Neb Wes...........0 (Not even a players girlfriend showed up?)
Coe.............1,105
Central...........623
Average.........880 (I didn't count the NWU game)

Nebraska Wesleyan
McPherson 1,057
Ill Wesleyan 614
Wartburg.....721
Coe..........1,025
Central........817
Loras..........939
Average......862

Simpson
Luther 4,562
Loras..1,724
NWU...3,227
Coe.....3,347
Average 3,215

Wartburg
Finlandia 2,500
Loras......2,500
Simpson..5,500
Luther.....2,500
BVU........2,700
Average..3,140

[HansenRatings]

Things have really changed at BV & Simpson since my day if they're averaging over 2,000 at their home games.

[wildcat11]

Yeah....that happens a lot of places....George Fox wasn't too happy when I called them out on it....their President actually called our AD complaining about this blog post:  https://catdomealumni.blogspot.com/2015/11/george-fox-football-attendance-numbers.html

[HansenRatings]

Yeah....that happens a lot of places....George Fox wasn't too happy when I called them out on it....their President actually called our AD complaining about this blog post:  https://catdomealumni.blogspot.com/2015/11/george-fox-football-attendance-numbers.html

I have seen your jokes about their attendance before, but hadn't read that post. I would say the MS Paint methodology is pretty spot-on. It's hilarious that an official from their department commented (and your response was great btw), but for the University PRESIDENT to call your AD to complain is ludicrous...

[doolittledog]

We had a BVU poster here that had worked in bleacher sales as part of his business.  He told us once a decent way to judge capacity of the stands, is to take the length of the stand in ft and multiply by the number of rows, then divide by 1.5.  If you have a home stand that runs from the 5yd line to 5yd line and is 15 rows high then you take 270x15=4050 and divide by 1.5 to get a 2,700 capacity stand.

From the IIAC attendance figures you see this year, you can see some try to give you a good guess, and others couldn't care less and just throw an even number out there and call it good.  Some could be over inflating...though if they are told their stadium holds a bigger amount than what is actually true, that could cause attendance irregularities...such as at BVU and Simpson. 

I still chuckle from Wartburg reporting 3,000 attendance for their season ending game against UD in 2008.  I believe HansenRatings was on the team that season.  Their wasn't 200 in the stands.  They later changed the attendance figure to 1,200.  If you take attendance like they do at GFU that 1,200 number makes sense.  Wartburg had 900 season tickets sold and then figured there were 300 actually at the game for the 1,200 figure.  Someone theorized the 3,000 attendance was a figure automatically put in the computer program and then it was up to Wartburg to put the actual attendance number in and they just didn't do it for that game. 

[HansenRatings]

There were as many players on the Wartburg sideline for that game as there were willing fans in the stands. Wind, cold, snow, and I was still a freshman benchwarmer in that game, didn't get to run around to stay warm. Coach Willis would kill me if I said I was miserable during that game though, because that weather is "JUST HOW WE LIKE IT!"

[doolittledog]

BVU hires new HC

http://www.bvuathletics.com/sports/fball/2016-17/releases/20161219h2n30y

And...

http://siouxcityjournal.com/sports/football/college/bvu-names-mollring-new-football-coach/article_4ecc53be-0253-5a2f-8db2-132d57469092.html

[HansenRatings]

I would have to imagine they'll be attempting to open up that Omaha access pipeline with a former UNK/Doane/Hastings coach.

[doolittledog]

I would have to imagine they'll be attempting to open up that Omaha access pipeline with a former UNK/Doane/Hastings coach.

I'm thinking the search committee saw your posts and then took a look towards a GPAC hire.

Time to give up that engineering career and apply for the new DC job at BVU.  Less money, and the joys of recruiting western Iowa are calling you back to the game 

[HansenRatings]

I would have to imagine they'll be attempting to open up that Omaha access pipeline with a former UNK/Doane/Hastings coach.

I'm thinking the search committee saw your posts and then took a look towards a GPAC hire.

Time to give up that engineering career and apply for the new DC job at BVU.  Less money, and the joys of recruiting western Iowa are calling you back to the game 

Naa.. I heard the best burrito joint in Storm Lake closed it's doors. Can't respect a city like that!