Future of Division III

[Ralph Turner]

The October Commissioners Newsletter has 2 interesting items.

Microsoft Streets and Trips will not be used for determining championship criteria in 2006.

The new criteria will be found in www.mappoint.msn.com.  An appeal process is available for those institutions that fall out by the change in critieria.  See page 5.

The previously noted change to allow in-region apply to "Membership Regions" as defined by Bylaw 4.12.1.1 is also mentioned.

The NCAA announces the release of the Men's Golf Handbook.  One change has occurred in the Championships for Men's Golf.  Men's Golf will go to the Pools System with 24 conferences getting a Pool A bid.  There will be 8 Pool B teams and 3 Pool C teams. This is a big expansion of the championship.

Now we southern and western teams and conferences can sound like the CCIW and WIAC basketball "snobs" when our 5th place team doesn't get a bid that has gone to some AQ conference!    8)

[Gregory Sager]

The October Commissioners Newsletter has 2 interesting items.

Microsoft Streets and Trips will not be used for determining championship criteria in 2006.

The new criteria will be found in www.mappoint.msn.com.  An appeal process is available for those institutions that fall out by the change in critieria.  See page 5.

It doesn't help the most notorious near-miss under the old Microsoft Streets & Trips, Wheaton and Calvin. The two schools are 205 miles apart according to the new software that the NCAA is using.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Has anyone actually tried to measure from door to door of the basketball facilities at these "near miss" schools?  Sometimes that small distance difference could actually make a difference, especially if the campus is spread out.

[Mr. Ypsi]

The October Commissioners Newsletter has 2 interesting items.

Microsoft Streets and Trips will not be used for determining championship criteria in 2006.

The new criteria will be found in www.mappoint.msn.com.  An appeal process is available for those institutions that fall out by the change in critieria.  See page 5.

The previously noted change to allow in-region apply to "Membership Regions" as defined by Bylaw 4.12.1.1 is also mentioned.

The NCAA announces the release of the Men's Golf Handbook.  One change has occurred in the Championships for Men's Golf.  Men's Golf will go to the Pools System with 24 conferences getting a Pool A bid.  There will be 8 Pool B teams and 3 Pool C teams. This is a big expansion of the championship.

Now we southern and western teams and conferences can sound like the CCIW and WIAC basketball "snobs" when our 5th place team doesn't get a bid that has gone to some AQ conference!    8)

With only 3 pool C bids, forget the 5th place team - you're gonna have some mighty upset SECOND place teams!

[sunny]

The NCAA announces the release of the Men's Golf Handbook.  One change has occurred in the Championships for Men's Golf.  Men's Golf will go to the Pools System with 24 conferences getting a Pool A bid.  There will be 8 Pool B teams and 3 Pool C teams. This is a big expansion of the championship.

Now we southern and western teams and conferences can sound like the CCIW and WIAC basketball "snobs" when our 5th place team doesn't get a bid that has gone to some AQ conference!    8)

Ralph, tennis is also switching to the AQ system.  Say goodbye to tennis teams that used to get in with brutal schedules and records around .500.  Some of those tennis schools are also going to have to change their schedules in order to play the minimum number of matches against Division III teams.  And, like golf, say goodbye to half the teams in some leagues making the tournament.

There are going to be some BRUTAL first-round tennis matches.  In the long run, though, it's a good thing.  There are entire conferences in Division III where tennis is essentially treated like a glorified club sport.  The AQ should motivate some of the "better" teams/athletic departments in those conferences to take the sport more seriously and it should bolster their recruiting.  It has definitely had that effect in other sports like lacrosse.  Maybe it will also end the stupidity of some conferences playing their women's dual match schedules in the fall when the NCAA Championships are in the spring ...

[Gregory Sager]

Has anyone actually tried to measure from door to door of the basketball facilities at these "near miss" schools?  Sometimes that small distance difference could actually make a difference, especially if the campus is spread out.

The legislation simply reads "campus to campus" as far as I can tell, so it's reasonable to deduce that the NCAA uses each school's mailing address (which tends to be the administration building in the case of most schools).

In the case of Wheaton and Calvin, their respective campuses aren't large enough for it to make any difference. In fact, given the layouts of the two campuses, the distance is actually slightly greater in each case if you measure gym-to-gym rather than mailing-address-to-mailing-address.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

I don't remember where the rule stands at this point.  I know D1 practice opens tonight (wooo 7pm madness, can't miss it), but does d3 still have to wait until the 15th or do we get to start tonight too?

[Pat Coleman]

Still the 15th, my understanding.

[ronk]

Maybe D1 gets a dispensation for religious reason since Oct 15 is a Sunday this year.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

I know there is something about "the friday closest to the 15th" but I'm pretty sure that only applies to d1.

[johnnie_esq]

The University of South Dakota recommends a move to D-1 classification; Augustana (Sioux Falls, SD) will make their recommendation by mid-December.

This effectively will disband the D-2 power conference the NCC, as its only members left may be St. Cloud State, U of Minnesota-Duluth, Minnesota State-Mankato, and the U of Nebraska Omaha.  These schools all have D-1 hockey, but have more scholarships for football than the other schools in the immediate region (the NSIC conference), and have indicated they don't want to cut scholarships.  That likely means the following:

1.) Add additional schools to the NCC to keep it afloat:  possible, but geographically there aren't many options other than the DAC (NAIA) schools, and the ones who have left the NAIA have entered the NSIC, or they would need to recruit D3 schools to make a jump, which could affect the UMAC, MIAC, IIAC or WIAC.  The NSIC schools have no incentive to force a move to a higher-cost conference than their own.

2.) Move to a different conference within D-2, but that would drastically increase travel costs and could cut revenue (who in MN cares about Pittsburg State (KS)?  a UND-SCSU game would be much better attended!).

3.) Move to D-1 themselves, which would increase their costs dramatically and could be a recruiting boon for D-3 schools (as MN "cusp" athletes would likely go D3, similar to the boon that SJU received when NDSU went D-1).

Interesting things afloat in the "land of the giants"...

[johnnie_esq]

As an update to the D-2 happenings in the Upper Midwest:

USD has announced their intent to move to the D1-AA level, following North Dakota, South Dakota State, North Dakota State and Northern Colorado in recent years from the North Central Conference.  Augustana (SD) has announced their intent to join the NSIC, which has quietly collected D3 and NAIA dropouts Upper Iowa and University of Mary. 

In today's St. Cloud Times, it was announced that the North Central Conference is making plans to fold.  That leaves Minnesota-Duluth, Minnesota State-Mankato, and St. Cloud State and Nebraska-Omaha without a conference.  UMD, MSUM, SCSU have asked for info about the NSIC; UNO has asked for admission into the MIAA.

WHAT THIS MEANS:  There will be fewer D2 scholarships in the Upper Midwest (though, in fairness, there will be more D1 scholarships in the Upper Midwest).  When NDSU decided to go D1-AA, several of their players found their ways to D3 schools; with another two going that way (UND & USD), that could be the same result.  Furthermore, there are fewer scholarships in the NSIC than in the current NCC-- that means SCSU, UMD and MSUM will have 6 fewer equivalences to entice kids to go play football for them.  Those 6 kids could be significant contributors to WIAC/MIAC/IIAC/UMAC schools-- thus, this could be a boon to the Upper Midwest D3 squads.

[Ralph Turner]

There was more heat than light concerning the graduate transfer rule in D1.  The NCAA News even has a feature on it today.  (Please go to the front page of www.ncaaonline.org if my hyperlink did not work for you.)

I am watching the UMass/Montana game on ESPN2.  UMass RB #19 Tim Washington graduated from Syracuse last year. and is participating in the "D1-Semifinal".

He will have the opportunity that very few Syracuse football players will ever have...to play in a national collegiate football championship playoff game.

[frank uible]

Bur in 1959 Syracuse was the putative national champion without participating in a playoff.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

The bigger question is why one would choose UMASS for grad school.