FB: Presidents' Athletic Conference

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Don't know if anyone else has seen this on FootballScoop, but TMC is "currently looking for football games during the 2018 season"...weeks 3-11. Open for D3, NAIA or D2 opponents.

Doesn't look like they had much of a game plan when they announced they were leaving the PAC.

As we've said multiple times, announcements of leaving a conference without an accompanying announcement of joining another are ... unusual.

Unusual... yep... that's one word. LOL

[WashJeff68]

Why did TMC decide to leave the PAC?

Here is  link to the PAC Manual:

http://pacathletics.org/sports/2012/9/24/manual1.aspx?id=27&

Here is a section from that document:

Section E. Withdrawal/Expulsion
A member institution may withdraw from membership in the conference on two (2) year's advance notice.

Expulsion:
1. Any member which fails to meet the conditions and obligations of membership may be terminated,
suspended or otherwise disciplined by a three-quarters (75 percent) affirmative vote of all Presidents
Council members (excluding the institution in question), provided that notice of intent to invoke
disciplinary action is made in writing to the affected member and all other members at least thirty (30)
days prior to the date when the action is proposed to be taken.

2. Grounds for disciplinary action shall include, without limitation, failure to pay dues or fines, failure to
comply with conference scheduling requirements, any action or inaction which constitutes a violation of
the conference Agreement, Code of Regulations, and Bylaws or any other major violation of an NCAA
Division III rule or regulation, and any action or inaction which reflects poorly upon the reputation and integrity of the conference.

– top –

Here is a link to the NCAA ruling on TMC's Women's Basketball rules infraction dated November 15, 2016:

http://www.ncaa.org/sites/default/files/2016INF_ThomasMorePubli%20InfractionsDecision_20161115.pdf

Here is the "analysis" from the NCAA decision

IV. ANALYSIS
The violations in this case centered on an extra benefit in the women's basketball program. The
institution agreed that the athletics department learned of the arrangement and failed to withhold
the student-athlete from competition. The head coach failed to fulfill his head coach
responsibility. And the institution failed to fulfill its monitoring responsibilities. The institution
agreed major violations occurred but, along with the head coach, believed the head coach
responsibility violation was secondary in nature. The committee agrees the violations occurred
and concludes that all violations are major.


Draw your own conclusion.

[jknezek]

I guess all the hints are this was not voluntary. I get that. Just not a pretty picture either way for TMC. I mean, E&H got tagged with some pretty ugly stuff as well across something like 9 sports, but the ODAC didn't just pitch them out on their rear. I guess it all depends on whether you are the kind of people the rest of the conference likes to think they should associate with.

[wally_wabash]

Why did TMC decide to leave the PAC?

Here is  link to the PAC Manual:

http://pacathletics.org/sports/2012/9/24/manual1.aspx?id=27&

Here is a section from that document:

Section E. Withdrawal/Expulsion
A member institution may withdraw from membership in the conference on two (2) year's advance notice.

Expulsion:
1. Any member which fails to meet the conditions and obligations of membership may be terminated,
suspended or otherwise disciplined by a three-quarters (75 percent) affirmative vote of all Presidents
Council members (excluding the institution in question), provided that notice of intent to invoke
disciplinary action is made in writing to the affected member and all other members at least thirty (30)
days prior to the date when the action is proposed to be taken.

2. Grounds for disciplinary action shall include, without limitation, failure to pay dues or fines, failure to
comply with conference scheduling requirements, any action or inaction which constitutes a violation of
the conference Agreement, Code of Regulations, and Bylaws or any other major violation of an NCAA
Division III rule or regulation, and any action or inaction which reflects poorly upon the reputation and integrity of the conference.

– top –

Here is a link to the NCAA ruling on TMC's Women's Basketball rules infraction dated November 15, 2016:

http://www.ncaa.org/sites/default/files/2016INF_ThomasMorePubli%20InfractionsDecision_20161115.pdf

Here is the "analysis" from the NCAA decision

IV. ANALYSIS
The violations in this case centered on an extra benefit in the women's basketball program. The
institution agreed that the athletics department learned of the arrangement and failed to withhold
the student-athlete from competition. The head coach failed to fulfill his head coach
responsibility. And the institution failed to fulfill its monitoring responsibilities. The institution
agreed major violations occurred but, along with the head coach, believed the head coach
responsibility violation was secondary in nature. The committee agrees the violations occurred
and concludes that all violations are major.


Draw your own conclusion.

My conclusion is that none of this is happening if either of the following aren't true:
1) The PAC has an excess of teams
2) TMC is a high achiever

[jknezek]

My conclusion is that none of this is happening if either of the following aren't true:
1) The PAC has an excess of teams
2) TMC is a high achiever

3) TMC isn't athletically kicking PAC rear end in high profile sports.

[WashJeff68]

jknezek,

Actually, they are. This year the TMC men won the PAC all sports trophy while the women came in 2nd. TMC President, David Armstrong, is a former college FB coach and athletic director. Since he arrived on campus in 2013 there has been a major emphasis on upgrading the sports program. This year, it really bore fruit.

Here is how the men's teams fared: FIRST PLACE  golf, tennis, basketball, track and field (I) football. SECOND track and field (O), soccer FOURTH wrestling (new sport), cross country. In the past they have been hampered by not having teams in several sports, but they have taken steps to correct that, All they need is swimming and diving and I think they will have all the PAC sports.

Given their plans for sports as detailed in their strategic plan they certainly would have been well positioned to continue to be the top athletic program in the PAC.

The women finished second this year with four teams finishing FIRST golf, softball, basketball, soccer SECOND volleyball FOURTH tennis, both track teams finishing FIFTH and cross county SEVENTH.

Not saying anything is wrong with this. Look at the schools that are at the top of the Learfield Directors Cup and you will see some top academic schools that also excel in sports.

is wally_wabash right? Who knows. I suspect decisions such as this are not easy and there are as many agendas as there are players. When TMC joined the PAC it was a win win. TMC got a conference and the PAC got an automatic bid to the football playoffs.  Now TMC has no conference and the PAC still has a plethora of teams.

[Ron Boerger]

One all-sports championship hardly constitutes kicking PAC rear-end.    Guess it's a moot point now.

[jknezek]

Ah the double negative got me. I meant that the PAC might have been happier keeping them if TMC wasn't winning so much.

I know about academic teams doing well. W&L dominates the ODAC. We have our own equivalent of your All-Sports Trophy. W&L swept the men's, women's and overall trophies for the second year in a row. It is the men's 4th in the last 5 Cups, 17th overall, and the women's 13th straight, 15th overall. I believe it is the school's 15 straight combined Cup, 19th Overall.

Trying to remember, but the total number of Cups is in the low 20s, so W&L men have won about 75% of them, the women about the same, but they haven't lost in forever. In the Overall, I think we've only lost that maybe 3 or 4 times in over 20 years.

So W&L dominates the ODAC athletic scene while being the top ranked academic school by a fair margin. I get that being a strong academic school doesn't preclude you from being good athletically, though I do think it makes football more challenging, and sports like golf and tennis less challenging.

[WashJeff68]

Ron,

True, but I suspect it would have been the first of many. Of course, that is speculation and we will never know. Be interesting to see what the future holds for TMC. I wish them the best.

Jeff

[Pat Coleman]

OK, so I see the board has caught up to the likely line of thinking.

[jknezek]

OK, so I see the board has caught up to the likely line of thinking.

I think most of us had that thinking at least in the back of our minds when the announcement was made, but for the sake of TMC had hoped they had a different home more or less lined up. It will be difficult to fill schedules in many sports, and the people that will really suffer are the student athletes. The vast majority of whom probably played no role in any of this...

[Ron Boerger]

And over in the MIAA you have the conference telling Kalamazoo it had to vacate all MIAA wins for four seasons and banning them from championships for the upcoming year, but they get to stay in the conference.   http://www.miaa.org/general/2016-17/releases/Kalamazoo

[jknezek]

And over in the MIAA you have the conference telling Kalamazoo it had to vacate all MIAA wins for four seasons and banning them from championships for the upcoming year, but they get to stay in the conference.   http://www.miaa.org/general/2016-17/releases/Kalamazoo

Which just indicates that the PAC really wanted to cut loose their red-headed step child and that TMC served them the excuse on a malfeasance platter. Done is done I guess. I'm still interested in what TMC will do now. Being an independent is only a short term option.

[Scots13]

And over in the MIAA you have the conference telling Kalamazoo it had to vacate all MIAA wins for four seasons and banning them from championships for the upcoming year, but they get to stay in the conference.   http://www.miaa.org/general/2016-17/releases/Kalamazoo

Not knowing how Kalamazoo performed in other sports over the last three years:

KC:
2016 3-7
2015 3-7
2014 2-8

TMC:
2016 9-2
2015 11-1
2014 8-2


Kicking Kalamazoo out of the MIAA would seem like more punishment on the rest of MIAA, but kicking TMC out of the PAC was a blessing on the rest the group. Hard to fault the MIAA or the PAC in their decisions.

[WashJeff68]

KC has been an MIAA member since 1896
TMC has been a member of the PAC since 2004.