Pool C

[KnightSlappy]

What the heck does Nebraska Wesleyan do now?

Perhaps they can continue to seek waivers, as they have when they didn't meet the 50% criteria either.

Plus, they already have a de facto 500-mile rule based on their location within Administrative Region Four. Lincoln to Chicago is 524 miles but in-region. Sweep that arc across the map and I don't believe you'll find a d3 school within 500 miles of Lincoln that isn't in-region based on admin region four.

That's an institutional problem, not an NCAA problem.

Maybe they need to consider whether or not D3 is where they want to be. I think they need to either join a D3 conference (not easy, since apparently they want into the IIAC, but the IIAC doesn't want them), become a D3 independent and commit financially to what that means, convince some of their friends to join D3, or just go with NAIA.

[Pat Coleman]

At one point, one of the GPAC teams was on the list of schools exploring D-III status, but they did not continue into provisional status.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

I actually was talking to someone today and this development was brought up, not because of this article, because neither of us had seen this. The person stated he had pushed for this exact model (though, he said 80% off the cuff, not sure if that was his number) and I liked it.

Basically, they are saying here that a team still has to be play a good majority of their games as "in-region" under the current criteria... but that any game they play can be considered when looking at a team's "resume." Personally, 70% seems a bit low (18 out of 26). I think maybe 75% or so... just because that means a team in a conference with a basic round-robin could play 6 teams anywhere in the country... that seems a bit high to me.

Now, a team like Nebraska Wesleyan could go for the waiver which is pretty much allowed every year, anyway. And to answer the question about what they want to do... from everything I have gathered this year, including from former coaches, they want to be D3 and have no intention of being NAIA or anything else.

Now, it does have to be passed... and the person I talked to wasn't sure if it was being taken seriously (again, before this article was produced). That being said, this is a move in a good direction... but man will it make it tough for regional rankings, in my opinion. What this will do with how teams are "slotted" could be very interesting.

[KnightSlappy]

Now, a team like Nebraska Wesleyan could go for the waiver which is pretty much allowed every year, anyway. And to answer the question about what they want to do... from everything I have gathered this year, including from former coaches, they want to be D3 and have no intention of being NAIA or anything else.

But they have a foot on both sides of the fence playing in an NAIA conference (and even declaring for NAIA this season). I know it's "tough" for them, but are you really committed to being D3 if you're doing this while only playing 8 D3 games in a year?

[KnightSlappy]

this is a move in a good direction... but man will it make it tough for regional rankings, in my opinion. What this will do with how teams are "slotted" could be very interesting.

But in some ways it will make it easier. I don't think secondary criteria will necessarily need to be used as often, because that sounds like it will be mostly non-D3 game. I think the committee really likes secondary now, because it contains D3 games, which they (rightly) see as very valuable to selection. NAIA or D2? Probably not as much.

It also takes away the chance that two teams (say, Calvin and Hope) could have identical schedules, but different games be counted differently (say, Wheaton being in-region for Hope and not for Calvin).

I actually think it will make the regional rankings easier.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

I think it will make regional rankings harder because a regional committee will have to weigh the schedule of a team playing games maybe on the other side of the country, against teams committee members may not be as familiar about as they are their own regional teams... that is how it could be harder.

And Nebraska Wesleyan plays the NAIA teams out of necessity. They have tried to get into a few conferences in D3 and been rejected. Personally, I think the SCAC might be a good fit (since they already have Colorado College in their mix), but I am not absolutely sure it is an option. Nebraska Wesleyan is trying to make D3 work... but until a conference accepts them... it will always be difficult.

Also remember, NAIA means scholarships... and that means an increase to their athletics budget... another challenge.

[Ralph Turner]

18 games out of 26 is really hard for Rust, and maybe Huntingdon next season, after the GSAC.  UC Santa Cruz and a few of the orphans ("orphans" because most teams have not tried to be "independent") may be in the same boat.

Aside from Calvin, which is in the isolated portion of the US called Michigan, specifically what other teams, outside the peculiar CCIW-MIAA debates, have had trouble with getting "in-region" games.

Please!  I will apprecate specific examples that are not already considered.

[KnightSlappy]

18 games out of 26 is really hard for Rust, and maybe Huntingdon next season, after the GSAC.  UC Santa Cruz and a few of the orphans ("orphans" because most teams have not tried to be "independent") may be in the same boat.

Teams with fewer than 18 regional games this year:

5    Nebraska Wesleyan
7    Maine-Presque Isle
9    UC Santa Cruz
14   Finlandia
15   Rust
16   Greenville
16   North Central (Minn.)
16   Chapman
16   Linfield
17   Presentation
17   St. Josephs (Bklyn.)
17   Calvin
17   Olivet
17   Occidental
17   Maranatha Baptist


and, just for fun, those with 18 or 19 regional games.

18   Hope
18   Principia
18   Colorado College
18   Piedmont
18   Adrian
18   George Fox
18   Pacific
18   Lewis and Clark
18   Willamette
18   Carthage
19   Gallaudet
19   Minnesota-Morris
19   Goucher
19   Caltech
19   Alma
19   Berry
19   Whittier
19   La Verne
19   Averett
19   Cal Lutheran
19   North Carolina Wesleyan

[KnightSlappy]

Looks like: Michigan, Pacific Northwest, California, independents, BFE Minnesota, and the GSAC.

[Gregory Sager]

At one point, one of the GPAC teams was on the list of schools exploring D-III status, but they did not continue into provisional status.

IIRC, Pat, there were three GPAC schools that were in the D3 exploratory phase a couple of years ago: Doane, Hastings, and Concordia (NE). As you indicated, none of them opted to take the next step into D3 provisional status.

And Nebraska Wesleyan plays the NAIA teams out of necessity. They have tried to get into a few conferences in D3 and been rejected. Personally, I think the SCAC might be a good fit (since they already have Colorado College in their mix), but I am not absolutely sure it is an option. Nebraska Wesleyan is trying to make D3 work... but until a conference accepts them... it will always be difficult.

Also remember, NAIA means scholarships... and that means an increase to their athletics budget... another challenge.

D-Mac, NWU has been a dual member of D3 and the NAIA since the inception of D3 back in the mid-'70s. It has always declared at the start of the school year for the D3 men's basketball tournament, and has thus applied for (and received) the waiver ever since the 50%-regional-games rule was put into place. This may be the first season that NWU has declared instead for the NAIA tourney; if it isn't, it's still a relatively new development.

Throughout its stint as a D3 member, NWU has played in an NAIA-affiliated league. It used to be called the NIAC (Nebraska Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, then Nebraska-Iowa Athletic Conference), now it's called the GPAC (Great Plains Athletic Conference). Thus, Nebraska Wesleyan has been in a situation for close to four decades now in which it is the only member of its league that cannot grant athletic scholarships.

This has not impeded NWU one bit. If you go to the GPAC website and look at the list of all-sports rankings, you'll see that NWU has been the dominant school in the GPAC for many years now. It's won more all-sports trophies than any other GPAC school, and it almost always finishes in the top three or four of the league in the all-sports categories. Furthermore, NWU's history in the D3 men's basketball tournament is a storied one; the Prairie Wolves (formerly the Plainsmen) have a 24-16 all-time record in D3 tourney play, and have reached four Final Fours. Although the program has been down in recent years, in seasons past NWU always came into the D3 tournament sporting a very good record, mostly accumulated against NAIA schools.

In short, Nebraska Wesleyan's status as the only school in its league that can't give out athletic scholarships is of relatively little importance. This points to the fact that NAIA Division Two is largely analogous to D3 in terms of its level of competition (as we all know from following how the two divisions have fared against each other on the basketball court over the past decade, via the D3 vs. D1, D2, NAIA, Etc. room). Most NAIA-2 schools give out very minimal athletic scholarship money, if they give out any at all (many of them don't). They're allowed six scholarships for men's basketball, and it's my impression that most NAIA-2 head coaches divide up that money between all of their players, not just six of them. And at many schools, those six scholies aren't fully funded to begin with; they're only partial. I can recall an athlete from one of the Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference's NAIA-2 schools telling me that he got $600 a year from his athletic scholarship, and that this was pretty typical. That's a paltry sum in light of what a student's tuition and room-and-board costs are at an NAIA school. The scholarship is thus more of a prestige item ("Yeah, I'm going to school on a basketball scholarship ... check me out, bro." ) than a practical source of financial support.

Bottom line: NWU's status as the lone D3 outfit in the GPAC (and in the NIAC before it) hasn't hurt the school's ability to compete in that league one single bit. NWU has no need to drop its D3 status and start handing out scholies.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Greg - not saying they need to start handing them out... just stating that it becomes a strong option due to the fact that D3 doesn't hold them back. Just an observation... don't parsec it otherwise .

But I do point out that I have had two guests on Hoopsville this season alone that have been former coaches at NWU that have stated they have made efforts to join a D3 conference and been denied. I believe that NWU wants to get out of the NAIA league and be a full member of D3... and the SCAC seems to make sense to me.

As for teams with low levels of regional games... Maine-Presque Isle is in a similar boat as NWU... they would probably apply for a waiver.

Also, per Hope... they can solve that easily. I have been frustrated with their schedule for years... and the reasons giving for why they can't get more D3 opponents is hard to keep listening to... when their women's team seems to get plenty of opponents in non-conference action, each year. Some of these schools need to buck up and figure it out... and not hide behind reasons that just sound more hollow then usual.

[smedindy]

I think we need to keep welcoming Nebraska Wesleyan with open arms and not be elitist about it and 'force' them to make a decision.

[Gregory Sager]

But I do point out that I have had two guests on Hoopsville this season alone that have been former coaches at NWU that have stated they have made efforts to join a D3 conference and been denied.

Yes, I know. NWU's been trying for years to get into a D3 league. It's not a new development. I wouldn't be surprised in the slightest if the D3 exploratory phase that Concordia (NE), Hastings, and Doane underwent a couple of years ago came with a nudge from their friends at NWU.

I think we need to keep welcoming Nebraska Wesleyan with open arms and not be elitist about it and 'force' them to make a decision.

I agree. NWU is a charter member of D3, and I think that the perseverance for so many years of a school that faces such steep challenges in terms of scheduling D3 foes should count for something in the eyes of the NCAA. Plus, the fact that NWU doesn't fly all over the country in order to try to make its sports schedules work for in-region purposes is actually a tribute to the keep-the-kids-local-so-that-they-don't-miss-class ethos that lies behind D3's accent upon regional play.

As for teams with low levels of regional games... Maine-Presque Isle is in a similar boat as NWU... they would probably apply for a waiver.

UMPI should always be given a waiver for winter sports, with no questions asked. For that school, it's not simply a matter of distance; it's also a matter of extremely difficult annual winter weather conditions and limited highway access.

Also, per Hope... they can solve that easily. I have been frustrated with their schedule for years... and the reasons giving for why they can't get more D3 opponents is hard to keep listening to... when their women's team seems to get plenty of opponents in non-conference action, each year. Some of these schools need to buck up and figure it out... and not hide behind reasons that just sound more hollow then usual.

Try posting that in the MIAA room, D-Mac. They just love it in there when someone brings up the ol' "why can't Hope schedule more D3 games?" question.

Most of the schools on the list posted by the Dean of KnightSlappy U. are geographical outliers that have legitimate reasons to ask for the annual waiver, but some have even less tenable reasons for not scheduling more games against in-region D3 competition than does Hope. Greenville, for example, is the lone holdout that still clings to the old SLIAC tradition of scheduling non-con games against ridiculous local competition such as Lincoln Chiropractic, St. Louis Pharmacy, St. Louis Christian, and Concordia (MO) (which isn't an undergraduate school at all; it's a postgraduate seminary). Greenville's fellow SLIAC offender Principia simply chooses to schedule lots of NAIA competition for reasons that escape me. Southern Illlinois and eastern Missouri are not loaded with local D3 competition, but it's not impossibly difficult to schedule D3 in-region non-con games if you're a SLIAC coach.

North Central (MN) is an independent, which means that the Rams have difficulty getting MIAC, WIAC, and UMAC teams to play them once the calendar turns over. St. Joe's of Brooklyn has a similar problem, although the plenitude of D3 schools in the greater NYC area makes it a little easier for the Bears to find D3 games in January and February. Maranatha Baptist really doesn't have a good excuse; it seems to play most or all of its non-con games against Bible schools every year rather than local D3 competition. (This is true in other sports as well.) It's not that hard for a team in central Wisconsin to find D3 games outside the circuit. I don't think that Maranatha schedules Bible schools for easy wins; I think it's more of an institutional kinship thing. Maranatha always strikes me as a school that values its NCCAA membership a lot more than it does its NCAA D3 membership.

Carthage is on the list because Bosko Djurickovic doesn't like to schedule. It's his least-favorite part of the job. Getting him to work on his team's schedule is like getting a kid to go to the dentist. Unfortunately, I think that his team suffers for it, because Carthage always seems to be hurting for in-region games.

I think that Goucher's presence on the list is just a single-season anomaly.

[KnightSlappy]

I think we need to keep welcoming Nebraska Wesleyan with open arms and not be elitist about it and 'force' them to make a decision.

I don't mean to say they need to make a decision to abandon D3 altogether, but there's no way they can be selected to the postseason with only five D3 games.

[KnightSlappy]

Also, per Hope... they can solve that easily. I have been frustrated with their schedule for years... and the reasons giving for why they can't get more D3 opponents is hard to keep listening to... when their women's team seems to get plenty of opponents in non-conference action, each year. Some of these schools need to buck up and figure it out... and not hide behind reasons that just sound more hollow then usual.

But even you can admit it's ridiculous that five of the closest twelve (non-conference) D3 schools are out-of-region for Calvin.

Going out to 300 miles, Calvin could find 17 in-region games, and 13 out-of-region games. Only 57% of the closest 30 schools are in-region!

Only two non-con GL region teams are within 250 miles (but 13 MW region schools are).