MBB: St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[Next Man Up]

New school joining the conference: https://www.sliac.org/general/2020-21/releases/20210607u3oixj?fbclid=IwAR20W8KBl11d7p86WpOxY1-l74Fd_1dICbTJv4wS1by2iaGMTrAMotm03Jw

And who knew that Mississippi University for WOmen has male students and sports teams. 

In fact men make up about 19% of the student body. I can only imagine what being in college and being outnumbered 4 to 1 by women would be like. 😀  👍

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Those are going to be some long road trips.

[Gregory Sager]

New school joining the conference: https://www.sliac.org/general/2020-21/releases/20210607u3oixj?fbclid=IwAR20W8KBl11d7p86WpOxY1-l74Fd_1dICbTJv4wS1by2iaGMTrAMotm03Jw

And who knew that Mississippi University for WOmen has male students and sports teams. 

Umm ... those of us who follow the "Conference Changes" room in the Multi-Regional Topics section and/or the "Future of Division III" room in the General Division III issues section?

MUW is heading into its third year of D3 provisional-member status. So this has been old news for four years now. (MUW's existence and the fact that it is co-ed is old news, that is, not the fact that it's joining the SLIAC.)

[Gregory Sager]

Those are going to be some long road trips.

Spalding and the St. Louis schools can make the trip in seven hours.
The longest trip is to and from Eureka (nine and a half hours).

SLIAC scheduling is about to get very creative.

[y_jack_lok]

New school joining the conference: https://www.sliac.org/general/2020-21/releases/20210607u3oixj?fbclid=IwAR20W8KBl11d7p86WpOxY1-l74Fd_1dICbTJv4wS1by2iaGMTrAMotm03Jw

And who knew that Mississippi University for WOmen has male students and sports teams. 

In fact men make up about 19% of the student body. I can only imagine what being in college and being outnumbered 4 to 1 by women would be like. 😀  👍

A quick peek at their athletics website shows that in recent years they've played a variety of competition in various sports, including the following D3 schools: Berry, Rhodes, Hendrix, Millsaps, Birmingham Southern, Westiminster (MO), Huntingdon, LaGrange. Results have been mixed against those schools depending on the gender and the sport. But it seems like they will fit well in the conference.

[WUPHF]

It must be an interesting challenge for the coaches of the men's programs to recruit to the Mississippi University for Women.  It looks like the athletic branding refers to the institution as the W.

Maybe we will see another Webster-Rust College match-up soon enough.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

MUW is considering name changes, but that's always a difficult process. Also, I feel like a 4 to 1 female to male ratio is probably a selling point for a lot of 18 year olds.

[Gregory Sager]

It must be an interesting challenge for the coaches of the men's programs to recruit to the Mississippi University for Women.  It looks like the athletic branding refers to the institution as the W.

I've thought the same thing ever since I first learned about MUW when it dipped its toe in the D3 pool three years ago. The macho code of male team sports presents a real barrier to male athletes in terms of enrolling at a school with the name "Women" in the title.

MUW is considering name changes, but that's always a difficult process.

It's especially difficult when you're talking about a state school like MUW, because the decision-making process for something that sweeping is often done in the state capital rather than on the campus itself. For example, MUW's previous president tried to change the name of the school to Reneau University a dozen years ago, honoring a woman named Sallie Reneau who repeatedly lobbied the Mississippi state legislature both before and after the Civil War to create a college for women. But the state legislature, although it did eventually get around to chartering MUW in 1884, declined its consent to rename it after her 125 years later -- and so it's still the Mississippi University for Women.

As WUPHF said, the school seems to place a high value on the letter 'W', which is not only the school's nickname but a prominent aspect of its athletics logo. The trick is to find a useful alternate word that starts with 'w' that could replace "Women" in the school's name.

(Since Columbus, MS, where MUW is located, is adjacent to the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway, my suggestion is to rename the school Mississippi University of the Waterway.)

At any rate, the school went coed nearly four decades ago. They're obviously not in a big hurry to rename it.

Also, I feel like a 4 to 1 female to male ratio is probably a selling point for a lot of 18 year olds.

Yep, and I'm sure that that gets mentioned whenever a male student-athlete prospect tours the campus. Another part of the macho code is that the implication of harem behavior trumps insinuations of effeminacy by association.

[y_jack_lok]

Here's a little tidbit on MUW from Wikipedia: "In 1971 Mississippi State College for Women won the intercollegiate women's basketball national championship (the third ever held).[5]" https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mississippi_University_for_Women

This was in the days of the CIAW which preceded the AIAW before it got outmanuevered by the NCAA and  ceased  to exist in 1983. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Association_for_Intercollegiate_Athletics_for_Women

Some fascinating history there.

[Caz Bombers]

Isn't this the school that went 10 or 20 years without athletics after a tornado destroyed their facilities?

[WUPHF]

Fontbonne is co-founding a sprint football league.

I might have posted this in the Football forums, but this is not D3 football.  Instead, they are starting a new league.

According to the release, players must weigh less than 178 pounds prior to every game which may well rule out games against Westminster and such.

The release suggests that sprint football is popular elsewhere in the country.

Interesting.

https://www.fontbonnegriffins.com/general/2020-21/releases/20210621l4cwr4

[WUPHF]

The Webster schedule was shared elsewhere so I looked: https://websterathletics.com/sports/mens-basketball/schedule/2021-2022

This is a fun schedule.

Yet another match-up with Illinois College. A few more years and that will become something of a non-conference rivalry.

A home and away with Washington University.

Centre and the University of Dallas in the Webster Classic.

Rose-Hulman and Monmouth in the Big Bend Classic.

Missouri Baptist and Columbia College out of the NAIA.

Maryville and Missouri S&T for some Division II flair.

Carthage before the holiday break.

Webster will leave St. Louis just three times during non-conference play and all are a quick bus ride away.

[y_jack_lok]

The Webster schedule was shared elsewhere so I looked: https://websterathletics.com/sports/mens-basketball/schedule/2021-2022

This is a fun schedule.

Yet another match-up with Illinois College. A few more years and that will become something of a non-conference rivalry.

A home and away with Washington University.

Centre and the University of Dallas in the Webster Classic.

Rose-Hulman and Monmouth in the Big Bend Classic.

Missouri Baptist and Columbia College out of the NAIA.

Maryville and Missouri S&T for some Division II flair.

Carthage before the holiday break.

Webster will leave St. Louis just three times during non-conference play and all are a quick bus ride away.

That isa great schedule. The Columbia College and Maryville games are listed as exhibitions. With the closing of MacMurray and Iowa Wesleyan leaving the conference there are only 14 conference games. So, including the two exhibitions there are 13 non-conference. It will be good to get UMW in the conference for the 2022-23 season. I think a nine or ten team team conference with 16 or 18 conference games and seven or nine non-conference games is the best mix.

[hopefan]

Let's Lure one of my old favorites, Rust College, back into the NCAA and in to the SLIAC, as a travelling partner for UMWC.

[y_jack_lok]

Let's Lure one of my old favorites, Rust College, back into the NCAA and in to the SLIAC, as a travelling partner for UMWC.

Great idea!