FB: Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[hazzben]

Interesting article in The Atlantic on the corruption that's rampant in the NCAA. It's really long, but thorough and thought provoking.

If the O'Bannon case succeeds, what are the effects it could have on DIII is my first question.

[cobbernation]

Do the Cobbers still play out of the Wing-T ?

Here's a link to video of the Cobbers game against Emily Dickinson College.  The Dickinson team wasn't quite themselves with the tragic kiln explosion the week of the game.  I believe Fran Liebowitz started at quarterback for Dickinson.

http://www.cord.edu/Athletics/men/football/current/recap.php?tab=hl&gameID=612

After watching the video it looks like the cobbers have a lot of success running out of the shotgun wing T formation.  I even saw shotgun with a RB behind the QB a couple of yards, almost similar to bethels offense (which obviously works and this is not an easy thing to praise).  If the Cobbers get the ground game rolling to wear down the Johnnies defense then they should have success and the defense needs to keep the J's from having big plays of 20+ yds.  I think Johnnie fans will enjoy the new field turf at the Jake this weekend.

[hazzben]

Coach J in this weeks Around the West:

we've had a lot of good o-lines, this one's the best

Including Wright at TE, they've got 150 starts and counting between them. If they can stay healthy, it could be really fun to see the season they could put together for Marquardt, Phenow, Aakre and Carr. Hopefully 'The Don' can keep them on track and focused.

[USTBench]

Interesting article in The Atlantic on the corruption that's rampant in the NCAA. It's really long, but thorough and thought provoking.

If the O'Bannon case succeeds, what are the effects it could have on DIII is my first question.

The Cliff's Notes:

http://deadspin.com/5839814/your-study-guide-to-the-atlantics-massive-withering-story-about-the-wretchedness-of-the-ncaa

[hazzben]

If the Cobbers get the ground game rolling to wear down the Johnnies defense then they should have success and the defense needs to keep the J's from having big plays of 20+ yds.  I think Johnnie fans will enjoy the new field turf at the Jake this weekend.

Can't argue with those two keys to victory. Although it sounds like fumbles have been a bit of a potential problem for the Cobbers so far this season. TO's are always big.

This is an interesting game. If SJU bounces back, they could regain some of their confidence as MIAC play begins in ernest. However, a Cobber win would definitely be a nice boost to their pride after a couple of unusual down years.

Side Note: Jimmy G made some comments about the poor locker rooms at Concordia in the post game wrap up last weekend. Bethel definitely doesn't have anything to brag about in this department. But I will say I'd take the Concordia locker room set up for the visiting team over SJU's any day. At least in Moorehead you had the locker room to yourself and didn't have to share it with other SJU athletes. Just bizarre to have the opposing schools student-athletes showering while you get ready for a game.

[hazzben]

Interesting article in The Atlantic on the corruption that's rampant in the NCAA. It's really long, but thorough and thought provoking.

If the O'Bannon case succeeds, what are the effects it could have on DIII is my first question.

The Cliff's Notes:

http://deadspin.com/5839814/your-study-guide-to-the-atlantics-massive-withering-story-about-the-wretchedness-of-the-ncaa

If you have an hour and half of your day to waste, read my link. If you want to get the big picture without all the saucy details, read Bench's. I wish I'd seen the deadspin one first!

The article is basically the definitive word on DIII being the last (and apparently the only one to begin with) bastion of amateurism and the student-athlete.

[USTBench]

Interesting article in The Atlantic on the corruption that's rampant in the NCAA. It's really long, but thorough and thought provoking.

If the O'Bannon case succeeds, what are the effects it could have on DIII is my first question.

The Cliff's Notes:

http://deadspin.com/5839814/your-study-guide-to-the-atlantics-massive-withering-story-about-the-wretchedness-of-the-ncaa

Basically, if you have an hour and half of your day to waste, read my link. If you want to get the big picture without all the saucy details, read Bench's. I wish I'd seen the deadspin one first!

The article is basically the definitive word on DIII being the last (and apparently only one to begin with) bastion of amateurism and the student-athlete.

Comparing the FBS (particularly schools in BCS conferences), "basketball schools," "hockey schools," and perhaps top tier FCS programs, to anything else in collegiate sports is like comparing an apple to a bicycle.

The FBS example is tired so I'll just give you a more immediate example that I see with my own eyes every day. At the the University of North Dakota the hockey team can do no wrong. With 7 Division I national titles, a $110 million dollar arena that has imported Italian marble where most arenas feature concrete, an Olympic sized sheet of ice adjacent to the arena to practice on when they play teams with "bigger ice," state of the art locker rooms, training facilities, first class amenitities on road trips, chartered flights, etc. they are, for all intents-and-purposes, professional athletes.

When some kid from Moose Jaw, Sak. arrives on the campus of UND, he's not there to get his business degree, he's there to win hockey games until the NHL team (who has ALREADY drafted him) that owns his rights, tells him it's time to make the jump. The UND hockey program is just an extension of the AHL or any other NHL farm system.

The article in The Atlantic says 1% of NCAA hoops players (I assume at the Division I level) get drafted, and 2% of football players get drafted. But at certain schools those numbers are much higher. I believe there was a year when the University of Miami football team had 7 first round draft picks. Well, if you look at UND's hockey roster, I'd say about 2/3's of them have been drafted.

And that's the crux of the problem, certain programs, in certain sports, have made the NCAA obsolete as it pertains to them. The reality is, the NCAA has no business trying to reign in, relegate, or police the Ohio State football program, the Duke basketball team, or UND's hockey team, because they are in a class of their own. Granted, there is some confusion as to where to draw the line, but you can't tell me there isn't a fundamental diconnect in each instiution's perceived mentality to "amateur athletics" when Binghamton travels to Chapel Hill, NC to play a non-conference hoops game against UNC. They might as well be playing the Dallas Mavericks.

This is why we are seeing the BCS and teams jockeying for positions in these "super-conferences." You see, they won't have to deal with the Boise St.'s of the world filing anti-trust law suits, if they just leave the NCAA all together. What we may see,  is that the heads of the SEC, ACC, Big 10, Pac 12, Big East are going to conspire to leave the NCAA and divy up the skeletal remains of the Big 12 before they go. Notre Dame and BYU may be left out in the cold, and some schools may have perceived moral objections,  but they may choose just to end the charade all together.

On the flip side of the equation, I'll give my scenario. My family wasn't rich, but they were doing okay and wanted me to have a good college experience. I knew a few things at age 17, I liked football, I wanted to be in a bigger city, and I thought majoring in Political Science or Journalism would be right up my alley. I had no delusions about playing on Sundays, in fact, I had few about being a key contributor on Saturdays, I just liked football. Practice was fun to me. I had some feigning interest from the locals (UM-Crookston, Mayville St., VCSU) but they quickly learned my academic interests went beyond what they could provide. So, my HS football coach put a tape together, sent it to some Ivy league schools, UST and Hamline, and I received two phone calls. One from John Lyons at Dartmouth, and one from Tom Flood at UST. Well, at age 17 I got homesick for North Dakota if I went to East Grand Forks to see a movie, so I knew I would not be able to hack it in New Hampshire, so UST was the obvious choice.

Granted, I would've gotten more playing time if I had heard back from Hamline, or tried my luck at some other schools, but that wasn't as important to me as just getting to put some pads on and go play football every day for a few hours. I had my JV games, I had my garbage time, I had my moments where mom and dad got to take pictures of me on the punt team, or trying my best to remember the offense at the tail end of a Carleton/Augsburg/Macalester/Hamline varsity game. Honestly, it was surreal to run onto the field during SJU games. If you squinted your eyes, you very well could have been playing at Camp Randall or the BIg House. But on other occassions, they would forget to open the gate and our team had to step over the wall to get to the field (Carleton).

My experience with "college football" in no way reflected the experiences of the guys with the big programs. And maybe with Glenn Caruso it loosely parallels it, or mirrors it in some way, but if we're being honest with each other, the first time UST ever took a plane to a football game was in 2009 to play Linfield. And that was for a playoff game.

Maybe Division III is the last true  bastion of the true student-athlete. But really, and I'm speaking only for myself, it's because I didn't mind going to practice for a few hours, and sitting at some work-study job afterward. We like school, we like football, and realize that playing organized tackle football is a finite thing that we want to have fun with for four more years. We're pragmatists. Realists. It doesn't make us better, or worse, it just makes us a bunch of dudes that don't mind the governing body of the NCAA, because it doesn't really affect us. There are no yachts, strippers, or slimey boosters slipping hundred dollar bills into our blazers adorned with our school's crest. Is it pure? Of course. But, pure in the sense that it's really just an incredibly organized way for a handful guys from different schools to meet in a park on Saturday to play football. We don't expect anything more than the opportunity to play football, and, if you have any pride, the opportunity to win.

[Retired Old Rat]

Damn you Bench.  Had to give a Tommie +k.

Don't do it again.   

[hazzben]

Agreed Bench. But my question is, if the Super Conferences form and leave the NCAA and do something similar with b-ball, as the article suggests they are thinking about, what happens to DIII.

UST got to fly on a plane for a playoff game for Linfield because the NCAA paid the bill. No $$ from the big boys and no playoffs or a very truncated version, for the little boys. That's my concern. So yes, I do think what happens with the NCAA and potentially these major FBS conferences could have a corollary affect on the way small college teams are able to play for the love of the game.

I'm with ya on the purity aspect. I just think it stinks that the rot of the NCAA and FCS might affect the financial stability of the less viable sports and divisions. From DI swimming and tennis to DIII football and basketball and everywhere in between.

[USTBench]

Agreed Bench. But my question is, if the Super Conferences form and leave the NCAA and do something similar with b-ball, as the article suggests they are thinking about, what happens to DIII.

UST got to fly on a plane for a playoff game for Linfield because the NCAA paid the bill. No $$ from the big boys and no playoffs or a very truncated version, for the little boys. That's my concern. So yes, I do think what happens with the NCAA and potentially these major FBS conferences could have a corollary affect on the way small college teams are able to play for the love of the game.

I'm with ya on the purity aspect. I just think it stinks that the rot of the NCAA and FCS might affect the financial stability of the less viable sports and divisions. From DI swimming and tennis to DIII football and basketball and everywhere in between.

I don't necessarily agree, simply citing how the NAIA is able to keep their head above water. Honestly though, I think before we see a mass defection, we'll see the big conferences with the big teams use leverage to get the NCAA to back-the-heck-off, and then it will be business as usual. On the flip side, I see it getting real ugly, especially when you consider the egos of some of these guys.

[corn horn]

Side Note: Jimmy G made some comments about the poor locker rooms at Concordia in the post game wrap up last weekend. Bethel definitely doesn't have anything to brag about in this department. But I will say I'd take the Concordia locker room set up for the visiting team over SJU's any day. At least in Moorehead you had the locker room to yourself and didn't have to share it with other SJU athletes. Just bizarre to have the opposing schools student-athletes showering while you get ready for a game.

I thought the locker room(s) were being renovated as part of the "Update the Jake" campaign that included the new field. I think visitors will find conditions improved, but if not yet, I believe it is on the school's to-do list.

[Pat Coleman]

Agreed Bench. But my question is, if the Super Conferences form and leave the NCAA and do something similar with b-ball, as the article suggests they are thinking about, what happens to DIII.

UST got to fly on a plane for a playoff game for Linfield because the NCAA paid the bill. No $$ from the big boys and no playoffs or a very truncated version, for the little boys. That's my concern. So yes, I do think what happens with the NCAA and potentially these major FBS conferences could have a corollary affect on the way small college teams are able to play for the love of the game.

I'm with ya on the purity aspect. I just think it stinks that the rot of the NCAA and FCS might affect the financial stability of the less viable sports and divisions. From DI swimming and tennis to DIII football and basketball and everywhere in between.

I don't necessarily agree, simply citing how the NAIA is able to keep their head above water. Honestly though, I think before we see a mass defection, we'll see the big conferences with the big teams use leverage to get the NCAA to back-the-heck-off, and then it will be business as usual. On the flip side, I see it getting real ugly, especially when you consider the egos of some of these guys.

The NAIA keeps its head above water with a significantly different set of benefits to members, who have to pay for postseason travel and insurance costs that are borne by the NCAA for its member institutions.

[USTBench]

Agreed Bench. But my question is, if the Super Conferences form and leave the NCAA and do something similar with b-ball, as the article suggests they are thinking about, what happens to DIII.

UST got to fly on a plane for a playoff game for Linfield because the NCAA paid the bill. No $$ from the big boys and no playoffs or a very truncated version, for the little boys. That's my concern. So yes, I do think what happens with the NCAA and potentially these major FBS conferences could have a corollary affect on the way small college teams are able to play for the love of the game.

I'm with ya on the purity aspect. I just think it stinks that the rot of the NCAA and FCS might affect the financial stability of the less viable sports and divisions. From DI swimming and tennis to DIII football and basketball and everywhere in between.

I don't necessarily agree, simply citing how the NAIA is able to keep their head above water. Honestly though, I think before we see a mass defection, we'll see the big conferences with the big teams use leverage to get the NCAA to back-the-heck-off, and then it will be business as usual. On the flip side, I see it getting real ugly, especially when you consider the egos of some of these guys.

The NAIA keeps its head above water with a significantly different set of benefits to members, who have to pay for postseason travel and insurance costs that are borne by the NCAA for its member institutions.

Yes, but isn't there membership dues for being in the NCAA as well? Surely, it's not just revenue from the NCAA Men's basketba...surely it's not just revenue from SEC footba...okay, yeah it is. I shall go to the box and feel shame.

What I don't understand is if it's so profit driven, why do schools carry non-revenue sports? I mean, wouldn't a budget hawk just carry the requisite number of women's sports to be Title IX compliant, keep men's hoops and football, and just cut the rest? I tell ya, this whole NCAA thing has grown beyond reason.

[hazzben]

Agreed Bench. But my question is, if the Super Conferences form and leave the NCAA and do something similar with b-ball, as the article suggests they are thinking about, what happens to DIII.

UST got to fly on a plane for a playoff game for Linfield because the NCAA paid the bill. No $$ from the big boys and no playoffs or a very truncated version, for the little boys. That's my concern. So yes, I do think what happens with the NCAA and potentially these major FBS conferences could have a corollary affect on the way small college teams are able to play for the love of the game.

I'm with ya on the purity aspect. I just think it stinks that the rot of the NCAA and FCS might affect the financial stability of the less viable sports and divisions. From DI swimming and tennis to DIII football and basketball and everywhere in between.

I don't necessarily agree, simply citing how the NAIA is able to keep their head above water. Honestly though, I think before we see a mass defection, we'll see the big conferences with the big teams use leverage to get the NCAA to back-the-heck-off, and then it will be business as usual. On the flip side, I see it getting real ugly, especially when you consider the egos of some of these guys.

The NAIA keeps its head above water with a significantly different set of benefits to members, who have to pay for postseason travel and insurance costs that are borne by the NCAA for its member institutions.

Exactly. And if you think the NCAA does a poor job of policing itself, well, the NAIA could actually learn a thing or two from the NCAA.

And having to foot the bill for postseason travel just stinks. It makes the process even more political. We might not like how the west coast teams get the shaft now, but it hasn't been unheard of for NAIA teams that qualified for the playoffs to decline their spot simply because they couldn't afford to travel to the location of their opponent.

That, and the NAIA is so broke home field advantage for the playoffs is determined by schools 'bidding' for the right to host. So whichever school can promise the highest gate proceeds for the NAIA gets to have the playoffs at their place. READ: UST would never get to host SJU for a playoff game 

[USTBench]

Agreed Bench. But my question is, if the Super Conferences form and leave the NCAA and do something similar with b-ball, as the article suggests they are thinking about, what happens to DIII.

UST got to fly on a plane for a playoff game for Linfield because the NCAA paid the bill. No $$ from the big boys and no playoffs or a very truncated version, for the little boys. That's my concern. So yes, I do think what happens with the NCAA and potentially these major FBS conferences could have a corollary affect on the way small college teams are able to play for the love of the game.

I'm with ya on the purity aspect. I just think it stinks that the rot of the NCAA and FCS might affect the financial stability of the less viable sports and divisions. From DI swimming and tennis to DIII football and basketball and everywhere in between.

I don't necessarily agree, simply citing how the NAIA is able to keep their head above water. Honestly though, I think before we see a mass defection, we'll see the big conferences with the big teams use leverage to get the NCAA to back-the-heck-off, and then it will be business as usual. On the flip side, I see it getting real ugly, especially when you consider the egos of some of these guys.

The NAIA keeps its head above water with a significantly different set of benefits to members, who have to pay for postseason travel and insurance costs that are borne by the NCAA for its member institutions.

Exactly. And if you think the NCAA does a poor job of policing itself, well, the NAIA could actually learn a thing or two from the NCAA.

And having to foot the bill for postseason travel just stinks. It makes the process even more political. We might not like how the west coast teams get the shaft now, but it hasn't been unheard of for NAIA teams that qualified for the playoffs to decline their spot simply because they couldn't afford to travel to the location of their opponent.

That, and the NAIA is so broke home field advantage for the playoffs is determined by schools 'bidding' for the right to host. So whichever school can promise the highest gate proceeds for the NAIA gets to have the playoffs at their place. READ: UST would never get to host SJU for a playoff game 

Cart before the horse. SJU would have to make the playoffs first. Ba-zing!

Sorry ROR...totally understand if you take my karma back.