FB: Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[retagent]

I guess I have had a "diverse" education.

          Grade School - School Sisters of Notre Dame,
          High School - Franciscan sisters
          College - Benedictine Monks

[repete]

I'm still an Indian at heart. I'll never be a Thunderhawk. What the heck is that made up name anyway?  My kids actually know the school fight song from my younger days. Every time they notice the letter jacket in the cupboard I break out in the old tune (they think I'm Zac Efron from High School Musical. Or they did when they were a little more gullible).

Sad to see what has happened to IRC hockey and the high school sports there in general. A Virginia/Mountain Iron-Buhl hockey coop?  Hibbing-Chisholm combo? Let's hope there's never a Greenway-GR.

[OzJohnnie]

I didn't realise that all those schools were consolidating.  I'm pretty sure I wouldn't like that if I lived there. The schools are becoming a technocrat function that will have a hard time doing the other things it accomplishes in sustaining a sense of community.

And they probably all picked stupid, saccharin mascots like Thunderhawks.

[stanbob]

I'm still an Indian at heart. I'll never be a Thunderhawk. What the heck is that made up name anyway?  My kids actually know the school fight song from my younger days. Every time they notice the letter jacket in the cupboard I break out in the old tune (they think I'm Zac Efron from High School Musical. Or they did when they were a little more gullible).

Sad to see what has happened to IRC hockey and the high school sports there in general. A Virginia/Mountain Iron-Buhl hockey coop?  Hibbing-Chisholm combo? Let's hope there's never a Greenway-GR.

Err, there is with the gals.

[AO]

I'm still an Indian at heart. I'll never be a Thunderhawk. What the heck is that made up name anyway?  My kids actually know the school fight song from my younger days. Every time they notice the letter jacket in the cupboard I break out in the old tune (they think I'm Zac Efron from High School Musical. Or they did when they were a little more gullible).

Sad to see what has happened to IRC hockey and the high school sports there in general. A Virginia/Mountain Iron-Buhl hockey coop?  Hibbing-Chisholm combo? Let's hope there's never a Greenway-GR.

Err, there is with the gals.

better than the Prairie Centre North Stars, a combo of Browerville, Long Prairie/Grey Eagle, Sauk Centre and Melrose.  It's like Minnesota, Iowa and Wisconsin fielding one college football team.

I suspect Hockey is just becoming less popular out-state and teams are scrambling to find ways to maintain numbers.

[OzJohnnie]

Is Roseau still a proper team?  What about TRF?  When they pack it in then we've pretty much reached the nadir of the republic.

[sjusection105]

Is Roseau still a proper team?  What about TRF?  When they pack it in then we've pretty much reached the nadir of the republic.

Yes, at this point the Roseau Rams are still fielding their own team and yes, they play in the "big school" division even though the entire town has a smaller population that the Eden Prairie High School Sr. class. 

[SUMMIT!!!!!]

I'm still an Indian at heart. I'll never be a Thunderhawk. What the heck is that made up name anyway?  My kids actually know the school fight song from my younger days. Every time they notice the letter jacket in the cupboard I break out in the old tune (they think I'm Zac Efron from High School Musical. Or they did when they were a little more gullible).

Sad to see what has happened to IRC hockey and the high school sports there in general. A Virginia/Mountain Iron-Buhl hockey coop?  Hibbing-Chisholm combo? Let's hope there's never a Greenway-GR.

Err, there is with the gals.

better than the Prairie Centre North Stars, a combo of Browerville, Long Prairie/Grey Eagle, Sauk Centre and Melrose.  It's like Minnesota, Iowa and Wisconsin fielding one college football team.

I suspect Hockey is just becoming less popular out-state and teams are scrambling to find ways to maintain numbers.

Actually, just the opposite is true in central and southern Minn. Districts that never fielded a hockey team are now doing so, albiet as part of a coop program with neighboring schools.  Perhaps in time each school will be able to field its own team b ut for now, costs and lack of players dictate doing the coop route.  Up north, declining enrollments + increasing costs are driving once-proud separate programs to go the coop route thought...which is sad.

[DuffMan]

2013 NCAA Wrestling Tourney kicks off in about an hour...

[hazzben]

Anybody see Jim Delaney's bold claim that if the courts determine teams must share TV dollars with student athletes, the B1G would opt out of scholarship athletics.

I'm calling B.S. Too much money on the table and too much passion from those fan bases to go the way of the Ivies. Jimmy just seems to be talking big and putting pressure on the suit.

But it did get me thinking about the effects such an unlikely move would have.

First, if Big Money schools had to share TV revenues, what would that mean to DIII playoffs? I'm pretty sure the vast majority of our funding comes out of the $$ the NCAA makes off March Madness. If they have to split those revenues, someone will get the short end of the stick. 

Second, if the B1G schools opted out of offering scholarship, would that make leagues like the MIAC, WIAC, IIAC, CCIW, OAC, etc. that much more competitive. These are marque DIII conferences, how many players would now take a longer look at what DIII offers if the scholarships and glamour were removed from what the big boys offer. Plenty of kids would still get poached by other scholarship offering schools. And plenty would still want to play for the Big State School. But I'd imagine more than a few typical DI players would make their way to the DIII ranks right out of HS. At the very least, there'd be a trickle down effect of more 'typical DII players' going DIII, since the quality of player getting an NSIC scholarship would improve...

Third, if this happened (which I think has a snowballs chance in hell) Notre Dame would be in heaven. Imagine if Michigan, Nebraska, tOSU, Iowa, Wisconsin, MSU, Minnesota, Indiana, Purdue, et. al could offer no more scholarships. Notre Dame would be the closest marque, scholarship offering school for most of these footprints. It would be a beautiful day for the Golden Domers, probably enough to make them embrace postmillenialism (sorry, couldn't resist the theological reference...+ k to anyone who can tell me what it means without first looking it up  ) Who cares if the Rust Belt isn't as recuiting strong as it was 40 years ago, if you're the only big dog in the neighborhood, you'd get first pick. It'd probably also make NDSU borderline unbeatable in the FCS ranks. It might even be enough to make Iowa State competitive 

Ok, thats the end of the trip down fantasy lane...

[hazzben]

2013 NCAA Wrestling Tourney kicks off in about an hour...

Think anyone (Minnesota or Iowa) has a good shot at beating Penn State?

[DuffMan]

Think anyone (Minnesota or Iowa) has a good shot at beating Penn State?

Not Iowa.  MN could do it with a great tournament, but with Taylor, Ruth, and Wright pretty much written in as finalists, Penn State will be tough as heck to topple.  If MN can get Ness, Storley, and Nelson to the finals, it will be interesting.

[OzJohnnie]

I'm undecided, hazzbeen, on the issue of paying college athletes because it isn't clear when to do it. A sport makes a pile of cash then it's professional?  How much cash is the threshold?  It's not like the universities even try to pretend anymore, though, that football/basketball players are students first and players second. It is a business. But some players are students first so what about them?  If you turn it into a business then it will not be academic to any extent at all.

I'm inclined to leave it as it is since the fixes seem to have just as many consequences as the problem.

[Retired Old Rat]

DI athletes should receive a stipend that allows them to have money to buy clothes, travel home on breaks, buy food.  Not enough to buy a BMW, but enough to live like the average college student.  DI is all about the money.  The athletes are too many times being taken advantage off.  And lets face reality here, a significant number of basketball and football student athletes are coming from homes that don't have the financial resources most of us who post here have.

The money would be a drop in the bucket.  I prefer to see some who may not need the money get it rather than those who do need it not get it.

What about DI programs that are cash strapped?  Maybe they don't belong in D1.

[emma17]

DI athletes should receive a stipend that allows them to have money to buy clothes, travel home on breaks, buy food.  Not enough to buy a BMW, but enough to live like the average college student.  DI is all about the money.  The athletes are too many times being taken advantage off.  And lets face reality here, a significant number of basketball and football student athletes are coming from homes that don't have the financial resources most of us who post here have.

The money would be a drop in the bucket.  I prefer to see some who may not need the money get it rather than those who do need it not get it.

What about DI programs that are cash strapped?  Maybe they don't belong in D1.

The average college student ends up with student loans and pays for an education.
It seems a free education swapped for athletic participation is fair. A small student loan to pay back post school/athletic participation doesn't seem like a lot to ask.