FB: Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[AO]

The league needs 4-5 nationally competitive if not ranked teams to get their mojo back. The MIAC also needs both Augsburg and Gustavus to step it up as well. Auggie historically has and still does get some great athletes they just don't have enough of them. Not sure of the fix, maybe expand their recruiting base? As for the Gusties it's hard to say. It seems they have everything going for them in terms of academics, facilities, even athletic tradition, they seem to be just letting the gap get bigger. Typically these decisions are philosophical and made at the board and Presidential level. All things considered Gustavus IMO, should be the Lutheran version of SJU.

I think GAC has a couple of very fixable problems. 1) Coaching - too many on staff who played at GAC.  That can be OK if the coaches have spent time elsewhere and developed alternate views.  They have done a couple of good things on offense to improve the running game which should have payoffs if they continue.  Defense needs work from up front.  Major problem - no pass rush against decent teams.  They have the personal on staff to address this problem, they choose not to utilize them - I guess they enjoy loosing or believe that a 6 second pass rush is good execution.  2) Recruiting - they seem to believe that they're going to get a bunch of athletic freaks.  Sorry but those are taken up in D1 and some in D2.  At D3 look for guys with high football IQ, well developed skills, and reasonable athletics.  If true athletic freaks end up in D3 it's usually for a reason, many of which aren't all that good.  Take another trip to Mexico and recruit some more. 3) Strength and Conditioning.  GAC needs a head S&C coach over all the sports, they are seriously lacking in S&C coaching even for a D3. 4) Facilities - worst weight room in the MIAC.  It's a death trap waiting to happen.  The worst aspects can be fixed for less than $20K but they want to wait until they can build new facilities.  The good news is that the school recently received $25M some of which is slated for facility upgrades so hope springs eternal, I just hope no one gets decapitated before they fix things.

Sowilson, Thanks for the update on GAC! I had no idea about their weight room, yikes! That certainly can be an issue especially if it's dangerous. Hopefully they get it together. A top tier competitive GAC program will certainly help bolster the MIAC on a national level.

Judge for yourself.  https://youtu.be/7v5Wg0RPnyY

Calling it a deathtrap is pretty silly, but they could definitely use an upgrade.

[USTBench]

Looks fine to me. No frills. Nice racks and platforms. What else do you need?

[DuffMan]

Looks fine to me. No frills. Nice racks and platforms. What else do you need?

Uh, you need frills.

[sowilson]

Looks fine to me. No frills. Nice racks and platforms. What else do you need?

Rack's with 3" safeties are a BIG problem - you really do need 24" safeties on a half rack at the very least.  Spotting only works if you can't finish the lift, if you experience failure spotters will not be able to react in time to catch the bar before it crashes on your head, neck, or chest.  That's how folk's get killed doing a bench press.  Something like this is much, much safer (or with pipe safeties, your choice)


Remember the USC athlete that had a 275lb bar end up on his throat? http://articles.latimes.com/2009/sep/29/sports/sp-stafon-johnson-usc29 .  If you look you'll find video's of guys who've died - with spotters.  It's preventable with the right equipment.  So lack of adequate equipment makes the GAC weight room a potential death trap.  It's cheap to fix too.

[MiacMan]

Looks fine to me. No frills. Nice racks and platforms. What else do you need?

Uh, you need frills.

Well it does appear that as an athlete you could get it done in there. They should definitely fix anything that is not up to today's safety standards. I must say I doubt they'll dazzle the socks off of any potential rockstar recruits with this setup.

[USTBench]

Looks fine to me. No frills. Nice racks and platforms. What else do you need?

Uh, you need frills.

Well it does appear that as an athlete you could get it done in there. They should definitely fix anything that is not up to today's safety standards. I must say I doubt they'll dazzle the socks off of any potential rockstar recruits with this setup.

Every set I've seen like GAC's has safeties you can attach. You usually take them off for deadlifting and olympic lifts.

[MiacMan]

Now does anyone want to tackle Hamline's problems?

[USTBench]

Now does anyone want to tackle Hamline's problems?

They're pretty much the Shasta Cola of Twin Cities private schools. Fine, but if a Pepsi or Coke is lying around, I'll probably just drink that.

[sowilson]

Looks fine to me. No frills. Nice racks and platforms. What else do you need?

Uh, you need frills.

Well it does appear that as an athlete you could get it done in there. They should definitely fix anything that is not up to today's safety standards. I must say I doubt they'll dazzle the socks off of any potential rockstar recruits with this setup.

Every set I've seen like GAC's has safeties you can attach. You usually take them off for deadlifting and olympic lifts.

If you look at the picture of GAC's weight room you will see that the safeties are attached.  However they are woefully inadequate for squats and bench.  For Oly lifts they just move out on the floor a abit and things are fine.  Of course Oly lifts are generally pretty safe because you're lifting submaximal weight explosively, you can bail on the lift, and you aren't going to be crushed against a bench.  When you're training for max strength you really do need safeties for many of the compound movements (squat, bench).  The other weight rooms in the MIAC that I've seen are doing it right.  You could use longer safeties on the these racks but I would be concerned about the rack being a tipping hazard as they aren't really designed to handle the leverage.  Those racks need to be replaced, and it's roughly $1500 per rack to replace them with something decent (you don't need to go to PowerLift and spend $4K a rack)

[MiacMan]

Now does anyone want to tackle Hamline's problems?

They're pretty much the Shasta Cola of Twin Cities private schools. Fine, but if a Pepsi or Coke is lying around, I'll probably just drink that.

I was going to say Hamm's to a Michelob Golden but, I didn't want to offend the Johnnies.

[DuffMan]

So, you consider Mich Golden to be good beer?

[MiacMan]

So, you consider Mich Golden to be good beer?

I figured that would get you involved. I used Hamm's because of (Ham)line and Michelob was the first of the major breweries beer that I thought of. I would say I prefer it over Hamm's. Although I do admit to picking up a thirty rack periodically.

[MiacMan]

So, you consider Mich Golden to be good beer?

I figured that would get you involved. I used Hamm's because of (Ham)line and Michelob was the first of the major breweries beer that I thought of. I would say I prefer it over Hamm's. Although I do admit to picking up a thirty rack periodically.

Honestly, I don't know if I have met a beer that I didn't like. Although, I do have varying degrees of "like" I am of the sort that there are two kinds of beer, 1) COLD and 2) FREE and I will take either but the combination of the two is the best.

[57Johnnie]

So, you consider Mich Golden to be good beer?

I figured that would get you involved. I used Hamm's because of (Ham)line and Michelob was the first of the major breweries beer that I thought of. I would say I prefer it over Hamm's. Although I do admit to picking up a thirty rack periodically.

Honestly, I don't know if I have met a beer that I didn't like. Although, I do have varying degrees of "like" I am of the sort that there are two kinds of beer, 1) COLD and 2) FREE and I will take either but the combination of the two is the best.

Guess you never had 'Billy Beer' 

[MiacMan]

So, you consider Mich Golden to be good beer?

I figured that would get you involved. I used Hamm's because of (Ham)line and Michelob was the first of the major breweries beer that I thought of. I would say I prefer it over Hamm's. Although I do admit to picking up a thirty rack periodically.

Honestly, I don't know if I have met a beer that I didn't like. Although, I do have varying degrees of "like" I am of the sort that there are two kinds of beer, 1) COLD and 2) FREE and I will take either but the combination of the two is the best.

Guess you never had 'Billy Beer' 

Ya know, I believe I have had "Billy Beer" I was in HS and I am sure I choked it down but, back then we were happy just to get our hands on any 6-pack to split three ways!