FB: Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[repete]

Creighton did have football ... was early NCC and Mo. Valley member. Efforts to revive it surface from time to time. Wasn't a reference about specific sports, though. The Blue Jays sports profile is low and even the Omaha paper spends much more covering that school in Lincoln.

[bennie]

Small world experience tonight. As I was waiting for the light to cross the street after work tonight, a young lady with a St. Ben's Track and Field shirt ran up. She just graduated and is now in a Chemistry grad program. She was a delight! We even talked a little Johnnie Football before she took of to finish her run.

[miac952]

All chest-thumping aside, I have pondered whether the presence of a second D-I in the Twin Cities market pulls some Strib coverage away from the MIAC. It'll be interesting to see how they staff that, if/when the time comes.

The only decent MIAC coverage provided by the "Strib" is from Reusse. I have a lot to complain about with Reusse, but he's very good with baseball and small college; and by small college, I don't mean just UST.

If you're talking about other media like the WCCO 50,000 watt radio juggernaut, that only served to suck PR away from competing schools. UST has been very smart to use them for game broadcasts.

My prediction: Reusse will be retired before UST hits .500 in its new football league. Hockey, though, will be a whipping boy for years IMO ... that might be the toughest move.

If UST doesn't do this right, it will become a cold Creighton.

I'm trying to understand what is bad with Creighton's athletic department. I don't follow closely but they seem to have a solid soccer program and basketball has tougher competition in the Big East but is still doing ok overall. Those are the flagship sports and neither are embarrassments.

When you lead with "they seem to have a solid soccer program" ...

If Soccer, or any sport for that matter, is perennially Top 10 in the country; and if the basketball team is packing the gym with 17,000 fans every night and making an NCAA tournament run every other year that would be a pretty solid situation for UST. To be clear, that is the Creighton you are referencing.

[repete]

Apparently perennially means "not this week" on Planet  Tommy. Sorry, I live in a D1 college soccer hotbed and the Big East isn't the ACC, Big Ten or Pac 12 on the national scene. And the best program in that league is Georgetown.

As for basketball, it's Omaha. What else to do? The closest major sport is where? Call me when the Tommies approach 17K.

[57Johnnie]

Game Day

GO JOHNNIES! 

[repete]

On the tarmac at BWI ... will be cutting it close. Will rain be gone by kickoff?

[miac952]

Apparently perennially means "not this week" on Planet  Tommy. Sorry, I live in a D1 college soccer hotbed and the Big East isn't the ACC, Big Ten or Pac 12 on the national scene. And the best program in that league is Georgetown.

As for basketball, it's Omaha. What else to do? The closest major sport is where? Call me when the Tommies approach 17K.

You brought up Creighton for UST's future. I brought up the fact that they have a basketball program that can pay for virtually everything else in their athletic department. Now the goalpost is moving because Omaha is boring.

I know John fans like to think people around the country know and care about the four team playoff NAIA football titles from the dawn of the Korean War, but reality is they don't. People around the country are aware of Butler, Seton Hall, Creighton, Gonzaga, San Diego. When you bring up St Johns they think you are talking about the "basketball college" in New York.

With the SC Times folding and local media ridiculing MIAC move, the local press coverage for the MIAC is going to disintegrate as well.

It's unfortunate President Anderson and his henchman forced UST's hand. The path ahead will be a bumpy ride, but in ten years time the athletic department will be thriving as a D1 institution and the University will have opened a Medical School.

[repete]

So what program at UST do you see paying for everything else? 

[jamtod]

Exciting homecoming day in St Paul following yesterday's announcement. Hoping the weather cooperates so I can get over there for the festivities and the game.

[jamtod]

So what program at UST do you see paying for everything else?

TBD as there is a lot of work to be done in the department and on campus but the building blocks seem to be in place.

The main point is that "cold Creighton with football and hockey" would be a pretty solid aspiration. I don't expect that because the summit league is not the Big East and AD Eaten laughed at the idea of the Big East.

[BDB]

If UST doesn't do this right, it will become a cold Creighton.

Love the "Cold Omaha" reference. HHH right? What the Twin Cities would be without baseball was the point I think.

[OzJohnnie]

Small world experience tonight. As I was waiting for the light to cross the street after work tonight, a young lady with a St. Ben's Track and Field shirt ran up. She just graduated and is now in a Chemistry grad program. She was a delight! We even talked a little Johnnie Football before she took of to finish her run.

I love the small world stories.

[57Johnnie]

Small world experience tonight. As I was waiting for the light to cross the street after work tonight, a young lady with a St. Ben's Track and Field shirt ran up. She just graduated and is now in a Chemistry grad program. She was a delight! We even talked a little Johnnie Football before she took of to finish her run.

Great story.
I hope you reminded her that today is Game Day!

[miac952]

So what program at UST do you see paying for everything else?

Note the bumpy ride part. This isn't going to be built in a year or two.

For revenue generation the most opportunistic to me seems to be Hockey. By all accounts, both programs will land in solid hockey conferences. If schools like Miami (OH), UNO, and others can make the hockey thing work well, I believe being the only private college D1 program in a hockey hotbed is ripe for opportunity.

Basketball could over time as well. Men's soccer is a wildcard in all of this. They will be the only D1 Men's program in a state that is building a rabid soccer following (me not included  ).

Football will have the most difficult journey ahead, without question. UST's emphasis on balance and success across its athletic department will help.

[repete]

If UST doesn't do this right, it will become a cold Creighton.

Love the "Cold Omaha" reference. HHH right? What the Twin Cities would be without baseball was the point I think.

You got it, BDB. Also used by theatre types. re Guthrie.