FB: Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[Shamrock]

For those of you that have a subscription, there is a great profile on Ben Bartch hidden behind the Athletic's pay wall.

Sounds like a great kid.  Hope he does well.

[DuffMan]

Sounds like a great kid.  Hope he does well.

He seems like a phenomenal young man.  I hope he can live out his dream!

[OzJohnnie]

Personally, I don't think there's a snowball's chance that UST will cancel football, sweetly ironic though that would be. They had not been putting much effort into disguising their obvious plans to jump to D1 and those plans included football. Heck, they've been bragging about D1 level talent joining the program now that it's even bigger time.

The fact that the MIAC decided they didn't like the idea of waiting for UST to jump on their schedule rather than the league's is not enough to cancel a marque program. Won't happen. Zero chance.

[OzJohnnie]

In caronavirus/CoNV19/SARS2 news...

Education is a huge export industry for Australia.  It's been nurturing the upper class Chinese market for years. Melbourne University, my #1's school, has at least 40% international students. #1's course of Commerce, similar to a bachelor of science in business, has a little over 50% of the student body from Asia, predominantly China.

Well, CV hasn't broken out in Australia (some tourists in Queensland were rounded up and the other cases have all come from people in quarantine after returning from the cruise ship in the Japanese harbour).  But the travel restrictions and quarantines have devastated attendance at the universities and the force majeure withdrawals have devastated the coffers. So Melbourne University have today offered Chinese students a $7000 cash payment to cover travel, quarantine, food, etc, in order to encourage those students to figure out a way to get to school.

Australia had pursued economic partnership with China to a huge degree and great benefit (the last recession in Oz was 1991, not even the 2008 financial crisis sent us backwards). China getting it in the neck, though, is going to be extremely hard on the Oz economy.  I hope the world soon settles in "this is a really bad flu but let's just get on with it."

[OldAuggie]

Personally, I don't think there's a snowball's chance that UST will cancel football, sweetly ironic though that would be. They had not been putting much effort into disguising their obvious plans to jump to D1 and those plans included football. Heck, they've been bragging about D1 level talent joining the program now that it's even bigger time.

The fact that the MIAC decided they didn't like the idea of waiting for UST to jump on their schedule rather than the league's is not enough to cancel a marque program. Won't happen. Zero chance.

UST will have to make decisions on which D1 sports to keep based on Title IX compliance which requires equal scholarships and opportunity for men and women. If football has 63 scholarships then UST will need to fund 63 women's scholarships in addition to the men's/women's sports such as basketball and hockey, over and above those sports and equal to 63 or whatever football scholarships they provide each year. Others will know more than I do on this.

Maybe that is your point, they will drop other men's sports just to keep football and balance out the number of scholarships.

Maybe they will play non scholarship D1 football in the Pioneer League to begin with and move up later. UST will need to be Title IX compliant sometime soon though.

[Pat Coleman]

New podcast today with Gary Fasching talking about taking the Johnnie-Tommie game off campus, what they saw of Ben Bartch at the Senior Bowl, and with current D-III-in-the-NFL lineman Ali Marpet talking about his path to the league and his conversations with Bartch:
https://www.d3blogs.com/d3football/2020/02/26/atn-podcast-272-d-iiis-road-to-the-nfl/

[SUMMIT!!!!!]

[...] and you are going to fight against an arena that might add 500 or so additional vehicles during off peak hours 10-12 times a year to a spot that can manage it? [...]

With faunch its the principle of the matter. No quarter for Tommies--EVER!

It has little to do with U$T. Snelling Avenue is already a **** show as it's a bypass for I-94 and 35E. It was designed as a neighborhood...not a location for a D1 hockey and basketball arena. There is not space for a large arena off of Snelling.

Combined w/ the project at the Ford plant that will bring in thousands of additional people I would project not living in the neighborhood more than another 5-10 years.

I would very much agree with you, that based on what is planned, traffic and pedestrian flow will be a NIGHTMARE. That is why I called it the future uptown of St Paul. With the limited arteries out to freeways, it was never intended to have that population density. A modest version of Ridder Arena connected to Highland's existing Shulz Ice complex is a proverbial drop in the bucket, compared to the thousands of other vehicles and pedestrians that will be added to the area daily with the Ford project. It may add a few hundred vehicles to the general area 10-20 times a year.

Cretin, Cleveland, the Ford Bridge, Edgcumbe, Snelling, and the River Road are all going to be very chaotic in the next 10 years. I don't envy you 

Wouldn't U$T hockey build a dual purpose w/ basketball?  That would only increase the number of game dates (men's and women's basketball and hockey)....not to mention the youth programs that would continue to use the existing rinks. 
If they're going to play in the Summit and whatever hockey league there is now that's the big ten wouldn't they want an arena in the 4,000+ range? 
NDSU Bison Sports Arena hold 5,600 and the Pentagon in SD holds 3,250.
Better convince the wife that it's time to move.

The youth programs that already use the existing rinks aren't going to put anymore strain on Snelling than is already there, unless a bigger arena attracts substantially bigger events (possible). Something with the footprint of Ridder (with some capacity to grow) should be able to easily fit into the existing space, with room for a parking garage, etc. I don't really see a reason for a huge arena at this point.

And if they did dual purpose w/ basketball, they could keep that on campus, especially if baseball gets moved elsewhere. I don't think that's likely, but I don't see any chance of dual-purpose hockey/basketball at the Highland arena spot, so hold off the realtor for now.

I have heard from some reliable sources that the is a lot of talk with the city, Saints and Hamline about UST becoming a 3rd tennant at CHS for baseball. This would then free up the currently baseball field on campus for a new hockey/hockey & hoops facility and some remodeling/renovation to the existing football facility (including replacing the Pavillion with increase seating). The current Schoenecker Arena will be home to the volleyball program and student (ie, intramural) use. A second option is to move baseball  to South Campus near the soccer pitch or to build a hockey facility there.

There is no talk of dropping any sports. In fact, there is talk of adding lacrosse (both genders) as a varsity sport, and (Duff is gonna love this) reviving the wrestling program (and adding womens wrestling), although tak about wrestling is "down the road" rather than in the near future.

[OzJohnnie]

UST will have to make decisions on which D1 sports to keep based on Title IX compliance which requires equal scholarships and opportunity for men and women. If football has 63 scholarships then UST will need to fund 63 women's scholarships in addition to the men's/women's sports such as basketball and hockey, over and above those sports and equal to 63 or whatever football scholarships they provide each year. Others will know more than I do on this.

Maybe that is your point, they will drop other men's sports just to keep football and balance out the number of scholarships.

Maybe they will play non scholarship D1 football in the Pioneer League to begin with and move up later. UST will need to be Title IX compliant sometime soon though.

I guess my point is that this move to D1 is not a shot out of the blue.  Sure, it's inconveniently maybe three years before UST would have taken the leap of their own accord, but it's not a shot out of the blue.  So although we may not see how they will meet title IX requirements, I'm certain they were thinking about them in great detail before STO cried, "No más!"  And although facilities, leagues, locations all need to be settled, I'm certain they had some pretty good ideas and discussions underway which they must inconveniently accelerate but they aren't standing around with nothing to work with.

By the way, the only thing I really blame UST for is misjudging how much of a beating their MIAC partners were willing to take on and off the field (football in particular).  That's why the whole "they kicked us out of the MIAC because we were too good" shtick was so lame.  They kicked UST out because UST was going anyway and enough MIAC schools weren't willing to sit around getting hammered on the field and off the field (with over recruiting) while UST took their sweet time making the move.

As Micheal Corleone would say:



No, no, not that.  This:

[art76]

New podcast today with Gary Fasching talking about taking the Johnnie-Tommie game off campus, what they saw of Ben Bartch at the Senior Bowl, and with current D-III-in-the-NFL lineman Ali Marpet talking about his path to the league and his conversations with Bartch:
https://www.d3blogs.com/d3football/2020/02/26/atn-podcast-272-d-iiis-road-to-the-nfl/

Nice job with the podcast Pat and Keith. I was actually listening to it when you posted this. Hope your voice comes back soon.

[OzJohnnie]

[ChicagoTommie]

Love that!

[OldAuggie]

Like a lot of us here, I love college athletics and Division 1 is special to me, I was at the epic meltdown last night at The Barn and the great Williams Arena atmosphere and finally had time to read Oz's post this morning. I will be at Mariucci on Saturday to see Gopher hockey play Michigan. I have season tickets to Gopher football. Like many fans in MN my D1 sports thirst is quenched by a Big Ten team in my backyard.

I have the same level of interest in UST moving up to D1 or D1.5 as UST has in Augsburg University.

So to sum up my feelings regarding UST and their move up:

[retagent]

I seriously doubt UST will drop football.  Financially it would likely make sense, but I think there are too many alums invested in the program to drop it.  Also why would UST recruit for a program it was going to eliminate.  The problem UST may have is the lack of land around the main campus.  There isn't much room for expansion, and I am sure the neighborhoods would complain about everything.  Obviously there is the potential to move athletics to new venues off campus which isn't ideal.  There is also the potential to redesign facilities to make them work.  Is it possible to expand the football stadium over Cretin?  Hockey might be a bit of a challenge, but there is a solution.

I spoke with a member of the UST alumni board last week he had two things to share,I have no way of proving what he is saying so take it for what it is.
1.) UST & city of St. Paul do a venture for a hockey arena where as the city supplies land close to UST. The building & upkeep would be UST responsibility with the understanding that youth hockey has prime ice time available to them.
2.)Take football off campus to US Bank Stadium. This one made me roll my eyes.

I live in Highland Park and I'd love to know where that piece of land might be located. The only spot that would fit the bill is the old Ford Plant site and I doubt the Ryan Company and the city will free up the space.

Not only should we actually know the location of this new arena by now but based on the timeline, somebody should start digging/construction yesterday or earlier.

Given that the move to D1 hasn't been confirmed and finalized yet, it's going to take some time.
And it wouldn't be uncommon to transition for a few years with either existing facilities (not ideal, but it's not like we are packing the house as is) or make use of something else.

What about the area around Schulze arena? I thought that was discussed as a possibility (here, maybe not beyond this place).

W/r/t football being dropped, I'm sure everything has been considered as this is a huge shift, but the possibility of non-scholarship Pioneer League seems to be a much less costly option. Travel will be increased over the MIAC (both for games and for recruiting, although not to a crazy extent) and there won't be a Tommie-Johnnie cash cow every few years (unless...)

Charles M. Schultz-Highland Arena? https://www.google.com/maps/place/Charles+M.+Schulz-Highland+Arena/@44.9160044,-93.1687071,541m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m12!1m6!3m5!1s0x87f62bccf440c2c7:0xffcaebc7e25f8d6b!2sCharles+M.+Schulz-Highland+Arena!8m2!3d44.9172222!4d-93.1647222!3m4!1s0x87f62bccf440c2c7:0xffcaebc7e25f8d6b!8m2!3d44.9172222!4d-93.1647222

I live about 3 blocks from there...if a 3,000-9,000 seat arena is proposed for that property I will attend every city council meeting and protest along Snelling Avenue daily to stop it. There is no room for that size of property.

SCHULZ, SCHULZ. I share the same last name spelling, and it has been a life long struggle to get the spelling correct. Please, though he's sadly no relation, his name is seen pretty much daily by millions. Get it right. Rant over.

[jamtod]

Until Schulz gives enough money to UST to get his name on a building, I'm going to misspell it intentionally going forward.

[jamtod]

Who is this QB kid who transferred in to St John's last year but had back injury all year?

Assuming Mauer doesn't use his remaining football eligibility up at Collegeville...