FB: Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[SagatagSam]

Welp, if the Toms are still playing on December 10, I won't be watching or listening. I just bought my ticket to the Army-Navy Game at FedEx Field in D.C. I think I got a pretty good deal, in my opinion, $80 for a seat in the lower bowl, halfway up, right behind the Navy bench (for counterintelligence purposes). GO ARMY! BEAT NAVY!

Perhaps I should stop by a few cocktail parties after the game to see if I can rub elbows with Mr. MIAC.

[sjusection105]

Welp, if the Toms are still playing on December 10, I won't be watching or listening. I just bought my ticket to the Army-Navy Game at FedEx Field in D.C. I think I got a pretty good deal, in my opinion, $80 for a seat in the lower bowl, halfway up, right behind the Navy bench (for counterintelligence purposes). GO ARMY! BEAT NAVY!

Perhaps I should stop by a few cocktail parties after the game to see if I can rub elbows with Mr. MIAC.

He may not acknowledge you, being from, you know...."fly over country" 

[bennie]

I know one of the things I love about D3 athletics is that the emphasis is on the "student" part of student athlete. Participation in intercollegiate athletics is based on the love of the sport, not scholarship money or potential future earnings. That being said, shouldn't recruiting of "students" fall to the Admission's office (and in my opinion, faculty) and targeted to meet the school's enrollment management goals (diversity, incoming class GPA,etc), not the Athletic Departments goals? Granted, they are not necessarily mutually exclusive, but putting the recruiting emphasis on athletics instead of academics seems like the antithesis of D3 and the goals of the schools that participate. Is it possible that one of the reasons John has never gone out of his way to recruit is because he feels that football should complement the college experience, not define it?

[SagatagSam]

I know one of the things I love about D3 athletics is that the emphasis is on the "student" part of student athlete. Participation in intercollegiate athletics is based on the love of the sport, not scholarship money or potential future earnings. That being said, shouldn't recruiting of "students" fall to the Admission's office (and in my opinion, faculty) and targeted to meet the school's enrollment management goals (diversity, incoming class GPA,etc), not the Athletic Departments goals? Granted, they are not necessarily mutually exclusive, but putting the recruiting emphasis on athletics instead of academics seems like the antithesis of D3 and the goals of the schools that participate. Is it possible that one of the reasons John has never gone out of his way to recruit is because he feels that football should complement the college experience, not define it?

I agree with your argument, but that doesn't mean the athletic department shouldn't go out and pursue great athletes that are also great students.
If memory serves me correctly, one of SJU's greatest football players (Chris Palmer) went on to medical school.
(I could be wrong, but I believe I remember that from a discussion with SJU track coach Tim Miles. Palmer wanted to focus on pre-medicine in undergrad, and coaches at other schools scoffed at him.)

[GoldandBlueBU]

I know the guy helping out with some marketing for this stuff, so I wanted to put a plug out there for a new beer that should be on the shelves of your local liquor store soon...

http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2011/11/16/local-founding-fathers-beer-co-uses-profits-to-help-vets/

Founding Father's beer is being brewed by a guy in MN who is going to give back half of the profits to charities that benefit military families in MN...haven't sampled it yet, but it will be my next purchase, and I'll report back.

[bluenote]

OK...there has been much speculation about the NCAA DIII Playoff Bracket Pairings....here is my idea and I would like your comments to refine it:

Here's an idea:

Take the top 4 teams and put them in 4 different brackets as #1 seeds. Then take the next 8 top teams (according to d3football.com poll...since they know better than any other poll/body) and divide them 2 each per bracket (it doesn't really matter after 4 because everybody after that point is pretty equal)... with those 2 teams in one side of the bracket, so the top team would supposedly play the winner of those 2 if they made it that far....then sprinkle all the other qualifier teams according to region in the 4 brackets....problem solved.   

[retagent]

I guess in an ideal world, your argument would be solid. But, as you know, bennie, we live here.

You also might know that the Service Acadamies recruit athletes also. In an ideal world, they would be recruiting people solely for their academic, and leadership abilities.

[USTBench]

Hmmm. South Dakota fires its coach.

http://tinyurl.com/cewegbt

Okay, I'll stop looking for places for Caruso to land, heed Bench's advice and focus on recruiting players to SJU. New York City kids love St. John's. Chris Mullin, Walter Berry, Mark Jackson, etc.

As Fargo's Jeff Kolpack noted, the USD coach, Ed Meierkort, was 54-35, beat the Gophs and was 6-5 this year while they went to D1. Very strange firing.

This actually scares me more than Caruso landing in the Ivy League, as Caruso was the O-Coordinator at USD during their most successful years.

I think the 54-35 record during a transition period is a bit skewed. Teams like USD and UND had to routinely pad their schedules with NAIA teams just to fill out an 11 game season. Not to mention, USD had a 37 to 17 lead over UND in the 4th quarter of their game on Saturday (I was there) and wound up losing 38 to 37. I have some great friends in the UND athletic department who basically said after the game the USD coaching staff/players had nearly come to blows in the locker room. So, it appeared to be a pretty toxic atmosphere.

The one thing that might keep Caruso from going for the USD job is the fact that the Dakota Dome is the worst facility in FCS and Vermellion is an absolutely god-awful town. Yet, being on the border of Nebraska, Iowa and SD opens a ton of recruiting possibilities. Who knows?

[sfury]

That's interesting about the UND game. Maybe they were sort of looking for a reason to get rid of him and that provided the perfect opportunity, sort of like the blown lead against Texas Tech led to the gophers dumping Mason. Well, if USD doesn't get Caruso, maybe they, too, could land Tim Brewster.

Someone on Twitter said Caruso recruited most of the stars who led the Bison over the Gophers in 2007.

Also on Twitter, Reusse:

If Caruso wants a recommendation, all-time winningest coach _ John Gagliardi _ will write glowing one, to try to get Glenn out of MIAC.

[SagatagSam]

That's interesting about the UND game. Maybe they were sort of looking for a reason to get rid of him and that provided the perfect opportunity, sort of like the blown lead against Texas Tech led to the gophers dumping Mason. Well, if USD doesn't get Caruso, maybe they, too, could land Tim Brewster.

Someone on Twitter said Caruso recruited most of the stars who led the Bison over the Gophers in 2007.

Also on Twitter, Reusse:

If Caruso wants a recommendation, all-time winningest coach _ John Gagliardi _ will write glowing one, to try to get Glenn out of MIAC.

USD would have to wrestle Timmy B away from his cushy job with FOX.
All I needed was to hear him speak once to turn the game off:
"On a third and short like this I'd run a blast play and get the first down."
A blast play is run, stuffed for a yard loss. Silence from Timmy B.

[OzJohnnie]

I know one of the things I love about D3 athletics is that the emphasis is on the "student" part of student athlete. Participation in intercollegiate athletics is based on the love of the sport, not scholarship money or potential future earnings. That being said, shouldn't recruiting of "students" fall to the Admission's office (and in my opinion, faculty) and targeted to meet the school's enrollment management goals (diversity, incoming class GPA,etc), not the Athletic Departments goals? Granted, they are not necessarily mutually exclusive, but putting the recruiting emphasis on athletics instead of academics seems like the antithesis of D3 and the goals of the schools that participate. Is it possible that one of the reasons John has never gone out of his way to recruit is because he feels that football should complement the college experience, not define it?

Bravo, bennie.  You had me at 'I'.

[DustySJU]

That's interesting about the UND game. Maybe they were sort of looking for a reason to get rid of him and that provided the perfect opportunity, sort of like the blown lead against Texas Tech led to the gophers dumping Mason. Well, if USD doesn't get Caruso, maybe they, too, could land Tim Brewster.

Someone on Twitter said Caruso recruited most of the stars who led the Bison over the Gophers in 2007.

Also on Twitter, Reusse:

If Caruso wants a recommendation, all-time winningest coach _ John Gagliardi _ will write glowing one, to try to get Glenn out of MIAC.

That's interesting.... I may have to join the "Caruso Watch" party and start following Reusse...

Developing...

[sjusection105]

That's interesting about the UND game. Maybe they were sort of looking for a reason to get rid of him and that provided the perfect opportunity, sort of like the blown lead against Texas Tech led to the gophers dumping Mason. Well, if USD doesn't get Caruso, maybe they, too, could land Tim Brewster.

Someone on Twitter said Caruso recruited most of the stars who led the Bison over the Gophers in 2007.

Also on Twitter, Reusse:

If Caruso wants a recommendation, all-time winningest coach _ John Gagliardi _ will write glowing one, to try to get Glenn out of MIAC.

That's interesting.... I may have to join the "Caruso Watch" party and start following Reusse...

Developing...

You could blog about it on JohnnieFootball.com  as it is the "off season" and stories are a bit hard to come by 

[GoldandBlueBU]

That's interesting about the UND game. Maybe they were sort of looking for a reason to get rid of him and that provided the perfect opportunity, sort of like the blown lead against Texas Tech led to the gophers dumping Mason. Well, if USD doesn't get Caruso, maybe they, too, could land Tim Brewster.

Someone on Twitter said Caruso recruited most of the stars who led the Bison over the Gophers in 2007.

Also on Twitter, Reusse:

If Caruso wants a recommendation, all-time winningest coach _ John Gagliardi _ will write glowing one, to try to get Glenn out of MIAC.

USD would have to wrestle Timmy B away from his cushy job with FOX.
All I needed was to hear him speak once to turn the game off:
"On a third and short like this I'd run a blast play and get the first down."
A blast play is run, stuffed for a yard loss. Silence from Timmy B.

KFAN was discussing rumors of a mutual interest between Brewster and Tulane on monday, so he might already have his sights set on another program to destroy.

[sju56321]

Are your state football champoonship games on FSN?