FB: Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[57Johnnie]

HAPPY NEW YEAR 

[SUMMIT!!!!!]

Happy 2012 to all!!

[OzJohnnie]

Stopped reading Flynn; it just wasn't doing it for me.  But I did just put the Big Lebowski in and it's making me chuckle.  Progressively increasing in funniness.

EDIT: it was worth the time.  Killing off Donny was clever.

[OzJohnnie]

Well, it's a couple days after Christmas now and the family are all back from the beach at the sister-in-law's place and the present assessment is complete.  #3 picked up a Barbie California Dream House which is the hands down favorite for best gift.  All three girls have been sitting for hours combing Barbie hair, moving Barbie furniture and changing Barbie clothes.  Maybe Bennie can explain how that passes for entertainment as it completely eludes me.

I got a new wallet.  Multi-tone colors. Nice.

[OzJohnnie]

And for a triple post, here's a good shot of a typical hole at the Anglesea Golf Course.  If anyone finds there way down here and you enjoy golf, we'll take a drive down the coast and have a round.

[DuffMan]

So, SJU beat U$T in b-ball last night   Oh, how the mighty have fallen!!! 

[AO]

And now that our cohesive MIAC bandwagon playoff run is over, I'd just like to mention for all the Johnnies playing along at home that UST is #1 in men's basketball and hockey. 

Two sports I care nothing about!

How is U$T's wrestling team???

thus marks a new low for the Johnnie athletic program.    Is the curling team at St. John's also having a good year?

---more seriously, the johnnies have the shooters this year to surprise some teams on any given night, maybe even the Tommies who haven't been beaten by SJU for 5 years.

maybe I was onto something 3 weeks ago, or on something, either way who was in charge of scheduling the Johnnie-Tommie game for Jan. 2?  The game drew 2800 last year in collegeville versus 850 last night.

[BDB]

We haven't had a SAB for awhile.



  Lady Gaga and an Alpaca

[SagatagSam]

So, SJU beat U$T in b-ball last night   Oh, how the mighty have fallen!!! 

Looks like a changing of the guard to me! 

[SagatagSam]

And now that our cohesive MIAC bandwagon playoff run is over, I'd just like to mention for all the Johnnies playing along at home that UST is #1 in men's basketball and hockey. 

Two sports I care nothing about!

How is U$T's wrestling team???

thus marks a new low for the Johnnie athletic program.    Is the curling team at St. John's also having a good year?

---more seriously, the johnnies have the shooters this year to surprise some teams on any given night, maybe even the Tommies who haven't been beaten by SJU for 5 years.

maybe I was onto something 3 weeks ago, or on something, either way who was in charge of scheduling the Johnnie-Tommie game for Jan. 2?  The game drew 2800 last year in collegeville versus 850 last night.

I had a good discussion about this with a fellow Johnnie over the holidays. For some reason the MIAC will not budge from their current scheduling methodology to accommodate "marquee" match-ups with favorable placement on the calendar for ANY sport. I'm sure a good number of us would enjoy having the Johnnie-Tommie game be the final game of the football season. The same could be said for having Carleton-St. Olaf playing for the Goat Trophy and Hamline-Augsburg playing for the Hammer at the end of the season.

I understand that this isn't D-I athletics, but I see nothing wrong with giving certain "premium" games preferential treatment in the conference scheduling meeting. Burying a Johnnie-Tommie game in any sport on the first Monday in January when there are ZERO students around is a joke. There are few games in a D-III schedule that have the potential to draw larger crowds, but the conference has to give those games a fighting chance to generate interest.

[OzJohnnie]

And now that our cohesive MIAC bandwagon playoff run is over, I'd just like to mention for all the Johnnies playing along at home that UST is #1 in men's basketball and hockey. 

Two sports I care nothing about!

How is U$T's wrestling team???

thus marks a new low for the Johnnie athletic program.    Is the curling team at St. John's also having a good year?

---more seriously, the johnnies have the shooters this year to surprise some teams on any given night, maybe even the Tommies who haven't been beaten by SJU for 5 years.

maybe I was onto something 3 weeks ago, or on something, either way who was in charge of scheduling the Johnnie-Tommie game for Jan. 2?  The game drew 2800 last year in collegeville versus 850 last night.

I had a good discussion about this with a fellow Johnnie over the holidays. For some reason the MIAC will not budge from their current scheduling methodology to accommodate "marquee" match-ups with favorable placement on the calendar for ANY sport. I'm sure a good number of us would enjoy having the Johnnie-Tommie game be the final game of the football season. The same could be said for having Carleton-St. Olaf playing for the Goat Trophy and Hamline-Augsburg playing for the Hammer at the end of the season.

I understand that this isn't D-I athletics, but I see nothing wrong with giving certain "premium" games preferential treatment in the conference scheduling meeting. Burying a Johnnie-Tommie game in any sport on the first Monday in January when there are ZERO students around is a joke. There are few games in a D-III schedule that have the potential to draw larger crowds, but the conference has to give those games a fighting chance to generate interest.

Ahh... with enough effort at making no game seem more important than any other, the MIAC will eventually make sure that's true.  Saying everyone is special is just another way of saying no one is.  Why bother keeping score?  Just mandate every game is a draw and then all the schools can feel good about their perfectly equal levels mediocrity.  And rotate conference championships so it's fair.  The infantilization of society continues apace with institutions of higher learning working hard to show there is not really all that much which is special about them in the first place.

This is a topic that really gets under my skin.  Frickin' ridiculous.

[Pat Coleman]

I had a good discussion about this with a fellow Johnnie over the holidays. For some reason the MIAC will not budge from their current scheduling methodology to accommodate "marquee" match-ups with favorable placement on the calendar for ANY sport. I'm sure a good number of us would enjoy having the Johnnie-Tommie game be the final game of the football season. The same could be said for having Carleton-St. Olaf playing for the Goat Trophy and Hamline-Augsburg playing for the Hammer at the end of the season.

I understand that this isn't D-I athletics, but I see nothing wrong with giving certain "premium" games preferential treatment in the conference scheduling meeting. Burying a Johnnie-Tommie game in any sport on the first Monday in January when there are ZERO students around is a joke. There are few games in a D-III schedule that have the potential to draw larger crowds, but the conference has to give those games a fighting chance to generate interest.

Most conferences do this. Marquee games tend to be the last game of the season for a reason.

[GoldandBlueBU]

I agree.  Or even if they were un-willing to always have SJU UST be the last game of the year, a compromise to have it be mid season or later would help.  Next season's conference opener is a bummer timing wise.

[SagatagSam]

Saying everyone is special is just another way of saying no one is.  Why bother keeping score?  Just mandate every game is a draw and then all the schools can feel good about their perfectly equal levels mediocrity.  And rotate conference championships so it's fair.  The infantilization of society continues apace with institutions of higher learning working hard to show there is not really all that much which is special about them in the first place.

I think there are some on the inside that point to envy from schools within the MIAC that wouldn't be a part of these games. (Who would Concordia Play? Bethel? Gustavus? What would happen to non-football schools that do not have many natural rivals--Macalester? St. Mary's?). I think there is a fear among a few schools who feel they would be the ones pushed to the margins in favor of promoting the "top-tier" programs. Frankly, I think this is completely false, but I think the only way to change this for the better is to figure out what is motivating the current state of complacency.

[SagatagSam]

I agree.  Or even if they were un-willing to always have SJU UST be the last game of the year, a compromise to have it be mid season or later would help.  Next season's conference opener is a bummer timing wise.

I agree with this. The Johnnie-Tommie Game doesn't have to be the final game of the season (a la, Michigan-Ohio State, Alabama-Auburn, Ole Miss-Miss St., Oregon-Oregon St., etc.) but at least make it near the end of the season.
Perhaps the more stubborn elements of the conference would be willing to embrace an agreement where the Johnnie-Tommie football game occurs no earlier than October 20...??