FB: Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[faunch]

What I love about this weekend is that deep inside Tommies know they are living on borrowed time. The only question is how much time. Fasching will bring the Jays to the top of the pile again, we just don't know how long it will take. Two years?  Three?  Do the Tommies choke and they lose it now?

For SJU this game is all upside. For UST(d), however, this game is nothing but peril. Traditional rival. Outrageous fan base expectations. Sweaty palms from all the hand holding. Doubt and uncertainty at every turn.  Even a double monkey stomp won't meet some expectations.

Yes, pressure indeed boys. You had best perform or the bandwagoneers will soon be diverted back to the latest happenings of Jersey Shore.  The Situation's got it down, yo.

I think this could be a bit true.  SJU got a bit lazy the last few years.  The SJU staff added a number of talented players even though they didn't hire a coach and have the staff determined until after Christmas.  I'm excited to see what they do with a full year or two under their belt.  Once the new turf and dome facility is completed SJU will be the envy of the league. 

[USTBench]

Bench - I may have posited this before, but I've contended that UND should just change their mascot to a black sillouetted guy holding a briefcase, and call themselves  "The Fighting Sue."  You could stick your finger in the eye of the PC (not Pat Coleman) crowd. Maybe only the lawyers would be upset. But they don't have a lot of love from the general public, so I'm sure it would work.

That's funny. Does UND have a law school?  If it did then this name would be perfect.

Yes, and I am a graduate of it.

And none of the lawyers I know would be offended by it for being "hostile and abusive" :-). But I'd like "Fighting Sue" to have more of a Johnny Cash connotation, maybe the logo could be a guy in a bar fight with his dad. Some people have suggested "Fighting Suhaki." Which is a sort of Siberian antelope I guess. Don't think it'll fly with the football and hoops teams.

[USTBench]

I'm catching a red-eye flight in a few hours and will be in Minnesota by morning.

Bench -  You heading to the game?

Absolutely. PMed you for some pre/postgame plans.

[OzJohnnie]

It's OOOOOOOOoooooooon!



A brutal clash between Hawthorn and Geelong is on tonight at the MCG.  I'll be there with 90,000 other screaming fanatics hoping for (or dreading) the end of the 11 game losing streak.  I reckon we have it this time.  It will be hard, brutal and desperate footy.  To the winner: the Grand Final.  To the loser: ultimate heartache and a season ended on football's most fierce rivalry.



Come on, Hawks!

(It's only 2:30 in the afternoon and I'm already bouncing around the office.  I'm half convinced that I'm not doing anything worthwhile anyway and should just go the pub for a few pints.)

[DuffMan]

I'm catching a red-eye flight in a few hours and will be in Minnesota by morning.

Bench -  You heading to the game?

Absolutely. PMed you for some pre/postgame plans.

Are you guys planning on a Tom smoke fest?

[OzJohnnie]

AAAAAnnnnnnnnd?

It's over.  The Hawks have finally beat the Cats.  After five years.

Now, Go Johnnies!

[USTBench]

I'm catching a red-eye flight in a few hours and will be in Minnesota by morning.

Bench -  You heading to the game?

Absolutely. PMed you for some pre/postgame plans.

Are you guys planning on a Tom smoke fest?

Yep. Yachts, chesses, fine luxuries.

[DuffMan]

Yep. Yachts, chesses, fine luxuries.

You've come a long way from when I first met you.  I remember you trudged through the woods at SJU with a 30-pack of beer under your arm! 

[SJUrube]

The Cobber/Ole "Troll Trophy" could get on ESPN College Gameday this weekend. http://peterson.areavoices.com/2013/09/18/the-ugliest-traveling-trophy-in-college-football-could-make-an-appearance-on-espn/

Is the Troll Trophy that big of a deal? I feel like I'm pretty plugged into the MIAC in general, when I'm not blinded by my Johnnie red and smokefests, but I don't remember hearing about the trophy in other years. It's been discussed on this board and I've seen multiple mentions of it in my twitter feed. Is it simply the fact that Gameday is going to be in the area so those associated with the trophy are trying to build it up? I don't ask to criticize, just curious.

[hazzben]

The Cobber/Ole "Troll Trophy" could get on ESPN College Gameday this weekend. http://peterson.areavoices.com/2013/09/18/the-ugliest-traveling-trophy-in-college-football-could-make-an-appearance-on-espn/

Is the Troll Trophy that big of a deal? I feel like I'm pretty plugged into the MIAC in general, when I'm not blinded by my Johnnie red and smokefests, but I don't remember hearing about the trophy in other years. It's been discussed on this board and I've seen multiple mentions of it in my twitter feed. Is it simply the fact that Gameday is going to be in the area so those associated with the trophy are trying to build it up? I don't ask to criticize, just curious.

I'm obviously not an Ole or Cobber, but I've heard of the troll before. I can't say how intense the rivalry is, but I think there's a little bad blood between both sides. Though I Olaf obviously hates Carleton with special level of vitriol.

Which brings up another question I guess. Who would Concordia consider their biggest MIAC rival? SJU, St. Olaf, Bethel, UST?

[sjusection105]

Yep. Yachts, chesses, fine luxuries.

You've come a long way from when I first met you.  I remember you trudged through the woods at SJU with a 30-pack of beer under your arm! 

.......and the beer shotgunning champion was born........

[hazzben]

In other news, Bethel's Josh Treimer was named to just about every Defensive Team of the Week out there, including our own D3football.com after pulling down 3 INT's (still no Ben Matthews though) in week one against Wartburg. He was also the MIAC Defensive POW.

This is great to see. Treimer got injured during the Augsburg game last year and had to limp through the rest of the season. He was a different player after the injury. Seems like a tough kid, but he was basically playing on one leg. If he can stay healthy he'll be a huge playmaker in the Royal Secondary alongside Melhorn and Morgan. That's a lot of experienced playmakers back there.

[USTBench]

Yep. Yachts, chesses, fine luxuries.

You've come a long way from when I first met you.  I remember you trudged through the woods at SJU with a 30-pack of beer under your arm! 

A more accurate description of what will probably happen tomorrow: Tiff's, brag to my wife about my high score on Big Buck Hunter in 2003, realize Big Buck Hunter isn't at Tiff's anymore, drink lots of Grain Belt (fresher in St. Paul) drunk bus to campus, walk over to "The Plaza," realize it's lame, get ticket, walk to Lot M, get mean mugged by Faunch, ROR, sjusection, et al, drink their beer and eat their food, talk to some old teammates and retroactively coach the late 90s through the year 2007 and unilaterally agree we probably would have won like 10 National Championships, get into the game too late to find a seat, stand under the WCCO press box, yell horrible things at college kids trying their best, blame it on Ben Wartman, find a seat in the second half, get nervous because I ran out of the booze I snuck in and there's a whole 30 minutes of football left to go, game ends, catch drunk bus back to Tiff's, stay too long, realize I'm older than 90% of people there, stay anyway.

[DuffMan]

drink lots of Grain Belt (fresher in St. Paul)

You do realize that it is brewed in New Ulm now, right?

[Walter Eagle]

Which reminds me.  Did anyone at St. John's check with the UST sports people to see if they could reserve their own standing room area right behind the Johnnie bench in order to keep guys like Bench out of there?