FB: Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[sfury]

From the Reusse piece, I'm curious what the March 28th MIAC coaches meeting was all about.  "An attempt to pass a resolution favoring St. Thomas' continued presence in the MIAC failed."  Seems very odd to have resolutions of that nature come up at a coaches meeting.  I'm not surprised to hear it was a heated meeting however.

It was Barzini all along.

[Pat Coleman]

Would roster limits help parity?

Perhaps. St. John's opened camp last year with 40 more players than anyone else, followed by Concordia-Moorhead, then St. Thomas.

Allowing more players to dress on the road would probably help as well, as it's hard for a MIAC team to travel any third-stringers.

[miac952]

I get a kick out of St Olaf's President leading the charge here. He's the one who got played a fool with the fake racism incident on-campus and walked away from both press conferences on it with his tail between his legs. It takes a special individual to leave everyone walking away up in arms. He accomplished it.

The difficulty is the hypocrisy he comes to the table with:

- He hired his own D1 Athletic Director to St Olaf from Maryland, the #2 in command that oversaw the Terp's transition to the B1G

- He has one of the nicest fieldhouses and indoor training facilities in conference,if not the region.

- He approved the nicest university owned hockey facility in the MIAC. A $10 million palace the rest of the conference would drool over.

- He has hired two recent D1 coaches in track and hockey. Rumors are that they took little to no pay cuts to come to Northfield.

- He despised the UST football model  so much he brought in half of UST's staff.

- He was a big a supporter of St Olaf football success when Meidt was running the show. Meidt loves to
roll up the points and drew a lot of questions if everything was on the up and up.

The reality is David Anderson the academic has tried and failed to pour $ and strategic resources into sports. He's a lot closer to the UST model than he wants you to believe. He just hasn't been very good at it.

[Inkblot]

Something to remember is that for a D3 or non-NCAA team to join D1, they first have to go through the three-year D2 membership process and then be an active D2 member for five years. Only then can they start the four-year D1 membership process. So it would take 12 years for St. Thomas to reach D1.

[crufootball]

Would roster limits help parity?

Perhaps. St. John's opened camp last year with 40 more players than anyone else, followed by Concordia-Moorhead, then St. Thomas.

Allowing more players to dress on the road would probably help as well, as it's hard for a MIAC team to travel any third-stringers.

How many players can a team dress on the road and what is the reasoning for having the rule in the first place. I understand the NCAA limiting travel rosters for playoff games since they are paying the tab but if a school wants to bring 70 players, why does the MIAC care?

[OldAuggie]

Something to remember is that for a D3 or non-NCAA team to join D1, they first have to go through the three-year D2 membership process and then be an active D2 member for five years. Only then can they start the four-year D1 membership process. So it would take 12 years for St. Thomas to reach D1.

This is close to what I heard when I first heard the rumor about 3 weeks ago. Sounds like UST is headed to/applying to the NSIC and hockey will need to find/build a D1 arena and schedule. No different than St.Cloud, Mankato and Bemidji making the transition to play in the same league as UMD.

[art76]

Channeling my inner Art76 with the novel below  Some thoughts I've been digesting for a few months now since I heard rumors of this impending vote.

+K Hazz

[GoldandBlueBU]

Something to remember is that for a D3 or non-NCAA team to join D1, they first have to go through the three-year D2 membership process and then be an active D2 member for five years. Only then can they start the four-year D1 membership process. So it would take 12 years for St. Thomas to reach D1.

This is close to what I heard when I first heard the rumor about 3 weeks ago. Sounds like UST is headed to/applying to the NSIC and hockey will need to find/build a D1 arena and schedule. No different than St.Cloud, Mankato and Bemidji making the transition to play in the same league as UMD.

Isn't the snag there that additional D2  "except for D1 hockey"   institutions aren't allowed?

[OldAuggie]

Something to remember is that for a D3 or non-NCAA team to join D1, they first have to go through the three-year D2 membership process and then be an active D2 member for five years. Only then can they start the four-year D1 membership process. So it would take 12 years for St. Thomas to reach D1.

This is close to what I heard when I first heard the rumor about 3 weeks ago. Sounds like UST is headed to/applying to the NSIC and hockey will need to find/build a D1 arena and schedule. No different than St.Cloud, Mankato and Bemidji making the transition to play in the same league as UMD.

Isn't the snag there that additional D2  "except for D1 hockey"   institutions aren't allowed?

Sounds like a snag alright.

[Smitty Oom]

Something to remember is that for a D3 or non-NCAA team to join D1, they first have to go through the three-year D2 membership process and then be an active D2 member for five years. Only then can they start the four-year D1 membership process. So it would take 12 years for St. Thomas to reach D1.

This is close to what I heard when I first heard the rumor about 3 weeks ago. Sounds like UST is headed to/applying to the NSIC and hockey will need to find/build a D1 arena and schedule. No different than St.Cloud, Mankato and Bemidji making the transition to play in the same league as UMD.

You make this seem like it is almost a done deal, I was under the assumption this probably wont go through. Am I not reading your post correctly?

[OldAuggie]

Something to remember is that for a D3 or non-NCAA team to join D1, they first have to go through the three-year D2 membership process and then be an active D2 member for five years. Only then can they start the four-year D1 membership process. So it would take 12 years for St. Thomas to reach D1.

This is close to what I heard when I first heard the rumor about 3 weeks ago. Sounds like UST is headed to/applying to the NSIC and hockey will need to find/build a D1 arena and schedule. No different than St.Cloud, Mankato and Bemidji making the transition to play in the same league as UMD.

You make this seem like it is almost a done deal, I was under the assumption this probably wont go through. Am I not reading your post correctly?

My source made it sound like a done deal. According to him, the vote was a formality - UST would be kicked out and they had started to apply to the D2 conference. 

[Inkblot]

Isn't the snag there that additional D2  "except for D1 hockey"   institutions aren't allowed?

I don't think there are any limitations, since there's no D2 championship.

[sfury]

What will we call this? Stexit? Texit? Tomxit?

[Miacman4040]

If St Thomas is voted out it means 9 other institutions voted for it. That goes beyond the St Olaf president having sour grapes, it would point to there being a deeper issue between the Tommies and the rest of the league. St Olaf's president can't brainwash 8 schools to kick out the Tommies unless they felt the same way.

For years now St Thomas has been giving their top athletes full ride "leadership" scholarships that the smaller schools cannot afford to do and which is borderline illegal in D3 athletics. You don't think that would rub schools like Hamline the wrong way? So on top of poaching kids (as previously mentioned), they essentially outbid schools that are enrollment dependent for numbers and then steamroll them by 80 points, finishing touchdown drives with behind the back trick plays.

I do not want to see St Thomas leave the MIAC, but it is very easy to see why schools resent them and why it has come to a vote.

[MiacMan]

If you're really that focused on at-large bids, getting rid of St. Thomas could be helpful in many sports.   Every team can add wins in the non-conference schedule and subtract losses in the conference schedule.  You might be missing out on a regionally ranked win over St. Thomas but if the Tommies leave the division, another MIAC team might take their place in the regional rankings.

I'd be much more worried about the MIAC losing position in the all-important D3football.com conference power rankings.

Can you check with your connections - if Hamline, Carleton, and Olaf split, do UNWSP, CSS, and a third party (maybe UWS?) want to join the MIAC?

While I definitely want to play Bethel more often in Basketball and Football, I've never gotten the sense we want to join the MIAC.  There's a lot of parity in the UMAC in football and while we've mostly dominated Men's Hoops, we can get beat on any given night. 

As for the Black and Blue division idea, what if we just called the two divisions the MIAC and UMAC and kept both AQs.   

That would work if they could get the UMAC and MIAC to swap some teams every few years under one umbrella and agree to service each other for Non-Conference games.