FB: Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[TheChucker]

This guy faced a sticky wicket. Take a ball to the face or dance around like a goose and knock off your own bales to get out?  He went for the double.

I love the "sticky wicket" methaphor because...well...I don't know, because it sounds cool. Your cricket reference is like a foreign language to me!

Re: my comment above on Liberal Arts focus in the bylaws. I'm not sure the old school residential liberal arts model is sustainable nowadays for institutions that are tuition dependent (anybody not Carleton, Mac, St. Olaf). Bethel, Augsburg, Hamline have started moving away from it. St. Thomas did a long time ago. The MIAC might need to change its bylaws.

[oldsju67]

Tomtoss, brought to you by the same conference that says conditioned collegiate golfers can’t play if the temperature hits a certain degree, even though their retired grandparents will be, and probably drinking beer out on the course.  Brilliant!!!!!

[Mr.MIAC]

UST athletics is getting a hell of a lot of free advertising out of this little kerfuffle.

[hazzben]

So if I'd put my moniker on this Poll would I have gotten mentioned by name in the STrib 

[USTBench]

UST athletics is getting a hell of a lot of free advertising out of this little kerfuffle.

Free advertising, yes. Good advertising, meh.

Take it from me, watching UND try to find a conference while simultaneously transitioning to D1 and dealing with the nickname issue was awful. Nothing like watching your favorite team play the New Jersey Institute of Technology on a Thursday night while Omaha, SDSU, USD and NDSU are all still playing each other and taking their rivalries into D1, together. It sucked.

After 16 years UND is FINALLY in a league where it belongs, playing schools from the old NCC in the I-29 corridor. If UST gets booted, I really hope they can create some sort of coalition of schools and work to create their own conference.

[57Johnnie]

This old JOHNNIE does not believe Tomtoss will be approved.
SJU will spearhead the opposition.

[Gregory Sager]

Re: my comment above on Liberal Arts focus in the bylaws. I'm not sure the old school residential liberal arts model is sustainable nowadays for institutions that are tuition dependent (anybody not Carleton, Mac, St. Olaf). Bethel, Augsburg, Hamline have started moving away from it. St. Thomas did a long time ago. The MIAC might need to change its bylaws.

The bylaws say nothing about MIAC schools needing to be residential. Nor do they say that a MIAC member school must exclusively be a "private liberal arts collegiate institution". I'm not sure about UST anymore, but I'm pretty sure that Bethel, Augsburg, and Hamline are all liberal arts colleges that offer graduate programs as well, with the grad programs functioning as institutional add-ons to the main undergraduate liberal arts focus.

[hazzben]

UST athletics is getting a hell of a lot of free advertising out of this little kerfuffle.

Free advertising, yes. Good advertising, meh.

Hey, at least it's not like St. Olaf's advertising right now ... in case anyone didn't realize, they got destroyed 97-0 by UST. I was chuckling as I realized that every article and podcast about this issues brings up St. Olaf getting plastered.

I wonder if that's the kind of publicity President Anderson was expecting when he started the cloak and dagger Tomtoss movement 

Two obvious takeaways from the casual MIAC observers in MN after all of this:
1. UST is bigger than everyone else and very good at Football (and sports generally).
2. St. Olaf is not as big and not nearly as good at football.

[art76]

So, what's the number to call to join the meeting?

Asking for a friend.

[sjusection105]

So, what's the number to call to join the meeting?

Asking for a friend.

I told a Tommie customer of mine yesterday, no matter the outcome of the vote, the MIAC is fractured. I'd pay a lot of money to be a fly on the wall for this one.

[USTBench]

UST athletics is getting a hell of a lot of free advertising out of this little kerfuffle.

Free advertising, yes. Good advertising, meh.

Hey, at least it's not like St. Olaf's advertising right now ... in case anyone didn't realize, they got destroyed 97-0 by UST. I was chuckling as I realized that every article and podcast about this issues brings up St. Olaf getting plastered.

I wonder if that's the kind of publicity President Anderson was expecting when he started the cloak and dagger Tomtoss movement 

Two obvious takeaways from the casual MIAC observers in MN after all of this:
1. UST is bigger than everyone else and very good at Football (and sports generally).
2. St. Olaf is not as big and not nearly as good at football.

I was just thinking about that as well. UST might come off looking like a bully, but St. Olaf isn't looking too much better. Something that may have been a local 24 hour sports news cycle talking point two years ago is now re-lived with every article published about his fiasco.

As I have said before, footbawwww, is its own animal, even in Division III. It is quite literally the physical imposition of someone's will over another. If St. Olaf and Carleton want to remain in the MIAC, and want UST out, fine, but it's not going to change who SJU or Bethel is, and they're  still putting their kids in harm's way if they aren't willing to lend some institutional support to their football programs.

Also, to Gregory Sager's point, I would suspect that in 10 years an entirely homogeneous liberal arts college will be a thing of the past. Just to survive the education bubble, schools are going to have to rapidly adapt or die. UST, with its many flaws, and undefined direction, at least recognizes this fact, as do most of the metro area schools you've mentioned.

[Mr.MIAC]

So, what's the number to call to join the meeting?

Asking for a friend.

I told a Tommie customer of mine yesterday, no matter the outcome of the vote, the MIAC is fractured. I'd pay a lot of money to be a fly on the wall for this one.

I don't know what's going to happen with this situation.  That being said, I could see UST agreeing to some sort of undergraduate enrollment cap to keep them in the MIAC near-term. It's in their interests to do so. UST is gradually raising its admission standards, with the long-term aim of maintaining a 30+ median ACT for incoming classes. A smaller enrollment will help them reach these goals. They're trying to keep all undergraduates on campus; three new dorms are being built and the administration recently announced that all freshman and sophomores will be required to live on campus. A smaller enrollment will help them house a larger proportion of the student body on campus. The obvious drawback is the loss of tuition dollars coming from the larger enrollment, but such a shift could help fuel ongoing and future fundraising efforts, making UST less dependent on tuition income.

[miac952]

Ill be curious to see, if a cap is agreed to, how it might impact St Kate's. If you double there number to account for males they are near UST levels. Do the President's give them an exception? I am sure growing is critical to them, given their current financial issues.

[OldAuggie]

So, what's the number to call to join the meeting?

Asking for a friend.

I told a Tommie customer of mine yesterday, no matter the outcome of the vote, the MIAC is fractured. I'd pay a lot of money to be a fly on the wall for this one.

I don't know what's going to happen with this situation.  That being said, I could see UST agreeing to some sort of undergraduate enrollment cap to keep them in the MIAC near-term. It's in their interests to do so. UST is gradually raising its admission standards, with the long-term aim of maintaining a 30+ median ACT for incoming classes. A smaller enrollment will help them reach these goals. They're trying to keep all undergraduates on campus; three new dorms are being built and the administration recently announced that all freshman and sophomores will be required to live on campus. A smaller enrollment will help them house a larger proportion of the student body on campus. The obvious drawback is the loss of tuition dollars coming from the larger enrollment, but such a shift could help fuel ongoing and future fundraising efforts, making UST less dependent on tuition income.

With such great ideas and more important - deep pockets, it is time to nominate you for a position on The University of St. Thomas Board of Trustees.

[Mr.MIAC]

So, what's the number to call to join the meeting?

Asking for a friend.

I told a Tommie customer of mine yesterday, no matter the outcome of the vote, the MIAC is fractured. I'd pay a lot of money to be a fly on the wall for this one.

I don't know what's going to happen with this situation.  That being said, I could see UST agreeing to some sort of undergraduate enrollment cap to keep them in the MIAC near-term. It's in their interests to do so. UST is gradually raising its admission standards, with the long-term aim of maintaining a 30+ median ACT for incoming classes. A smaller enrollment will help them reach these goals. They're trying to keep all undergraduates on campus; three new dorms are being built and the administration recently announced that all freshman and sophomores will be required to live on campus. A smaller enrollment will help them house a larger proportion of the student body on campus. The obvious drawback is the loss of tuition dollars coming from the larger enrollment, but such a shift could help fuel ongoing and future fundraising efforts, making UST less dependent on tuition income.

With such great ideas and more important - deep pockets, it is time to nominate you for a position on The University of St. Thomas Board of Trustees.

Who says I'm not already on the Board...