FB: Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[OzJohnnie]

The new Johnnie basketball coach is doing well.  Former player?

[Retired Old Rat]

The new Johnnie basketball coach is doing well.  Former player?

Yes, former Johnnie player.  His dad, Pat McKenzie senior was also a player and 1979 graduate.  Kevin McKenzie, younger brother of coach McKenzie also played at St. Johns.

Pat senior is the long-time team doctor for the Green Bay Packers.

[OzJohnnie]

The new Johnnie basketball coach is doing well.  Former player?

Yes, former Johnnie player.  His dad, Pat McKenzie senior was also a player and 1979 graduate.  Kevin McKenzie, younger brother of coach McKenzie also played at St. Johns.

Pat senior is the long-time team doctor for the Green Bay Packers.

Jeepers. My old man can juggle and I once ate 17 hard-boiled eggs in a single sitting.

[DuffMan]

Yeah, Pat was at SJU the same time as I was--I think he was a year behind me.  Gawrsh, that makes me feel old.

[SagatagSam]

The new Johnnie basketball coach is doing well.  Former player?

Pat has been impressive so far. If you throw out last year's Covid shortened schedule where the Johnnies finished with a 3-4 record, Pat has never won fewer than 19 games, and he just clinched his fourth consecutive 20-win season.

Johnnies start the MIAC Tournament on Tuesday and play the winner of (8) Saint Mary's at (9) Hamline.

[84SJU]

If I missed earlier posts about this topic I apologize, but does anyone know if the Johnnies are trying to schedule another non-conference game ahead of WW? If so, any idea who that team might be?

[57Johnnie]

If I missed earlier posts about this topic I apologize, but does anyone know if the Johnnies are trying to schedule another non-conference game ahead of WW? If so, any idea who that team might be?

Go back a couple pages. I think WW got moved up a week and the second week is now open, but what do I know?

[SagatagSam]

If I missed earlier posts about this topic I apologize, but does anyone know if the Johnnies are trying to schedule another non-conference game ahead of WW? If so, any idea who that team might be?

Go back a couple pages. I think WW got moved up a week and the second week is now open, but what do I know?

UW-Whitewater is now week one. Gary said it got changed in order to free up other opportunities. I guess no one wanted to play SJU right out of the gate.

[faunch]

Is week one Sept. 3rd?
Do the Johnnies also have week 3 open or as a bye week?
Here's what d3football shows for open dates:
https://www.d3football.com/opendates/2022/index

Week 2
Brockport
Christopher Newport
DePauw
East Texas Baptist
Hardin-Simmons
Howard Payne
Mary Hardin-Baylor
Ohio Wesleyan
Rhodes
St. John Fisher
St. John's
UW-Eau Claire
UW-Whitewater
Wittenberg


Week 3
Brockport
Endicott
Husson
Rhodes
St. John Fisher
UW-Eau Claire
UW-Oshkosh
UW-Stevens Point

[OzJohnnie]

UWEC it is, I would guess.  $5 on UWEC.

[SagatagSam]

UWEC it is, I would guess.  $5 on UWEC.

UWEC is as solid a guess as any. I wouldn't count out East Texas Baptist, they've traveled to Collegeville once before (2008).

[Etchglow]

UWEC it is, I would guess.  $5 on UWEC.

UWEC is as solid a guess as any. I wouldn't count out East Texas Baptist, they've traveled to Collegeville once before (2008).

Edit: I'm an idiot and can't read the open dates calendar.

[OzJohnnie]

Back onto the new playoff qualifications structure, I don't think it will last long.  At least not for football.

The NCAA had quite a good balance in D3 post-season qualification between AQ and merit.  The previous rules had the perverse incentive, perhaps, of encouraging a relatively small number of schools to go nuclear and build programs that would get in on AQ or Pool C virtually every year.  And, in hindsight not unexpectedly, those schools dominated the division.  I think that vast divide between football haves and have-nots was an issue that D3 had to address.

This qualification structure doesn't do that, I don't believe, as it has swung too far in favour of AQ, possibly eliminating Pool C in another five or six seasons.  I think this new structure will either encourage a race to the bottom as your best chance to AQ is in a weak conference full of weak competition - and they all know that as well, or it will utterly entrench the halves and destroy any competitive balance in the conferences with dominant teams.  Take the MIAC for example.  How long can Bethel or CON or even GAC afford to drop the money needed to make football competitive against the investment that SJU is willing to make when all those bucks will get a post season appearance every six or seven years at best?  And how many A-grade D3 recruits will want to go to a program doomed to second place?  Schools could spend that money elsewhere on other programs and serve the student body better, one could argue.

Upon reflection, I think it will entrench the halves.  And encourage the weaker conferences to absolutely stay weak.  And the middling conferences to go downwards as well, better sharing the spoils of football.

We'll see where this goes but D3 is so big with so many conferences that I think a split post-season structure is almost a must.  One post-season championship picked purely on merit, perhaps like the D1 playoffs (only with at least 16 teams, please) and perhaps a second post season championship, not dissimilar to bowl selection, that is maybe limited to each of the six regions for a localised championship selected purely by AQ or top non-championship finisher like the Rose Bowl.

[Retired Old Rat]

Yeah, Pat was at SJU the same time as I was--I think he was a year behind me.  Gawrsh, that makes me feel old.

I was a year ahead of Pat Sr. How do you think that makes me feel?

[Mr. Ypsi]

Today is my 'baby' sister's 70th birthday - how do you think that makes me feel?!

(Of course, at 70, I wonder how calling her 'baby' sister makes her feel?  She refuses to tell me. )