MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Gregory Sager]

Yes, sayonara to the team that has gone 24-116 over the last 10 years of CCIW conference play, and is the longest trip for most of the other conference teams. While this may seem cold at first glance, it would actually be beneficial on several fronts:
* Millikin could surely more readily compete for the championship of a lesser conference. A second benefit would be the increased chances of appearing at the big dance. 
* Depending on its new affiliation, MU might lessen the overall sum total of the hours they spend on the road. This would likely also bring some degree of $ savings.
* Many of the other remaining conference teams would no longer have to endure their longest conference road trip. Tell me that wouldn't result in a lot of 
Even if I authored a post predicting next season's conference standings, and slotted MU in the top spot, I somehow don't think I would have made Matt Nadelfoffer's Christmas card list. 

This isn't the first time that we've had this conversation on CCIW Chat, as I can recall an instance a few years ago when Bob shared with us that he'd heard secondhand that the new MU prez was mulling over the possibility of moving the school from the NCAA to the NAIA.

If travel times were to be the prime mover in MU's theoretical departure from the CCIW, then the SLIAC is the only real alternative that MU would have. The only NAIA league in the state, the CCAC, is based in Chicagoland and northern Indiana. The NACC has a footprint that's even more northerly based than the CCIW's. And the MWC is ridiculously spread out in geographic terms, ranging from Green Bay to eastern Iowa to even further southwest than Decatur (Jacksonville) -- and that's even if that league were to consider Millikin for membership, which is doubtful. (The MWC just added Chicago as a football affiliate today.)

The SLIAC's certainly a considerable step down from the CCIW in terms of competition level in every sport; our Decatur-based brethren play SLIAC schools more than they play anybody else in non-conference play in the Big Blue's various sports, and Jimmy Millikin generally does pretty well against SLIAC comp. The travel would be a bit better in the SLIAC than it is in the CCIW for the Big Blue; the SLIAC's downstate and St. Louis schools are all within 2 1/2 hours of Decatur, but Iowa Wesleyan and Westminster (MO) are CCIW-type hauls for them, and Spaulding is a serious haul of 4 1/2 to 5 hours.

But one of the big sticking points would be football, since the SLIAC doesn't sponsor that sport. The SLIAC's football schools (Westminster, Eureka, Iowa Wesleyan, Greenville, and MacMurray) are all in the UMAC in that sport. Even if the UMAC were to admit Millikin as its eleventh football member, nobody in their right mind wants to join a league that would entail busing an entire football team to Minnesota either two or three times each season.

And the UMAC's a bottom-tier football league in terms of D3 competition level, as is the SLIAC in the other sports, which leads to the bigger point: Millikin benefits from being in the CCIW even though it doesn't win much. It's a great boon to recruiting for a coach to be able to tell high-school prospects that his school plays in one of the top leagues in all of D3 (which is true in most CCIW-sponsored sports), whereas the SLIAC and the UMAC are harder sells. And, since Millikin's a tuition-driven school in terms of its annual budget (as are a very large percentage of D3 schools in general), the enrollment aspect of athletics is as important, if not more so, than actual wins and losses on the field or court from the administration's point of view. In that respect, taking Millikin out of the CCIW would be a matter of the school shooting itself in the foot from an admissions perspective. I'm sure that someone at MU explained that to the new prez when he wondered out loud if it might not be a bad idea for the school to join the NAIA.

Millikin's a charter member of the CCIW, and it's one of only four schools in this league that have been in it continuously since the league's inception at the end of World War Two. I doubt that it's going to leave the fold anytime soon.

[Gregory Sager]

Wheaton is heading to Israel and Palestine.
http://athletics.wheaton.edu/news/2016/5/10/the-thunder-mens-basketball-team-travels.aspx

That's pretty cool.

[Gregory Sager]

I'm sympathetic towards our three NCC fans who are griping about multi-game CCIW road trips. I can speak to this a bit, since as commissioner and schedulemaker of my church softball league I have long been acquainted with the vexing issues of balancing each team with regard to time slots, home vs. away, assignments to the more desirable field, etc. It's not easy, and I can state categorically that, given an eight- or nine-team league playing a double round-robin that has intrinsic requirements (in the case of CCIW basketball it's evenly-distributed Saturday home dates and restricting far-flung opponents to Saturday games), it's basically impossible to prevent situations in which at least one team will have to be on the road for three straight games.

Here's the catch, though: It should never have to happen more than once per season. And having that three-straight-road-games element fall at the tail end of the schedule shouldn't happen in consecutive seasons to the same team. If you're forced to play three straight on the road at the end of one season while another team evades that problem, then the two teams should reverse the situation the next season. My guess is that the person who's doing the schedulemaking for the league is probably not looking at this aspect of it.

A stretch of four out of five on the road? That's a different thing altogether. Lumping that in with the three-straight-road-games element as being yet another element to avoid considerably ups the degree of difficulty for the schedulemaker, especially when you consider the aforementioned intrinsic requirements. I think that the key here is to simply agitate for fairness in sharing the burden of three-straight trips (especially in terms of the end of the season), and leave it at that.

[kiko]

I'm sympathetic towards our three NCC fans who are griping about multi-game CCIW road trips. I can speak to this a bit, since as commissioner and schedulemaker of my church softball league I have long been acquainted with the vexing issues of balancing each team with regard to time slots, home vs. away, assignments to the more desirable field, etc. It's not easy, and I can state categorically that, given an eight- or nine-team league playing a double round-robin that has intrinsic requirements (in the case of CCIW basketball it's evenly-distributed Saturday home dates and restricting far-flung opponents to Saturday games), it's basically impossible to prevent situations in which at least one team will have to be on the road for three straight games.

Here's the catch, though: It should never have to happen more than once per season. And having that three-straight-road-games element fall at the tail end of the schedule shouldn't happen in consecutive seasons to the same team. If you're forced to play three straight on the road at the end of one season while another team evades that problem, then the two teams should reverse the situation the next season. My guess is that the person who's doing the schedulemaking for the league is probably not looking at this aspect of it.

A stretch of four out of five on the road? That's a different thing altogether. Lumping that in with the three-straight-road-games element as being yet another element to avoid considerably ups the degree of difficulty for the schedulemaker, especially when you consider the aforementioned intrinsic requirements. I think that the key here is to simply agitate for fairness in sharing the burden of three-straight trips (especially in terms of the end of the season), and leave it at that.

Minor and semantic point: I don't look at this as a three-game road trip, because that's not what it is.  It is a series of three consecutive away games.  So the wear-and-tear of the road aspect that a professional team would face on an actual road trip manifests itself differently here.

Doesn't change any of the conclusions anyone has drawn about this, but if we are going to quibble with the notion of "preseason" games happening in December...

If it were happening to one team -- mine or someone else's -- I'd chalk it up to an inability to reconcile a number of competing interest.  But when multiple teams face this in multiple years, then I have to question whether the schedule maker is really up to the task.

[John Gleich]

I'm sympathetic towards our three NCC fans who are griping about multi-game CCIW road trips. I can speak to this a bit, since as commissioner and schedulemaker of my church softball league I have long been acquainted with the vexing issues of balancing each team with regard to time slots, home vs. away, assignments to the more desirable field, etc. It's not easy, and I can state categorically that, given an eight- or nine-team league playing a double round-robin that has intrinsic requirements (in the case of CCIW basketball it's evenly-distributed Saturday home dates and restricting far-flung opponents to Saturday games), it's basically impossible to prevent situations in which at least one team will have to be on the road for three straight games.

Here's the catch, though: It should never have to happen more than once per season. And having that three-straight-road-games element fall at the tail end of the schedule shouldn't happen in consecutive seasons to the same team. If you're forced to play three straight on the road at the end of one season while another team evades that problem, then the two teams should reverse the situation the next season. My guess is that the person who's doing the schedulemaking for the league is probably not looking at this aspect of it.

A stretch of four out of five on the road? That's a different thing altogether. Lumping that in with the three-straight-road-games element as being yet another element to avoid considerably ups the degree of difficulty for the schedulemaker, especially when you consider the aforementioned intrinsic requirements. I think that the key here is to simply agitate for fairness in sharing the burden of three-straight trips (especially in terms of the end of the season), and leave it at that.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you the UWSP Center for Athletic Scheduling!

http://www.uwsp.edu/cols-ap/cas/Pages/default.aspx


The Center for Athletic Scheduling is a non-profit, student-run, organization whose mission is to provide athletic schedules that optimally meet specified constraints to the many intercollegiate athletic conferences across the country.

Schedules have included constraints on the maximum number of consecutive home and away games, travel restrictions, requested home dates or match-ups, bye specifications, blackout dates, minimum games dates before repeated match-ups, etc.



This is run by one of my old math professors at UWSP. I'm not actually sure if it's still up and running.... I know that it was a handful of years ago (there's an example of scheduling from the PAC from 2007 on the site).  Given enough of the right parameters, they could come up with schedules to meet the requirements. Of course, given that all things aren't equal in terms of competition, they might not ACTUALLY be able to come up with equal weighted schedules. But that's because the competition isn't equal... and that's also not a parameter that you can schedule for!

[Gregory Sager]

[kiko]

The model for me -- which is unrealistic in a league with shared facilities and a focus on who-gets-what-Saturday-home-dates -- is La Liga.

http://www.soccer-spain.com/ssdocsv/fixtures1a.php

http://www.soccer-spain.com/ssdocsv/fixtures1b.php

Pick a team, and follow them through the schedule.  Then pick another team, and follow them through.  Everyone progresses through their fixtures in a very deliberate pattern.  There is no randomness.  I wish it were animated; it's like a beautifully choreographed waltz with 20 moving parts.

[Titan Q]

Mercury Elite, Inc. ‏@MercuryEliteAAU 
#MercuryElite 2015 6'3 PG Jordon Kedrowski has committed to Ball State as a preferred walk-on after transferring from Carthage College (D3).

[AppletonRocks]

Rumor is Carroll University is building a new arena that will also serve as home of an NBA D League team.  Apparently will seat 7,000 for monster truck events as well.

[Titan Q]

Augustana recruit...

* Donovan Ferguson, 6-8 PF (Downers Grove South H.S.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7Cs7JsIr4U&feature=youtu.be

[sac]

just going to leave this right here.....

http://www.freep.com/story/news/nation-now/2016/05/17/drunkest-city-us-appleton-wis-report-says/84507936/

[petemcb]

Here's a link to an article that I must have missed the first time round and don't remember if it was posted here or not.  It's nothing we don't already know as D3/CCIW fans but it's still a good read, and not too lengthy for those of you who are attention-challenged   

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2006-02-22/sports/0602220155_1_division-iii-college-basketball-coaches

[iwu70]

sac, sure does explain a lot . . .

'70

[petemcb]

just going to leave this right here.....

http://www.freep.com/story/news/nation-now/2016/05/17/drunkest-city-us-appleton-wis-report-says/84507936/

+k

[4samuy]

Augustana recruit...

* Donovan Ferguson, 6-8 PF (Downers Grove South H.S.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7Cs7JsIr4U&feature=youtu.be

Titan,

Where did you get this information?