FB: Old Dominion Athletic Conference

[jknezek]

In other incredible news, congratulations to W&L's Charlie Westfal for picking up the Lanier Award. I believe he is W&L's first winner of the award for the best NCAA D2/D3 and NAIA college football player in Virginia. Just an awesome capstone to his career. I can't say it enough... he will be sorely missed in Lexington. Congrats to H-SC's Travis Lane and E&H's Devan Sproles for placing 2nd and 3rd for the award.

[Olinemom]

Llama, Skoal, bcphotos, oilcan-

What are the Stagg Bowl plans?

That's a great question Kid.  I was wondering the same.  It's going to be here before we know it.

I've got 40 dozen brownies for Friday. Anything I should do?

[HSCTiger74]

I'm not necessarily advocating some kind of punishment for Favret, but at the same time, just because he's reaped no obvious recruiting benefit doesn't make it right either.

Maybe HSC should forfeit any past Favret wins against the men from Ashland, now that would sting (pun intended). 

+k for humor, not so much for the sentiment     

[hasanova]

UWW vs Mount Union - again.  ZZZZZZZ  I'm sure it'll be a great game, but I hope someday some other teams can break through.  Division III has become much like the Big Ten of old when Michigan and Ohio State always dominated.  Theirs was the "Big 2, Little 8" - I guess ours is the "Big 2, Little 233" or whatever the balance actually is. 

[jknezek]

I've said it a lot of times, but D3 does not lend itself to competitive balance. I do find it interesting, however, that the 2 most dominant schools are a smaller liberal arts type school and a larger secondary state school. Really fascinating. That being said, I do agree that the overall championship in D3 is a bit of a snooze fest. In any given year, maybe 4-6 schools are in a level above the rest of D3 and 2, obviously, are just at least a step above again. Everyone else is just playing a game of... how far can you get before you get blown out. Credit to UST, they got all the way to the semi's before it happened! And credit to Wesley, who definitely belongs in that 4-6 area and is probably only a small step away from making this a 3 horse race year in and out.

But yeah, even if I lived in the ODAC region, my love for the Stagg Bowl would be waning with the seemingly never-ending string of UMU - UWW games.

[wesleydad]

I've said it a lot of times, but D3 does not lend itself to competitive balance. I do find it interesting, however, that the 2 most dominant schools are a smaller liberal arts type school and a larger secondary state school. Really fascinating. That being said, I do agree that the overall championship in D3 is a bit of a snooze fest. In any given year, maybe 4-6 schools are in a level above the rest of D3 and 2, obviously, are just at least a step above again. Everyone else is just playing a game of... how far can you get before you get blown out. Credit to UST, they got all the way to the semi's before it happened! And credit to Wesley, who definitely belongs in that 4-6 area and is probably only a small step away from making this a 3 horse race year in and out.

But yeah, even if I lived in the ODAC region, my love for the Stagg Bowl would be waning with the seemingly never-ending string of UMU - UWW games.

well said jk, +1 to you.  I agree.  This will be my 6th or 7th trip to the Stagg and I have only seen the same 2 teams.  I go to see some good friends that I have met via D3 football and enjoy the get together.  The game is starting to become just an after thought, "oh, since we are here we might as well go in and watch the game" type of thing.  Granted the games are usually very good and worth watching, but in the end I would like to see someone else too.

[Olinemom]

I really thought that Wesley was going to win at the half! But it takes. 2halfs to do it. That McSweeny is something else.  I watched every minute of the game & thought that the Wolverines had a real chance to win until thee very end.  It's up to other teams to reach up to their level, not blame teams who do their job and reach the prize.  I remember when my team reached the pinnacle and playing MUC we lost by 3 pts.  Jason's worst game but a loss is what we got.

[tigerfanalso]

D3 playoffs could be reduced to MU, UWW, Wesley and one other team to be named at the end of the regular season.
Save everybody else time & money !!! Just kidding, but I think it is getting very close to becoming reality. Don't know how these schools do what they do, but they are very good at it. I wonder if their second team guys could beat 95% of the teams in D3. Unbelievable how dominant they are. Don't think it is good for D3 and I don't understand how 2 or 3 schools can be that much better year over year, but they obviously are.

 

[narch]

Don't know how these schools do what they do

in the case of uww, it's pretty obvious to me - they play in one of the oldest collegiate conferences in the country in a state where there is little to no scholarship program presence and they are an affordable state school...kids grow up saying "if i can't play for the badgers, i want to play at whitewater" and their parents can make that happen financially, because there isn't a less expensive option other than the community college - i'd be willing to bet there are a few rungs between uva and any odac school, and i know there is a lot between ncsu and methodist - that wouldn't change much if mu started winning usasac championships...70% (or more) of high school athletes in this region (and their parents) will take a $1,000 d2 scholarship vs. the same $1,000 need-based grant to play d3

in the case of mt. union, i'll bet the entire coaching staff, not just the head coach, is on the sidelines of high school games fraternizing with coaches and players and making recommendations about when to kick field goals every friday night (joking...of course)

[tigerfanalso]

That explains UWW, how about MU; isn't that a private, liberal arts school ? Other than the coaches on the sidelines every Friday nite(kidding), how are they so successful over such a long period of time. They never have an average team and seem to be two or three deep at every position, every year. Same questions for the folks in Dover !!!!

[jknezek]

Winning breeds recruiting which breeds winning. UMU has been the best at that for a very long time. Lets say you could be a marginal D1 or decent D1A or D2 player. Then Coach Kehres comes to your house and sits you down and says,

"Listen Tom. I know there are some good schools out there looking for you. I know they can offer you a place to play and a chance to compete at a high level. I know some of them will even offer you an athletic scholarship. And that's great. But here is what I can offer you."

"We play for a national title every year. 15 of the last 17 national title games have featured UMU. Come here and play for a title. Heck, we haven't had a senior class not play for a National title since that Freshman class that hit campus in what, 1989? Heck, that was before you were born."

"So, top level, national championship tries when you hit campus. That's one. Two, how about money? They're offering you a partial athletic scholarship, and that's great. But we do in-depth needs analysis on all our incoming students. If you qualify, UMU can be just as affordable as any other school that is talking to you. And we're a great school. Number 10 in the U.S. News Regional Rankings. We're an affordable and very strong college."

"Three, lets talk about facilities. Some of the stadiums might be bigger, but our weight room, locker rooms, and practice fields are top notch. You may not play in front of 10K every week, but you'll play in front of your family who will have great seats and a supportive student section. And you'll be on TV. Our TV coverage is as good, or better counting the national title, than most 1A and 2 programs because we are a national name."

"Four, let's talk about the next step. UMU is a great school and you'll get a great education. But you won't be the first UMU player invited to the combine or drafted if you are good enough. It doesn't happen all the time, but we've got that kind of exposure. If you are good enough, you'll get a shot coming from UMU just as much as you would at D2 State. In fact, with our name recognition, it might just be better."

"So, we've got the program, we've got the history, we've got the academics, we've got the financials, we've got the facilities and we've got your future. 15 out of the last 17 national title games have featured us, and we want you to be a part of 19 of 21. You won't get better coaching, better exposure, better playing time, or a better shot at winning national titles anywhere but UMU."

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how a dynasty gets the players to stay on top. There is nothing underhanded going on. UMU has a sales pitch that can't be topped. They are first rate for a lot of reasons and the only way to break that up is to keep them out of the Stagg Bowl for more than a year or two at a time.

[narch]

jknezek - you've explained how mt. union STAYS good, but there was a time that they weren't that good and the pitch was, i would imagine, much different...wesley was there around 8-10 years ago

with all due respect to the folks in dover, they don't (and didn't) have some of the things to pitch that mt. union has had over the last few decades - in many ways, what they've done over the last decade is even more impressive (or at least as impressive) than what mt. union has done...they aren't in a top-notch conference like the oac, when they got this thing started they didn't have incredible facilities (not sure what they've done since i was last on campus around 10 years ago), they aren't in a state known to produce top-notch high school talent (not to the extent that ohio is, anyway), dover isn't exactly a destination (unless you're looking for racing or slot machines), they don't have the same type of academic reputation, etc...building a big-time winner at wesley may have been more difficult than maintaining a winner at mt. union over the last 10 years

i don't think anyone is accusing mt. union or wesley of anything underhanded

[tigerfanalso]

absolutely not accussing just trying to figure out how they are able to do it every year; it's absolutely fascinating to me.
don't think it's good for d3. schools at any other level are not able to accomplish this. maybe it's time for a d4
because other d3 programs just simply are miles apart and either are not willing nor able to compete for many, many reasons.

[narch]

i disagree wholeheartedly on the d4 concept...

[PA_wesleyfan]

 Wesley recruits in parts NJ, PA, MD. and Del. They have had some transfers from bigger schools that have helped but those kids have reached out to Wesley through other players that they knew from high school days. They do a good job recruiting in an area that had a number of D3 schools and their playoff experience and usual travel schedule may be intriguing to kids. They usually start out with about 200 kids in camp so they are doing something right.