Are the Purple Powers bad for D3?

[Ralph Turner]

Ralph Turner - OBI Wan, I pray you are well and yall also have a most wonderful New Year.

..."Beat the Tuscaloosa Institute of Lower Education", if i recall correctly (and i am wrong more that right) you have a daughter that graduated from the lovliest village on the plains...and if so, that  might expalin your correct and astute discription of the Tuscalooser school for Ursidae worship.
i hope the Honey Badger is hungry and takes what he wants

wish we could get into USA South 

Keep th faith
Go Hawks
(and if i remembered correctly, please tell those in the family War Eagle)

Two "attended"... 2 "Mrs." and now 3 grandsons to adorn orange and blue paraphernalia.

Thank you very much... 

[Mr. Ypsi]

One thing that has barely been mentioned.  So far (at least) neither UMU or UWW has pulled off what Augustana did in the 80s: FOUR straight Stagg titles.  Apparently Augie did not kill off d3 football!

[frank uible]

For most 18 year olds choosing to attend a certain college primarily because of its football team is not very good reasoning. But believe it or not, I was once 18 and would be embarassed to disclose my thinking in selecting an alma mater then.

[smedindy]

Any talented kid in the state today is an IDIOT is they don't pick a WIAC school if they can't get a scholarship somewhere. We lose many of our best to the strong Michigan programs of the MAC. The WIAC gets the leftovers/ no-rides.

Except the kids where the private school is the best fit for them academically, of course. Because that's what it's all about, right? Right?

Oh, and many private schools offer plenty of scholarships for the 'poor kids'. Take a look at Wabash - lots of 'poor kids' there who decided that IU or Purdue wasn't for them.

[badgerwarhawk]

As an 18 year old I chose WHITEWATER because my girlfriend was going there and a close friend said I could room with him.  So the idea that another 18 year old might choose their school with an equally less reasoned purpose doesn't seem that far fetched to me. 

[emma17]

As an 18 year old I chose WHITEWATER because my girlfriend was going there and a close friend said I could room with him.  So the idea that another 18 year old might choose their school with an equally less reasoned purpose doesn't seem that far fetched to me.

And I have to admit that the 18 year old drinking age was very appealing to an IL kid. 

[Ralph Turner]

For most 18 year olds choosing to attend a certain college primarily because of its football team is not very good reasoning. But believe it or not, I was once 18 and would be embarassed to disclose my thinking in selecting an alma mater then.

Well, did you eventually find your beautiful young bride among the co-eds at your institution or its "sister" school?   

[badgerwarhawk]

As an 18 year old I chose WHITEWATER because my girlfriend was going there and a close friend said I could room with him.  So the idea that another 18 year old might choose their school with an equally less reasoned purpose doesn't seem that far fetched to me.

And I have to admit that the 18 year old drinking age was very appealing to an IL kid. 

There were 18 year old beer bars when I came but otherwise it was 21.  WHITEWATER didn't have any beer bars in those days so we had go into Jefferson County to find those.  In fact I joined a fraternity (briefly) so I could have a place to drink.  That was another of my well reasoned decisions.  LMAO

I'm sorry to sidetrack the discussion and I promise this is the last time.  It's just that reflecting on those two life impacting decisions seems so incredibly stupid to me today that I couldn't help myself. 

[r-squared]

Well the question is "Are the Purple Powers bad for D3?".
So the first question to answer is what is "Bad".
A couple of metrics might be:
      1.) Has division III attendance declined over the last seven years?
      2.) Has attendance at the Stagg Bowl declined over the last seven years?
      3.) Has the number of DIII school participating in Football over the last seven years declined?
      4.) Has the number of athletes participating in DIII programs declined over the last seven years?
       5.) Has the amount of media coverage of DIII football games declined over the last seven years?

Ok I am sure that there are other metrics -- but these should give a least a snapshop of what is going in the DIII football world over the last seven years.

Of course whatever the results are there is nothing at this writing that proves causation -- but it would interesting to look at the numbers and get an idea of what is happening within the world of DIII.

Perhaps the better question is "Do UWW or UMU have an advantage that other DIII schools do not have (or can not replicate)?

[frank uible]

In football as in life inequities are inherent in the game. If all inequities are eliminated, all games would end in ties - presumably scoreless ones.

[ADL70]

Thank you r².  All but your last sentence hasn't really been discussed here.  It's a lot of what I've been thinking as I perused the discussion.  Another metric might be: "Have views of D3Football.com declined?"

+k

[jknezek]

Well the question is "Are the Purple Powers bad for D3?".
So the first question to answer is what is "Bad".
A couple of metrics might be:
      1.) Has division III attendance declined over the last seven years?
      2.) Has attendance at the Stagg Bowl declined over the last seven years?
      3.) Has the number of DIII school participating in Football over the last seven years declined?
      4.) Has the number of athletes participating in DIII programs declined over the last seven years?
       5.) Has the amount of media coverage of DIII football games declined over the last seven years?

Actually, these questions wouldn't provide you with useful information. You would need to rephrase them as below:

      1.) Has the rate of growth of division III attendance increased or decreased and in what direction??
      2.) Has the rate of growth of attendance at the Stagg Bowl declined over the last seven years?
      3.) Has the rate of growth of DIII schools participating in Football over the last seven years declined?
      4.) Has the rate of growth of the number of athletes participating in DIII programs declined over the last seven years?
       5.) Has the rate of growth of the amount of media coverage of DIII football games declined over the last seven years?

Basically an absolute value of today versus 7 years ago is an incorrect measure. If there was momentum in one direction, there could still be growth but at a lower rate. You also run into the economics conundrum that is summed up by "ceteris paribus" or "all other things remaining equal." To state one of the problems with this, we know there is a declining rate of male versus female attendance in higher education. One way to counter that is by adding football. This is independent of what is happening in D3 sports. You would have to account for this and many other variables before drawing any meaningful conclusion from basic questions.

Statistics is a very difficult field in which to achieve relevant answers. Even once you believe you have them, I guarantee someone else (known to you as a b@stard) will present a "complication."

[middlerelief]

One piece of evidence would be the STagg Bowl attendance in my opinion.

Both of these programs seem to draw very large home crowds - but yet avg. 5k in STagg Bowl seats - seems their own fans take it for granted as regular season outdraws the big dance.

My guess - if other programs break into that game, they will draw more because there will be more excitement.

Hmm, if a new program breaks into the Stagg that doesn't draw well in the regular season do you really feel they will draw more in the Stagg where they have to travel to VA? 

As for getting suspicious because of UWW's run, the players you see on the UWW roster are excellent DIII players, but I sure don't see obvious examples of kids that should/could be playing higher divisions but "somehow" ended up on UWW's roster.   

Nah - you're speaking with your heart on this one not your head.

UWW was a sub .500 program prior to the last seven years of going 75-5. Like a switch was flipped. It is suspicious to non-fans (albeit envious) of that team - - most non-fans would look at the records on paper of the prior 7 years, then look at the last 7 years and likely say: That's odd.

As for the attendance, when you draw 10k+ for home games and the team you're facing regularly draws 5k or more (I"ve been to MUC before, can't really guess seating capacity, but it was packed) and combined its tough to get above 5k for the game?? 

I will bet (don't know how to collect on it but just saying) the first non "Purple Power"  that makes the game will outdraw the last two Staggs easily.

[smedindy]

So we should be suspicious because Mt. Union was a fair-to-middling OAC team before 1990 or so?

[Gregory Sager]

. (I have no idea how ILGator came up with "FISH" instead of "FIB" in terms of how the cheeseheads refer to those of us who live on the more cosmopolitan side of the Halas-Lombardi Line, although it's not hard to figure out the acronym. )

FIB is the older term; the more common term in Wisconsin these days is FISH. With in-laws in Milwaukee and a child at a UW school, I may be more exposed to it than you are.

Leave it to the cheeseheads to think that "s***head" is two words instead of one.