The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

[Augie Boy]

Re: The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

Off topic, but Augie baseball having an incredible start to the year. Maybe it is an omen but their only loss on the year was to the Wolves, and I think we know what happened the last time Augie had a team with only one loss to the Wolves...

Augie has a tough double-header against St. Cloud this afternoon (weather permitting). Hopefully Northern remains the only strike on our record after today. The baseball program has been on the upswing over the last few years. Coach Huber has really knocked it out the park (end of puns) as far as getting talented players and developing a perennial competitive squad. Our pitchers are absolutely filthy this year, Seniors like Flattery and Blank just doing what they do. Even when we did lose to the Wolves (7-3) Northern only managed 5 hits.

[NSU4LIFE]

Re: The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

Off topic, but Augie baseball having an incredible start to the year. Maybe it is an omen but their only loss on the year was to the Wolves, and I think we know what happened the last time Augie had a team with only one loss to the Wolves...

[MSUMavMan2009]

Re: The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

The win-win for Augie is that they have the home court advantage for the conference tourney, either way they go. Lol!

You've obviously never seen/been to the Summit League Tournament. That place is 80% blue regardless of who is playing. And not the Navy variety.

[mosofan1]

Re: The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

The win-win for Augie is that they have the home court advantage for the conference tourney, either way they go. Lol!

[NSU4LIFE]

Re: The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

The USD and SDSU fan board's currently both have some sizable discussion of this topic...

http://usdcoyotesports.proboards.com...pansion?page=3

http://sdsufans.com/board/showthread...-to-the-Summit

Wow, great tidbit from Zim.

I have said it before, but I feel the move is more fueled by folks in the city of Sioux Falls and the (ego is too strong so fill in how you choose) of folks having the big city and how they continue to try to climb and grow and add and host everything. I totally get it from their standpoint. I don't know if it is right or wrong, but just have always felt this is an upward city movement more than a lot of Augie folks wanting to move up.

[Otis Day]

Re: The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

All I could find was this.

http://www.anygivensaturday.com/show...oining-Pioneer

The USD and SDSU fan board's currently both have some sizable discussion of this topic...

http://usdcoyotesports.proboards.com...pansion?page=3

http://sdsufans.com/board/showthread...-to-the-Summit

[MrAugustana]

Re: The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

It's been a long, long time since I've posted. Those that know me know that I've moved on but still follow the conference closely. But the recent situation with Augustana intrigues me and has me asking...

Augie has narrowed down the AD search to 4 people. Slade's departure hits a very volatile time for Augie athletics. The rumors are rampant. "Augie is going D-1." "Augie is NOT going D-1." Ultimately, President Herseth will make the AD hire fit her own agenda. The Summit League Tournament is in Sioux Falls until at least 2022 (I can't see the tournament ever leaving unless they want to rotate between Sioux Falls and Fargo), your first year of playoff eligibility would be 2023 if the move happened immediately.

So, how do you feel about the possibility of moving Division I in athletics? Do you think the money is there to fundraise and increase your budget 100%? Do you see any benefits of making the transition? I'm really interested in hearing your thoughts on the situation.

Edit: I don't know if this post gets more traction on the football half of the forum. Seeing that everything purged with the move to CR4, it might be worth the discussion since Spring Ball has started.

Probably not the rousing response you were hoping for when you emerged from hibernation to kickstart this conversation. Welcome back.

I really don't have strong thoughts on this. On the one hand, it would be fun to be a D1 program. I'm tired of going to Scheels and seeing racks and racks and racks of SDSU/USD gear and then seeing a couple of small racks of Augie stuff next to USF stuff buried two or three aisles deep. And it would be fun to actually be involved in some of the Summit League Tournament hype each year, especially if we're competitive, which I think we could be.

On the other hand, our incoming recruiting class is really strong, and I think we have the potential to be a top NSIC team again for a good run of 2-3 years in another season or two, which would also be really fun.

I guess the thing for me is that, after seeing the local media attention we got for winning the National Championship (when we actually HAD our own Augie/USF beat writer...which the Argus doesn't even have anymore) compared to the avalanche of coverage the Jackrabbits got just for making the NCAA Tournament and losing in the first round, it's a little hard not to feel like an afterthought sometimes. It was awesome to win the National Championship, but signs seem to indicate that the D1 level will continue to be an elevated area of focus for media and fans in this community.

The hard part is that I really, really don't know anything about the budget stuff. I have no idea where we'd get the money, I have no real grasp of how consistently we'd have to raise exponentially more funding, etc. That's obviously the biggest hurdle to this, so my lack of understanding doesn't contribute much to this discussion, but I recognize that it's a pretty substantial hurdle. I've always been a basketball first guy, something I've never hidden, so I personally am not crushed if we go non-scholarship for football or whatever, but I know it would be really hard to swallow for lots of Augie fans (and football coaches/athletes), so I see that side of it too.

Overall, if we go D1, I'll be very excited about the opportunities (after we spend 3-4 seasons getting our teeth kicked in during the transition). If we stay D2, I'm still very excited about the Augie basketball future. It's kind of a win-win as far as I'm concerned, as a basketball fan. Obviously the downside is if we go D1 and it fails horrendously and we suck for 20 years and have to drop back down to D2, but I'm sort of banking on that not happening.

[laker]

Re: The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

All I could find was this.

http://www.anygivensaturday.com/show...oining-Pioneer

[MSUMavMan2009]

Re: The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

It's been a long, long time since I've posted. Those that know me know that I've moved on but still follow the conference closely. But the recent situation with Augustana intrigues me and has me asking...

Augie has narrowed down the AD search to 4 people. Slade's departure hits a very volatile time for Augie athletics. The rumors are rampant. "Augie is going D-1." "Augie is NOT going D-1." Ultimately, President Herseth will make the AD hire fit her own agenda. The Summit League Tournament is in Sioux Falls until at least 2022 (I can't see the tournament ever leaving unless they want to rotate between Sioux Falls and Fargo), your first year of playoff eligibility would be 2023 if the move happened immediately.

So, how do you feel about the possibility of moving Division I in athletics? Do you think the money is there to fundraise and increase your budget 100%? Do you see any benefits of making the transition? I'm really interested in hearing your thoughts on the situation.

Edit: I don't know if this post gets more traction on the football half of the forum. Seeing that everything purged with the move to CR4, it might be worth the discussion since Spring Ball has started.

[MrAugustana]

Re: The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

Came across this tweet from Ryan James regarding incoming recruit Eric Tiedman. Lost in the state tournament to eventual champions Minnehaha Academy, but I watched some of the game and was impressed by how much of a "do-everything" type of player Tiedman is. He's 6'6" and ended up playing PG for a substantial portion of the game. Even out of position he still put up 20 and had 5-6 rebounds. Looks like he just works his butt off too. Reminds me a bit of a circa-2009 SMSU type of kid.

Eric Tiedman of Jordan is gonna be so good for Augustana. A top MN defender, played PG, had 20pts on 7-11fg #MNStateBB2018 pic.twitter.com/7GJp5UdAto

— Ryan James (@RyanJamesMN) March 22, 2018

[laker]

Re: The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

Morton played football at UND from 1992-95
Schofield is from northwestern Iowa (Odebolt)
Fennern is from southwestern Minnesota (Wabasso)
Whipple played basketball at WSU from 2005-09

I worked basketball camp with Nikki Fennern.

[DapperDan]

Re: The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

Wait really? Was he like, any good at all?

jk@Twhip

Winona should get rid of the guy they have and hire him back.

[Augie Boy]

Re: The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

Whipple played basketball at WSU from 2005-09

Wait really? Was he like, any good at all?

jk@Twhip

[Stanger86]

Re: The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

In news equally as important as today's game, Augie has announced its four finalists for the open Athletic Director position. One of them will be particularly familiar to NSIC fans: http://goaugie.com/news/2018/3/24/ge...announced.aspx

Morton played football at UND from 1992-95
Schofield is from northwestern Iowa (Odebolt)
Fennern is from southwestern Minnesota (Wabasso)
Whipple played basketball at WSU from 2005-09

[MrAugustana]

Re: The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

In news equally as important as today's game, Augie has announced its four finalists for the open Athletic Director position. One of them will be particularly familiar to NSIC fans: http://goaugie.com/news/2018/3/24/ge...announced.aspx

Augustana Announces Finalists for Director of Athletics

SIOUX FALLS -- Four finalists have been selected for the director of athletics position at Augustana University and will participate in on-campus interviews this week.

The finalists include Josh Morton, an assistant athletics director for Michigan State University; Steve Schofield, deputy director of athletics, external operations, for the University of Northern Iowa; Nikki Fennern, athletic director for Saint Mary's University of Minnesota; and Travis Whipple, deputy director of athletics for Texas A&M-Corpus Christi University.

At Michigan State, Josh Morton works with alumni in Michigan and metropolitan areas of the western U.S. to build financial support for MSU athletics, capital projects, endowments and programmatic gifts. Prior to MSU, he served as an associate athletics director for the University of North Dakota where he was the liaison between the university and the architectural firm behind the UND High Performance Center. Before beginning his career in college athletics, he was a television sports anchor in Charleston, South Carolina. He holds a bachelor's degree from the University of North Dakota.

At Northern Iowa, Steve Schofield oversees marketing and branding, ticket management and communications, as well as partnerships and events for UNI athletics. He also supervises coaches and staff and manages student athletic groups with a focus on student engagement. Prior to UNI, he worked in NCAA Division I compliance at Florida State University, the University of Maryland and the University of Minnesota. He holds a bachelor's degree from UNI and a master's degree in higher and postsecondary education from Arizona State University.

At Saint Mary's, Dr. Nikki Fennern oversees the administration of 21 varsity teams, works with the university's development office to build fundraising support for athletics and works with coaches and staff on student-athlete recruiting and enrollment management. Most recently, she oversaw the construction of a $2.8 million track and field/soccer complex. She holds a bachelor's degree from the University of Wisconsin-River Falls, a master's degree in athletic administration from South Dakota State University and a doctorate in educational leadership from Saint Mary's University.

At Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, Travis Whipple leads fundraising efforts, guides the department's external relations staff and activities and has sport oversight for men's basketball, volleyball and tennis. Previously, he served as the assistant athletic director for external operations at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, where he was responsible for major gifts, event management and marketing. He holds a bachelor's degree from Winona State University and a master's degree in educational leadership and sports management, also from Winona State University.