The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

[MrAugustana]

Re: The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

Cool story about Jordan Spencer playing in an exhibition game in London last weekend against the Ball Brothers (LaMelo and Liangelo). Dropped 32 points and 8 assists coming off the bench.

http://goaugie.com/news/2018/4/3/men...xhibition.aspx

Spencer Shines in Professional Exhibition

[simple as a $3 bill]

Re: The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

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.

Sounds like a couple of pretty good games today. 2-1 Huskies in Game 1, 1-0 Vikings in Game 2.

[Augie Boy]

Re: The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

Previously the Assistant AD at Michigan State for Development. The guy is a fundraiser.

And he was at UND during their transition to D1. If that's the route Augie goes, awesome. If we remain a D2 powerhouse, awesome.

[MSUMavMan2009]

Re: The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

Josh Morton has been announced as the new AD as I made my previous post. Gotta keep up with the times

Previously the Assistant AD at Michigan State for Development. The guy is a fundraiser.

[Augie Boy]

Re: The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

Josh Morton has been announced as the new AD as I made my previous post. Gotta keep up with the times

[Augie Boy]

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

Lots of message board fodder and rumors but interesting off-season content nonetheless.

After reading what USD fans and SDSU have to say about this I'm very upset. Upset because most of these people have no idea what they are talking about and instead conjuring up ridiculous theories.

Theories that make me mad:
1. Stephanie wants to take us D1, so it's happening- I think she would have done (or said) it by now if that was her goal. I am thrilled to death that she is our president, attendance is up, big things are happening. Unfortunately, I don't believe the athletics of the University is, or needs to be, her specialty. I hope the search committee makes a magnificent decision when selecting our new AD.

2. Augie changed from "College" to "University" in preparation to go D1- how'd they know? Cover has been blown. No mere college could go D1, just universities.

3. Slade left because of D1 pressure- Augie has considered the D1 route numerous times since SDSU made the move. This isn't necessarily new, and IF Slade left because of pressure from the job there would be many more factors than division classification.

4. Augie wouldn't be able to pull the crowds to excell at division 1- too bad we already do better than those attendance numbers at D2.

5. That Matt Zimmer's words matter- I like Matt. Matt saying that Augie will go to the Summit League doesn't mean jack squat. That's like Joe Mama saying SDSU will be going Missouri Valley.

I hope we go D1 and beat the ignorance out of the hoppers and uglydogs.

[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.