G-MAC All-Sports and Conference Business Thread

[UFSwimDad]

Re: G-MAC All-Sports and Conference Business Thread

My Brother-in-law used to teach at Brownsburg. I went to a decent number of games with him through the years. I remember that the Hamilton Southeastern schools usually packed a punch (in all sports).

BTW, our newest volleyball recruit is from Westfield, so it looks like CU is mining the Hoosier Crossroads hard.

All the surrounding Indy area schools are all pretty much stacked! Brownsburg had the top rated QB in the nation this past season. Westfield is a sleeping giant. It has been predicted that Westfield schools will grow by over 1700 students the next five to ten years, which will squarely place them in the top 10 biggest schools in the state. I am glad that you are mining the conference! I have been pushing D2 and UF specifically to a lot of kids in a wide range of sports! My daughter has been talking with a lot of the girls in the pool this past week about UF! If I were a D2 coach, I would make the Indy area a top priority.

[BlueBlood]

Re: G-MAC All-Sports and Conference Business Thread

Congrats KWC!

[alumnifan]

Re: G-MAC All-Sports and Conference Business Thread

Kentucky Wesleyan winning the G-MAC baseball tournament Championship is mind blowing. This marks their fourth appearance in the NCAA tournament and first since 1988.

[alumnifan]

Re: G-MAC All-Sports and Conference Business Thread

Both the softball and baseball teams have some young talent at KWC. The softball team was eliminated in the Regional tournament, but that is how a young team gets better

[UFSwimDad]

Re: G-MAC All-Sports and Conference Business Thread

For you Alumnifan
https://twitter.com/ncaadii/status/863539590992474112
Congrats!

[alumnifan]

Re: G-MAC All-Sports and Conference Business Thread

For you Alumnifan
https://twitter.com/ncaadii/status/863539590992474112
Congrats!

Thanks a lot UFSwimDad! That was a great clip. I saw their team photo article on Facebook, but I had not seen this clip. That wild throw walk off win will be remembered for a long time. That is a nice baseball facility.

[buckeyeblitz]

Re: G-MAC All-Sports and Conference Business Thread

I'm not sure if we ever noted this before or not - The volleyball schedule for next year shows divisions:

West Division: TN, KW, OD, CU, UF, HC
East Division: AB, DE, OV, UC, LE, MU, WU
there is no traveling to the teams in the other division, but they will play each in a cross-over tournament.

I don't think they use divisions for any other sports next year. Baseball says it uses divisions, but you still play everybody - the difference being three games series against teams in your division versus two against out of division teams. It sounds like you are still traveling to all schools.

Not sure if they will later utilize an East/West geographical split for other sports, or if this just worked out for volleyball and North/South is just as likely to appear for other sports. Anyway, it caught my eye.

Taking a look at the schedule on the G-MAC website. I do not think that you are fully correct BlueBlood. You have the divisions correct, but it looks like each team plays the other teams in their division twice (home & away) while playing everyone in the other division once. The "Crossover Tournament" that is listed on there is the Midwest Region Crossover tournament. That is the big tournament where the G-MAC, GLIAC, and GLVC all get together and play teams from the other two conferences. Pretty sure it is one of the biggest regular season tournaments in the country in any division. They have been holding it in Chicago area the last several years. Last year there were five G-MAC teams in it (Cedarville, Trevecca, D&E, Malone, and A/B). Hopefully we will see closer to full participation in it this year with the G-MAC growing and the GLIAC shrinking. My understanding is that it is a very important tournament when it comes to identifying the teams that will most likely appear in the regional rankings and possibly the regional.

[BlueBlood]

Re: G-MAC All-Sports and Conference Business Thread

Buckeye - you are right. I assumed the crossover was an east/west crossover, and didn't think it was the bigger Midwest crossover. I see now that they do play the other division teams once during regular season. I guess it helps on travel a bit.

[buckeyeblitz]

Re: G-MAC All-Sports and Conference Business Thread

Buckeye - you are right. I assumed the crossover was an east/west crossover, and didn't think it was the bigger Midwest crossover. I see now that they do play the other division teams once during regular season. I guess it helps on travel a bit.

It also helps them fit it in. Volleyball teams get 26 play dates. The current schedule is 17 or 18 conference dates depending on which division you are in. The crossover is an additional two dates, and most teams like to play in a couple of early season tournaments on the first couple of weekends in order to beef up their schedule. That puts you at 24 dates which only gives you 2 additional non-conference dates to manage. If they played everyone twice in conference, you would be at 24 dates plus the crossover which would be the entire schedule. No room for any other non-conference games.

[BlueBlood]

Re: G-MAC All-Sports and Conference Business Thread

BTW - I know there is a lot of speculation about Ashland, but the more I think about it, its really nice for the OH G-MAC schools to have Ashland, NDC, Urbana and Central State as geographically close non-conference opponents. You have two in the northeast quadrant of OH and two in the southwest quadrant. These are schools that can easily fill weeknight games on the schedule. There is something to be said for that.

[BlueBlood]

Re: G-MAC All-Sports and Conference Business Thread

Obviously, I will be rooting for KWC in the baseball tourney. However, I will also be rooting for the SJC Pumas. I hope they make a run. It's hard not to root for them.

[UFSwimDad]

Re: G-MAC All-Sports and Conference Business Thread

BTW - I know there is a lot of speculation about Ashland, but the more I think about it, its really nice for the OH G-MAC schools to have Ashland, NDC, Urbana and Central State as geographically close non-conference opponents. You have two in the northeast quadrant of OH and two in the southwest quadrant. These are schools that can easily fill weeknight games on the schedule. There is something to be said for that.

I agree and think that will eventually happen. Would be great midweek games in softball and baseball.

[UFSwimDad]

Re: G-MAC All-Sports and Conference Business Thread

Obviously, I will be rooting for KWC in the baseball tourney. However, I will also be rooting for the SJC Pumas. I hope they make a run. It's hard not to root for them.

Go Pumas! Grew up 15 minutes from there. Had many great friends that went there and played sports! Watch out for Riley Benner. I coached both of his older brothers who were very good players as well. He is the definition of a baseball rat! Knows the game and can rake! Best of all, great kid from a great family!

[BlueBlood]

Re: G-MAC All-Sports and Conference Business Thread

SJC fits the G-MAC profile to a T. It's really not too difficult to imagine one of our intuitions being in the same exact position. Its pretty gut-wrenching to watch. I hope the G-MAC affiliation can be a benefit to each member school in fighting the battle against the shrinking-enrollment and fiscal tidal waves that are killing off small private schools. I think the multi-state footprint helps (advertising/relevance). I think adding as many sports as possible helps (additional student athletes = additional students). Hopefully there are other benefits.

[BlueBlood]

Re: G-MAC All-Sports and Conference Business Thread

Following up on the SJC closing / "how can the G-MAC help" comments:

I think there are a whole lot of small private schools right now that only have their doors open because student-athlete enrollment is keeping them afloat. I've posted the math with regard to OVU and Urbana before. They are the most obvious, as they have very few full time students other than student-athletes. However, I looked up NDC the other day (a post on the MEC board peeked my curiosity) and was pretty shocked that more than half of their students are athletes. According to the DOE, NDC has 1366 full-time undergrads. 622 of them are NCAA student-athletes (unduplicated). Then, they have rugby (62 men, plus 30 women). That means that student-athletes make up 714 of the 1366 total enrollment. Given their practice schedules and having been recruited from all over the country, I have to think that the student athletes clearly dominate the on-campus housing situation at NDC. And that is NDC -a school that, at least to my knowledge, isn't known to be in a bad situation. I don't think schools used to be this reliant on athletics for enrollment. I'm guessing this is more a result of the "University of Phoenix" world we now live in. Online/non-traditional college isn't going away, so this may be the new norm for many schools nationwide. Like I said above, I hope the G-MAC affiliation can be a benefit to each member school that is fighting this battle.