G-MAC All-Sports and Conference Business Thread

[kwcpantherfan]

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

kwcpantherfan - you beat me to it. You don't forget something like that.

Very true!

[BlueBlood]

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

kwcpantherfan - you beat me to it. You don't forget something like that.

[BlueBlood]

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

No, and I doubt that Purdue Northwest would be interested, having just joined the GLIAC from NAIA. I'm not sure if the rules would allow them to change conferences before playing in their sponsoring conference, but it would be a pretty crappy way to act.

You would think right? Unfortunately, the G-MAC knows first hand that it can be done. UVa-Wise had the G-MAC sponsor them, then bolted for the MEC (never played a single game in the G-MAC). Crappy - yes, Allowable - apparently.

[kwcpantherfan]

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

No, and I doubt that Purdue Northwest would be interested, having just joined the GLIAC from NAIA. I'm not sure if the rules would allow them to change conferences before playing in their sponsoring conference, but it would be a pretty crappy way to act.

Ref: Virginia-Wise

[Wabbott9]

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

I almost mentioned them in one of my earlier posts. Do you think the GLVC might make a run at Purdue Northwest now?

No, and I doubt that Purdue Northwest would be interested, having just joined the GLIAC from NAIA. I'm not sure if the rules would allow them to change conferences before playing in their sponsoring conference, but it would be a pretty crappy way to act.

[BlueBlood]

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

I'm skeptical of the GLVC going after an Indiana school, mostly because they showed no interest in Purdue-Northwest, which is not just in Indiana, but would be fairly close to Lewis and Wisconsin-Parkside as well. It would have been an obvious get.

I almost mentioned them in one of my earlier posts. Do you think the GLVC might make a run at Purdue Northwest now?

[Wabbott9]

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

Well, yeah, about IWU over USI. I'm coming at it from the UIndy perspective, keeping what old rivals together I can. I'd like to see UIndy and USI together if possible. It probably isn't, though. I don't really care about IWU, they can do whatever they want.

I'm skeptical of the GLVC going after an Indiana school, mostly because they showed no interest in Purdue-Northwest, which is not just in Indiana, but would be fairly close to Lewis and Wisconsin-Parkside as well. It would have been an obvious get.

A more realistic scenario might be UIndy to GLIAC, Bellarmine to the GMAC, and USI to Division I (maybe Ohio Valley Conference). I don't know that they want to, but it might be the best of a bad set of options, and without a football team, and a good history in men's basketball, it's not as bad as it might be for others.

[JDonAB92]

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

A few things, not that it matter, but for the good of the order....

The Mountain East Conference development charge was led by former West Liberty President Robin Capehart. He is no longer the president after resigning when some ethical charges were filed against him for misuse of funds for his private movie-making company. Students and faculty even conducted a march on campus, covered by local media, to have him ousted as president. He barked a lot like he was going to fight it and then resigned right before he went before a state ethics commission.

Reid Amos, current commish of the MEC and a former Capehart right-hand man and former Shepherd AD B.J Pumroy were placed in charge of coming up with conference members. At first, they had Seton Hill. They got a PSAC offer and took it without reservation. Wheeling Jesuit was then added to form the current group. But before it became official, University of Charleston's president led a charge to keep the old WVIAC in tact. He was joined by WV State, WV Wesleyan, Bluefield State, Ohio Valley, AB and D&E. Unfortunately, there were only 4 football schools there and UC, State and Wesleyan had to join the MEC.

Pumroy was let go last spring as AD at Shepherd. He is now athletic director at St. Mary's Ryken, a Cathoic school in MD. Amos is still the commish. Some things he is excellent at. But he has not been able to expand the conference nor convinced Wheeling Jesuit to form football. The assistant AD at Concord told me last year at the MEC basketball tournament that at the presidents/ADs meeting, that occurs during the MEC tourney, that Wheeling stated firmly that they would not be starting football. MEC's best chance to expand was to add Malone, Walsh and Lake Erie. That shipped sailed.

I don't think West Lib and Shepherd have quite the influence that they once had!!!!

The MEC also had a stipulation in their by-laws that a school could only leave the conference after three academic years had passed after the leaving school gave notice that they planned to leave. That was changed last summer. Now they have a buyout in place in case a school wants to leave before the 3 years are up. I believe Notre Dame and Urbana want out and want to be in the G-MAC. Urbana is 3 hours or further from every MEC school. That is a lot! Shepherd and Concord are hauls to them. They are closer to Cedarville, Findlay, Ohio Dominican, Malone and Walsh than any school currently in the MEC. Notre Dame is next door to Walsh, Lake Erie and Malone.

The G-MAC has 8 playing football members. That is 7 conference games a year. You are going to have to have a few more football schools to make the conference legit. OOC contracts have a lot of wiggle room. AB found that out this year when they lost a D2 opponent in Lincoln, PA who got out of playing us this year. We in turn got College of Faith. Those games don't help you in any way towards playoff consideration. They hurt you. The football coaches in this league will want at least 9 conference games a year.

I would say that if the conference wants to keep Trevecca, then they are going to have to expand in the South. The only viable option I see on that is obtaining NAIA schools. KY NAIA schools make the most sense. Indiana Wesleyan and Marian are still a hike for Trevecca. IMO, if Trevecca decides to start football, it isn't for the G-MAC's benefit. It would be more to the benefit of their school to look more attractive to D2 conference's in the South. I can't blame them if the conference doesn't add two more schools within two to three hours of their campus. However, can the G-MAC sell KY/TN NAIA schools to apply for membership after how Cumberland was royally screwed over for D2 membership. If the GLIAC was largely responsible for denying Cumberland and Georgetown, then they got what they deserved.

This league has a heavily-weighted lean to Ohio schools. There are 7 Ohio schools in the G-MAC. I am not so sure that the Ohio schools would not add Notre Dame and Urbana. There would be six other schools outside of Ohio. According to Section 6 of the G-MAC constitution and Section 3 of the G-MAC bylaws , expansion comes from the President's Council. It would seem that if the Ohio schools wanted to add more Ohio schools that they could. They originally wanted an all-Ohio league. I also don't think Hillsdale would go against any Ohio expansion based on logistics.

Is Ohio Valley going to really stick this thing out? They have been at the bottom of the standings in most sports. Women's soccer for them is not too bad. Decent baseball. They have had success in volleyball, but have dropped recently. Do they find it more advantageous to go the route of Salem and Bluefield? They could also go the route of Oakland City since they are close to a lot of christian schools. I don't know. I know their non-athlete student population is dangerously low. Lack of revenue there means lack of availability to fund scholarships?

[BlueBlood]

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

Yes, ND was in the G-MAC at the beginning. Would they come back? Who knows. There are several folks here, that wouldn't like to see that, since they "screwed us" once. Me personally, I'd the G-MAC to focus more on filling geographic gaps rather than add another OH school.

I'm over the screw job (And in all honestly, they backed out before the G-MAC wheels were off the ground. Urbana and UVa-Wise were really more of the perps in my mind). If NDC was located in IN, KY or WV, I'd be all for inviting them back. Unfortunately for them/us, they aren't.

I agree - I don't want to OD on Ohio schools. There are already 7 (plus Hillsdale which is pretty much aligned with those 7). And, if we were to add one more OH school - I'd make it Tiffin. Tiffin would give Hillsdale and Findlay another school up in that corner of the conference. And in all honestly, of the new schools coming in - there are no schools that I'd rather give a nice "thanks for coming to the G-MAC" gift to more than Findlay and Hillsdale.

[BlueBlood]

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

Ideally, I'd like to see UIndy, Southern Indiana, and Bellarmine move as a block somewhere (GMAC is most logical, but I'd be happy with the GLIAC -- just don't think it's likely) and leave the GLVC as a league focused on Missouri and Illinois. USI is the problem, as a public school it's not really like the GMAC schools, and in Evansville it's pretty far from the GLIAC schools.

Make that UIndy, Bellarmine and IWU (or Marian, or Taylor), and you might be on to something.

It will be interesting to see what the GLVC does regarding a SJU replacement. If it is another MO school, that may set off other dominos. They should probably look hard at a school like IWU (or some other IN school) in order to keep UIndy and Bellarmine happy.

[schnautza]

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

I do not think Wabash would have any interest in moving up. It's an incredibly challenging school who is the poster child for D3 athletics.

Yeah, they tried to recruit me pretty hard back in the day (academics, not athletics), but I couldn't make financial sense out of going there. The one thing worth noting is that in their current conference, they both cover roughly the same footprint, so travel costs would be about the same for them. Wabash and DePauw are the far Western edge of the NCAC.

[Wabbott9]

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

The thing about UIndy is, the GLVC isn't the same league we helped to make. When I went there twenty years ago, it didn't go further west than St. Louis, and that was new. It was a league focused on Illinois, Indiana, and Kentucky.

Since that time, SIU-Edwardsville, Northern Kentucky, and IPFW all left for D1. Kentucky Wesleyan left for the GMAC. St. Joe's is closing. That leaves two schools in Indiana and one in Kentucky in a 15 team league, with additions all made in Illinois and Missouri. UIndy went from the center to the eastern edge.

Ideally, I'd like to see UIndy, Southern Indiana, and Bellarmine move as a block somewhere (GMAC is most logical, but I'd be happy with the GLIAC -- just don't think it's likely) and leave the GLVC as a league focused on Missouri and Illinois. USI is the problem, as a public school it's not really like the GMAC schools, and in Evansville it's pretty far from the GLIAC schools.

[kwcpantherfan]

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

I agree that we really only have another 4 slots to fill - 16 teams (17 in womens' sports) is quite big enough, IMO. I also agree (as one would expect) that we need to be very selective in filling those spots now that we have a stable 12 members and use any additions to fill in the geographical gaps, specifically for TNU and KWC. Otherwise, I think you'll see within 4 or 5 years TNU moving along to other options, and as much as I hate to say it KWC would probably need to at least consider options as well in order to reduce travel times (since that was one of the specifically mentioned reasons for leaving the GLVC to begin with). But, who knows what might happen...I'm just happy to have a "full" conference starting next year where we will have an adequate number of conference games and better overall competition level (specifically meaning in basketball).

Findlay and Hillsdale both have historically been solid programs (elite, in the case of Findlay) and Walsh has been pretty good the last couple of years as well. AB is not going to have "down" years like this one very often, and other current members will improve - and it's going to be better for recruiting and making those improvements if the conference is stronger.

[ABjo]

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

I saw on here the mention of Notre Dame College. They were once in this league correct? Would they consider moving back? And is it right that the league that most of the WV schools are in, the name escapes me, are not happy and the league is controlled by Shepard

Yes, ND was in the G-MAC at the beginning. Would they come back? Who knows. There are several folks here, that wouldn't like to see that, since they "screwed us" once. Me personally, I'd like the G-MAC to focus more on filling geographic gaps rather than add another OH school. The league they are now in, is called the MEC. Yes, it's been said that some of the schools are unhappy with how the league is going. Is it true? who knows. Does Shepherd control the league? Hmmm, my opinion would be that Shepherd and West Liberty have a "Big" voice in the conference.

[UFSwimDad]

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

I saw on here the mention of Notre Dame College. They were once in this league correct? Would they consider moving back? And is it right that the league that most of the WV schools are in, the name escapes me, are not happy and the league is controlled by Shepard