G-MAC All-Sports and Conference Business Thread

[UFSwimDad]

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

Messing around on a late Monday afternoon I ran across this article for and year ago

http://footballscoop.com/news/a-conf...ga-conference/

This would seem to knock out almost all the NAIA schools that could possibly want to jump to the GMAC. Of course if a school is determined to do D2 then I doubt this will stop them. Add this to the lack of info on if any of the NAIA schools are even trying to jump up, one could conclude that expansion south may be dead. Obviously I am speculating here as there could very well be discussions going on that have been kept in house.

With the closing of St Joe, I am very curious about Bellermine and UINDY. Another poster mentioned that both schools are now the eastern most schools and a move to GMAC would make sense with a group of five schools fairly close together (UINDY, BU, KWC, TVN, and the stretch school, OD) would those two schools satisfy TVN?

As much as I hate to say it, TVN may be left behind. All these OH schools prob spell doom for them at some point if the league cannot turn a couple of the NAIA schools.

I cannot see Tiffin not joining next season. All indications are there. Will Ashland want to be the only Ohio school in the GLIAC? Who knows. Could the league get one or two WV schools to join especially since it has been stated that private schools in the state need to make headways in the state of Ohio? The additions of UINDY, BU, Tiffin, Ashland, and a WV school would fit fairly nicely but that is probably just my dream thinking taking over.

I guess the point is that I really have no clue 😁

[BlueBlood]

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

Witnessed my first ever indoor track meet at UF yesterday. The UF woman's throwers are real good! Very interesting event!

The throws, and other specialized events (high jump, pole vault) will probably change dramatically next year.

CU and Malone seem to have a similar formula that concentrates on middle distances and higher - with the same athletes running XC, and Indoor and Outdoor Track. Obviously, you get a big bang for your buck (literally) by doing that. Trevecca actually does the same thing, just with lesser results. Ursuline (obviously on the women's side only) seems to concentrate on the jumps and sprints (same athletes doing both). They seem to have formula that concentrates on what the others do not - and it has worked. On the women's side, KWC has the best throwers (again, concentrating on what other do not) - they went largely uncontested this year. On the men's side, you see a decent number of AB and KWC football players - again, the school benefitting from the athlete doing a second sport (or third if you count Indoor and Outdoor as two).

All that to say, none of the current schools is a classic across-the-board track and field team. Even with CU and UC women being nationally ranked, they still have noticeable holes - which, as mentioned above, happen to be opposites of each other. Most schools have found a way to use versatile athletes and don't have a strong (scholarship?) athlete that focuses solely on one specialized event (the pole vault, or the throws, or the high jump). That will change next year.

[UFSwimDad]

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

Lady Jackets and Malone men win indoor track championships.

Both contests were EXTREMELY tight at the top:
Women's - Cedarville, Ursuline and Malone
Men's- Malone and Cedarville

Malone's addition really changed the dynamics of this meet quite a bit, as did a couple schools taking their first shot at the indoor season. Be ready for more changes next year, as Hillsdale and Findlay are traditionally stronger teams than Malone (for both Men's and Women's).

Witnessed my first ever indoor track meet at UF yesterday. The UF woman's throwers are real good! Very interesting event!

[BlueBlood]

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

Lady Jackets and Malone men win indoor track championships.

Both contests were EXTREMELY tight at the top:
Women's - Cedarville, Ursuline and Malone
Men's- Malone and Cedarville

Malone's addition really changed the dynamics of this meet quite a bit, as did a couple schools taking their first shot at the indoor season. Be ready for more changes next year, as Hillsdale and Findlay are traditionally stronger teams than Malone (for both Men's and Women's).

[BlueBlood]

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

Looks like the G-MAC is going to be a nice little lacrosse conference. And yes, I realize that there are only 66 D2 men's lacrosse schools and that this artificially inflates the rankings. Still, the below rankings are good to see.

[UFSwimDad]

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

I agree that 10 years ago that yes it was more likely. But in today's climate, I would doubt many schools would seriously consider it especially with many lower level D1 schools like Evansville and maybe to a lesser extent schools like Ball State, struggling to fund all of their athletic programs.

[kwcpantherfan]

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

I have spent a good amount of time (actually far to much time!!!) reading various posts about conference expansion, not only on this thread but also on various threads in the basketball and football boards. Something that has struck me as odd is reading posts about school A making the jump from D3 to D2 or schools B going from D2 to D1. Admittedly, I have not spent anytime researching to see if these schools would jump or have expressed interest in making the jump so there may be facts out there that support the claims. I just find it had to believe that a small, liberal arts D3 school would seriously consider moving up to D2. The blueprint for D3 athletics is so much different than that of D2. Plus I would imagine the cost would be much much more at D2, although that is pure speculation on my part. My daughter was recruited by a lot of D2 and D3 schools and in our experience there was a very noticeable difference. All the D3 schools focused on the student experience, some of the D2 schools did but not nearly to the extent of D3. Not saying D2 does not care as much about academics, they certainly do. But success on the field, court, or pool is also very important, made noticeable buy the difference in how long they can practice before and during the season. Maybe someone could shed some light on this for me or has first hand knowledge of a D3 looking to move up.

Also, would a D2 school such as Bellermine really want to juml to D1? I know GVSU has looked at doing so in he past but it always came back to how much more money it would cost to do so. Again, maybe someone has more info on this?

Schools jump from D2 to D1 pretty regularly, though not as often today as they did say 10 years ago. And the D2/D3 differences you mention are (in my opinion) the reason you see very few D3 schools moving up to D2. Usually new D2 members are coming from the NAIA rather than D3, as the NAIA model is actually more similar to NCAA D2 than NCAA D3 is to D2.

[UFSwimDad]

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

I have spent a good amount of time (actually far to much time!!!) reading various posts about conference expansion, not only on this thread but also on various threads in the basketball and football boards. Something that has struck me as odd is reading posts about school A making the jump from D3 to D2 or schools B going from D2 to D1. Admittedly, I have not spent anytime researching to see if these schools would jump or have expressed interest in making the jump so there may be facts out there that support the claims. I just find it had to believe that a small, liberal arts D3 school would seriously consider moving up to D2. The blueprint for D3 athletics is so much different than that of D2. Plus I would imagine the cost would be much much more at D2, although that is pure speculation on my part. My daughter was recruited by a lot of D2 and D3 schools and in our experience there was a very noticeable difference. All the D3 schools focused on the student experience, some of the D2 schools did but not nearly to the extent of D3. Not saying D2 does not care as much about academics, they certainly do. But success on the field, court, or pool is also very important, made noticeable buy the difference in how long they can practice before and during the season. Maybe someone could shed some light on this for me or has first hand knowledge of a D3 looking to move up.

Also, would a D2 school such as Bellermine really want to juml to D1? I know GVSU has looked at doing so in he past but it always came back to how much more money it would cost to do so. Again, maybe someone has more info on this?

[BlueBlood]

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

.....AB needs to have footprints beyond the state of WV. The economy of WV and the dwindling population will not get AB a lot of WV students as it used to in the 60s, 70s and 80s. Admin at AB failed to see this in the late 90s and early 2000s. It led to major problems. We are still recovering but much better off from what I hear. I think the G-MAC would do the school better....just need one more school nearby that has football....either Charleston or Wesleyan....

Stole this photo from Twitter. Cedarville sighting in Nashville last night. Sports teams can be your school's biggest ambassador.



I would think any private school would benefit from a conference that gets it some out of state exposure.

[alumnifan]

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

Cedarville set the KWC women's team back tonight. Both of Cedarville's basketball teams will be very good next season.

[Taco Tico]

Goat meat for all!🐐 #dubstyle

[BlueBlood]

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

Excellent trade, btw

[BlueBlood]

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

Also, what is the deal with Salem International? Are they in? I am confused

No. They were, but left prior to Malone's entrance.

[UFSwimDad]

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

Also, what is the deal with Salem International? Are they in? I am confused

[UFSwimDad]

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

After taking a few days to really digest the map, my observations are...

In order to satisfy both TVN and KWC, the GMAC will have to really pursue schools such as College of the Cumberlnds, Cumberland University and Lindsey Wilson. Perhaps maybe Asbury and Georgetown. I have no evidence that these are the schools on the radar as it has been stated that LW may not be interested and there have been no indication that either Cumberland U or Asbury are willing to start the D2 process again. I could throw Bellermine in here but with out football, i think it's a long shot unless both UINDY and Bellermine decide that the GLVC is expanding away from them. Maybe they have had talks, maybe not but both seem long shots to me.

Adding a WV school doesn't seem to help them at all. It would be great for AB and D&E if Wesleyan came aboard but it doesn't really do much for TVN and KWC. If the league genuinely wants to keep them both in he league then only one WV school could ever be considered and they would have to be paired with he aforementioned Kentucky schools.

I feel like Tiffin is in already. To much is out there to not think that. So basically we are talking about just three schools that prob should be within a three radius or so for KWU and TVN.

Admittedly I would love Tiffin and three other schools that sponsor both men's and women's swimming but obviously that really isn't imperative to league expansion.

Sorry, just some ramblings form a guy with not much to do before 5 PM 😁