G-MAC / GLIAC Updates

[chargerblue]

Re: G-MAC / GLIAC Updates

Hummm... football school's breaking away from non-football schools. THAT has a familiar ring to it!!!!

That's why the original MIFC was the freaking best! Football schools making league decisions based on football reasons. Jack McAvoy was a great visionary. We need leaders like that.

[boatcapt]

Re: G-MAC / GLIAC Updates

You mean Washingtons, don't you? :wink:

Hahaha!! Nope...five wrong predictions from a source on conf moves equal one Benjamin! Guess I could have said many, many, many, many, many WASHINGTONS!!

[Nick - Shep '05]

Re: G-MAC / GLIAC Updates

If I had a dollar for every post on this board were someone heard from a reliable source that one or the other or both joining the GMAC is a "done deal," my savings account would have a considerable amount of extra benjamins in it.

You mean Washingtons, don't you? :wink:

[boatcapt]

Re: G-MAC / GLIAC Updates

I agree. I don't think that Malone dropping football changes their allegiances. Ursuline has to know that they are lucky to be in this conference. They are in this conference only because they did the work to help start it. If they want to maintain their seat at the table, they can't be obstructionists. Cedarville has been playing these schools in sports for 80 years or more, doesn't want to play football, and will likely vote however they have to to maintain the balance. OVU should have the same exact outlook as Ursuline. They need to vote with the big boys (or at least abstain) even if its not truly what they desire. They are lucky that they got into the conference early. If this doesn't work out for them, they are screwed. They have to be telling themselves before every meeting "just don't screw this up".

Oh...TNU. At this point I don't know if it matters how they vote. The OH and football schools have numbers. Plus, they have to question why they are even in this conference every day of their life.

Maybe they have learned their lesson but I note OVU and AB voted against the best interest of the WVIAC and that lead to the conference imploding and both schools scrambling to find a new home. Guess you could say they "have a history!!"

Does the GMAC require a 2/3 vote to add new members or is it 50% +1? The WVIAC required a 2/3 majority and that is what gave the non-football playing schools so much power.

[Stea1th]

Re: G-MAC / GLIAC Updates

I'm not sure about OVU or TNU (neither one shares much history with the OH schools). However, I'm almost positive that Cedarville, Malone and Ursuline will vote with the football schools on all matters that impact conference viability/sustainability. The G-MAC is what they have long desired and I don't see them being short-sighted about it. Without the football schools, the non-football schools would find themselves trying to put together a conference with Bluefield State, Salem, Oakland City, etc. (and they know that)

I agree. I don't think that Malone dropping football changes their allegiances. Ursuline has to know that they are lucky to be in this conference. They are in this conference only because they did the work to help start it. If they want to maintain their seat at the table, they can't be obstructionists. Cedarville has been playing these schools in sports for 80 years or more, doesn't want to play football, and will likely vote however they have to to maintain the balance. OVU should have the same exact outlook as Ursuline. They need to vote with the big boys (or at least abstain) even if its not truly what they desire. They are lucky that they got into the conference early. If this doesn't work out for them, they are screwed. They have to be telling themselves before every meeting "just don't screw this up".

Oh...TNU. At this point I don't know if it matters how they vote. The OH and football schools have numbers. Plus, they have to question why they are even in this conference every day of their life.

[UFOILERFAN]

Re: G-MAC / GLIAC Updates

If true, this attitude from schools is ridiculous and shows any lack of urgency of the current situation.

I would venture to say that if this continues that the football schools will break away from the non-football playing members. Ohio Valley doesn't feel the lack of football schools in this conference like Alderson Broaddus does. Trevecca Nazarene does not feel the same as say Ohio Dominican does. Ursuline probably could care less about the football situation as say Findlay does.

My own opinion is that Ashland has been given enough time to make a decision. I am a little tired of this "we aren't ready now, but will look at it again a few years from now". One way or the other, it is time to move on. I am not interested in giving one school carte blanche in this situation. If they enter as a member, that attitude is likely to continue and I, for one, am not in favor of it.

5-10 years ago, the second oldest Ohio High School league dropped to 7 members which left everyone scrambling to fill an open date at an odd time of the season. Their commissioner said that they were going to take a "wait and see" approach and consider their options. A few years ago a couple of the schools got a better offer and the league ended up disbanding and everyone had to find some other league to join. Hope the GMAC is not taking the "wait and see" approach.

[boatcapt]

Re: G-MAC / GLIAC Updates

I'm not sure what you are calling BS on. Are you denying that the WV MEC schools started a new conference by plucking only the schools they wanted from the WVIAC? and left the ones it didn't? and invited the G-MAC schools that it wanted to round-out the new MEC?

I'm not sure that there is much to deny there.

Yes, they picked the schools (more like took every WVIAC school that played football...except Seton Hill that declined and went to the PSAC). But my point was that the schools that formed the core of the MEC were not exactly the cream of the DII crop. Remember, we were talking about the success of the MEC in its first 6 years as compared to the GMAC. NOTHING in the past performance of most of the MEC schools when they were in the WVIAC and the NAIA would have given anyone even the remotest indication of the success the conference as a whole has had.

[boatcapt]

Re: G-MAC / GLIAC Updates

I'm not sure about OVU or TNU (neither one shares much history with the OH schools). However, I'm almost positive that Cedarville, Malone and Ursuline will vote with the football schools on all matters that impact conference viability/sustainability. The G-MAC is what they have long desired and I don't see them being short-sighted about it. Without the football schools, the non-football schools would find themselves trying to put together a conference with Bluefield State, Salem, Oakland City, etc. (and they know that)

One of the things that finally drove the WVIAC apart was just this split between the football schools and those that didn't play. Football schools wanted a more expansive conference that competed on a national level and contributed roughly equal amounts to their athletic budgets (level playing field) while the non football schools wanted to basically treat athletics as an intermural thing were schools competed locally with little regard for success on a national scale...or even really, on a conference scale. And these bottom feeders were the first at the league office with their hands out for conference money! AB and the Wise thing may have been the straw that broke the camels back, but the WVIAC camels back probably would have broken even without AB's "nudge!"

[BlueBlood]

Re: G-MAC / GLIAC Updates

I'm going to fly the BS flag there!!!

I'm not sure what you are calling BS on. Are you denying that the WV MEC schools started a new conference by plucking only the schools they wanted from the WVIAC? and left the ones it didn't? and invited the G-MAC schools that it wanted to round-out the new MEC?

I'm not sure that there is much to deny there.

[BlueBlood]

Re: G-MAC / GLIAC Updates

If true, this attitude from schools is ridiculous and shows any lack of urgency of the current situation.

I would venture to say that if this continues that the football schools will break away from the non-football playing members. Ohio Valley doesn't feel the lack of football schools in this conference like Alderson Broaddus does. Trevecca Nazarene does not feel the same as say Ohio Dominican does. Ursuline probably could care less about the football situation as say Findlay does.

I'm not sure about OVU or TNU (neither one shares much history with the OH schools). However, I'm almost positive that Cedarville, Malone and Ursuline will vote with the football schools on all matters that impact conference viability/sustainability. The G-MAC is what they have long desired and I don't see them being short-sighted about it. Without the football schools, the non-football schools would find themselves trying to put together a conference with Bluefield State, Salem, Oakland City, etc. (and they know that)

[boatcapt]

Re: G-MAC / GLIAC Updates

You do realize that the deck was totally stacked in the MEC's favor, right? The MEC started with the schools they wanted from the WVIAC and the G-MAC. After the MEC hand-picked its schools, the G-MAC consisted of schools that the MEC, the GLVC, the GLIAC and the GSC did not want (with KWC being the only possible exception to that description).

This is kind of like having a dodgeball game where one team gets the first 12 picks and then bragging about beating the other team.

Given its very humble beginnings, I think the G-MAC has pretty remarkably climbed a tremendous hill. Heck, it had to climb out of a grave once or twice. I'm pretty sure it's not done climbing yet.

Overall success the first 6 years - I'll give you that. Success last year, this year, next year and beyond? Keep checking in.

I'm going to fly the BS flag there!!! Very little in the history of the WVIAC could have given much indication of the athletic success of the MEC in its first 6 years. In the 50 year history of the WVIAC, they had had ONE team make it to the DII NC game. The teams that came over from the GMAC's initial cadre were hardly world beaters at that point in time...If memory serves I think NDC and Urbana was relatively new to football and Wise had just started the transition from NAIA to DII. As a conference the new MEC didn't "hand pick" top tier performers!!!

Probably a better way for the schools that were the charter members of the GMAC and the MEC to have approached this would have been to join together with a conference "plan" to ultimately break into two divisions (west and east...Ohio people could have called the west the Ohio Division if it suited them!) with the west including current and future teams in Ohio (and west) and the east including all teams in WV (and east). Might have taken a few years to get there and perhaps an east team (or perhaps 2) would have had to be aligned with the west to balance things out. But as a conference, this amalgam of the MEC and GMAC would have been a much stronger and stable conference.

Would have been a heck of a basketball conference too!!!

Won't happen, but I wonder if the two comish's couldn't get together and come up with some kind of conference "partnership" that would effectively merge the two entities? Probably not...ego's are too big I guess!

[Stea1th]

Re: G-MAC / GLIAC Updates

Agreed that starting position and trajectory are too totally different things.

[BlueBlood]

Re: G-MAC / GLIAC Updates

Funny...still haven't gotten anyone to compare first six year on-field success between the MEC and the GMAC. I have laid out the success the MEC has had during that period...anyone want to lay out the success the GMAC has had?

You do realize that the deck was totally stacked in the MEC's favor, right? The MEC started with the schools they wanted from the WVIAC and the G-MAC. After the MEC hand-picked its schools, the G-MAC consisted of schools that the MEC, the GLVC, the GLIAC and the GSC did not want (with KWC being the only possible exception to that description).

This is kind of like having a dodgeball game where one team gets the first 12 picks and then bragging about beating the other team.

Given its very humble beginnings, I think the G-MAC has pretty remarkably climbed a tremendous hill. Heck, it had to climb out of a grave once or twice. I'm pretty sure it's not done climbing yet.

Overall success the first 6 years - I'll give you that. Success last year, this year, next year and beyond? Keep checking in.

[boatcapt]

Re: G-MAC / GLIAC Updates

Thanks for the pep talk Captain.

Sorry man. Responding to someone who took a shot at the MEC stability.

Funny...still haven't gotten anyone to compare first six year on-field success between the MEC and the GMAC. I have laid out the success the MEC has had during that period...anyone want to lay out the success the GMAC has had?

[BlueBlood]

Re: G-MAC / GLIAC Updates

Thanks for the pep talk Captain.