Northwood Exit and Expansion Discussion

[SVSUAlum]

After giving up 70 points two weeks in a row you wonder if maybe D3 might be a better landing for Northwood. GVSU could have hung 100 on them last night honestly if they had wanted to. A once proud program is a complete train wreck. Long live the WoodBone...be sure and turn the lights out when you leave guys.

I totally agree that Northwood has become one of the worse DII programs in the country. Similar to Wayne State it just doesn't seem like a priority for the administrators at Northwood to fire the coach and make a change. They are happy with what they have and should of just went DIII and maybe win a few games. They are joining the GMAC and that conference has a few teams they can actually beat and Thomas More is joining it next year too so that's 1 win. The Wood plays SVSU next week. Look for a closer game, SVSU 55 Northwood 10

[bigmrg74]

That and maybe there's some folks around the league who are kinda upset with Northwood leaving the GLIAC and want to make it look like they're running??

[4nick8]

That and maybe there's some folks around the league who are kinda upset with Northwood leaving the GLIAC and want to make it look like they're running??

Don't have to make it look like they're running. Everyone knows that's exactly what they're doing, along with the rest of the cowards who preceded them. It's about time for another realignment and I hope the GMAC and GLIAC end up in the same region. Then the GMAC won't get past the first round in the playoffs.

[SoCal Laker]

So, here is a crazy thought. What is GVSU and Ferris said screw it and just reached out to the other traditional powers east of the Mississippi to form a super D2 conference? You profit share in terms of expenses and go from there. Maybe something like:

• Valdosta
• Pitt St
• UWG
• GVSU
• FSU
• NWMSU
• UMD
• Minn St

------- I would then give options for the following:

• Wayne St
• SVSU
• UWF
• UCM

While this is totally a fantasy, I would watch this week in and week out (even living in London now). Those matchups could demand some notice on a D2 tonight kind of show and gives a way station until D1 figures themselves out.

[KleShreen]

So, here is a crazy thought. What is GVSU and Ferris said screw it and just reached out to the other traditional powers east of the Mississippi to form a super D2 conference? You profit share in terms of expenses and go from there. Maybe something like:

• Valdosta
• Pitt St
• UWG
• GVSU
• FSU
• NWMSU
• UMD
• Minn St

------- I would then give options for the following:

• Wayne St
• SVSU
• UWF
• UCM

While this is totally a fantasy, I would watch this week in and week out (even living in London now). Those matchups could demand some notice on a D2 tonight kind of show and gives a way station until D1 figures themselves out.

Pitt, NWMS, and UCM are all west of the Mississippi lol

[GV Retired Bum]

That and maybe there's some folks around the league who are kinda upset with Northwood leaving the GLIAC and want to make it look like they're running??

They are running. They are a bunch of cowards who cant stand getting their **** shoved in every week. The ohio teams had valid excuses, they couldnt afford to travel all the way to the UP. Northwood can afford it and they are much closer. I hope they lose the rest of the season without scoring a point.

Did I mention that they suck as well? I want to make that very clear. Only positive thing they have given us in the past couple years is Jake. Hes top notch

[SoCal Laker]

Pitt, NWMS, and UCM are all west of the Mississippi lol

In the back of my mind I wasn't sure, but I didn't have a time to pul out a map. They will go to the Wild West division of my fantasy conference vs. Beasts of the East.

[Inkblot]

https://mobile.twitter.com/MattBrown...74287053754368

A new GVSU football commit says in an interview that the school will be leaving DII to play football in the OVC. A GVSU spokesperson tells me this is not accurate. Extra Points will continue to monitor the story.

[UFOILERFAN]

https://mobile.twitter.com/MattBrown...74287053754368

The thing that makes it believable is that a GVSU spokesperson said it wasn't accurate.

[KleShreen]

The thing that makes it believable is that a GVSU spokesperson said it wasn't accurate.

I was writing up a whole thing about how it doesn't make sense because to start playing in D1 by fall of 2023 would be a very condensed timeline, but Commerce just announced they were going to start competing in D1 in only nine months. So.

Is the OVC in any better of a position than the GLIAC is? They only have 6 football-playing schools next year because I think Austin Peay is leaving. It's gonna be the same problem with football scheduling as they would have in D-II.

[boyblue]

It's surprising that no one from the GSC has stopped by to share our experience. We went through all of this 10 years ago when half of the GSC (Arkansas Schools) left to form the GAC with their neighbors from Oklahoma. We felt...

• We felt they left because they couldn't compete - This was untrue, it just made fiscal sense
• We felt the GSC could not survive because there were only 5 football members - We survived & have won 3 NC's since then
• We thought we wouldn't be able to find enough games to make the playoffs - Exit year three of our five schools made the PO
• There were no schools in our vicinity with which to build the conference - An NAIA and a D3 school transitioned to D2 and two Florida schools started football programs
• Schools will be afraid to join - FIT started, joined and had some success, UWF started, joined and won a NC
• The schools that left would not be successful - Harding & Henderson St have become national powers and one or two others have also upped their game
• Other conferences would not work with the GSC - The LSC, SAC, and SIAC have all done scheduling arrangements
• D1 talks were rampant - Over the 10years North Alabama is the only school that transitioned to D1
• Schools are afraid to play national powerhouses - 2012 SV gave VSU a one off game at their place, SV won the game but VSU won the NC that year largely because they had to make a similar trek during the PO to face Mankato
• Games are hard to find for good teams - HBCU's are not afraid to play anyone and btw they've won some against the GSC so don't take them lightly, their better teams have pretty good SoS

A five or six team conference is not ideal, but it's no reason to go D1, that decision should not be based on conference or scheduling issues, those can be worked out for a lot less than it cost to move up.

The D2 landscape is not static, some changes can be anticipated but there are others that cannot, so it's just best to deal with these matters as they arise. The GSC was able to add 4 teams in five years, and at the time of the Arkansas Exodus, none of the teams added played D2 football - two didn't plat any football. One of those is the reigning NC

[boyblue]

Help me to understand though, how is one team responsible for so many schools missing playoff opportunities? Unless you're mandated to play them twice, GV accounts for only one loss. So you lose to GV every year and beat everyone else and you're a playoff team.

If it were me, I'd want to play tough games, If GV and Ferris were a couple hundred miles closer I say come join the GSC. We complain about the gauntlet that is the GSC but, UWF would not have won that NC in four years of playing football had they not been seasoned by tough games week in week out. VSU's playoff success is directly related to that same process.

Do you guys remember that 2018 NC game? Ferris was a monster, you could never beat a team like that playing a soft schedule. So the choice as I see it is, stay in the GLIAC and get better or go elsewhere and get to the PO. Then come see GV, FSU, NWMS, VSU, UWF, etc..

[Mk63NuclearBomb]

Do you guys remember that 2018 NC game? Ferris was a monster, you could never beat a team like that playing a soft schedule. So the choice as I see it is, stay in the GLIAC and get better or go elsewhere and get to the PO. Then come see GV, FSU, NWMS, VSU, UWF, etc..

That's the magic: The Ohio schools moved regions so now they have to win playoff games before we can make them look bad, and even if they lose by 40 they get street cred for making the semifinals.

[Inkblot]

Matt Brown said this on CSNBBS:

I've been told that four DII schools that have been tied to the OVC are: Grand Valley (FB only), Southern Indiana, Lincoln Memorial and Minnesota State.

Nobody is pulling the trigger right now. They are exploring the possibility...even if they have the relevant stakeholders on campus ready to move up, I believe all four would need some other external things to happen before they can move up.

[UFOILERFAN]

IF that would happen, where would the Lakers other sports go?