MIAA to expand to 20???

[libertybearcat]

Oh. NM. I see it in the article. The lsc has a bunch of schools I didn't know they had and or have never heard of.

I'd never heard of it before either! :)

[NWFanatic]

We’ve planned our fall/winter around NW basketball/football for around 40 years and almost never miss a home or away game. This year we’re skipping the LU @ NW game to take a road trip out west to see some of the wife’s family. Had NW filled that date with a decent opponent we never would’ve skipped that week.

[Predatory Primates]

Different strokes for different folks I guess. FWIW, GV had over 10k for Lincoln (CA) which some would argue isn't even a college team. And I can't see how a conference adding a couple of doormats results in having current members having most homegames against them. Pitt is a solid program and I suspect comes out on top both financially and athletically by playing a home game against anyone. Point being... it's better than an open date. It just seems that more and more schools are having issues with filling their schedules.. for whatever the reason. And there is always a chance for those new members to upgrade their teams.

Pitt administrators do tricky stuff to make attendance look good on paper.

My concern for the MIAA is that they aren't talking about adding a couple of teams. They ate talking about adding 7 to 9 teams. If they did that and most of the bad teams ended up in a division, it could hurt attendance.

I do agree with the last part. When Pitt joined the MIAA, the conference was godawful. Then NW got good enough to compete with Pitt and eventually surpassed them and everyoneelse in D2 for a while.. Slowly, everyone else either got better or left for the glvc.

[AlexTheHAMMER]

Nice work Alex.

A lot more possibilities than I would have thought.

What would make a NSIC or GLVC team leave for the MIAA if travel is more in the MIAA? Thinking Wayne State, Maryville University...

UMSL and Rolla left the conference, why would they come back if they're in a decent conference?

Ft Smith Ark, is intriguing, no idea how good their programs are, but wouldn't their travel be cut in the MIAA vs. LSC?

The Oklahoma schools make some sense too...wouldn't leaving the GAC mean more travel?

Level of competition would be one of the big reasons why a NSIC or GLVC school would want to move over to the MIAA. Looking specifically at Wayne State, their travel budget has multiple trips to Florida (Baseball, Softball, Beach Volleyball) and their programs have played MIAA schools regularly in non-con action. This factor would be more towards the NSIC, but the warmer weather in KS/OK/MO would result in less issues with weather related scheduling (WSC had multiple conference baseball/softball games change venue due to weather)

Rolla is doubtful for an option, but the opportunity is still there. UMSL probably wont be considered at all because of distance. Losing Lincoln was needed to help the MIAA, but in a sense shut the door on UMSL making a return if they wanted to.

With Arkansas Ft-Smith, you would have a close range of opponents between NE'Stern St, Rogers St, Pitt, MoSo, and (potentially) Drury. The closest opponent in the LSC is Oklahoma Christian in OKC. Running the times on google maps, all four(five) MIAA schools are within 3hr30min. FtSmith to OK Christian is 3 hrs, their next closest LSC opponent is Texas Womans University at 4hr25. If the MIAA grows enough to have divisions, the potential of seeing "northern division" schools would not be a large factor. Sure you might travel to 2-3 of the North schools, but you wouldnt go to all of them I would imagine.

With Cameron and Oklahoma Christian, this would eliminate some of the long travel into TX and NM. The GAC is also an option for these schools, but the competition level would drop tremendously.

[northwest missouri state]

Pitt administrators do tricky stuff to make attendance look good on paper.

My concern for the MIAA is that they aren't talking about adding a couple of teams. They ate talking about adding 7 to 9 teams. If they did that and most of the bad teams ended up in a division, it could hurt attendance.

I do agree with the last part. When Pitt joined the MIAA, the conference was godawful. Then NW got good enough to compete with Pitt and eventually surpassed them and everyoneelse in D2 for a while.. Slowly, everyone else either got better or left for the glvc.

our reported #'s prior to stadium exp being complete were dubious at best.

my guess is it's widespread.

i will wait to see what the league does before commenting but if the last decade-plus is a gauge it'll be awful.

[the Northeasterner]

I bet ua-fs and ok Christian would leave lsc anD go miaa as non football travel would be less for them

[D2Rover]

Can somebody explain where exactly the "more is better" attitude comes from? When I listened to the interview Racy did a while back, it seemed like he took it for granted that every conference across all 3 divisions wanted to expand - which is definitely not the case.

I kind of get the stability concern but it's not like the MIAA is sitting at 10 teams and a couple exits could collapse the league. In my head, playing the same teams every year creates rivalries which help attendance, which gets lost when the schedule gets spread out across a bunch of teams.

I also agree with those that don't see how we would add 7 teams without bringing down the overall quality of the league.

[Brandon]

Can somebody explain where exactly the "more is better" attitude comes from? When I listened to the interview Racy did a while back, it seemed like he took it for granted that every conference across all 3 divisions wanted to expand - which is definitely not the case.

I kind of get the stability concern but it's not like the MIAA is sitting at 10 teams and a couple exits could collapse the league. In my head, playing the same teams every year creates rivalries which help attendance, which gets lost when the schedule gets spread out across a bunch of teams.

I also agree with those that don't see how we would add 7 teams without bringing down the overall quality of the league.

I agree about size. I actually prefer 10 team conferences.

I disagree about scheduling. I think playing the same teams every year creates boredom.

The quality of the new schools depends on whether the conference improves or is watered down. Adding GVSU and Ferris State would obviously increase the caliber.

[Inkblot]

Arkansas–Fort Smith is in.

https://themiaa.com/news/2023/6/26/b...n-2024-25.aspx

[wubod]

Arkansas–Fort Smith is in.

https://themiaa.com/news/2023/6/26/b...n-2024-25.aspx

Think any other Arkansas schools will follow?

[Predatory Primates]

Arkansas–Fort Smith is in.

https://themiaa.com/news/2023/6/26/b...n-2024-25.aspx

But they don't have football.

[Predatory Primates]

I agree about size. I actually prefer 10 team conferences.

I disagree about scheduling. I think playing the same teams every year creates boredom.

The quality of the new schools depends on whether the conference improves or is watered down. Adding GVSU and Ferris State would obviously increase the caliber.

I like bigger for stability.

I get the 10 team idea. You get a true champ and 2 noncons, but the last couple of decades have proven that the stability just isn't there.


As long as it is big enough or small enough to get away from the silo, I'm good.

[AlexTheHAMMER]

My thoughts on where the league goes from here in expansion.

https://alexhammeke.wordpress.com/20...ext-and-where/

[laker]

I agree about size. I actually prefer 10 team conferences.

I disagree about scheduling. I think playing the same teams every year creates boredom.

YES! I am actually excited that MN State is hosting Western Oregon this year. I love to see new matchups. Not having any OOC games is boring.

[D2Rover]

I like bigger for stability.

I get the 10 team idea. You get a true champ and 2 noncons, but the last couple of decades have proven that the stability just isn't there.


As long as it is big enough or small enough to get away from the silo, I'm good.

I agree the Silo sucks for football, but I think adding a bunch of non-football schools in sports that can play home-and-away and still have non-conference games is a bit silly. I don't see how it helps basketball ticket sales to miss home games against a traditional rival or big MIAA program (NW) so we can bring in Cameron or Oklahoma Christian.

The culture around transferring has changed it a little, but there's something to be said for recognizing your opponents by their Junior and Senior year because you've actually seen them at your place every year.

Of course for football, I'd rather miss a conference opponent than never play a non-con.