Upper Iowa to GLVC Rumors

[WBChargerDad]

Cant do anything about the location, however, Upper Iowa had a press release last week I think it was that they are reducing tuition and fees from $33,639 to $19,000. So that is a step in the right direction to lure new prospective students. If the move to the GLVC happens, I am curious how that affects recruiting. We will be leaving one of the best conferences in the country and will now be playing football games in Missouri, Illinois and Indiana with now the option to schedule non-conference games. Surely the aspect of traveling would be appealing in my eyes. But I guess time will tell. The instability of the conference is the only thing that really concerns me. Schools coming and going seem to be a trend.

If you look at total cost of attendance for athletes, I don't know that the reduced tuition is an advantage.. Academic scholarships went down as well obviously, so I think total cost of attendance without athletic scholarship remains similar to what it was before if you had one of the top 2 levels of scholarship, but the partial athletic scholarship will now be less money because the overall cost of attendance is lower (so for example a 25% athletic scholarship is now less money) meaning actual cost of attendance will likely go up for athletes. For athletes, if they are getting any academic money, Upper Iowa's cost of attendance was already very competitive with other schools.

[MrMustang]

There are many reason to be in a League not just football. Other than football, the NSIC is great for Upper Iowa.

They have been competitive in the nation's best volleyball conference.

They do fine in golf.

Good Men's hoops program and Iowa is full of good players.

Great wrestling program and Iowa is full of great wrestlers.

Were bad at women's hoops.. have gotten better.

Were really good in baseball forever and are competitive.

[cat fan]

So the schools themselves are much smaller? Because in terms of market sizes, going to Indianapolis, St Louis, Kansas City, etc. are larger markets overall than St Paul, Sioux Falls and Fargo/Moorhead are.

Yeah, smaller and mostly private. Enrollment numbers are 3rd column from the right. UM-St Louis is the only large school and I'd suspect it is mostly a commuter/adult learner campus. Pasted from Wikipedia..

I'd like UIU to stay, but I understand if they feel they fit better in the GLVC.


The GLVC currently has 13 full members, including nine private and four public institutions:

Drury University	Springfield, Missouri	1873	UCC & DOC	1,409	Panthers	2005
University of Illinois Springfield	Springfield, Illinois	1969	Public	2,654	Prairie Stars	2008[a]
University of Indianapolis	Indianapolis, Indiana	1902	United Methodist	4,168	Greyhounds	1978
Lewis University	Romeoville, Illinois	1932	Catholic	4,306	Flyers	1980
Maryville University	Town and Country, Missouri	1872	Catholic	5,504	Saints	2008[b]
McKendree University	Lebanon, Illinois	1828	United Methodist	1,702	Bearcats	2010[c]
Missouri University of Science and Technology	Rolla, Missouri	1870	Public	6,086	Miners	2005
University of Missouri–St. Louis	St. Louis, Missouri	1963	Public	10,977	Tritons	1995[d]
Quincy University	Quincy, Illinois	1860	Catholic	1,092	Hawks	1994[e]
Rockhurst University	Kansas City, Missouri	1910	Catholic	2,746	Hawks	2005
Southwest Baptist University	Bolivar, Missouri	1878	Baptist	2,379	Bearcats	2019[f]
Truman State University	Kirksville, Missouri	1867	Public	4,389	Bulldogs	2012[g]
William Jewell College	Liberty, Missouri	1849	Nonsectarian	738	Cardinals	2009[h]

[Stanger86]

If the move to the GLVC happens, I am curious how that affects recruiting. We will be leaving one of the best conferences in the country and will now be playing football games in Missouri, Illinois and Indiana with now the option to schedule non-conference games.

Football roster by state:
Iowa - 39
Illinois - 21
Wisconsin - 16
Minnesota - 8

[Stanger86]

I think it's just a matter of most of those schools are more of the same profile as UIU. Will help competition wise - we have a very good v-ball team, but will always be middle of pack in NSIC, football had some good years under Shea, but 6-5 was about as good as we were going to get even with some very good teams. Wrestling and men's basketball have competed very well and finished high in NSIC and would do same. The other sports would benefit as well from the move. Winning helps with recruiting, retainment, and overall mood on campus. A lot of those schools are private as well and same in terms of facilities and size.

So the schools themselves are much smaller? Because in terms of market sizes, going to Indianapolis, St Louis, Kansas City, etc. are larger markets overall than St Paul, Sioux Falls and Fargo/Moorhead are.

[Peacockfan]

UIU is in the middle of nowhere and is expensive. It can’t be easy to compete

Cant do anything about the location, however, Upper Iowa had a press release last week I think it was that they are reducing tuition and fees from $33,639 to $19,000. So that is a step in the right direction to lure new prospective students. If the move to the GLVC happens, I am curious how that affects recruiting. We will be leaving one of the best conferences in the country and will now be playing football games in Missouri, Illinois and Indiana with now the option to schedule non-conference games. Surely the aspect of traveling would be appealing in my eyes. But I guess time will tell. The instability of the conference is the only thing that really concerns me. Schools coming and going seem to be a trend.

[Peacock]

UIU is in the middle of nowhere and is expensive. It can’t be easy to compete

Correct, UIU has always been a special place for those that go there, but also a very tough place to recruit to. Fayette is Fayette and that isn't going to change. I've always been amazed on some of the teams and athletes we've brought here and done well. Men's hoops the last few years have been as good as anyone and built with Iowa kids for most part within a 1-2 hour distance of Fayette. Under Shea we have multiple 6-5 years in football and held our own. Wrestling has always been a contender at the national level. Volleyball has really done well under the current coach over the last 10+ years. It takes a special person to coach at UIU and players that want to be in Fayette. We are still here and have been for 150+ years. I'm a big fan of the NSIC, the best D2 conference in the nation. I have mixed emotions if we move as they gave us a home when we were looking. At the end of the day the profile of schools in the new conf would be a closer match in terms of student population, facilities, etc....and allow us to compete across many more sports.

[Peacock]

So this move doesn't seem to be necessarily about the travel. There are 3 NSIC teams closer than any GLVC. Travel within the South is much better than the GLVC in total. Yes, UIU gets to avoid the long trips to Mary and Minot but those are not every year. Is this because there are more sports offered in the GLVC? Correct me if I'm incorrect, but on the whole I think the NSIC has a higher level of competition than the GLVC. I'd be interested to hear the reasons for a possible move.

I think it's just a matter of most of those schools are more of the same profile as UIU. Will help competition wise - we have a very good v-ball team, but will always be middle of pack in NSIC, football had some good years under Shea, but 6-5 was about as good as we were going to get even with some very good teams. Wrestling and men's basketball have competed very well and finished high in NSIC and would do same. The other sports would benefit as well from the move. Winning helps with recruiting, retainment, and overall mood on campus. A lot of those schools are private as well and same in terms of facilities and size.

[Peacock]

Does anyone know why UIU moved up to D2 in the first place? They already had a conference that was close geographically in D3. The only thing that I can think of was to be the only D2 school in the state of Iowa. Maybe some Peacock fan can fill us in.

Actually our programs were doing very well. Hoops made NCAA tourney twice, football was putting together winning seasons for first time in 20 years, baseball team made it to the D3 world series. League liked us fine until we started winning and competing. There were some BS excuses that we were letting in athletes just for athletics, etc...which none was true. Pressure was there to move us out and we were proactive. That really is what was up with it. I think the NSIC was a great fit as it was when we joined and we competed well. When the NCC schools moved back in it really did change the demographics quite a bit - I mean schools like Mankato, St. Cloud, et al are as big if not bigger then UNI. Not whining, just changed things. I think new conf if we get invite will make us more competitive across the board.

[oldyellaHer69]

UIU would be an instant contender in every sport in that league, good for them, Stiffen up Cocks

[34blast]

UIU is in the middle of nowhere and is expensive. It can’t be easy to compete

[Stanger86]

A thought:
In D3, there's no athletic scholarships. Recruiting people to Fayette probably wasn't an easy thing, with no unique standout quality for the university.

[Inkblot]

Does anyone know why UIU moved up to D2 in the first place? They already had a conference that was close geographically in D3. The only thing that I can think of was to be the only D2 school in the state of Iowa. Maybe some Peacock fan can fill us in.

I recall reading this on the D3 boards a couple years ago during the St. Thomas drama:

There were concerns a couple of decades ago that three of the then-IIAC members weren't doing their best to keep up with the rest of the league (not with one specific school, mind you, vis-a-vis the MIAC) in terms of the resources that they were putting into athletics. Two of the three walked away from the IIAC -- William Penn went to the NAIA, and Upper Iowa went to D2 -- and the third, Dubuque, took the suggestion to heart and beefed up its support of athletics to the point where it became competitive across the board. This is what I've been told by people within the league.

[laker]

Does anyone know why UIU moved up to D2 in the first place? They already had a conference that was close geographically in D3. The only thing that I can think of was to be the only D2 school in the state of Iowa. Maybe some Peacock fan can fill us in.

[ctrabs74]

So this move doesn't seem to be necessarily about the travel. There are 3 NSIC teams closer than any GLVC. Travel within the South is much better than the GLVC in total. Yes, UIU gets to avoid the long trips to Mary and Minot but those are not every year. Is this because there are more sports offered in the GLVC? Correct me if I'm incorrect, but on the whole I think the NSIC has a higher level of competition than the GLVC. I'd be interested to hear the reasons for a possible move.

I'm thinking that GLVC football is probably less of a grind than the NSIC, but GLVC men's basketball (at least historically) has been on par, if not slightly better than the NSIC (I could argue it's almost a wash, really). This might be a competitive issue for UIU as opposed to a geographic move, in my opinion.