Originally posted by ctrabs74
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Originally posted by Thunder View Post
It's a terrible idea and would weaken D2 sports in the Midwest. Some of our Minnesota brethren have been preaching for a while to get rid of the Dakota schools and just keep MN together. I think the NSIC as currently constructed is quite good. The best possible way to move forward would be for Crookston to go D3 and for St. Cloud to bring back football. That would give us a nice 14 team conference, but I don't think either of those are probably happening soon (especially SCSU).
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Originally posted by FB Player Coach & Fan View Post
SCSU is not bringing back football anytime soon. And every year that goes by without football makes it less likely it will return at all. So you remain stuck in trying to patchwork a conference together; avoid an unbalanced scheduling nightmare, and according to some adjust the footprint of the conference. With nothing really evident or obvious on the horizon happening to address these issues or concerns. it appears that at the moment you have a bunch of “ hopes” and “prayers” as possible solutions. In coaching, if you are depending on “ hopes” & “ prayers” as a strategy; then you have already lost. You need something that can be executed, that is concrete, that is reasonable and is fundamentally sound. And in this circumstance add something that is financially sound, promotes competitiveness and easy to administrate (got keep it easy for the ADs). I do not see a patchwork solution being good long term.
I hope MSU is able to play their cards right when the time comes, because I think the NSIC is becoming increasingly unstable by the year. However it works out, I want the best for the school, even if that means the NSIC has to die.
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Originally posted by Thunder View Post
It's a terrible idea and would weaken D2 sports in the Midwest. Some of our Minnesota brethren have been preaching for a while to get rid of the Dakota schools and just keep MN together. I think the NSIC as currently constructed is quite good. The best possible way to move forward would be for Crookston to go D3 and for St. Cloud to bring back football. That would give us a nice 14 team conference, but I don't think either of those are probably happening soon (especially SCSU).
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The more I think about Dakota State, the more I think that it might really work for them. They have a solid steady enrollment thanks to their emphasis on computers and technology, with good new facilities they'll be able to get a few recruits. Plus they'd be an easy travel partner with one of the Sioux Falls schools. I don't think there's much incentive for them to stay in the NAIA.
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Originally posted by Dan Brookens View PostThe more I think about Dakota State, the more I think that it might really work for them. They have a solid steady enrollment thanks to their emphasis on computers and technology, with good new facilities they'll be able to get a few recruits. Plus they'd be an easy travel partner with one of the Sioux Falls schools. I don't think there's much incentive for them to stay in the NAIA.
IMO, they will be one to watch in the distant future. The new stadium should help with recruiting, so we'll see.
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Originally posted by Thunder View Post
It's a terrible idea and would weaken D2 sports in the Midwest. Some of our Minnesota brethren have been preaching for a while to get rid of the Dakota schools and just keep MN together. I think the NSIC as currently constructed is quite good. The best possible way to move forward would be for Crookston to go D3 and for St. Cloud to bring back football. That would give us a nice 14 team conference, but I don't think either of those are probably happening soon (especially SCSU).
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Originally posted by MrMustang View Post
I'm with you Northern is a great NSIC school and we should want to keep them.Frankly we are lucky to have them and their great fan base and good facilities. They actually take sports seriously unlike the MnSCU Head office in St. Paul that views these campuses and inconveniences to their central office.
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Originally posted by zimmy21 View Post
I am curious why you think it would weaken D2 sports in the Midwest? I personally see opening conferences up as loaded with potential for new schools to become dominant.
Also, as vikingfaithful mentioned, with the ever changing landscape of college athletics do you really want to be in a 9 team conference with only 7 football schools. That seems like a very perilous position to put yourself in. As we have discussed repeatedly there are not a lot of good options for additional schools to become D2 in this region so if someone does get the call up you will be scrapping to fill that void. I actually think in the scenario presented the 10-team NEDAK conference could be quite good in multiple sports. I'm also not certain Kearney would move, but I think the RMAC schools would probably have interest. The MN and RMAC conferences only having 7 football schools would be a problem for those entities and we would be no better off than we are today.
The main point of having a conference is so that you have a group of relatively like minded institutions that you can schedule with. For as much complaining as we have for the trips up to Bismarck and Minot, you are not getting very many nonconference games closer than that, even for the MN schools.
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Originally posted by zimmy21 View Post
The faster the Power Five conferences split off from D1, the better. The trickle effect of the conference grabs will force the hands of quite a few schools.
I hope MSU is able to play their cards right when the time comes, because I think the NSIC is becoming increasingly unstable by the year. However it works out, I want the best for the school, even if that means the NSIC has to die.
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The tough thing comes in that this isn't Missouri, we don't have an *extra* 4-5 schools ready and able to make this work right away or a neighboring conference overlapping to poach from.
As many people have said...while 16 might be too many, 8-9 is not enough or sustainability. And even with a split, these split conferences aren't necessarily more appealing for the outlying schools (BHSU, Mines, Kearney, Chadron to the west and MTU and NMU to the east) over their current situations. So you're relying on finding schools within the footprint, which are lacking to be kind.
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Originally posted by Thunder View Post
I think the NSIC is a fantastic D2 conference. Could it be better if it was a little smaller, perhaps. However, I think with all of the current members you know you will have nationally relevant teams in almost every sport. Also, I think it forces the top half of the conference to keep improving if it wants to stay on top. That in turn forces the bottom (except Crookston) to keep improving to at least keep up a little bit. If you become a group of smaller conferences with a couple of dominant schools I don't think that is good for the overall health of a conference.
Also, as vikingfaithful mentioned, with the ever changing landscape of college athletics do you really want to be in a 9 team conference with only 7 football schools. That seems like a very perilous position to put yourself in. As we have discussed repeatedly there are not a lot of good options for additional schools to become D2 in this region so if someone does get the call up you will be scrapping to fill that void. I actually think in the scenario presented the 10-team NEDAK conference could be quite good in multiple sports. I'm also not certain Kearney would move, but I think the RMAC schools would probably have interest. The MN and RMAC conferences only having 7 football schools would be a problem for those entities and we would be no better off than we are today.
The main point of having a conference is so that you have a group of relatively like minded institutions that you can schedule with. For as much complaining as we have for the trips up to Bismarck and Minot, you are not getting very many nonconference games closer than that, even for the MN schools.
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Originally posted by vikingfaithful View Post
I've said this before, there is safety in a larger conference. Shared administrative costs, the ability to move forward if a member leaves. What if it was a 9 member MN conference and in the future the flagship member MSU left for D1? NSIC is a stable prosperous conference with national recognition. R-E-L-A-X.
I know it makes for fun "fantasy booking" to chat about expansion and such..but I have a feeling that's all this is.
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Originally posted by vikingfaithful View Post
I've said this before, there is safety in a larger conference. Shared administrative costs, the ability to move forward if a member leaves. What if it was a 9 member MN conference and in the future the flagship member MSU left for D1? NSIC is a stable prosperous conference with national recognition. R-E-L-A-X.
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Originally posted by Matt Witwicki View Post
I think this is a very good take. There's some strength in numbers and I don't see the conference as troubled and such. I don't think you can even start up a new conference in D2 anymore with less than 10 schools..I think that was adopted a few years back to make sure there would be more stability and if auto-qualification became a thing. The NSIC has less concerns than most conferences nationally and I think slow-playing things over the next 12-24 months is likely going to be the best plan as things like a Crookston move to D3 (if they can find a taker) could occur, maybe Wayne gets recruited by the MIAA as that conference is looking for expansion (not that we wanna see them leave), or just leave things alone without a knee jerk reaction. Things are currently workable as they are....ideal no, but not that big a deal either. I could see the conference not wanting to rush into getting a new member only for them to be one that's struggling to compete.
I know it makes for fun "fantasy booking" to chat about expansion and such..but I have a feeling that's all this is.
There is also great benefit sharing costs among more members.
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