Should Jamestown be accepted into the NSIC?

[Millsy]

I don't know much about NSIC baseball...is Moorhead good? Who are the normal favorites? Who is normally at the bottom? let's use this fine thread to break down NSIC baseball too

Moorhead doesn't have baseball.

Mankato and Augie are usually the favorites

Bemidji is lucky if they get to double digit wins, and that all depends on their non-conference schedule.

[Stanger86]

I don't know much about NSIC baseball...is Moorhead good? Who are the normal favorites? Who is normally at the bottom? let's use this fine thread to break down NSIC baseball too

Moorhead doesn't have a baseball program.

Southern teams are very much superior most years, for obvious reasons. Most years it's Augustana and Mankato (in either order) and everyone else. Since 2019, only once has another team finished in the top two (St Cloud, 2nd in 2022).

[laker]

I don't know much about NSIC baseball...is Moorhead good? Who are the normal favorites? Who is normally at the bottom? let's use this fine thread to break down NSIC baseball too

Crookston has actually gotten better in baseball since they dropped football. As was noted, MSU and Augie have had some pretty good teams.

In softball, MSU had a national title in 2017

[CollegeFBGuy]

My bad, I saw MSU and my old brain clicked on Moorhead.

I still don't understand how Mankato and Moorhead are both Minnesota State University _______. Yet everyone refers to Mankato as Minnesota State, not the full name like Moorhead. Things that make me go "hmmmm..."

That makes much more sense that this was Mankato. Also makes sense that Mankato and Augie would normally be good. I asked a couple of guys in Duluth, they seemed to think they will be pretty good this year?

[zimmy21]

My bad, I saw MSU and my old brain clicked on Moorhead.

I still don't understand how Mankato and Moorhead are both Minnesota State University _______. Yet everyone refers to Mankato as Minnesota State, not the full name like Moorhead. Things that make me go "hmmmm..."

That makes much more sense that this was Mankato. Also makes sense that Mankato and Augie would normally be good. I asked a couple of guys in Duluth, they seemed to think they will be pretty good this year?

I know the UMD Baseball coach, they are usually decent. That said, it's Minnesota State and Augie's league for baseball. St. Cloud and Winona have had runs in the past.

My assumption as to why Mankato is the de facto Minnesota State is just the enrollment difference, roughly 5x the size.

That said, the name change has helped and hurt the school imo. I enjoyed the specificity of Mankato State, I especially wish we kept it now that MNSCU is no more and it's now also called Minnesota State. Ugh. Just dumb.

[laker]

My bad, I saw MSU and my old brain clicked on Moorhead.

I still don't understand how Mankato and Moorhead are both Minnesota State University _______. Yet everyone refers to Mankato as Minnesota State, not the full name like Moorhead. Things that make me go "hmmmm..."

That makes much more sense that this was Mankato. Also makes sense that Mankato and Augie would normally be good. I asked a couple of guys in Duluth, they seemed to think they will be pretty good this year?

It should have just been one school that made the change. I heard that the other ones in the system could have done the same, like in Wisconsin, but kept the city name. Imagine Southern MN, Southeast MN, Northwest MN, Northern MN and Central MN. Anyway, several years ago Moorhead talked about switching back but that never got any traction.

It helps to have Minnesota State on the uniforms, especially in hockey since those scores make the ESPN crawl line. It doesn't bother me if someone calls in Mankato, or Kato. When I started there it was MSC, then it was MSU, now it is MN State.

[Stanger86]

I still don't understand how Mankato and Moorhead are both Minnesota State University _______. Yet everyone refers to Mankato as Minnesota State, not the full name like Moorhead. Things that make me go "hmmmm..."

Just like there is the "University of Minnesota" (Twin Cities) but also Duluth, Rochester, Morris and Crookston.

[Millsy]

I thought Mankato also allows just "Minnesota State" as part of it's official branding. I don't believe Moorhead has the same, they are Minnesota State-Moorhead, or MSU-Moorhead.

And, Mankato had it first, Moorhead tagged along later.

[SW_Mustang]

I don't know much about NSIC baseball...is Moorhead good? Who are the normal favorites? Who is normally at the bottom? let's use this fine thread to break down NSIC baseball too

Moorhead doesn't have a team, unfortunately - the only school in the NSIC without baseball.

MSU, AU, and SCSU are "the Big 3" and routinely place at the top (or near) the NSIC standings. The last team besides them to win the conference was Minot in 2018 - though Augustana won the National Championship that year. MSU came close in 2013 finishing second, and I can't find any easily digestible postseason data for SCSU - but they were ranked #1 nationally in 2016 for a bit.

The rest of the teams seem to be a merry-go-round of relevancy, not a ton of consistency there. Usually one or two will rise to the top and challenge the "Big Three" a bit - last year it was Wayne, 2023 it was Crookston, etc.

Concordia - St. Paul is notable for producing the Varland Brothers, Gus and Louis. MSU has had four MLBers, and I count nine for SCSU, one for Wayne, one for Bemidji. Handful of schools had guys that would transfer and then play in the majors as well.

Of note - University of Sioux Falls does not have any former major leaguers, but one of their former baseball players did spend 24 games with the Canton Crocodiles of the Frontier League in 1998 - hitting one home run. Last I heard he was coaching college football down south somewhere...

Also - current Chicago Cubs pitcher Caleb Thielbar is an assistant coach at Augustana.

That's about all I can tell you lol

[zimmy21]

Also - current Chicago Cubs pitcher Caleb Thielbar is an assistant coach at Augustana.

Good for Caleb, I had to face off against him and his Randolph Rockets in High School (well technically I was in 8th grade playing up)..Thielbar pitched a perfect game against us (we were terrible lol)

Thielbar has had some up and down seasons in the bigs, but he was an amazing High School pitcher. Proud to say I had a foul tip off a future pro pitcher lol.

[SW_Mustang]

I still don't understand how Mankato and Moorhead are both Minnesota State University _______. Yet everyone refers to Mankato as Minnesota State, not the full name like Moorhead. Things that make me go "hmmmm..."

Originally, Mankato State College was to rebrand as the University of Southern Minnesota, later Minnesota State University, in the 1960s to reflect the vision that Minnesota should have two research institutions of equal standing. However, the *ahem* "other" research institution in the state threw an absolute temper tantrum and with the help of the Governor, squashed the proposal.

The state assembled the seven under MnSCU in 1995 - and I believe I was told once that there was supposed to be a system-wide rebranding effort (MSU-Winona, MSU-Bemidji, etc.) - but Moorhead and Mankato were the only two that converted - then St. Cloud said "no", but I have absolutely no idea if that's true. Reading through it on Wikipedia makes me think the moves were done independently of one another.

Obviously, having two schools named "Minnesota State University *town that starts with M*" is confusing enough - but then as zimmy said, MnSCU then rebranded themselves to "Minnesota State." Mankato often uses MSU or MNSU to refer to itself but... there's another "MSU" in St. Paul, with the same name as a school in Colorado. More of a footnote than actual confusion, but you gotta love how forward thinking MnSCU is.

There's also the common myth that Mankato switched because of Coach but... that's just a myth.

[SW_Mustang]

Good for Caleb, I had to face off against him and his Randolph Rockets in High School (well technically I was in 8th grade playing up)..Thielbar pitched a perfect game against us (we were terrible lol)

Thielbar has had some up and down seasons in the bigs, but he was an amazing High School pitcher. Proud to say I had a foul tip off a future pro pitcher lol.

It's actually a wild story - he took the Augustana job thinking his playing days were over. It was a convenient opportunity because Carissa was coaching basketball at SDSU at the time, so he didn't have to uproot his family (which is awesome).

Twins called him two months after he joined Augie for a look. He made it back to the MLB after a five-year hiatus in 2020 and has pitched in 305 games since - despite only having pitched 109 before that. He did all of it without giving up his job at Augustana.

He's a good guy - I met him a couple times back in the day and talked to him briefly a couple years ago. The Twins brought the Winter Caravan to Brookings so he could announce SDSU's Target Field game.

[SW_Mustang]

Just like there is the "University of Minnesota" (Twin Cities) but also Duluth, Rochester, Morris and Crookston.

Yes - though the U of M schools are branch campuses of the flagship, where as the state schools are (technically) separate institutions governed by the system office.

Minnesota makes it as hard as they can to understand what's going on lol

[WSUWarriorFan]

Yes - though the U of M schools are branch campuses of the flagship, where as the state schools are (technically) separate institutions governed by the system office.

Minnesota makes it as hard as they can to understand what's going on lol

Wisconsin kept it simple for us all. University if Wisconsin-School Name. My freshman year it was beaten into us on how to write it properly.

[SW_Mustang]

Wisconsin kept it simple for us all. University if Wisconsin-School Name. My freshman year it was beaten into us on how to write it properly.

Yes. They did it right. No state system is a bit weird, but maybe simplicity is better.

A med student at UMD is actually a UMTC student, a business student at UMR is actually a UMD student - UMTC has two campuses across the river from one another - and the diplomas don't say which one anyone went too! Gotta love it haha.