Monthly Archives: July 2009

Conference cost cutters

Posted on by

Economic problems have not spared Division III member institutions. Financial struggles have claimed Colorado College and Blackburn football, are close to claiming UW-La Crosse baseball and are threatening Greensboro College entirely.

Note: Principia also discontinued football but has publicly stated finances were not the reason.

Against that backdrop, some conferences are taking measures to cut costs. The WIAC announced a Cost Reduction Plan especially targeted at cutting travel costs. Elements of the Plan include:

• Later start times to minimize hotel stays
• Conference playoffs limited to six teams
• Restricting teams to no more than one trip during the regular-season outside of an established regional perimeter.
• Exploring the feasibility of scheduling one additional WIAC football team as a nonconference game beginning with the 2011 season.

The Conference’s release cites $250,000 in direct budget savings associated with these moves, but it’s hard to spot exactly how it impacts football or basketball in 2009-2010. The men’s and women’s basketball tournaments were already at six teams last year. Conference Commissioner Gary Karner clarified that the regional perimeter is not defined by the administrative regions (west for football and men’s basketball; central for women’s basketball) so games against the CCIW, MIAC and MWC aren’t effected. The regional perimeter is also not defined by the very broad geographic region that stretches from Texas to California anyway. Of course, the WIAC is much more than three sports, so these actions may very well have a stronger impact elsewhere.

Nevertheless, this is a good move that seeks a conference-wide solution instead of leaving individual institutions to fend for themselves with whatever level of resources they have. Since all these public institutions have the same resource base (Wisconsin tax payers), equity is particularly important.

Members of the Centennial Conference are also working together to reduce costs. Executive Director Steve Ulrich reports that the Conference will limit the size of travel squads to the NCAA championship max plus 20 percent and change starting times to avoid overnight trips. Other measures will impact Conference championships in indoor track and field and golf. Two conference members also had a unique swim meet in which both teams were the home teams.

Football coming to George Fox?

Posted on by

It’s looking like the quiet undercurrent of football at George Fox that has existed over the past several years is going to get a little louder after the school received a $1.2 million gift to help build a sports complex.

The school also referenced women’s lacrosse as a potential companion sport.

We had a really disappointing start to the offseason, with Blackburn and Principia dropping football, then Colorado College, in what remains a baffling decision, doing the same. But Stevenson, Pacific and Presentation plan to take the field in 2011, with Hendrix presumed to be joining them.

George Fox has been talking about football for a while. The concept appears to come up at Lynchburg on occasion. Southern Maine has explored football more than once in the past decade. It got discussed at Rochester Tech. And while the latter two don’t exactly need more enrollment, anywhere where enrollment is a concern will be a prime candidate for Division III football.

Even at Centenary (La.), where the school recently gave its notice it was leaving the Division I Summit League, could be headed for Division III and could add football.

There’s plenty to be happy about this offseason. Which only makes Colorado College more mind-boggling.

Ten years of D3football.com

Posted on by

A decade ago at this time, I was throwing the proverbial switch and getting ready to unleash D3football.com on the World Wide Web.

Lycoming def. Widener, 1998It had been a project we were attempting to keep secret, which was difficult to do, assembling 220-some football schedules, quick facts and the like without being noticed. In the weeks before our July 7, 1999, launch, we saw the competition, Division III Football Online, really ramp up its preseason coverage, much better than it had done previously. And since we were moving into what was basically another site’s established territory, we were concerned there would be a backlash.

That potential backlash had kept us from expanding Division III Basketball Online and adding a football site the year before. We did talk very seriously about doing it for the 1998 season, and there was definitely some split opinions among our inner circle at the time, which was basically me, Jim Stout and Ray Martel. But Ray and I took a break from our coverage of Catholic University football to cover the Widener-Lycoming game that fall, a classic in which Lyco rallied from a 13-2 deficit after starting with the ball on its 1-yard line with a little more than three minutes left, and we knew we had to cover this sport more often.

When I took over Division III Basketball Online in November 1997 I had this illusion that I could do it a few hours a night, a few nights a week, which would make the site more up-to-date than it had been previously and everyone would be happy. But that illusion quickly faded and by that time, the site already took up 20-30 hours a week during the basketball season. So I had a pretty good idea what I was getting into.

Your response, the fans’ response, to D3football.com was overwhelming, from the opening days. It eventually passed D3hoops.com in traffic and popularity and really drives the whole D3sports.com network. Thanks for being a part of it and choosing to follow NCAA Division III football with us. It’s been a very rewarding decade, getting to go across the country and see great football games, meet people, find good stories and bring them back to you.

And while this site is still really a labor of love, and may well never be my full-time job, I don’t love it or Division III football any less.

Spread the word.