Between the hiring of a new coach, a new athletic director coming in last August, and what looks like schedule upgrades coming, it looks like Macalester is trying to take steps forward again with football.

The hiring of Glenn Caruso last month appears to be a coup for the Scots. Caruso brings a very un-Macalesterlike resume to campus, with an undergraduate degree from Ithaca and a master’s from North Dakota State, two institutions which have little in common with the small liberal arts college that Macalester is. And not only did they get Caruso, they got another one of their finalists to sign on as an assistant.

Caruso told the St. Paul Pioneer Press late last month that the school is putting FieldTurf down for football. The school is constructing a gymnasium to replace the 1920s-era building currently in use.

And lastly, we found out today, Macalester is making another small step back into the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, scheduling Gustavus Adolphus for 2006 and 2007.

Best of luck to Macalester. It’s a long road, but it’s better than pulling a Swarthmore.

Sigh.

The day I’ve been fearing for months has finally arrived. Independence Air has announced it is ceasing operations effective Thursday night, Jan. 5.

This might not mean much to most of you readers, but Independence’s hub was at Washington Dulles airport (IAD for you travel geeks) and quickly became a favorite of mine because it offered cheap flights to a good number of places where Division III schools are located. I took six flights on Indepdence in the past 15 months, and sent Keith McMillan places via Independence on a few other occasions.

We’ve enjoyed the convenience, the service and the price, which enabled us to be at games like Capital/Wittenberg and the Cortaca Jug last year and Wheaton/North Central, UW-Eau Claire/UW-Whitewater, Amherst/Trinity (Conn.) and UW-Whitewater/St. John’s this year (as well as three basketball games last season). But we also had to figure that such bargains couldn’t last. We’ll have to work harder for bargains in 2006.

Is it too late to start collecting Wendy’s cups?