On a pretty busy day (day job, Randolph-Macon hiring, Sean Wallis announces he’s returning) a tweet caught my eye:
Published a new blog post: Mondays with Myles and Friends: DIII Identity
This from the NCAA’s official blog, the Double-A Zone. So I was hoping this would be some serious discussion of the issues facing Division III and its struggles to gain attention in a noisy collegiate athletics landscape.
In five minutes of interview, admittedly, that would be tough to do.
Unfortunately, even in the NCAA’s attempt to promote this concept, it drops the ball. It’s hard to take a program seriously when it mispronounces the name of the guest right out of the gate. And maybe I’m nitpicking, but the NCAA’s Twitter message promoting the interview had a broken link — at least, it didn’t fit in Twitter’s 140-character limit.
But it’s hard to expect more when the national office has so many people who don’t care about Division III.
Anyway, here’s the interview with NCAA vice president for Division III Dan Dutcher. (That’s in case the embed below doesn’t work for you.)
If we talk about branding in D-III, I would like to name the Division III National Championship, the “Branch Rickey Series”.
Branch Rickey was the General Manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers and the man responsible for signing Jackie Robinson to a contract with the Dodgers and “breaking the color line”, his most famous achievement. In doing this, Rickey sought the expertise of the Sociology Department at NYU to understand how to bring this change to the fabric of American life. The other ties to Division III are that Mr Rickey was a baseball player and coach at Ohio Wesleyan University and an OWU graduate, and a football and baseball coach at Allegheny.
Mr Rickey’s innovations in baseball changed the game immeasurably. Rickey is credited with developing the “farm system” while serving as the business manager of the St Louis Cardinals. As a means of player development, the farm system may have saved minor league baseball in the 1950’s when television almost “killed” minor league attendance. Later in the 1950’s, Rickey drafted the first Hispanic superstar, Roberto Clemente.
Mr Rickey is credited with expanding and encouraging the use of batting helmets, batting cages and pitching machines. As GM of the Dodgers in 1947, he hired the first baseball statistical analyst, Allan Roth.
I have spoken with Amy Carlton, the Commissioner of the ASC. She says that there is great support in the American Southwest Conference and among the presidents for this. Likewise, she has contacted Mr. Dennis Collins, the Commissioner of the NCAC, to discuss this with the members of the Rickey family.
There is much about Mr Rickey that the student-athlete can learn. This thoughtful, innovative genius dramatically shaped 20th century America through the sport that we love.
D-1 has its Road to Omaha for baseball College World Series (CWS) and March Madness for basketball. In the spirit of the “Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl”, the Branch Rickey Series just fits the proper branding for the D-III National Baseball Championship.
Another branding question…
Are James Naismith’s connections to Springfield College sufficient to rename the Division III Championships in his memory?
Is Springfield’s tenure in Division III sufficient? 🙂
Gotta be honest here. With all due respect to Ralph, naming the D3 national crown after Ralph would do as much for brand identity as naming ti fro Mr. Rickey.
I’m not saying he isn’t deserving. I’m just saying it’s not going to do much for raising the profile of the championship.
And really. Naismith? Not gonna help much either!
And one other thing. How much does the Road to Omaha thing help? Are the TV ratings for D1 baseball measurable?
More people watch tornadoes tear up the road to Omaha on The Weather Channel than watch college baseball.
I think we need to showcase the athletes. See what they do on the court and off it. See who they are and what they do after they graduate. It’s the best product on hardwood.
I don’t really equate naming or branding one championship with branding Division III. This is a much bigger issue that needs overall discussion.
Same thing with the next post I made, since we seem to have let Division II co-opt our identity.