If you're like me, you were probably looking ahead to this weekend's Final Four here in Minneapolis this weekend; wanting to partake in all the hoopla going on around downtown Minneapolis and, if you're lucky enough, go to the games (I think your's truly will be lucky enough to be going to the championship game on Monday night :) ). But when I was browsing over my Twitter as I was getting ready to leave my house and head to the local Park-N-Ride for a trip into downtown to work this A.M., I was taken aback by the breaking story in today's Minneapolis Star Tribune by long-time writer Patrick Reusse about the upcoming meeting of MIAC member presidents to discuss changing the conference by-laws that could mean an ouster of UST, one of the founding members of the MIAC.
Per the artcile, the driving force of this meeting was "the number of complaints from selected MIAC rivals for nearly a decade over the enrollment gap and the athletic success that considerably favors St. Thomas." Now, these complaints have apparently come full-bore as there is now a concerted effort to oust UST from the conference because of the seeming advantages it has in a number of areas; notably athletics. While the Tommies, of course, have enjoyed considerable success in many sports, it's the football program where Head Coach Glenn Caruso has built quite a powerhouse over the last decade that seems to draw the most ire among the rest of the MIAC. While I don't get close to DIII during the football season as I'm pretty much immersed in the fortunes of my Los Angeles Rams and UCLA Bruins (and Iowa Hawkeyes; my alma mater), some of the victories they have over the last few years even caught my attention; particularly the 97-0 thrashing of St. Olaf from a couple of season ago that even I thought was a bit over the top. The story continues to point out that considerable pressure is being applied to three main UST rivals to support the effort for the ousting of the Tommies from the MIAC - Bethel, Concordia and GAC - as other member schools such as Augsburg, Hamline, St. Olaf and Carleton have threatened to drop out of MIAC football.
Before I go any further here, I want to say this here and now, so there's no mistaking my position on all of this.
STOP IT. Stop it right now.
Look, I think I can understand the frustrations that permeate among the rest of the member MIAC institutions when they look at a school such as UST that has all the natural advantages they wish they had: A beautiful campus....Located in the heart of the Twin Cities with easy access to both downtown Minneapolis and downtown St. Paul.....Great athletic programs and a healthy academic side as well with a variety of majors that appeal to many high school kids. And, make no mistake about it: UST by far and away has the largest enrollment in the conference with 6,200 undergrads per the story. I get that and I understand that. And speaking as someone who considers himself close to both the GAC and St. Kate's programs in women's basketball, yes it does seem like the other conference schools are fighting an uphill battle in keeping pace with the Tommies (as I'm sure it does in a lot of other sports as well). I've followed this conference for a long time in women's basketball alone and I've witnessed how the Tommies became a dominant force beginning in 2012 and, save for a couple of hiccups here and there, there seems to be no end in sight to UST's dominance on the women's basketball front.
Now, I'll admit that I'm taking a bit of a narrow view focusing on strictly the women's basketball front. Certainly there are other considerations and other angles to keep in mind here as well. What I DON'T like about all of this is the message that is being sent by the member schools that are actively seeking to oust UST from the conference which seems to be "You know what? If we can't beat you on the athletic field or gym, we'll just take the chicken(expletive deleted) route and vote your a$$ out of the conference." I mean, really now, how else do you take this? Now it seems like it's okay to just push the chicken(expletive deleted) switch when you can't beat somebody because they're better than you. I mean, God, maybe my LA Rams should have considered this back in the day when they were being dominated by our dreaded arch-rival up the coast, the San Francisco 49ers. Hell, let's vote the 49ers out of the NFL. Or maybe UCLA should have got together with the rest of the Pac-12 to vote crosstown rival USC out when the Trojans won seven straight games against the Bruins (no, we didn't do that).
Look, in all seriousness here, instead of bitching and whining about how you can't seem to compete with UST, here's an approach you MIGHT want to consider taking instead: GET BETTER. If you want to be able to attract potential student athletes that could be a difference maker for your program(s), you may need to break the bank a little and start spending money to upgrade your facilities. Look at St. Kate's for example and what they've done to the Butler Center in expanding the size of the building and facilities. For an all-women's school, what they've done is pretty damn impressive, IMHO. Athletic Director Eric Stacey has taken bold steps to bolster the athletic programs at St. Kate's and one day that will pay off and, in some cases, it already has (softball).
But here's another angle to consider in all of this. Let's just say, for the sake of discussion here, that the concerted effort to remove UST from the conference IS successful. What does that mean for the future of the MIAC just in general? I would venture to say that it would lose a helluva lot of prestige without UST in it to fly the flag. And I'd be willing to bet that the "benefit" for schools such as Hamline, Carleton, St. Olaf and perhaps Macalester would be minimal or at best, marginal.
Here's one thing that I WISH the conference members were looking seriously at instead - expansion. I have advocated this before and I think it's long overdue for a conference such as the MIAC. I look at two schools in particular that would be excellent fits for the conference: Northwestern in St. Paul and St. Scholastica up in Duluth. With those two schools as members of the conference, you could now go into North and South divisions. Just where you draw the dividing line on that is something that would be for future discussions but I think you would have to consider both Northwestern and St. Scholastica as being prime candidates. There are other schools as well to consider such as Bethany Lutheran in Mankato and Martin Luther in New Ulm. Maybe even North Central in downtown Minneapolis as well.
Per the story, the member school presidents would meet again in late May; presumably with some sort of clause in the conferenc by-laws; perhaps enrollment size, that could mean the ouster of UST from the MIAC. I hope that, between now and then, there are cooler heads that prevail that ultimately prevents this from happening.
