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Goodbye NCC


KEH

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With USD leaving to make the step up the NCC is left with only 5 teams thats not enough to be a NC$$ conference..So what I am wondering is has any other well established conference disappeared so fast? In a way we all new this was coming. With the 4 major schools in the great territory of Dakota leaving it is sad that the NCC can't continue on.

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With USD leaving to make the step up the NCC is left with only 5 teams thats not enough to be a NC$$ conference..So what I am wondering is has any other well established conference disappeared so fast? In a way we all new this was coming. With the 4 major schools in the great territory of Dakota leaving it is sad that the NCC can't continue on.

Not so fast!http://siouxsports.com/forums/index.php?sh...6885&st=180

Post # 186

But yea, it is sad. I also wonder if a conference has ever folded this fast before.

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With the apparent upcoming death of the NCC :glare: , here is how I think things will work themselves out over the next couple of years. And please keep in mind, my pronostication skills leave much to be desired. :huh:

1. Neb-Omaha will join the MIAA. This is a good fit for both UNO and the MIAA, geographically and otherwise.

2. The four remaining NCC schools (UM-Duluth, St. Cloud, MSU-Mankato and Augustana) will merge with the NSIC to form a 14 team league. The league will then split into two divisions (7 teams each), something like this:

NSIC East

Bemidji State University

Concordia-St. Paul

Upper Iowa University

Winona State University

St. Cloud State

UM-Duluth

MSU-Mankato

NSIC West

University of Mary

UM-Crookston

MSU-Moorhead

Northern State University

Southwest Minnesota State University

Wayne State College

Augustana College

It is possible that a separate league could form based on a combination of the ex-NCC schools and several of the NSIC schools if this league proves too big to function properly, but of course this is all pure speculation.

3. UND and USD will work together to find a conference home in DI and help fill their schedules during the transition, which will be difficult. Forget all of this "go-it-alone" stuff, working together will make it easier to survive the transition period without any major collateral dammage.

I could be wrong on all of this, but those are my thoughts on this at the moment.

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I believe that Auggy has already applied for membership to the NSIC already, and word has that the 3 Minnesota schools have been trying to talk the GLIAC into letting them in, and splitting it into divisions for football, as how the rest of the GLIAC sports are. I like the idea, and I've heard that the UP schools are pretty keen on the idea, Michigan Tech, Northern Michigan, and Lake Superior State*Non-Football*. Its only problem has been that the other schools think it would involve too much travel, especially for their other sports.

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I would not be surprised if UM Crookston drops to either Division III or NAIA. According to this article in the GF Herald, a study shows they are more in line with Division III. Then, if the 4 NCC schools joined and 1 other school left the NSIC would be at 12 schools. I don't know which other school might be interested in moving either down or to another leage.

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Roger Thomas is now reaping what a lack of vision on his part has created. He is a real looser as an administrator.

He talked to every potential new member countless times. I'm not sure what else he could have done, nor do I think anybody else probably could have saved the NCC. As we've seen countless times from Doug Fullerton, a commissioner's power to actually do anything in terms of adding members is fairly minimal. If the presidents of the NCC schools felt RT wasn't doing a good job, they almost certainly would have fired him at least a year ago.

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He talked to every potential new member countless times. I'm not sure what else he could have done, nor do I think anybody else probably could have saved the NCC. As we've seen countless times from Doug Fullerton, a commissioner's power to actually do anything in terms of adding members is fairly minimal. If the presidents of the NCC schools felt RT wasn't doing a good job, they almost certainly would have fired him at least a year ago.
I thought he was referring to UND voting against reclassifying the entire NCC to D-I, something UND (at least in hindsight) obviously should have supported.
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I thought he was referring to UND voting against reclassifying the entire NCC to D-I, something UND (at least in hindsight) obviously should have supported.

Maybe that's what he was referring to, but let's say that UNC, NDSU, SDSU, UND and USD had all moved together and formed a new version of the NCC three or four years ago. Would that "conference" still exist a year or two from now? I doubt it. There's too much to gain by moving to a conference with an autobid. That's part of the reason I feel the NCC was doomed no matter what.

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Maybe that's what he was referring to, but let's say that UNC, NDSU, SDSU, UND and USD had all moved together and formed a new version of the NCC three or four years ago. Would that "conference" still exist a year or two from now? I doubt it. There's too much to gain by moving to a conference with an autobid. That's part of the reason I feel the NCC was doomed no matter what.

Then why did rt step down as AD of UND and start working for the ncc? Poor decision on his part?

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1. Neb-Omaha will join the MIAA. This is a good fit for both UNO and the MIAA, geographically and otherwise.

The MIAA doesn't have wrestling or women's swimming.

The NSIC does have wrestling and I would think they could be affiliate members. No idea on swimming.

Or I suppose they could drop both as it would be a roughly equal scholarship loss.

2. The four remaining NCC schools (UM-Duluth, St. Cloud, MSU-Mankato and Augustana) will merge with the NSIC to form a 14 team league. The league will then split into two divisions (7 teams each), something like this:

NSIC East

Bemidji State University

Concordia-St. Paul

Upper Iowa University

Winona State University

St. Cloud State

UM-Duluth

MSU-Mankato

NSIC West

University of Mary

UM-Crookston

MSU-Moorhead

Northern State University

Southwest Minnesota State University

Wayne State College

Augustana College

This looks about right to me.

In the future I see Crookston moving down to DIII and joining Morris in the UMAC.

If the DAC moves up to DII, I could see Northern State and Mary moving to that conference and then possibly U Sioux Falls in the NSIC as a travel partnet for Augi.

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It seems to me that WWU and CWU (football only) are being neglected...where do they go?

I think the question is more like "where CAN they go?".

And the obvious answer is nowhere.

I would think their only hope would be if the NAIA Frontier conference moved up to DII.

That would include football teams of: Carrol (NAIA champions), Montana Tech, Montana Western, Montana Northern, and Eastern Oregon.

They could also schedule Western Oregon.

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I think the question is more like "where CAN they go?".

And the obvious answer is nowhere.

I would think their only hope would be if the NAIA Frontier conference moved up to DII.

That would include football teams of: Carrol (NAIA champions), Montana Tech, Montana Western, Montana Northern, and Eastern Oregon.

They could also schedule Western Oregon.

Is it foolish to say that these schools could maybe move up to DI?

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I don't see how UND voting for a move up five years ago would have changed things. A conference move like they really would have needed a unanimous vote to work. If it had been 5-4, do you really think that the schools that voted against it would just say "OK, let's go up to Division I". I think the browbeating of UND on that vote really misses that point. I just don't think DI was viable at that time for the Augie and the other hockey playing schools and that knowledge factored greatly into UND's vote.

The real failure in saving the NCC was not locking up new members following UNC's departure

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Bison Fans = class act = oxymoron. Thanks to Roger for what he has done for UND and the NCC.

An interesting clumn by Jeff Kolpak in todays Forum lays the ultimate blame for the demise of the NCC at the feet of the NCAA leaders that started to cut scholies from D2 and erode the quality of D2 football.

Kolpack Column

"The culprit was Walter Byers. He was the president of the NCAA in 1986 when the organization voted to reduce the maximum Division II scholarships from 45 to 40. His accomplice was Richard Schultz, the NCAA director from 1987-93, when the scholarships were reduced further.

That started a slide that hasn

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Bison Fans = class act = oxymoron. Thanks to Roger for what he has done for UND and the NCC.

I'm sure Roger is a very nice guy and maybe some Bison fans don't have the best of intentions when criticizing him, but I do think his vision - or lack thereof - is fair game in this forum. I know there are a lot of Sioux fans who think less of his vision than any Bison fan ever could.

At the same time, there is some merit to the argument that what's done is done and let's concentrate on the future.

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