(09-19-2023 09:58 PM)Mid-Major Hoops Enthusiast Wrote:  

(09-18-2023 07:48 PM)Todor Wrote:  At one point I half expected a new NAIA conference to develop in Iowa/surrounding states on the remnants of the MCC. Even without IW, Ashford, or the Des Moines school that closed, I still thought they might by adding possibly Peru, Bellevue, or some others. Guess not. I thought perhaps the travel in the HAAC would not be so appealing, although with Evangel gone, that eliminates their longest trip.

I see the travel aspect for Waldorf, but competitively they aren’t going to cut it in the GPAC. And I don’t see that changing.

Do you think Bellevue tries to move to the GPAC or HAAC now with the North Star struggling for numbers?

Nobody really wants Bellevue. Definitely not the GPAC. The HAAC simply doesn’t need them. They don’t match up well in mission with most smaller liberal arts colleges, so their athletics have aligned wherever they are accepted.

What I do think is there is room for another conference in the area. The old Midlands Conference played a good role in offering championship access to lower funded schools. A place like Central Christian College of Kansas playing in a league with Oklahoma City U is a shame, and it just isn’t working well for them.

There is so much talk about schools improving their sports or “adjusting to a higher level competition” but in reality, they usually means little more than spending a lot more money. And there are lots of small schools that can’t. And I like having conferences that let those schools match up with similar schools and enjoy a little more success. It’s good for everyone.

One frustration for me as a fan of the NAIA is that so much is being won by schools that are either just passing thru, or already on their way out. One one hand, you have a school like Oklahoma Baptist who was a longtime member of the NAIA, funded athletics pretty well, and won a ton. They felt they outgrew the organization and moved to D2. That’s normal.

On the other hand, a school like Georgia Gwinnett is sponsoring very few sports, winning national titles in some of them year after year, is likely to add more sports soon and move on to D2 or wherever.

Others like Keiser and possibly Southeastern are growing very rapidly and have plenty of money to throw around. They kind of pop up out of nowhere, win a lot, and then leave.

It’s always been that way, but it still sucks for so many schools to always be get walked all over because their organization is a stepping stone. But I am a fan of the smaller schools that do a lot with a little, that are small campuses where people know one another, schools that have important niches to play etc. I like to see them succeed sometimes too.