Interesting column by Schlossy today in the Herald. He reiterates a couple points that are becoming trendy with the Summit and that is the membership issue. I believe baseball has a year or two grace period of NCAA autobid eligibility but the point being, the league, after several years of relative stability, needs to find that again.
Thoughts? Keep it logical (good luck to the moderators on that).
The prevailing opinion from talking with Craig Bohl yesterday on the status of FBS teams playing FCS teams is the Big Ten Conference is so far alone on that mandate and most likely will remain so. Bohl, who is one of 18 on the Board of Trustees for the American Football Coaches Association that met this week in Phoenix, has some pretty good connections across the country and if his vibe in talking with these folks is that nobody else seems to be in the mood not to schedule FCS teams, then that’s a pretty good source.
The general reasoning behind the Big Ten scheduling model, you could probably assume, is a better TV matchup makes for better ratings, and hence more revenue for the league. And they believe FCS teams don’t make for good TV matchups, which in several cases is true. But does the average viewer/fan out there really care about the difference between Penn State playing Ball State or Youngstown State?
I see it as an issue that was brought up by the Big Ten and will just go away. And I put it under the bigger-fish-to-fry category. Also, this decision was made by athletic directors/administrators and eventually, some coaches in the Big Ten whose teams have no sniff at a national title may come to the conclusion bowl-eligible wins are more important than so-called good TV matchups. If all FBS teams took FCS games out of the equation, you have to wonder if there would be enough bowl eligible teams out there. That’s a lot of victories off the table.
Indiana has to play an FCS team. So should Minnesota, Illinois and Purdue.There are a few others like Iowa and Penn State who are in the midst of being mediocre. And, really, the Big Ten should ask this question for the greater good of college football: What is the right thing to do?
NDSU players heard another voice talk about complacency, and the dangers of it, this week when former Appalachian State head coach Jerry Moore came to Fargo. It was the idea of head coach Craig Bohl, who approached Moore about it at the coaches convention in January. Bohl and Moore go way back to when both were at the University of Nebraska, Bohl as a player and graduate assistant and Moore as the wide receivers coach.
Moore is an interesting guy. He apparently didn’t leave Appalachian on his terms but he also won’t compromise the school in any way, either. He said he wouldn’t have come here if App State hadn’t made the move to FBS. In other words, even though he’s no longer head coach and some say was pushed out because he wasn’t in favor of the school going FBS, he’s still mindful that a trip to another rival FCS school could be considered helping somebody other than the Mountaineers.
Moore talked to the players Tuesday night on the dangers of distractions. He told me that, yes, his program did win three straight FCS titles, but the talent was there to do five straight. Montana beat App State in the final seconds one year in the playoffs and a lack of focus by both players and coaches was the problem in 2008, one year after the third straight title.
My sense is he got the attention of the players. Quarterback Brock Jensen tweeted a photo of him and Moore, calling the coach a “legend.” It was a good move by Bohl bringing in another voice to talk about what it really takes to make it to a title game.
A few notes and thoughts before the video blog from today’s football scrimmage is posted:
Here’s a breaking news flash: the weather sucks.
It will eventually improve around here, I think, but that probably isn’t of any solace to some of the spring athletes around NDSU. I’m starting to wonder if there will be a home season at all for baseball and softball, especially baseball because of the wider area of the field and the knowledge of not beating up the field too bad with the RedHawks’ season right around the corner.
The kids you have to feel for are the seniors, guys like pitcher John Straka who is putting the finishing cap on one of the greatest careers ever at NDSU. We may not be able to see him this season. Or take reliever Kyle Kingsley, a Fargo South kid who may have a hard time seeing the field in his hometown.
The players are handling it well, said head coach Tod Brown. It’s a big reason why he recruits the Upper Midwest for his players, because they’ve been through it most of their lives and are able to get through it. Plus, it’s been bad in a lot of places, not just Fargo. If such records were kept, this must be a record year for postponements or cancellations across the country.
“They know the mental part of traveling, snow and temperatures and being able to make adjustments,” Brown said.
But it does take a toll, mostly on the offensive end of not being able to see live pitching outside. “Offensively, some of those things have showed up,” Brown said. “We’re getting plenty of swings in the cages, the pitchers are throwing off mounds and the pitchers are throwing strikes. The defense has held up. But offensively, we’re not as good as we could have been if we had more live reps.”
There are so many guys out of the lineup that I’m having a hard time keeping track of the roster this week, but after one week of spring football, there’s really not a whole lot to report. Freshman M.J. Stumpf has been getting work with the No. 1 linebacker trio with Travis Beck out. It’s been a learning experience for the freshman from Harvey, N.D. “Definitely a lot of stuff coming at me right now,” he said.
Other happenings:
I’m on alert.The reporter radar in me is suspicious of this Ball State men’s basketball opening and how it could connect with Saul Phillips. If you think about it, it could make some sense.
It’s obvious the Cardinals have already been looking this way as evidenced by SDSU’s Scott Nagy acknowledging that he interviewed, but declined to pursue it further. The Star Press newspaper in Muncie, Ind., reported BSU is down to a list of finalists, but the names and numbers are not known. The paper did confirm one candidate in Eastern Kentucky coach Jeff Neubauer. Also interviewing, according to the report, was Bellarmine head coach Scott Davenport. If the Cardinals are looking at SDSU, Bellarmine and Eastern Kentucky, it shows the school may be looking for an established head coach from a mid-major or below rather than an assistant from a major conference. Update: Arizona assistant James Whitford is said to be in the mix and a leading candidate.
Phillips is 108-77 in six years at NDSU and has that always-valuable resume tool of having been at a Big Ten Conference school. He won 24 games this year; he’s an attractive candidate. Why Saul? Why now? He’ll have a standout team returning but remember Tim Miles left for Colorado State with Ben Woodside, Brett Winkelman, Mike Nelson and Lucas Moormann coming back for their senior seasons. That was the team Phillips led to the NCAA tournament. CSU also paid $450,000 and the Mountain West is a better league than the Mid-American Conference.
Saul has turned in a nice track record of recruiting good players to a place that is hard to recruit good players; an aging arena in Fargo, N.D. Also consider the stability of the Summit League, which is looking a tad shaky at the moment with the departure of Oral Roberts and UMKC and the reported upcoming departure of Oakland University to the Horizon League. Phillips signed a five-year contract with a base of $121,900 in 2008 with annual raises of 4 percent. It’s probably a good bet Ball State and the MAC can offer much more than that. What if BSU, which paid its last coach somewhere north of $200,000, came up with 300K a year?
Repeat, other than rumor, there is no concrete evidence that Phillips is seriously considered a candidate, yet. I heard from a guy in the college basketball world that he did interview, or at least was contacted, but take that for what it’s worth: an unconfirmed sentence. But what makes me most suspicious is this: Phillips is The Great Communicator, one of the best in the business, who is usually accessible (we appreciate that) and always returns messages. He hasn’t returned a phone call left yesterday or text message. Or maybe he lost his phone.
But my experience is when these things are in the process of going down, coaches go into a bunker.
I’ve seen a lot of Bison basketball practices over the years, although nothing to the extent of what we’re seeing with the Rutgers head men’s coach. How Mike Rice did not get fired over that is somewhat amazing.Update: He did get canned, although a few months too late IMO.
The worst coach-to-player meltdown I saw still makes me laugh. It was in Greg McDermott’s first year and the coach was not pleased with Denver TenBroek’s defense. So for what seemed like a half hour, McDermott chased Denver all over the court yelling at him “you’re killing us” on defense. I was impressed that McDermott could move that well. Denver was a great scorer, but perhaps the other end of the court was a challenge at the time. I think he got the message.
If Saul Phillips gets after his guys, it’s not in public view at the BSA. There’s the occasional yelling shot, like all coaches, but for the most part as long as the effort seems there, the coach stays rather even keel. Interesting tweet yesterday from former NDSU player Andre Smith, now playing professionally in Russia, who said “Rutgers coach rice would have had that ass whooped the first time he ever put his hands on me in practice if he was my coach!”
There have been a few humorous tweets by others, such as Mike Rice’s summer camp will no longer include dodge ball. But this is no laughing matter. I’d be surprised if both the coach and athletic director are not gone after this with the president taking some heat, also. It’s never good when the governor chimes in with some constructive criticism on how it was handled.
It’s over in the FCS for Georgia Southern and Appalachian State; both will announce Wednesday they will be moving to FBS. The alarm bell for FCS, if it hadn’t rang already when Massachusetts and Old Dominion took the FBS move, has certainly sounded now. What will happen from here? Will James Madison and Delaware be next?
How will this affect NDSU and the rest of the Missouri Valley Football Conference?
If the remaining FCS power schools are smart, they will wait and see what becomes of GSU and App State. Flash back to Western Kentucky, which bolted the Missouri Valley (formerly Gateway) and took several years to get up to FBS snuff. For a while, WKU was the worst team in its division.
It will be interesting how UMass does in the MAC. It will be curious how Old Dominion does in Conference USA. These moves, in relative terms, are new to the FBS. It would be wise for JMU and Delaware to see the body of FCS-to-FBS work before taking the plunge.
There are success stories, Marshall comes to mind, although it has been tempered lately — the Thundering Herd went 5-7 last season. The Sun Belt, future home of GSU and App State, isn’t exactly a role call of great programs. It’s mainly a directional-school mix with Arkansas State being the league’s best last year at 10-3. Did Arkansas State get national notoriety? Maybe, maybe not.
I ran into a few prominent Georgia Southern boosters last December when the Eagles came to the Fargodome, and kept hearing how the TV money will factor into the GSU FBS decision. Maybe, that outweighs any benefits of FCS playoffs. Right now, sitting in this chair in Fargo, N.D., I’m not convinced. I was convinced moving to Division I was the right move for NDSU from Day 1, before Day 1. I’ll never forget watching Augustana at less than a half-full dome thinking this is ridiculous.
I don’t have that same feeling with the FBS thing, not right now anyway. I need further evidence that FCS schools making the leap to FBS is the right thing to do. Maybe it’s the right thing for GSU and App State, but NDSU would have more hurdles and it starts with geography and a stadium that can’t be expanded past 18,700. Let’s not forget about a much bigger budget and if you want to be good in FBS, you gotta pay up.
You can say you want NDSU to go FBS, but with those three factors, there is no choice. The Bison are not moving up anytime soon.
Also consider a reason for FBS football is the perception that FCS basketball programs are I-AA, or even Division II. There’s truth to that, but for most of the FCS outside of the east coast, and specifically the southeast, there’s probably not much that can be done about that for the immediate future, if not several years into the future.
