The Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference has long referred itself as the No. 1 NCAA Division III conference in the nation. Conference coaches and athletic directors have also cried foul in recent years as it has become extremely tough to schedule non-conference games.
On the heels of last summer’s WIAC memorandum indicating that the conference will be restricting teams to no more than one trip during the regular-season outside of an established regional perimeter. Another portion of the “cost-cutting” memorandum said the WIAC is exploring the feasibility of scheduling one additional WIAC football team as a nonconference game beginning with the 2011 season.
The 2011 WIAC non-conference football memorandum has drawn fire from several conference schools.
I understand the “cost-cutting” theme to the proposal – I just don’t know if “cost-cutting” was the primary emphasis of the measure. I do know that one or two WIAC athletic directors had pushed for the WIAC “non-conference” game for the past three or four years. That’s back when the economy was rather robust.
As far as 2010 football schedules are concerned, all schools were able to put a 10-game schedule together by May-2010.
During the first four weeks of the upcoming season WIAC football teams will play 10 non-conference games against team ranked in the Top-25 in either NCAA Division III or NAIA preseason polls.
I’m not sure how the WIAC views its identity nation-wide, but to impose such scheduling limits would certainly not help the conferences marketing brand especially if a WIAC school could not go deep into the Division III playoffs.
UW-Whitewater’s current five straight trips to play Mount Union in the Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl has been a boon for promotion of WIAC football around the nation.
It would be a shame to lose a good chunk of that credibility by instituting a rule that would force WIAC schools one “in conference-non-conference” game per season.
What next – put a rule in that you can play the game but not keep score because it might negatively affect the losing team??!!
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