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  • Commentary from Hod Nielsen

    For what its worth:

    http://www.yankton.net/stories/08140...40814001.shtml

    The NCC Sure Won't Be The Same This Year
    BY HOD NIELSEN
    sports@yankton.net

    No, it won't be the same -- that old North Central Conference.

    The boss man, commissioner Mike Marcil, has decided to switch to another league, this one near his old home in Florida, where he lived before taking over the North Central reins from Noel Olson a few years ago and did a fine job. His reason? I have no argument with Mike, who became a valued friend of mine -- one for who I have a great deal of respect.

    His leaving at this time, however, comes at a time when the North Central Conference is unsettled . It's not in a panic, to be sure, but it's rattled more than a little because two of the charter members, the Bison of North Dakota State and the Jackrabbits of South Dakota State, are not on the league schedules as the football season nears kickoff. For the first time in more than 75 years, these two regular contenders for honors in the NCC -- the athletic family that they helped to success -- are not members.

    They have left their long-time cohorts for greener pastures, smelling the pot of gold that the major colleges in the NCAA Division I, possess, hoping to get a chunk of it if (there is an "if&quot they can compete in those lofty places.

    SDSU and NDSU aren't the first NCC members to change. The University of Northern Iowa, for example, was a member of the NCC back in the days when it was the Iowa State Teachers College, and it has successfully moved up the ladder. Nebraka-Omaha and Minnesota State-Mankato have moved out and then returned, and Northern Colorado has moved on to D-I. Also, Morningside decided, for budgetary reasons, to move to the GPAC, an excellent NAIA entity. And there were others in the distant past.

    There are those who think that the two defectors have made a mistake -- that they are dreaming when they think that they can compete successfully in that exalted class of competition, D-I. That may be true, but there are also those who praise the effort -- the "nothing ventured, nothing gained" element of our society."

    The decision of the two new dropouts won't be a killing blow to the NCC, even if they in effect, say, "We're better than you are." They made that statement in spite of the fact their overall programs, although competitive, were certainly not dominant in the overall North Central schedules -- or in the NCAA Division II regional and national tournaments. They did have representative teams and even a few national titles -- but most of the time they were just "one of the boys" or "girls." Their programs will have to be substantially improved.

    The seven fine schools who now make up the North Central Conference, while they will miss the now-defunct traditional contests (in all sports) are busy getting ready to roll in another exciting, competitive season.

    The six who remain have been joined by another fine school, one who is no stranger to NCC schools, the Minnesota State-Duluth Bulldogs out of the Northern Sun Conference. The other six -- the University of South Dakota, University of North Dakota, University of Nebraska-Omaha, Augustana College, St. Cloud State, and Minnesota State-Mankato -- won't miss a beat. Again, every game will be hotly contested and every foe respected. It's a great family.

    The NCC interim commissioner, Melanie Nelson, another long-time friend, and her associate commissioner Jon J. Martin, and their office -- as they have in the past -- will keep an eye and an ear open for another new member so they can have a more workable eight-team conference. But that eventuality is not in the foreseeable future.

    Oh, I nearly forgot. Us poor kids who are left in D-II wish our bigger brothers who are leaving home all the best. Don't forget us.
    We are here to add what we can to life, not get what we can from life. -Sir William Osler

    We do not see things as they are, we see things as we are.

  • #2
    Re: Commentary from Hod Nielsen

    Hod comments are pretty much what you would expect out of the USD family. As the move begins to have legs and reality, of course then there is a left behind feeling.

    My we should send Hod a compliementy copy of "College on Hill", which includes stories that cover several decades that show SDSU more than equal to USD. USD has a legacy of being second in South Dakota state schools. USD has never had the upper hand in much of anything. They have on more one occasion tried to move the College of Engineering to Rapid City. I think that the Late Hilton Briggs describe that notion of 1970's best when he said " It makes as much sense as a cattle breeder casterating his prize bull."

    The attempted castration is still going. First it was the horrible t-shirts last winter and now in the form of an senior veteran Sportswriter named Hod Neilson talking about the NCC.

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    • #3
      Re: Commentary from Hod Nielsen

      This friggin' retard must have no clue what schools won the majority of the National Championships while in the NCC-

      NDSU-17 (plus 3 in the college division before DI/DII)
      SDSU-8
      UNC-2
      UND-4
      UNO-4
      Mankato-3 (only 2 in NCC sponsored sports)
      USD-2
      Augustana-1
      SCSU-0
      UMD-0

      So let's look at the numbers- The three teams that left the NCC have a total of 30 national championships amongst them. The two Dakota schools have more NC's together than the rest of the NCC. The new NCC with over twice as many schools( and even giving them a NC in a sport not sponsored by the NCC) only have 14. Three schools had over 2/3rds of the national championships in the NCC.

      This guy could be in a hurricane and would probably say it was breezy and drizzling. : : :

      Numbers don't lie.

      Don't forget about the members of the NCC? LOL ;D ;D ;D More like don't back out of contracts with NDSU, and we'll remember you.

      This Yankton article is Napolean Complex at it's best in writing.

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: Commentary from Hod Nielsen

        Best of luck to the NCC, and as Bob Hope used to say "Thanks for the memories" it was fun.

        Go State! ;D

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