Tom Douple to appear on "In the Zone"

[jeffculhane]

Mid-Con Commissioner Tom Douple will appear today at 4:05 on "In the Zone" on ESPN Radio 1570 "The Ticket." We will discuss the Mid-Con visits at all three sites and get his reaction about the Mid-Con site visits.

[89rabbit]

Re: Tom Douple to appear on "In the Zone"

Here is a link:

http://www.kvht.com/category.cfm?cat_id=12


Go State!

[NorCalJack]

Re: Tom Douple to appear on "In the Zone"

I would appreciate it if someone could recap the interview, since I can't listen to it at work.

Thanks

Go State!!! 8-) 8-) 8-)

[filbert]

Re: Tom Douple to appear on "In the Zone"

I would appreciate it if someone could recap the interview, since I can't listen to it at work.

Thanks

Go State!!! 8-) 8-) 8-)

I'll see how fast I can type, I've got the Internet feed up now.

[filbert]

Re: Tom Douple to appear on "In the Zone"

Jeff Culhane's questions, Douple's answers in the Quote boxes (any errors in transcription are mine alone )

What have you discovered about the three universities, what do these three have to offer the Mid-Con?

All three are very distinct and unique, IPFW is a metropolitan area, Ft. Wayne second largest city in the state, very young university, commuter school, not a lot of athletic history, their move has been recent. NDSU less populous, but 175,000 in Fargo metro, large land grant university with 45 doctoral programs, very good D-II history, SDSU smaller town, near a growing city of Sioux Falls, land-grant with a good D-II history. Each institution had a unique perspective on how they'd fit into the conference, what they had to offer regarding attendance records and how they'd fit. Each had a sincere desire to be part of the conference.

How well do the schools you visited fit with the schools now in the conference?

I'd go a step further, we looked at a number of areas. We had a businesslike approach, interviewed 100-150 people on campus with seven team members. We looked at academics, student athlete welfare, facilities maintenance, event management, we had over seventy individual meetings on each campus. Very intense for the universities involved.

How did the info you gathered compare to what you were looking for?

We're getting the reports from the site members, due by Friday of this week. The positives is that they're all strong academic institutions, that came across very clearly.

How did Couglin-Alumni and Frost compare to Fargo, Ft. Wayne, and the rest of the conference?

Frost Arena is a very nice facility, scoreboards, chair-back seating, very good atmosphere, entrance, parking, locker rooms, training room areas were adequate, we felt good about that.

Thoughts about hosting conference tournaments at the cities?

There were some stronger facilities -- SDSU finishing a new softball facility

(and then my Internet dropped out for a while)

We host our indoor track meet at Illinois Wesleyan, the year before at Northern Arizona, that's moved around a bit.

What about Fargo and Brookings as travel partners--travel from Fargo to Brookings?

We play not only men's and women's basketball, but women's soccer and volleyball as well. 2 1/2 hours to get between the instititions is closer than most of our current conference members. Obviously travel to get there--Tulsa or Shreveport or Oakland into Sioux Falls is a bit more expensive than normal travel, it isn't getting any cheaper, that's a concern.

What is the process--how is this presented to the presidents, what is the main point you're going to drive forward?

I'll receive 21 site visits this weekend, I'll take next week, maybe the week after and compile and summarize the reports, putting together the issues we've talked about, the fiscal, compliance, student welfare, academic support, academics, game management, facilities, game operations, overall operations, and governance. Then we'll make the reports available to the presidents and then we'll discuss it.

Was there a positive general consensus regarding what you'd seen?

We discussed positives, negatives, all issues. We met after the first day's visit, reviewed what we'd found, areas we were concerned about and needed another look. Then the second day we followed up. That's what we're gathering up right now. We'll make some recommendations, some feedback to the universities.

Universities of North Dakota and South Dakota--the Mid-Con has had a lot of movement recently. If the Mid-Con expands again, are the Dakotas somewhere you can feel comfortable about for additional candidates?

We play one game at a time--we're still working on this round, we're not looking forward beyond that yet.

Thanks.

Thanks, and we appreciate your interest, the media's interest, that was something we also evaluated during the visit.

[filbert]

Re: Tom Douple to appear on "In the Zone"

My impression was that Douple was a) a bit tired and/or b) not really willing to say anything one way or another. The latter is probably a reasonable public position for him to take right now.

[Haldersham]

Re: Tom Douple to appear on "In the Zone"

Commissioner Douple was very consistent with his answers  to Jeff's questions. Among the questions was there a problem with SDSU hosting events in Sioux Falls. His answer was no, since the Mid Con conference track meet was held in all places Flagstaff Arizona. I suppose the host school was SUU in Cedar City Utah. How far is it between these two towns.   A bunch of miles. Also another conference event was held at Illionios Wesleyan maybe close to MaComb and Western Ill.? So 50 miles to Sioux Falls is no big deal, not as much as some USD homers would like everyone to think.