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Mid-Con Commissioner Tom Douple will appear at 3:25 today on "In the Zone" on SportsRadio 1570 The Ticket to discuss the state of the Mid-Con and possible expansion. Listen online at kvht.com. Also with the Big Sky Presidents meeting this week we hope to have Doug Fullerton on very soon.
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Re: Tom Douple
Thanks for the heads up. Here is a link:
http://www.kvht.com/category.cfm?cat_id=12
Go State!
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Re: Tom Douple
I'm up on the web feed. We'll see if Douple lets anything slip . . ."I think we'll be OK"Comment
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Re: Tom Douple
I cant seem to get the feed. anything interesting yet?Comment
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Re: Tom Douple
Douple's comments:
I missed the last 1/2 of the interview. From what I heard it sounded pretty positive.Looking to expand within 6 months
Mid-Con has been looking at expansion for last 6 years
Looking to add 1-4 schools
Fred Oien and President Miller did an "outstanding job" putting together info submitted to Mid Con
Great West is one of the top DIAA football conferences in the countryComment
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Re: Tom Douple
Douple interview (mostly paraphrased, I think I got the gist of it):
How has your first year as Mid-Con commissioner been? The first seven or eight months have been "interesting." Chicago State withdrew from the conference, we knew that was a possibility. We had a fantastic year in women's basketball--best ever for the Mid-Con, first time our women's championship game was broadcast nationwide on ESPNU. All of our men's tournament games were either webcast or broadcast back to the members' TV markets.
What's the 'State of the Mid-Con?' The Mid-Con is going to be strong for the future. Valpo was one of our founding members, and will participate next year. We're looking at all of our options for expansion, we have different options such as associate membership and bringing in one to four full members.
How urgent is the expansion issue? Urgency can be defined a lot of ways--we'd like to get something done in the next six months. We've been looking at expansion in the league for the past six years--ever since I was AD at Southern Utah. One of the things I wanted to do when I became commissioner was to monitor the landscape--I asked South Dakota State to fill out a profile--Fred Oien and the administration at SDSU put together an outstanding profile, that we're going to share with our members. There's a lot of unknowns in the conference about South Dakota State and the other potential members out there.
What are we looking for in new members? First, we want to find members that want to be part of our conference, that will be good members. We want to look at the academic background of the institution. Is there a commitment to athletics? Attendance and media exposure, all of those things will be looked at.
Great West Football Conference was #1 in conference RPI in its first year, and was #3 last year, the institutions banded together for one purpose: for the betterment of the student athletes. As you saw last year our champion got an at-large bid and went up to Montana and beat them. NDSU, SDSU are excellent members of that conference. We're incorporating the Great West into the Mid-Con (ed-I'm not sure he meant this quite like this--GWFC is administered by the Mid-Con).
I'm doing a lot of homework--SDSU has only had three games rained out or cancelled in baseball in the last (few) years. I talked to Fred about expansion when I first came in as commissioner. This isn't something that we're having a knee-jerk reaction about, it's something we've been working with. I have a very good relationship with both NDSU and SDSU.
What's the biggest concern with expansion? Travel/location is the #1 concern. One of the Athletic Directors thought it was five or six hours between (NDSU and SDSU), so it's an education process. The schools are close to the east, almost in Minnesota. What is it going to cost to get my softball team up there, my baseball team up there every year. When you put that all together, it's $70-80,000 extra cost for each member. That's a bunch at our level.
Travel partner or not, you don't have travel partners for baseball or softball. For basketball or volleyball, it works fine. The money I talked about includes both NDSU and SDSU for basketball, volleyball, and soccer road trips.
What about the U. of North Dakota? Would the Mid-Con take a school straight out of Division II? Never say never about anything--the NDSU and SDSU presidents stood up and said "we want to go Division I" and compete at the highest level. I don't know a thing about the University of North Dakota. For us to offer to them before they (move up), I don't see that happening while I'm Commissioner.
What's the plan for the conference going forward? Currently we're putting together all of the information on the profiles the conference has received, the pictures, etc. and we're looking at travel costs and scheduling. That info will be shared in the next three weeks with the AD's, Women's administrators, and presidents. Right now, expansion is the only agenda item. We'll make a presentation at the conference meeting and go from there. Over the summer, I expect us to take some kind of action."I think we'll be OK"Comment
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Re: Tom Douple
That was about as positive an interview as I'd expect to hear from an athletic conference commissioner. He's not really in a position to make the decision, so he's going about the business of collecting information and putting it in front of the conference presidents and athletic officials."I think we'll be OK"Comment
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Re: Tom Douple
thanks, Jeff, for that interview. It was very, very informative.Originally posted by jeffculhane"I think we'll be OK"Comment
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Re: Tom Douple
thanks, Jeff, for that interview. It was very, very informative.[/quote]Originally posted by filbert
Reading through the transcript of the interview it was very informative and commissioners like other executive directors of just about any organizaion serve at the pleasure of the board. So Douples very careful comments are to be expected.
To have Tom Douple take this much interest in SDSU and NDSU is extremely helpful as these guys are the ones that affect agenda's such as the Mid Continent President's board meeting that is coming up. His input will be valued by the board members, namely presidents of the current conference members.
If the Mid Continent Conference gets a certain amount of money from the big dance, and if they really want SDSU and NDSU, they could earmark some of the big dance money to subsidize all conference members for softball, soccer, and baseball travel. Its going to cost SDSU and NDSU to go SUU and other places too, so to me this might be one way of working this all out and strengthen the conference in the process.
I am not surprised about his comments about UND. If you recall, one of the reasons that Peggy made the move decision was based on her telephone calls to various presidents, who wanted to know where was SDSU paperwork for moving to D1? I don't think that Carr Associates really thought that recommendation about finding a conference through too much, but probably made it based on their experience with schools who have move to D1 without a strong alumni base and commitment to find a conference and consequently had a very bad experience. Having the conference first is not workable for SDSU and NDSU nor would it be for UND. North Florida and Kennesaw are in a completely different situation, and that conference whose name escapes me needed members. Apparently the Mid Continent is somewhat in that position now with Valpo's departure and with ducks in a row, we will be considered very seriously for admission.
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Re: Tom Douple
Mr. Douple is obviously very comfortable with SDSU and the fact that we are in the conference for swimming/diving bodes very well.
Hopefully I'm not reading through blue and yellow glasses but that sounded very positive for SDSU. Let's hope thing move quickly!!!!
SUPERBUNNYMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM, BIZUN!!!Comment
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Re: Tom Douple
thanks, Jeff, for that interview. It was very, very informative.[/quote]Originally posted by filbert
Let me second that. Much credit to "In the Zone" for having a DI conference commissioner who is interested in a South Dakota school on their radio broadcast. Let your sponsors know I will be supporting them. Several others in the state could learn from this, could being the operative word.
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.Comment
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Re: Tom Douple
thanks, Jeff, for that interview. It was very, very informative.[/quote]Originally posted by jackmd
Let me second that. Much credit to "In the Zone" for having a DI conference commissioner who is interested in a South Dakota school on their radio broadcast. Let your sponsors know I will be supporting them. Several others in the state could learn from this, could being the operative word.
[/quote]
I also do appreciate the interest "In the Zone" has taken in SDSU our quest into DI. I'm not sure what Brookings has for sports shows other than "Sports Talk with Brad and Scotty" (which is a good program but, from my limited experience listening to the show, seems aimed at area high school teams--which is good). And I doubt Criag and Mike would ever think about having the Mid-Con commish on.
Good work Jeff Culhane.
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Re: Tom Douple
I was thinking the same thing...i had never listened to Jeff Culhane before yesterday (and honestly thought "In the Zone" was a USD/D2 Blowhole that could care less about SDSU or NDSU athletics) but i was very impressed. Even when Mick Garry was on and took a few potshots at the Mid-Con and D1, Jeff backed up the conference and move. That is something we would never see from our radio friends in Sioux Falls. I was very impressed with the show, Mr. Culhane, and Mr. Douple. "In the Zone" probably just won my 3pm-5pm radio business, i will continue to listen.
"I'd like to thank the good Lord for making me a Yankee." - Joe D.Comment
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Re: Tom Douple
Another thing this interview does is it allows Douple to go back to his presidents and say that he's getting interview requests from radio stations outside Sioux Falls. That can't hurt SDSU's reputation with the Mid-Con Presidents.
I doubt that he's getting phone calls from small-town radio stations two hours away from IPFW asking about the Mastodon's chances of getting into the Mid-Con.
South Dakota looks like a "small market" but it's not really that small at all. It's just spread out."I think we'll be OK"Comment
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Re: Tom Douple
I've been listening to In The Zone for close to a year now and Jeff and former host Lane Grindle do a nice job with this show, definitely better than Craig and Mike's show. But before we get all warm and fuzzy with this Vermillion crowd I would ask that all Jacks Fans listen to the show for a while. Jeff, Kevin Culhane, and Mick Garry have all taken unfair shots at SDSU and the DI move. None the less they do a good job of bringing guests on the show and their off the wall criticism of SDSU is so extreme at times I find it some what humorus.Comment
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