NCAA – Page 86 – David Shama's Minnesota Sports Headliners

D-1 NCAA Vote on Tommies Next Week

Posted on June 9, 2020June 9, 2020 by David Shama

Phil Esten, vice president and director of athletics at the University of St. Thomas, told Sports Headliners Monday the NCAA will vote next week whether to approve the Tommies’ request to participate in Division I sports starting with the 2021-2022 school year.

That vote was to have happened in April but got postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Tommies are requesting a transition from Division III status to Division I after involuntarily being removed from the D-3 MIAC starting in 2021-2022.

Historically, the NCAA does not allow immediate transition from D-3 to D-1 but for various reasons it’s believed the Tommies are a likely exception. “I remain optimistic (about approval),” Esten said.

Playing at the D-1 level would allow St. Thomas athletes to test themselves against far better competition. After the MIAC’s decision to ask the Tommies to find another home (conference presidents thought UST was too dominant in athletics), school leadership contemplated whether to remain at D-3, or transition to a higher level. The D-1 alternative became more realistic when the Summit League extended an invitation to the Tommies last fall.

The Summit not only provides a home for 19 of the Tommies’ 22 sports (football and men’s and women’s hockey excluded) but the NCAA can also look at other favorable factors encouraging a vote of approval for D-1 status. While the private school has a small undergraduate enrollment of about 6,000, it has a prominent history of academic and athletic success, with generous funding including alumni support. Unlike many states Minnesota only has one D-1 program with the University of Minnesota, so the big time college sports platform here is not crowded.

The Twin Cities media market has to be attractive to the NCAA and Summit League whose full participation schools (all sports offered) in 2019-2020 were Denver, North Dakota, North Dakota State, Omaha, Oral Roberts, South Dakota, South Dakota State and Western Illinois. St. Thomas’ presence in the revenue producing sport of men’s basketball is a plus for future Summit League TV and corporate sponsorship deals. The recruiting base of Twin Cities athletes is also a major asset for Summit League schools.

The COVID-19 epidemic has made the major college athletics landscape uncertain in regard to future revenues. There is plenty of speculation about drastically reducing athletic department budgets including travel. More regional (less national) travel seems all but certain, and that is another reason why Esten believes a D-1 program in the Upper Midwest could benefit not just the Tommies but other schools looking for shorter travel distances with their schedules.

With the Summit League not an option, Esten said he is still “sorting” through where his hockey programs will find new conference homes, but the plan is for the Tommies to be part of the non-scholarship Pioneer Football League whose 10-members last fall consisted of Butler, Davidson, Dayton, Drake, Jacksonville, Marist, Morehead State, San Diego, Stetson, and Valparaiso.

Some of those schools are not exactly located just around the corner from the St. Thomas campus, and travel along with the usual expenses associated with the sport of football will certainly contribute to an overall UST athletics budget expected to jump from about $5 million annually to perhaps $10 million.

Esten declined to offer specifics on budgets but the foreseeable future will have St. Thomas subsidizing its athletics budget as in the past, with revenues not matching expenses. On the fields and courts the Tommies will face more difficult opposition and there could be one-sided results for awhile, with Esten saying the school goes into D-1 territory with “eyes wide open.”

St. Thomas coaches already have and are recruiting D-1 caliber athletes. The Tommies are accustomed to winning championships, and even on the national stage coaches like John Tauer from men’s basketball and football’s Glenn Caruso have had their teams in the news as NCAA D-3 championship contenders.

St. Thomas president Julie Sullivan wrote about the Division I process in an October, 2019 article on the school’s website last fall. In that article she expressed what the school sees as the value of transitioning to D-1 status. “This decision is about more than athletics – it’s about advancing our vision to be a leading Catholic university recognized at the national level. An important outcome of increasing St. Thomas’ visibility, for example, is an ability to attract a more geographically diverse cross section of students who are accomplished in and out of the classroom.

“This additional representation would add value to classroom discussions, campus life, co-curricular activities and virtually every aspect of St. Thomas while providing St. Thomas with the opportunity to extend the reach of our mission and impact. The presence of Division I sports teams will also build on the strong Tommie fan loyalty and provide the campus and alumni with more engaging fan experiences.”

St. Thomas has the internal commitment to become D-1, and now all it needs is NCAA approval next week.

Comments Welcome

Gophers’ Meyer Ranks with Glen Perkins

Posted on June 2, 2020June 2, 2020 by David Shama

Enjoy a Tuesday notes column…

The Minnesota Twins, selecting at No. 27 in next week’s MLB Draft, aren’t positioned to acquire University of Minnesota pitcher Max Meyer from Woodbury. Speculation this spring is the sophomore right-hander will be selected among the first 10 picks, and Gophers coach John Anderson told Sports Headliners Meyer “may be top five.”

Anderson, the Gopher coach since 1981, ranks Meyer and Glen Perkins his two best pitchers ever. The St. Paul-born Perkins was selected No. 22 in the first round by the Twins in June of 2004, and later became a big time reliever for Minnesota.

Anderson said Meyer has a superb work ethic and trained hard to achieve his success as both a reliever and starter for the Gophers. Meyer caught the attention of scouts this spring with a slider moving at an impressive spin rate. His other top pitches are a changeup and fast ball that has reached 100 miles per hour, Anderson added.

Meyer finished his Gopher career with a lifetime 2.07 ERA (fourth best all-time in the program), with 187 strikeouts in 148 innings pitched. His 18 saves are the third-most in 132 seasons of the program’s history.

Jerry Kline Jr. told Sports Headliners yesterday there have been “no conversations” with Treyton Thompson or his family this spring about transferring to Cretin-Derham Hall. Conjecture in recent weeks has Thompson, a top 100 prep player for the class of 2021 and a verbal commit to the Gophers, playing his senior season for coach Kline.

Thompson, a native of Alexandria, Minnesota and a power forward, played as a junior at La Lumiere School in Indiana last year. He and his family inquired more than 12 months ago about a transfer to CDH but that wasn’t possible because metro area residence is required. It’s not known if Thompson is looking at other options than La Lumiere for his senior season.

The Raiders lose four starters from last season’s team but return Trejuan Holloman, a junior point guard drawing national attention from recruiters. He is an unselfish playmaker who consistently gets others involved. “He’s a fun player to play with, and he’s a fun kid to coach, and he’s all about team,” Kline said.

No high school player from the state will be the object of more attention next winter than Minnehaha Academy 7-footer Chet Holmgren, who both ESPN and 247Sports rank as the No. 2 prep player nationally in the class of 2021. Despite his size, he has extraordinary versatility including ball handling. Holmgren’s shooting and shot blocking are also among his most noticeable skills.

Kline refers to him as unique. “He’s just a phenomenal player and he’s only going to get better,” Kline said.

Chet weighs less than 200 pounds and is similar in size to his father David Holmgren who played four seasons as a reserve for the Gophers from 1984-1988. “He hadn’t really filled out yet when I had him,” said Jim Dutcher, who coached David his first two seasons.

A scholarship player, David played in 57 games, starting three times during his Gopher career. He averaged 1 point and .08 rebounds per game in limited minutes during at Minnesota after being a standout center at Prior Lake High School.

Tomorrow (Wednesday) was originally supposed to be the last day college basketball players could withdraw their names from the NBA Draft and still be eligible for next season. The NCAA nixed the June 3 date awhile ago and has yet to announce a new deadline. That gives Marcus Carr, Minnesota’s best player if he returns to the team, more time to contemplate whether his immediate future is with the Gophers or pros.

My guess as to Carr’s draft appeal to NBA clubs? At best, mid to late second round.

Happy birthday to Minnesota hockey legend Lou Nanne who turns 79 today.

It was eight years ago yesterday that media icon Dark Star (real name George Chapple) died at his home in Minnetonka. A character among characters, Dark loved sports including horse racing and is a member of Canterbury Park’s Hall of Fame.

The current issue of Sports Illustrated devotes its cover and 10 inside pages to the financial “crisis” facing minor league baseball. The article begins with this: “In response to an SI survey on the effects of the pandemic, three-quarters of teams express serious concerns over either their survival or that of fellow clubs.”

College football is second only to the NFL in “core fans,” per a news release last week from the National Football Foundation. The release cited a Gallup poll that reported college football’s popularity surpassed the American professional sports of baseball, basketball, hockey and soccer.

The Gophers had the third largest jump in attendance among FBS schools in 2019, with an average of 8,275 more in average announced attendance for seven home games. Minnesota’s average for the season was 46,190 versus 37,915 in 2018.

Comments Welcome

U Coach May Help Change Baseball

Posted on May 29, 2020May 29, 2020 by David Shama

For decades the Gophers’ John Anderson has been advocating a later calendar start to college baseball’s season. Minnesota’s head baseball coach since 1981 thought a change might be coming about 20 years ago when Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany was taking up the cause.

Delany was about to meet with power brokers from other conferences in early September of 2001. Then the terrorism of September 11 rocked America and changed the direction of priorities in countless ways including a proposal that was to dramatically alter college baseball.

This winter the COVID-19 pandemic arrived and shuttered sports including college baseball. The Gophers stopped play in mid-March, finishing with an 8-10 record—all nonconference games. All of a sudden the Big Ten baseball coaches had time to think about the future of their sport.

Even before the pandemic most college sports, including baseball, had financial issues. Hardly any programs make money, and most operate at a large deficit. Anderson said he has a $1.8 million budget, with $200,000 in revenues. In the Big Ten, Wisconsin dropped its program years ago. This spring Bowling Green and Furman pulled the plug on baseball, and Anderson calls this “a scary time for mid-majors.”

The financial issues in most college sports, including scholarships, staff salaries, facilities, and travel weigh heavier than ever now, with the uncertainty of when and how the “cash cows” of college football and basketball will resume play and with what box office results. The University of Minnesota has 25 intercollegiate sports but historically only football, men’s basketball and men’s hockey have been money makers. Their revenues have long carried the total Athletic Department budget.

Because of the pandemic, the Gopher Athletic Department has been forecasting tens of millions of dollars in future losses, with a worst case number of $70 million. Everyone wonders at Minnesota and elsewhere what kinds of measures will be taken to deal with deficits including the most extreme of options—eliminating some nonrevenue sports.

Anderson told Sports Headliners this week “it will be interesting to see where this thing leads us.” He added, “I think more (baseball) programs are going to be in trouble…so we’ve got to get busy here and find ways to make our sport better from a financial standpoint.”

He and his Big Ten coaching colleagues have accepted the challenge this spring by talking about changing their sport’s annual calendar. With extra time available (no coaching or recruiting), they have been meeting weekly via Zoom calls. The result has been a 35-page proposal that remakes the Division 1 college baseball calendar with potential benefits not only to finances but also student academics and health.

The Gopher coach provided research for the “New Baseball Model” document written this spring, a collaborative effort involving many others, too, including Michigan coach Erik Bakich. The model suggests the college baseball season begin the third week of March, with the schedule continuing into late June. The first round of the NCAA Tournament would be played in early July and lead to determining a national champion later that month—a period when there is not a glut of TV sports programming and interest in spectator sports.

Contrast that schedule proposal with this year that had teams like the Gophers starting play in February and ending the regular season before Memorial Day. Even in February and March weather is a crapshoot for college baseball teams including in the south. Cold, wind and precipitation can keep fans away from games at Minnesota or other places in early spring.

What Anderson and others believe is better weather for more games will generate not only increased ticket sales, but also improved revenues such as concessions and parking. The later start to the season, it’s argued, will mean college baseball doesn’t have to compete with basketball’s “March Madness,” and college baseball will more directly align with spring interest in pro baseball. The timing of becoming a spring-summer sport, Anderson said, will also enhance programming for the Big Ten Network whose broadcast opportunities are normally more limited toward the end of the school year.

Promoting college baseball in the spring and summer could be coming at the right time with the predicted demise of minor league baseball franchises for financial reasons. If teams fold, that will leave a void for baseball in many markets, and one that college baseball will sometimes fill.

In a new college baseball world, Anderson and many other coaches across the country see not only revenues going up, but expenses being reduced. The Gophers and other northern teams annually travel south in March for games, hoping for warm weather. Anderson said four weekends can cost $200,000 or more in expenses.

But a later start to the season would put the focus on early regional nonconference games where Minnesota might travel no further than Nebraska for games against Nebraska-Omaha and Creighton. In a new schedule scenario the Gophers might not have any annual airplane travel, or just one trip, Anderson said.

Anderson talks about increasing revenues, reducing expenses and being what he terms less of a “burden” on the Minnesota Athletic Department. “That’s going to be critical going forward here because I don’t think it will ever be the same financially after this (period) is over with,” he said.

The “New Baseball Model” says the current college baseball calendar that has players juggling time early in the winter/spring semester “forces numerous days of missed classes.” The later start to the baseball schedule (winter/spring semesters typically end in May) will allow student-athletes to miss fewer classes and focus more on academics, according to the plan. It’s also emphasized that the new calendar will provide increased training and preparation time for the season that now starts more hurriedly. A reduction in injuries is hoped for.

While the “New Baseball Model” project started in the Big Ten and has received support from the league’s athletic directors, the approval of at least four of the five major college conferences will be needed to enact legislation by the National Collegiate Athletic Association. The earliest approval could come from the NCAA would be in the fall and then the new model might be in place in 2022. “I think we’ve got a great chance to get the legislation passed,” Anderson said.

Hopefully, Anderson will still be coaching by then. He is revered by so many admirers in Minneapolis and other places. Sometimes affectionately referred to as “14” (his uniform number), he has won 11 Big Ten titles and more games than any baseball coach in conference history. He cares deeply about his sport and student-athletes. His sincerity and class speak louder than the thoughtful words he uses to express himself.

Anderson has another year remaining on a contract that ends in June of 2021. What happens then? “I’d like to (continue on), but obviously we’re in very difficult times right now,” he said. “I don’t think anybody is talking about any contracts. They’re just trying to figure out how to keep the ship afloat here, and find out if there is going to be football in the fall.”

Then Anderson switches topics to one more important to him now. He is looking forward to the time when he can work with his players again. “We’re going to be way behind in player development, so can’t wait to get them back on campus where we have an opportunity to get back to work. I hope it’s going to be in the fall.”

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