Sources told Sports Headliners late last week that Carleton, Macalester and St. Olaf are studying whether they want to remain members of the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.  Conference commissioner Dan McKane confirmed that MIAC presidents have been informed of the possibility.

McKane characterized the action of the three schools as part of a self examination that institutions periodically conduct.  The process can include where athletics fits in the educational process.

While two sources said they don’t think the three schools will leave the MIAC, there is a possibility.  The motivation, according to someone who spoke anonymously, is to “partner” with “high academic institutions” in possibly a new conference.

But aren’t other MIAC schools high academic institutions?  “I think there are some (MIAC presidents) that it’s tweaked their ears and are a little bit offended, but everybody has to take a look at where they’re at,” a source said.

There presently is an academic consortium of schools called the Associated Colleges of the Midwest.  It consists of Beloit, Coe, Colorado College, Cornell, Grinnell, Lake Forest, Lawrence, Monmouth and Ripon, plus Carleton, Macalester and St. Olaf.  There’s speculation that members may form an athletic conference.

The same source said that while no definite date has been given to the MIAC presidents as to when a decision to stay or leave the conference will be made, he expects the issue to be resolved by next spring.  Sources told Sports Headliners they don’t believe the schools will leave the MIAC to form a new league with members from various states because the result will be increased travel costs and student-athletes will miss more class time.

The MIAC is one of the largest Division III conferences in the country with 13 members.  McKane said the conference has had a moratorium on new membership since 1997.  The bylaws require that all members be private institutions within the state of Minnesota.

John Gagliardi, the legendary Saint John’s football coach, was named the 2009 recipient of the American Football Coaches’ Association’s Amos Alonzo Stagg Award last week. The award honors those “whose services have been outstanding in the advancement of the best interests of football” and will be presented to Gagliardi in January at the AFCA Convention in Nashville.  Previous winners include Paul “Bear” Bryant (1983), Woody Hayes (1986) and Joe Paterno(2002).

Gagliardi broke former Grambling State head coach Eddie Robinson’s NCAA record for the most games coached (588) on September 20 against Concordia College-Moorhead in Collegeville. Gagliardi’s 60 years of collegiate coaching is the most in college football history, surpassing the prior record of 57 years held by Stagg.

John Vadnais, a former Saint John’s player, works with other Gagliardi alums at a company in Minneapolis.  Vadnais wrote the following edited e-mail: “They (we) all have the same reaction to having been a player of the master.  He has a certain magic about him that makes a player do things above and beyond the normal.  My sense during our conversations…are that they have an extreme reverence for him. …”

Vikings’ quarterback Gus Frerotte, 37, talking earlier this month about his decision to return for another season, his 13^th, in the NFL:  “It’s the game.  I had a long talk with coach (Brad Childress).  I said, ‘You know it’s the game that keeps you coming back.’  It’s not necessarily practicing and doing all this stuff with the media.  It’s playing on Sundays, getting those emotions built up in you, making the throw and guys high-fiving.  Every time you go out and start, you feel pretty darn lucky.  You’re one of 32 people (starting quarterbacks in the NFL).  I’m just going to go out and have fun and really enjoy myself.”

Scott Baker, who kept the Twins in first place by winning yesterday’s game against Kansas City, had a 4-0 record with a 2.37 ERA in his last six starts.

The Timberwolves open training camp tomorrow and will have daily practices through Friday at Bresnan Arena in the Taylor Center on the Minnesota State University campus in Mankato. The team will conclude camp on Saturday with a scrimmage beginning at 7 p.m. at the Bresnan Arena. The scrimmage is free and open to the public but a ticket is required for admission.  Tickets are available at the U.S. Bank locations at 204 S. 2nd St. and 312 Raintree Road in Mankato from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday-Friday. There is a limit of four tickets per person.

The Gopher men’s hockey team is ranked ninth in the preseason national poll by USA Today and USA Hockey Magazine. The Gophers begin the season in the top 10 for the seventh consecutive year.  Minnesota was 12th in the final 2007-08 poll and has 12 new players on the roster.  Defending national champion Boston College, which eliminated the Gophers in the 2008 NCAA tournament, is the nation’s top-ranked team.  Minnesota opens its regular season at No. 15 ranked St. Cloud State on October 17 and then hosts the Huskies at Mariucci Arena on October 18.

The Sports Show, with Dark Star, Mike Max, Patrick Reusse and Sid Hartman, is still on the CW Twin Cities, Ch. 23, but has a new starting time on Sundays, 9:30 p.m.

Resilient.  The Minnesota Twins players could wear that word on their uniforms.  A team that many thought would play .500 baseball or worse, and has now lost 15 of its last 25 games, finds itself 2.5 games behind Chicago in the Central Division race with the White Sox coming to the Metrodome for a three-game series starting tomorrow night.

With only six games remaining in the season for the Twins, probably nothing less than a sweep of the White Sox will keep the division title drive on track.  That would leave the Twins 8-1 in the dome against the White Sox this season.

The Twins hope their strengths, pitching, defense, and timely hits, will be in place this Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights.  The White Sox, who like the Twins have been stumbling in September losing 10 games and winning nine, will want to show their power game, 223 home runs, best in the majors.

Twins president Dave St. Peter told Sports Headliners on Friday he hopes his team can minimize White Sox power.  “If we can keep the ball in the park, I like our chances a lot,” he said.

The easy guess is to write that the Twins are too far back to win, but the White Sox are playing without the injured Carlos Quentin, their best player gone for the season, and they’re not playing winning baseball.  Then, too, the Twins have been surprising most everyone all season.

“It’s going to come down to pitching,” St. Peter said.