Nebraska-Omaha: Div. II wrestling champs tonight, program gone tomorrow

When the NCAA changed the rules and began prohibiting schools from competing at different levels in different sports it grandfathered in all the schools that were already doing it.

Also hockey is not sponsored as an NCAA sport at the Division II level so schools like Mass.-Lowell, Minnesota-Duluth, St. Cloud, Lake Superior St., etc. can compete at the DI level even though the rest of their school's sports are DII.

 

This ought to seriously piss off the MIAA, the Division II conference UNO is in. It just got through expanding to 16 schools and created a football schedule for the next four years based on UNO's participation. Now they'll have to go looking for another 16th team. Football is mandatory for membership, so Rockhurst, which wants in badly, has a chance if it's willing to start a football program.

The MIAA had to grant a waiver to UNO originally because member schools aren't allowed to field a sport the conference doesn't sponsor. Fort Hays State was given a similar waiver because it has wrestling.

Each football team was going to have one geographic rival they'd play every season, regardless of the rotation of the rest of the schedule. UNO and Central Missouri were paired up (The MIAA decided to pair up Northwest Missouri and Missouri Western instead of going with NMSU-UNO and MWSU-UCM). Now UCM has no annual rival.

 

It seems really strange to me that hockey is a better fit at a Nebraska university than football or wrestling.

 

Hockey was already DI

 

I'm guessing there are a decent number of people in Nebraska who are fans of UNO hockey, but wear Husker red for everything else. There's only room for one D-I football team in that state.

 

UNC Greensboro, which won the Southern Conference title a year ago, shitcanned its wrestling program today.

http://goo.gl/Re3xh

 

Thanks Armchair. After I read your post, I read up on how it's done.

John, Dan Gable will not be happy hearing that Greenboro has jettisoned the wrestling program.

 

And the board of regents will do everything in its power to keep it that way.

I recommend this show to anyone who wants to hear more about UNO:
http://1620thezone.com/pages/727732.php

 

Just go NAIA. You can have 40 athletes apiece. on the volleyball and wrestling teams.

 

Trooper, Unsportsmanlike Conduct is a show I really like when I get the chance to listen to it.

And yes, radio fans, Kevin Kugler of Westwood One does have a day job...co-hosting a show in Omaha.

 

The Pittsburg State AD spoke to the local Fox station about UNO's departure from the MIAA.

http://bit.ly/eWyRcE

From what I gathered, the expansion of the MIAA was based on expectations that each of the current 12 schools would be in the league for the next 5 to 10 years and that UNO never said, "Hey, we might be in the process of speeding up our move to Division I."

Pitt State will have only 10 football games this year but has 5 at home and 5 on the road (Its game vs. UNO was to have been a road game). Some will now have 6 road and 4 home, though. One school has to reschedule Homecoming. At least one school was only able to schedule 10 games in the first place and now has just nine.

The MIAA also waved one of its intra-conference transfer rules for UNO athletes. As long as they meet all the other NCAA transfer criteria, they can go to another MIAA school without having to be a "resident" for a full year first.

Edit: The Missouri Southern AD was interviewed this morning. MSSU lost a home game against UNO but it's in week two of the season and he said that he was contacted by schools looking for a game as early as Sunday afternoon.

 

Shoulda been a better way to tell the UNO coaches and wrestlers the program had been cut. Alberts certainly botched it. That said, I feel for coach Mike Denney. I've dealt with him a couple of times and he's always been a class act.