Spring meeting?

by **TexOle** on Mon May 01, 2006 10:12 pm

Did Northern Michigan not get accepted or what? This is a school that desperately wants to play in the UMLL, and I think we should do all we can to give them a chance.

**Sponsor**

by **Pinball** on Mon May 01, 2006 10:21 pm

TexOle wrote:Did Northern Michigan not get accepted or what? .

They did not

by **TexOle** on Mon May 01, 2006 10:42 pm

Is it possible to get an explanation on the rejection of NMU?

by **Adam G** on Mon May 01, 2006 10:42 pm

I've heard rumblings that NMU's location had a lot to do with their admittance. Can anyone elaborate on other reasons? PM me if necessary.

by **Pinball** on Mon May 01, 2006 10:59 pm

As the B Div Rep i will give you a brief reason why. Rob will probably eleborate on it cause he is good at that

They were asking to get into the B Divison. The closest teasm geographically would be UWEC at 6 hours, 31 minutes. the longest is UND at 10 hours, 59 minutes. Those drives are long, and costly. It would be an increased cost to the league that everyone would have to absorb for refs (refs get paid by the mile and for overnight stays) and neutral fields.

Everyone was impressed with how GREAT of a presentation NMU came with, and how they had performed on and off the field in the many years they have been around. UST played them in Marquette, MI and spoke very highly of their team.

It all came down to geography. I personally feel bad that it came down to something that NMU couldn't help.

by **oakland** on Tue May 02, 2006 7:19 am

I was also at the meeting and I'll agree with Pinball, they had a very impressive presentation and seemed to be a very up and coming team.

Another issue we considered at the meeting was travel safety. Other teams mentioned that they've made the trip to NMU previously and it can get viscious especially because of its length. We felt it was not safe since most of our teams do not travel in a charter bus, but rather in our own cars and University vans. Also, we didn't think it would be fair to NMU if we accepted them and then didn't give them any home games (if we would've tried to dodge paying extra get referees to go to NMU by having them travel all year). Any program would suffer if they had to travel a minimum of 6 hours multiple weekends in a row.

I really hope NMU gets into the USLIA somehow. Hopefully they will be able to join the CCLA. I wish the best of luck to NMU in the future.

by **Jolly Roger** on Tue May 02, 2006 8:08 am

Recruiting additional teams in the region and applying en masse might help their application.

by **whitcd** on Tue May 02, 2006 8:14 am

What other teams are in that area?

by **Andy Sharp** on Tue May 02, 2006 8:22 am

Michigan Tech played in the NMU Superior Dome tournament last year.

by **LaxRef** on Tue May 02, 2006 9:56 am

Pinball wrote: It would be an increased cost to the league that everyone would have to absorb for refs (refs get paid by the mile and for overnight stays) and neutral fields.

Well, we get mileage, but it's not per mile with the current MDIA contract. But you wouldn't necessarily be paying for officials to drive from Minnesota to northern Michigan; there are officials in Michigan who would likely to be able to cover these games without needing an overnight stay.

OTOH, I don't blame you guys for not wanting to add road trips of 7-11 hours to your already busy and costly schedules.

by **GrayBear** on Thu May 11, 2006 8:44 pm

What happened to Sid? Did he step down? Move? I'll miss that guy...

Does anybody have contact info on him? Haven't talked to him in years--it'd be fun to catch up (plus he had one of my old HS players on his squad at MU).

by **mnref** on Sun May 14, 2006 7:55 pm

LaxRef wrote:
Pinball wrote: It would be an increased cost to the league that everyone would have to absorb for refs (refs get paid by the mile and for overnight stays) and neutral fields.

Well, we get mileage, but it's not per mile with the current MDIA contract. But you wouldn't necessarily be paying for officials to drive from Minnesota to northern Michigan; there are officials in Michigan who would likely to be able to cover these games without needing an overnight stay.

OTOH, I don't blame you guys for not wanting to add road trips of 7-11 hours to your already busy and costly schedules.

Having worked in Michigan, I can categorically say that the officials in Minneapolis are much, much closer to Northern Michigan than pretty much everyone in Michigan. Furthermore, coming from the lower pennisula of Michigan you have to cross the Mackinac Bridge which is real pain. I'm pretty sure there are no officials in the UP, heck there are hardly any people there ;-)

Thus, geographically, the UMLL is the best place for them but there are still plenty of obstacles.

Matt

Spring meeting?

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