Div B National Championship

[MinesGoallie45]

For the Division B national championship will the conference champions have to play the 2 OOC games to be eligable still?

[Gregg Pathiakis]

No, only for At-Large bids, which there shouldn't be any because there are 8 conference with AQs and 8 playoff spots.

[Andy Sharp]

I'd like to make the suggestion that the games of Division B be held Thursday, Friday, and Saturday rather than starting Wednesday and skipping Friday as I hear is in the works.

I feel that money and missed school days are more important factors this first year than for us to have a day of rest. I imagine it's going to cost B teams another $1000+ for that day of rest and unlike Division A winning teams who have to play 4 games, B would only have to play 3.

Unlike Division A where at least half of the teams have been to the tournament in the past and basically know they'll be going again this year, Division B is up for grabs.

Nobody in B knows for sure they will be going to this year’s tournament. All of us hopefuls are trying to plan ahead, just in case, a trip that might double our annual budgets.

So, I feel that arranging the tournament in a way that will cause the least amount of SHOCK & AWE would be preferred. I definitely don't want to see a team that earns entry have to forfeit their spot because the financial/time requirements are too high.


Any guidance Division A tournament regulars have as to how to plan and account for entry would also be appreciated.

Thanks,

Andy Sharp
Coach of the Calvin Knights of the CCLA-B

[MinesGoallie45]

I have to agree with Andy

In all honesty, if my team made it, it would be extremly doubtful if we could come up with the funds to attend, going to a small school with a very small budget and such....so the less time we would have to be there the better

[Dan Wishengrad]

We made one trip to St. Louis, in 2002, and certainly didn't expect to go when the season began. We basically won the league on a Sunday and with no money in the bank had to come up with about $500 per player in 48 hours to buy our plane tickets. How this was accomplished I couldn't even begin to tell you, and hope nobody sold their soul to the devil in the process. I know credit cards were stretched to the limit, new accounts opened and maxed out, savings & checking accounts emptied, parents confronted with a Normandy-like frontal assault, and an unsolved string of convenience store robberies which I am SURE was purely coincidental.

You just get it done. By hook or by crook. It's a once-in-a-lifetime thrill for some of us, and to miss it while claiming poverty would be criminal. Sell the car, sell your nose-studs, sell whatever it is you keep stashed in the far recesses of your gym bags and step up. You're going to Blaine!

(Sorry, the name just doesn't do it for me. I think of "Pretty in Pink" where Jon Cryer says; "Blaine's not a name, it a major appliance!"

[grinderpete]

How about in waiting for guffman when they do a play for thier town called Blaine. If yau haven't seen this movie yet, I suggest that you do. It will make going to Blaine fun again.

[Bluevelvet]

I would hope that there will be zero no shows. After badgering the MDIA for a few years to get a B division national championship tournament and then flooding the message board with speculation about which B division team is the best, to fail to appear for the national championship tournament would be a crime.
The tournament schedule has been completed. If a team is forunate enough to be invited to the tournament, they should find a way to go.
The A division teams do not get tons of financial support from their schools. They raise the money from parents and friends etc. (frequently at the last minute). If you can afford a vacation to the beach or the lake, you can afford a trip to MN for the national championship.
If B division teams do not show up for this tournament, I would suggest that the B division tournament be discontinued.
What a travesty.

[John Paul]

Everyone started the same way. The first time any team goes to the tournament, A or B, it's usually somewhat of a surprise. Also, remember that when this thing first started most of the teams involved were travelling out of their region for the first time. All of the teams had budgets that are probably more comparable to a typical B team now. As Dan said, you just have to make it happen. Many teams, the first time or two they go, do it on a tight budget: packed rooms in cheap motels, maybe bus instead of fly, etc. As they get used to going, they budget for it. I recommend that if your team has any shot at all, you put the trip in the budget and plan your dues and fundraisers accordingly. Then, if you don't make it, you can either start the next year in the black or refund some money to your players (or both).

One idea: One year we had to collect extra money to complete our tournament budget - about $200 per player. We had about 10 seniors, so we had all the players make out their $200 checks to the seniors (split evenly amongst them). Then the seniors made out big checks, about $800 - $1000 each, to the university. So as they were leaving school and getting their professional lives started, they had a large charitable gift to their credit which was a really nice tax benefit for that first year in the real world.

Another idea is to have your conference subsidize your conference winners to take off some of the financial burden. I believe a couple of conferences do that already. It can help your conference by giving a member team a better chance of winning. It can also ensure that your conference won't lose it's bid if an invited team doesn't go.

The tournament planners understand the difficulty teams face in planning for and getting to the tournament. There are a lot of factors, however, that go into planning a 40 team event (men's A and B and women). Cost to the tournament, available qualified officials, field management, Sunday game limitations, physical well-being, etc. are all factors in how the schedule is set.

[Sonny]

I gotta agree with John Paul and Bluevelvet.

It would be a travesty if we had some Div. B "no-shows" in Blaine this year. The Division B programs across the country have known about this event for 2+ years now. It's time to suck it up and make the event happen.

[Andy Sharp]

Please post the schedule with explanation for why it's impossible to have Division B play through. Are there not "52 regulation size soccer fields" and do we not pay the officials enough for naming rights to their second son? I can forsee that Division B will have the less experienced officials, so what's it matter if their a little lower on the totem pole, even the best officials have their moments.

I am all for "Sucking It Up" and know that my team can get it done, but I would not encourage any virgin to pursue John Holmes as a first date.

[Chris Larson]

The original impetus behind adding the rest day was to enable teams in the semis and finals to put the best possible product on the field.

The thought behind scheduling this year was to take at least this one lesson we've learned and pass it on to the B teams rather than force them to learn the hard way.

[Andy Sharp]

Tell me if I am wrong, but didn't the rest day begin after the A Division was expanded to 16 teams?

Tell me also, how many fans made it out to the tournament the first year? Is anyone really concerned about how drastically the lesser division is looked down upon by the viewers come championship day?

Division A will get the top line in any press coverage and the perceived quality of club lacrosse will be drawn from that division.

I fully condone the great efforts to make the Division B tournament as well promoted and run as the A, but look back, in the first year, would you care if you had to play in the first national championship on the third day.

[DanGenck]

If any team has the nerve to not show up, I know that there are numerous teams out there that would gladly take their at-large bid. I agree with Sonny and Bluevelvet. We have pushed for this tournament hard and we had better budget and sacrifice to make it a success.

[Andy Sharp]

I am not suggesting that this extra day would be a back-breaker for any teams, if they don't plan ahead they're losers; I am just critical of the need for it. For many schools the extra day missed the week before/during exams and the additional cost of a day of lodging/transportation to go on brewery tours seems unnecessary.

Strike my CVB conspiracy theory.

Am I surprised that there is support from a team 80 miles away from the tournament? No.

Can the tenative schedule be posted? I'm starting to feel democratic in all my critical griping . . . I would rather devise a solution.

[John Paul]

There's always a conspiracy theorist out there. No, we did not negotiate gauranteed rooms with the CVB. There are no hidden agendas. You are free to stay in tents if you like.

US Lacrosse is in the process of finalizing the contract with the NSC. The schedule will be posted when it is signed.