WCCO lands on its feet

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Maximus

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The new flagship home of.......University of St. Thomas football. Dave Lee and Joe Senser as your announcers.
 



Maximus said:
The new flagship home of.......University of St. Thomas football. Dave Lee and Joe Senser as your announcers.
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DL: "The ball is snapped--it's a pitch out--he bursts up the middle--out of bounds for a two yard loss..."

JS: "You are completely right, Paul, I mean Dave. It was a great pass."
 

simpsons_nelson_haha3.jpg


I'm as big of a 'CCO defender as there is, but this is embarassing.
 



St. Thomas should demand that they get to keep its play-by-play guy. I'm sure he's better than Dave Lee.
 

When I heard that they had St. Thomas people in studio today for a "major announcement" I quickly seached my brain for what it could possibly mean. They only thing I could think of that would be big enough for that type of announcement would be some sort of notification they had finally decided to go D1. What followed just had me shaking my head. I don't know what is more sad... 50,000 watts to broadcast DIII, or the fact that KNUJ out of New Ulm will probably be offering a better broadcast. It would be interesting to time travel back to 1980 and tell people WCCO would no longer be covering the Twins, Vikings, and Gophers... but had a big announcement to cover St. Thomas football.

On a serious side note: I am an MIAC grad, and fan. It does bug me a bit to see St. Thomas add yet another advantage to their tool belt on top of what is already an out-of-place situation compared to the rest of the conference.
 

That is certainly good news for UST. Not sure if it's great news for the other MIAC schools. One one hand, they will be on a radio station that covers much of the state for one game a year, but it might give UST a really big edge. If UST were to start doing badly, I suppose they could give it to some other school, like Concordia Saint Paul.

But if anyone at UST has any dreams of moving to D-I, this would give them ammunition. They could move to the FCS. Or they could move to the FBS, going the MAC, and get some home games with the Gophers. And then they could "rent" TCF Bank Stadium and we could play a "road" game there.

I suppose this deal has to gall supporters of a certain unnamed school to the west on I-94.
 



I would not be surprised if this is a feeling out move by StThomas to consider going to a higher level. They have a lot of ambitious alumni. The only reason they did not build a medical school was because they could not reconcile the required curriculum with some elements of Catholic religious doctrine.
I used to be a defender of WCCO, but their hosts have just continued to go down hill, and going down hill from Ruth K is a hard thing to accomplish. Without the Gophs, I just will never be on that station anymore. The 50k watt thing used to work, because you could get it a lot of places around the state, but now I would rather hear a local station I have never heard before than listen to them. In the afternoon, I'll even listen to NPR over them, gladly.
 

I wouldn't surprise me to see UST basketball games on WCCO. They have the Timberwolves, but UST could adjust their schedule around Timberwolves games. The broadcasting talent may not be up to D-I standards, but WCCO does give them major league range of coverage. It wouldn't surprise me if they did go D-I. Has anyone heard any details how much money UST is going to get out of this deal?
 


RodentRampage said:
I wouldn't surprise me to see UST basketball games on WCCO. They have the Timberwolves, but UST could adjust their schedule around Timberwolves games. The broadcasting talent may not be up to D-I standards, but WCCO does give them major league range of coverage. It wouldn't surprise me if they did go D-I. Has anyone heard any details how much money UST is going to get out of this deal?
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There is zero chance of this happening. No way other coaches in the MIAC would allow UST to pick and choose when they are playing their games.
 



Who picks the game times? If the conference picks the times for all of the games, sure, then UST couldn't alter the schedule. But if the school has some discretion in what time of day they play, that would be a different matter. Still, if UST football is worth broadcasting, they probably UST basketball would as well, even if an occasional game was pre-empted by the Timberwolves.

Of course what the MIAC thinks is moot if UST takes all this radio cash and goes D-I.
 

This announcement made me get so excited that I peed in my Depends.
 

Not exactly sure why they are still a DIII athletic school at this point. I think the jump to DI might be a bit much but they should at least be at DII where they would probably still dominate in 3/4 of the sports.
 

corcoran1 said:
I would not be surprised if this is a feeling out move by StThomas to consider going to a higher level.
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It would be to DII. I can't see them going to DI in all sports (a requirement now) anytime soon:

According to NCAA Regulations: "Division I Board of Directors have adopted Proposal 2005-20, with an August 1, 2005 effective date. This rule requires that Division I-A institutions annually average at least 15,000 in actual or paid attendance for all home football contests once every two years. This new rule reinforced the philosophy that public support is an important component of Division I-A membership: it also provided relief from the 2004 attendance requirements and continued to distinguish Division I-A institutions from the less rigorous membership requirements to field a Division I-AA football team."

No other Minnesota school could average 15,000 on a regular basis.

St John led the nation in 2009 DIII attendance at 8,208. Bethel was 15th at 3,485. UST averaged 2,625.

I don't see 13,000 fans a week coming out of the woodwork. It's a pipedream...
 


highwayman said:
It would be to DII. I can't see them going to DI in all sports (a requirement now) anytime soon:

According to NCAA Regulations: "Division I Board of Directors have adopted Proposal 2005-20, with an August 1, 2005 effective date. This rule requires that Division I-A institutions annually average at least 15,000 in actual or paid attendance for all home football contests once every two years. This new rule reinforced the philosophy that public support is an important component of Division I-A membership: it also provided relief from the 2004 attendance requirements and continued to distinguish Division I-A institutions from the less rigorous membership requirements to field a Division I-AA football team."

No other Minnesota school could average 15,000 on a regular basis.

St John led the nation in 2009 DIII attendance at 8,208. Bethel was 15th at 3,485. UST averaged 2,625.

I don't see 13,000 fans a week coming out of the woodwork. It's a pipedream...
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They don't need to average 15,000 fans a week to be in Division I-AA. That is a Division I-A requirement. Few (around the top 15 or so) Division I-AA schools average more than 15,000 attendance at their football games. There are also several Division I-AA schools that average less than 2,500 attendance at their football games.
 

I'm almost certain if they move, it will be to DI. The reason to move would be $$$$$$$$$$, and there isn't much more money in D2 than D3. I also do not think they will be moving anywhere in the near future - while their new facilities are gorgeous, I'm not sure they are big enough for a D1 move. I think they're quite content dominating most sports at the D3 level.

highwayman said:
It would be to DII. I can't see them going to DI in all sports (a requirement now) anytime soon:

According to NCAA Regulations: "Division I Board of Directors have adopted Proposal 2005-20, with an August 1, 2005 effective date. This rule requires that Division I-A institutions annually average at least 15,000 in actual or paid attendance for all home football contests once every two years. This new rule reinforced the philosophy that public support is an important component of Division I-A membership: it also provided relief from the 2004 attendance requirements and continued to distinguish Division I-A institutions from the less rigorous membership requirements to field a Division I-AA football team."

No other Minnesota school could average 15,000 on a regular basis.

St John led the nation in 2009 DIII attendance at 8,208. Bethel was 15th at 3,485. UST averaged 2,625.

I don't see 13,000 fans a week coming out of the woodwork. It's a pipedream...
Click to expand...
 

dpodoll68 said:
They don't need to average 15,000 fans a week to be in Division I-AA. That is a Division I-A requirement. Few (around the top 15 or so) Division I-AA schools average more than 15,000 attendance at their football games. There are also several Division I-AA schools that average less than 2,500 attendance at their football games.
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That's only because the NCAA makes schools with DI basketball put their varsity football programs in FCS.

So you had a bunch DIII teams that were forced to move up but they're still non-scholarship with very small followings.
 

BisonGopher said:
That's only because the NCAA makes schools with DI basketball put their varsity football programs in FCS.

So you had a bunch DIII teams that were forced to move up but they're still non-scholarship with very small followings.
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I'm not sure what your point is, but in the interests of factual accuracy, many members of the Pioneer League (the only non-scholarship Division I football conference) were never Division III in anything.
 

WCCO is a joke

This AM station has continued to spiral downward over the years...hahaha...they just need to keep Dave Lee around longer and they will have NO ONE listening to WCCO. What a joke.
 

corcoran1 said:
I would not be surprised if this is a feeling out move by StThomas to consider going to a higher level. They have a lot of ambitious alumni. The only reason they did not build a medical school was because they could not reconcile the required curriculum with some elements of Catholic religious doctrine.
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UST was not able to get an agreement with a local hospital system to provide the resources required for the 3rd and 4th year medical school training. Hospital systems can no longer bill services provided by medical students - making medical school training even an even bigger financial loser than it was before. That is what stopped the UST medical school. Not any religious/ethical concerns.
 

harley_gopher said:
This AM station has continued to spiral downward over the years...hahaha...they just need to keep Dave Lee around longer and they will have NO ONE listening to WCCO. What a joke.
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No doubt that 'CCO is dying, might as well rename it CBS Radio Minnesota.
 

Stroke of genius, if...

If they can cooperatively raise the profile of Saint Thomas - which has the same enrollment as Notre Dame (11,000+ students) - it could conceivably (albeit not likely) become the second major sports school in Minnesota.

Don't think that the powers that be at St Thomas aren't thinking about it.
 

A sad day for the Good Neighbor. Steve Cannon is spinning in his grave (as are others.)
 



St Thomas has no intentions of moving up divisions. They had looked into it before building their new athletic facilities and decided to build top notch D3 facilities. They'd have to rebuild again to be competitive at the D1 level. And D2 is more expensive and equally as profitable so there won't be a permanent move to D2 either.
 

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