(10-05-2016 11:38 AM)MplsBison Wrote:  CyclonePower,

I'm not saying you're wrong or that Madison does not actually desire to keep the UW schools down in DIII.

But that reasoning is pure bunk. Minnesota provides the perfect counter-example. All of the MN public schools are DII (except god-awful Morris, which should be a private liberal arts college anyway ...), yet the Gophers have never lost a kid they asked to walk-on to a MN public school, initially. Sure, the kid might transfer out if getting passed up on the depth chart.

The real threats they have to worry about (they being Minnesota, Wisconsin) are the FCS Dakota teams, FCS UNI, and NIU (moreso Wisconsin).

Had Wisconsin-Green Bay not made it to March Madness this year, the Wisconsin legislature was going to force them do move down to DII, and has been trying to do the same with Wisconsin-Milwaukee, although they seem to keep raising enough money to stay in DI. I agree with you that the Wisconsin legislature is really short-sighted, and don't understand their reasoning at all. I'm not sure why those two teams haven't joined the MVC or Summit to cut down on travel.