Any Division III men's basketball fans here?

[lancdem]

The tournament brackets will be announced tonight. My alma mater, Franklin & Marshall College, should be a No. 1 or 2 seed.

[Bluzmann57]

1. Does Augustana College

in Rock Island, IL have a chance? A few people think they got screwed last year. Just wondering if they may make it this year, even though they didn't win their conference. 16-9 overall, 10-4 in the conference.

[lancdem]

5. What conference are they in?

This is a great Web site to get info: http://www.d3hoops.com

[Bluzmann57]

7. They are in the CCIW

which stands for "College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin". Rev. Billy Graham came out of Wheaton College, which is a conference member. Ken Anderson, who played many years with the Cincinnatti Bengals came out of Augie. And thanks for the web site link. Good luck to your alma mater.

[lancdem]

8. Thanks!

I see Illinois Wesleyan is your conference's rep. As for Augustana, the Final Four was held there in 1979, and my parents went there to watch F&M.

[SmileyBoy]

2. My college is playing its last games in Division II this week.

NDSU is in its last North Central Conference tournament, which will be in Omaha.

We're playing our last "official" D2 games this week until eliminated. We're starting our 1st official year of Division I this August. Our basketball team will be playing fellow DI transfers South Dakota State, Northern Colorado and Cal-Davis, along with Northern Iowa, Creighton and Wyoming, and possibly Minnesota. We'll still be playing a lot of D2 games next year, though.

[lancdem]

3. That's cool

My school has an enrollment of 1,850, so it's always going to be Division III.

[SmileyBoy]

4. That's OK. My college has 12,000 students and growing.

That's one of the reasons we moved up.

But I think you could move up. Augustana (SD) has an enrollment of 1,800-1,900, and they're Division II.

[lancdem]

6. They'll probably always stay D III, which doesn't give scholarships

Our men's coach, Glenn Robinson, just set the all-time wins record in D III.

[Davis_X_Machina]

9. Real college basketball, in other words.

I was a TA at a Division I powerhouse -- national championship while I was there -- and I'll never watch big-time college hoops again.

Why the NBA has suckered America's universities into running -- and paying for -- their minor leagues for them will always defeat me.

Everybody should turn off the tube for March Madness, and read John Feinstein's The Last Amateurs[/i>] instead.