UCWI is approved..............

The schools of the University Conference of Wisconsin and Illinois received good news today as their petition was approved for them to compete in the D4 National Tournament. Typically provisional D4 members are not allowed to participate in the post season but since the only other D4 Conference is the LNCUTMV the board figured, "Why not !!!"

As a first year conference the UCWI was only able to persuade two teams to join. The Wisconsin A&M-Springstead Porcupines and the Exeland Instititue/Edgewater Institute at Ojibwa (E.I.E.I.O.) Feral Hogs. The conference is still in search of a team from Illinois, or from any state that begins with the letter "I". This greatly limited the scheduling this year and the announcement allowing them into the post season becomes even more surprising.

While the announcement is a nice surprise, there are a few obstacles to overcome. WAMS and E.I.E.I.O. finished the season tied for first at 1-1 in the conference. Since the victory margin was 10 points in each game no tie breaking criteria exists that can determine the regular season champion and #1 seed in the conference tournament. WAMS is 2-1 overall having defeated D1 Electoral College in non-conference play but that was an out of region game and does not count for anything.

A one game play off needs to be held to determine the regular season champion. However, neither team has a regulation gym so a neutral site must be found to make the play off game legal. The Mercer K-12 school is unavailable as it may be needed for WIAA High School Tournament games.

Help has arrived in the form of Sam Drucker Arena. The LNCUTMV does not use Sam Drucker on Sundays so the UCWI play off game will be held there on 2/13/05. It's a big risk financially to move two out of state teams in for a play off, but the only other thing going on that day is the ProBowl and it's not like anybody watches that anyway. Sam Drucker Arena has also applied to host the UCWI Tournament on 2/20/05 but no decision has been made yet.