35|35 Anniversary Website
This is the 18th installment of a series of 35 moments, milestones, and facts that will be featured throughout the 2013-14 academic year to celebrate the 35th Anniversary of the Great Lakes Valley Conference.
Bob Bartolomeo is a football coach in every sense of the word. In his four seasons at the helm of the University of Indianapolis, Bartolomeo has found that simplifying things often leads to success. To many, he actually refers “Coach Bart” as a name because it keeps things simple. There are times, however, where Bartolomeo has broken down his approach into the simplest form, even at the risk of coming across as a cheerleader: GO. FIGHT. WIN!
So it comes as no surprise when asked about the importance of the GLVC’s inclusion of football as its 18th sport,
which was officially announced on Jan. 19, 2010, Bartolomeo answered with one word: RIVALRIES.
This author believes him too. If “Coach Bart” could speak in all caps he would. Not because it comes across as yelling, but rather assertive. Like a 2-yard-run up the gap on a 4th-and-1 call.
His point, believe it or not, is simple. When you play another school in all sports it helps create natural rivalries.
“We have an identity for our program now,” he said. “We can now develop rivalries just like the rest of the GLVC sports.”
Prior to historic announcement four years ago, GLVC members sponsoring football were all over the map.
Kentucky Wesleyan, Missouri S&T and Saint Joseph’s were affiliated with the Great Lakes Football Conference (GLFC), Quincy was a member of the Mid-States Football Association (MSFA) and UIndy was a long-standing football partner of the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC).
But with the admission of William Jewell as a full-time member of the GLVC in the fall of 2009, the league now had six fielding football teams, which meant the conference met the requirements for sponsoring the sport.
“There were a lot of moving parts trying to establish GLVC football,” recalled GLVC Commissioner Jim Naumovich. “UIndy was competing in the GLIAC, Quincy was playing as an NAIA program, Missouri S&T, Saint Joseph’s and Kentucky Wesleyan needed some type of league affiliation and William Jewell made it clear how important the sport was to their alumni base when they were making application to the GLVC.”
Conference bylaws dictated that once a sport has been designated as a conference sport, all member institutions sponsoring the sport must participate in the conference championship. Even though there was no conference championship tournament or title game per se, the bylaw meant that UIndy was forced to resign from the GLIAC.
With just six football members in the GLVC, that meant the Greyhounds would be going from a schedule of 10 guaranteed conference games and one non-conference game to just five within the league and six outside the GLVC. The latter would have been a scheduling nightmare for the GLVC football administrators and coaches.
That burden was eased on Oct. 6, 2010 when the league admitted McKendree as its 17th member. The Bearcats had previously competed in the Mid-States Football Association and would become the seventh GLVC program when the league kicked off its first season in 2012.
One day later, Central State University and Urbana University
were announced as GLVC associate members for football only. It was the first time in the conference’s history that it admitted associate members, but the move was needed to increase its total of football-playing members to nine.
Instead of having to seek out six non-conference opponents, GLVC football schools now had to focus on scheduling just three.
Naumovich noted that it was the stress of football scheduling that ultimately led to the discussion of the GLVC sponsoring the sport.
“All of the football athletic directors had a vested interest in GLVC football because of their own scheduling challenges,” he said.
When the GLVC looks at a potential member institution, one of the criteria it must meet is the sponsorship of all seven of the GLVC’s core sports, including baseball, men’s and women’s basketball, men’s and women’s soccer, softball, and volleyball.
However, it’s no coincidence that the past three full-time members admitted to the conference have sponsored football as well.
“When football was added I stressed to the membership that it would never be considered a core sport because of the costs involved and Title IX implications for those schools that don’t currently sponsor it,” Naumovich said. “Although it was never intended to be a core sport, the last three schools that have joined the league all sponsor football. So it’s been somewhat of an unwritten focus as we attempt to maintain and stabilize a good conference schedule for our members.”
One particular school that was on Naumovich’s radar for quite some time was Truman State. And if the Bulldogs were to ever be interested in the GLVC, Naumovich knew the league had to sponsor football.
Truman athletic director Jerry Wollmering felt the same way.
“Once the GLVC started sponsoring football, we were very excited about the possibility of joining the league,” he said. “We were always interested in the GLVC, but once football was added as a conference sport, we knew GLVC membership was something we wanted to pursue.”
Following the GLVC’s successful first season of football, Truman was admitted to the conference as a full-time member on June 8, 2012, and began competing on the league’s gridiron this past fall.
But during the progression of the conference’s football membership, there has been some regression as well.
Central State and Urbana both resigned from the league after one year as associate members to pursue full-time membership in other conferences. With a two-year scheduling cycle already confirmed, Truman filled the void of one of those teams, leaving GLVC schools scrambling to find an extra opponent for 2013.
Following the 2012-13 academic year, Kentucky Wesleyan resigned as a charter member of the GLVC to join a new start-up NCAA Division II conference in the Great Midwest Athletic Conference. The Panthers played the 2013 football season as an associate member of the GLVC, but has notified the league of its intentions to compete as an independent beginning in 2014.
With GLVC football membership still looking for growth and stability, Naumovich found both by co-authoring a Strategic Conference Football Scheduling Alliance with the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association (MIAA) on Oct. 2, 2013.
The proposed four-year agreement, which will begin next season, will enable MIAA members Lincoln University and Southwest Baptist University to obtain associate member status within the GLVC for football only.
"Since beginning our sponsorship of football in 2012, our coaches and administrators have advocated for an increase in conference games, which then enables our schools to be both flexible and selective when it comes to non-conference scheduling," said Naumovich at the time. "The Strategic Conference Football Scheduling Alliance not only meets our needs, but the addition of Lincoln and Southwest Baptist also gives us two programs located within the conference footprint that have been common opponents, and in some cases, rivals, to our current football schools.”
The Strategic Conference Football Scheduling Alliance now provides the GLVC with a total of nine conference teams for the 2014 season, which means each institution will play three non-conference opponents.
“I believe it would be in the best interest of the league to have more schools start football,” said Bartolomeo. “I believe that a football program adds to the university as a whole. From a financial aspect of adding male enrollment to Homecoming on a fall afternoon, there is nothing like it. I would love to see us get to a 10-game conference schedule.”
“Coach Bart” will tell you that he’s just a football coach, but his opinions do carry some weight in regards to GLVC football matters. The two-time GLVC Coach of the Year and his Greyhounds are undefeated in their 15 conference games over the past two seasons.
In their first year of GLVC action, UIndy reached the NCAA Division II Playoffs for the first time in school history, won its first-round game, and finished the season 10-3 and ranked a program-best 15th in the American Football Coaches Association Division II Coaches' Top 25 Poll.
This past season, the Greyhounds posted a 10-2 record and reached a school-high 11th in the AVCA poll during the regular season before finishing 18th in the final rankings. UIndy also fielded one of the nation’s top defensive units in terms of total yards, passing yards, and points allowed per game.
Despite the unblemished league record, the Greyhounds’ success has been anything but a cake walk.
In 2012, UIndy was impressive in a conference win at Missouri S&T, but that turned out to be the Miners’ lone loss of the season. S&T, which finished the season ranked 24th nationally at 10-1, was the only team that did not participate in a postseason game that was in the final poll for the season. Missouri S&T tied its single-season record for victories with 10 and also set a one-year scoring record with 458 points.
In the 2012 finale, Indianapolis had to come from behind late on the road at Urbana to earn a 31-24 victory and the outright GLVC title.
This past year, UIndy was tested in two of its final games of the regular season. In a tough road battle, rival (there’s that word) Saint Joseph’s brought the Hounds to the brink before falling late, 27-24. Two weeks later, newcomer Truman State positioned itself to play for a share of the GLVC Championship in the season finale at Indianapolis. The Greyhounds found the end zone with a minute left in the game to secure a 21-14 victory and the outright conference crown.
“We have had to win some very tough games the last two years to win the conference, so it has not been easy,” said Bartolomeo. “Beating teams that had a shot to beat us in the fourth quarter was very difficult and going undefeated has not been easy. Our conference will do nothing but continue to grow and be more competitive from top to bottom. As teams develop depth, more and more games will come down to the fourth quarter and who makes the fewest mistakes.”
Truman’s first year in the conference was deemed a success by Wollmering.
“This past season was very exciting; we had a lot of momentum heading into the last two weeks of the season at 7-2 and undefeated in the GLVC,” he said. “Although we lost two close games to Saint Joseph’s and Indianapolis to end the year, this past season was fun. In addition, the response from our fans was great. Our community was very energized and complimentary of our move to the GLVC.”
Naumovich, Wollmering and Bartolomeo all remain energized in the search of finding that 10th conference member to sponsor football, which ideally would come from within.
That would mean a current full-time member committing to sponsor the sport.
Should that happen, open arms await.
And rivalries too.