Recently there has been a lot of lamenting about how certain teams and/or people within the NCDA are hated, or the subject of egregious bias. Instead of sitting here trying to downplay this occurrence, I decided to take a look at why this takes place.
After a lot of thinking the best reasoning I could come up with was this: we all hate or love each other like family members do. If you think I’m wrong ask yourself this: don’t the Michigan schools seem like that one older brother sister that you can just never find a way to beat?
Growing up as the youngest in a family with two older brothers and an older sister, I know a lot about inter-family competition. I know that constantly my mind is on taking what my brothers have done, and either beating them face-up, or in any manner possible. To compare that to the NCDA, other than Ohio State the first two years, hasn’t the entire league been trying to take what GVSU, SVSU, CMU, and MSU have accomplished and tried to find a way to one-up it? Hell even within the state of Michigan you can tell these guys might as well be siblings with how much they hate each other on the court, but have incredible levels of respect for each other off the court. Yes, people are going to hate it if a team complains or doesn’t always play to the letter of the law. Last I checked that also happens a lot in a sibling v. sibling situation. There’s honestly no way to keep that from happening and I don’t think I’d ever want it to.
Even here on the East Coast the five teams (assuming RIT and PSU can keep up with things) are all playing catch up to the “older brother” that is James Madison. We all hate playing them, and we all have no problem telling them that we hate playing them. The one thing we do keep clear though is: we hate playing JMU because they’re good, they know they’re good, and they let us know about it. Sort of sounds like an oldest brother keeping the younger brothers in their place right? This is the lay of the land in our league and its pretty hysterical how well this works out.
For those who still don’t see what I see, feel free to take a look at the chart I’ve made below. I’m sure it isn’t completely accurate, but it was the best I could come up with.
| Conference | Overall Family Role |
| Michigan | Elder statesmen with family money |
| Ohio | Married into the family looking for respect |
| Kentucky | You know their successful, just not on top yet |
| East Coast | Little brothers of the league |
| Illinois | Quirky cousins you don’t see too often |
| Individual schools | Role |
| Grand Valley State | Head of household |
| Saginaw Valley State | Heir apparent |
| Michigan State | Middle child |
| Central Michigan | Fiesty youngest sibling |
| Kent State | “Why do I never get any respect in this family? |
| Ohio State | brother/cousin spending too much time in the gym |
| Miami (OH) | Cousin w/o talent, but a lot of heart |
| BGSU | Jury is out on them for now |
| UK | Strong, organized, parent |
| WKU | “Why do we always have to play against dad?” (UK) |
| North Texas/NSULA | Blue collar hard working family |
| JMU | Youngest out for blood of the oldest |
| TU | One member who hasn’t quite figured it out yet |
| UMD | Brother/sister-in-law that can’t travel |
| VCU/RIT/PSU | Newborn, role TBD |
| DePaul/Moody | Cousins that are just happy to see the fam again |
| UWP | That one relative that’s way away from everyone |
This has been my favorite blog post on here ever!! Funny,edgy,greatly kinda cools things down. But a jab should of been taken at alumni. Old grandparents: Have knowledge about the game but talk like they know everything. Still thinks they are the better than everyone currently in the league.
Awesome write up! And Ryan, I am better then everyone still! Hahaha ;D
Love love love!
Building off of this great article and Raymer’s comments in the latest podcast, there definitely was a lot more love at Nationals this year. This league is becoming closer all the time and more and more players are reaching across the court.
We compete hard and laugh hard.
Me from the sideline: “Dan! Why do you never smile?”
Dan: “I’ll smile when I have something to smile about.”
Few hours later during captains meeting someone makes Dan laugh
Me: “DAN I SAW YOU SMILE!”
Dan: “Damnit.”