2008 Woodie Awards
Columnist welcomes new students
Blake Toppmeyer
Issue date: 8/17/08 Section: Sports
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Such as: How often can I miss my 7:30 a.m. Spanish class and still earn a passing grade? (I'd try to go at least twice a week to a three-day a week class.)
Will my roommate notice that I'm wearing the same pair of jeans for the fourth day in a row? (Probably not. Even if your roommate does notice, he/she probably is wearing the same jeans as the day before, too.)
Can I wash my reds with my whites? (Yes, just toss in a few Tide color catchers.)
And maybe - hopefully - you have a few questions about Truman's athletic program. I probably can anticipate a few of the questions you have about the Bulldogs, so I'll try to answer them here.
Question: What division/conference does Truman play in?
Answer: The Bulldogs are an NCAA Div. II team and compete in the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletic Association. The MIAA has 11 teams total, but not every sport has 11 teams. Football, for example, has 10 conference teams. Every MIAA team is from Missouri or Kansas except conference newcomer University of Nebraska-Omaha.
Truman has some sports, such as men's soccer and men's and women's swimming, that the MIAA does not sponsor, and therefore, the Bulldogs compete independently or in a different conference for these sports.
As most Truman athletes will readily tell you, the MIAA is one of the toughest conferences in Div. II. The conference has produced the national runner-up in football for three straight years (Northwest Missouri State University).
Five MIAA teams qualified for the 2008 NCAA volleyball tournament. The University of Central Missouri is a two-time Div. II national baseball champion.
Even against tough competition, the Bulldogs are, at the very least, competitive in almost all of their 21 varsity sports.
Question: Who is Truman's top rival?
Answer: The Northwest
Missouri State Bearcats. The Truman football team's Sept. 20 game against Northwest will be the 87th playing of the Ol' Hickory Stick Game, Div. II's oldest trophy game.
Although Northwest has dominated the rivalry in football for the past decade, the Bulldogs generally have the upper hand in sports like women's soccer and volleyball.
The Bearcats are Truman's top rival across the board, but other strong rivalries exist, including Nebraska-Omaha in women's soccer and Central Missouri in volleyball.
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