(10-2-10) - It has been a very interesting week. A lot of changes took place in athletic conferences from high school to D1, the changes are starting already. During every week we do a lot of research and send out a lot of emails to ask or verify information that we find. We use many methods including; Google searches, Google alerts, tips from sources, verifying with schools, commissioners, but the most productive is message boards.

Earlier this week we received a Google alert that had an item from a message board, which doesn't happen very often. The thread was that an NAIA conference had sent out seven letters of invitations to schools to apply for membership. Four schools remaining from a conference that looks to be disbanding and three other schools basically as football members only. The poster of the thread later was hammered by several other posters and the administrator who said the poster should verify the information before posting.

So I decide to send out an email with info from the message board to those who request information from our site and also to AD's and conference commissioners for verification. Not to say that the information on the message board is a fact, but to verify if there is any truth to the posting. We have found in the past “where there is smoke there is fire”. We would do this for any unconfirmed information we have received or found. Just the week before we had a posting from an Illinois HS board and did the same process. All information on that HS posting was verified by those involved in the posting. Many times postings like these come from a coach or someone closely associated with the conference.

Whenever we see anything that implies there is a possible change of members in a conference we always take a look and use the source where the information comes from as a reference for our request. The next day we check the message board and another poster decides that the Senior Reports is "fear mongering" and that we are “idiots“. That poster has every right to say whatever he or she likes, all part of the fun of being on a message board. The poster also mentioned that they had received a copy of our email requesting verification of the posting. I than sent an email to the administrator via his email address on the profile section of the message board. After I sent that email I notice the administrator commented on the above posting. To say the least I didn't like what he had posted and sent another email with my displeasure.

The next day I notice on the board that the poster who called me a "fear monger" had challenged me to "duel" with him on the message board. This after I finally sent the administrator another email to another email address I had on file for him. That is another story, but after exchanging emails the administrator also called me a "fear monger" and that I have been on a course to destroy the NAIA. The administrator and the poster who challenged me know each other and had discussed the emails I had sent. I also received a couple of emails from the administrator telling me that I am pretty much a low-life for what I am doing. Let me tell you this... I am not the NAIA's problem or the reason schools are looking to move, if I am they have more issues than I thought they did.

I will tell you that the administrator of the other site and I do not see eye-to-eye on a lot of things. I do however appreciate his loyalty to the NAIA and the efforts he does to cover the schools who participate in it. He allows a lot of folks access to information and broadcasts that would not be available in mainstream media. But I also think that site is "blind" to what is happening with the structure and what the future holds for the NAIA. I will say it again the NAIA will survive, but in a different form than what we have seen over the past years. Quality schools are leaving and will continue to leave, this is a fact and not something I am making up.

Now back to the message board, the original poster was "spot on", articles from various media sources have since verified all of the facts he listed and he was correct. Thanks to that poster we were able to verify his posting...it was verified by two commissioners and several AD's in the articles. The administrator of the site missed the boat by not verifying the information. The administrator said he would never use information from his own message board, to bad. Several days after the facts were released no mention on the site or no posters telling the original poster good job. Loyalty is one thing, but reality is another.