Midwest Dodgeball Conference
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The Midwest Dodgeball Conference is the world's only known college dodgeball athletic conference. Located in the Midwestern United States of America, it reaches from as far as Kentucky and West Virginia to Nebraska and Michigan.
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[edit] Members
- Michigan State University (co-founder 2005)
- DePaul Dodgeball (co-founder 2005)
- Ohio State University (co-founder 2005)
- Kent State University (co-founder 2005)
- Delta College (co-founder 2005)
- Grand Valley State University (joined 2005)
- Oakland University (joined 2006)
- University of Kentucky (joined 2006)
- University of Nebraska-Omaha (joined 2006)
- University of Nebraska-Lincoln (joined 2006)
- Marshall University (joined 2006)
- Kansas State University (joined 2006)
[edit] History
On April 9th and 10th, 2005, The MSU dodgeball team held a tournament featuring themselves, DePaul, Ohio State, Kent State and Delta College. Known then as the Spartan Dodgeball Invitational, the tournament is considered the starting platform from which college dodgeball took off and the first dodgeball tournament where each team was a registered organization of their school. In the weeks following the tournament, in which there was confusion due to each team practicing with different rules and officiating issues, discussions were held on DePaul Dodgeball's message board with the aim of agreeing on a single, unified system which all teams could easily use in competition and that people wishing to form teams could quickly adopt. Ryan McGeehan brother of the great Sean McGeehan, of DePaul University developed an initial set of rules based around DePaul's aggressive ruleset, and submitted them to public discussion by MDC members. After a month of discussion, the Midwest Dodgeball Conference rules and the MDC itself was formed. To date the MDC monicker denotes a loose association with the other schools; however, discussion has begun to take place regarding making the conference more formal, with scheduling and other issues presided over by a conference president. To date the MDC is still growing in popularity however with a large marketing push by all teams the Conference will hopefully soon be adding more schools and gaining a larger fan following. Part of this push includes the current record holding attendance level for a collegiate dodgeball game between Oakland University and Michigan State University at the Breslin Center on Michigan State's campus. The game took place on December 3, 2006 in front of 14,759 fans.
[edit] Tournaments
One of the goals of the MDC is to foster greater competition between the schools, and a number of tournaments have been held and proposed.
Midwest Dodgeball Conference Postseason Tournament: Formerly known as the Spartan Dodgeball Invitational, this is the MDC's equivalent to the NCAA basketball tournament. All teams are invited to this event, typically consisting of round robin and single elimination sections.
Past winners:
2005: Ohio State
2006: Ohio State
Past MVPs:
2005- Sean Penner(OSU)
2006- Nick Wright(OSU)
Michigan Dodgeball Cup: Originally starting as a rivalry game between Michigan State University and Delta College, the Michigan Dodgeball Cup (also known as the little MDC) has since expanded to a four-team tournament featuring the top four schools in the state of Michigan. Past winners: Michigan State (2005), Grand Valley State (2006, 2007)
Chicago Dodgeball Open: A 6-team tournament featuring both round robin and single elimination sections, hosted by DePaul University in Chicago, IL. Past winners: Michigan State (2006)
Midwest Dodgeball Conference Preseason Tournament (Proposed)
Buckeye Invitational (Proposed)
[edit] Rivalries
College athletic competitions inevitably lead to rivalries and college dodgeball is no different.
- Kent State / Ohio State "The Battle for Ohio Dodgeball Supremacy"
- Michigan State / Grand Valley State University
- Michigan State / Delta College
- DePaul/Delta College
- DePaul/Michigan State
