NCAA 2014 D3 Men's & Women's Basketball Tournaments: How it is good for Warhawk Athletics and the WIAC?

This year's NCAA Division-III Tournament for both Men's and Women's Basketball is rematch heaven for the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.  This weekend includes the possible rematch of UW-Oshkosh and UW-Whitewater on the Women's bracket for a third time this season, but it also includes an unprecedented fourth match up between WIAC rivals UW-Whitewater and UW-Stevens Point on the Men's side. In my eyes, this is huge for the conference because it proves to everyone in Division III athletics that the WIAC isn't just a football conference.  The WIAC is known for having good football teams lately especially National Championship winning teams like UW-Whitewater with the Warhawks winning five National Championships in the last seven years.  I do have to admit the 2013 Football season was very exciting to watch with it being a three team race between the UW-Whitewater, UW-Oshkosh, and UW-Platteville. Two playoff teams came out of the WIAC this year, which rarely ever happens.  In my eyes, these conference rematches in the NCAA Tournament are more impressive because rarely in the Division III tournament do you ever see a rematch of conference foes in the second week of the playoffs.  It's so huge for the WIAC that you could have a possible Whitewater-Stevens Point match up for the right to go to the Final Four.  It proves that the WIAC is also a really good conference for both Men's and Women's Basketball.  The WIAC is a competitive conference for every sport just not every sport gets as much recognition as football does.  This is a big thing in my eyes for UW-Whitewater athletics because everybody views the university as just a football school, despite also winning National Championships in other sports such as volleyball, baseball, Men's Basketball, Gymnastics, and both wheelchair basketball teams the last 10 to 13 years.  I'm sick of hearing that Whitewater is just a football school because they aren't the only team winning not only the conference but it all.  The cool thing this year for Whitewater is that they could do something that might be a first in NCAA history.  They could sweep all 4 National Championships for basketball (Men's, Women's, and both Wheelchair).  That could be really impressive because of the fact that the Wheelchair teams play Division I teams. To be honest, you could honestly make an argument that the run of NCAA tournament appearances by the Volleyball team at Whitewater (made it every single year since 1992) is more impressive than the football team's run since 2005 because that's unheard of in any division that a team makes it to the tournament that many years in a row.  All this winning for UW-Whitewater is a testament to their last two athletic directors: Paul Plinske and Amy Edmonds as well as the whole athletic department as a whole.  They do a really good job at providing a winning culture for student-athletes along with some of the better facilities in Division III.  As a guy that has covered numerous teams on the campus, I wish more people would know how good the other teams are besides the football team.  To be honest, I will miss the "Powered By Tradition" atmosphere when I graduate in December.