The Legend of The Belt(TM)

We take a break from posting about Division III basketball games to posting about... Division III basketball games, in a sense.

Having gone to North Central, a team that has been a perennial contender in the CCIW for basketball, I became familiar with the program even before taking on the mantle of PA announcer. In reading through things on D3Hoops, I had seen stuff about a message board, but didn't join it officially until February of 2016. And even then, it took me forever to stumble upon the greatest thread of all time: that of the Division III Championship Belt^TM. I've talked a little bit about The Belt^TM in the past week or so, but I feel like a full primer on it is necessary at this point.

The Belt^TM Itself^TM actually dates back to the origins of NCAA Division III in 1975, and first bestowed Itself^TM upon Lemoyne-Owen, the first D-III national champion. But recorded history of The Belt^TM does not begin, as noted in the link above, until January of 2007. And it began, as legends sometimes do, in a low-key manner. Belt^TM discoverer, Just Bill, brought it up as something fun with friends to track over the course of a season. The initial reaction came from D3Hoops contributor Ryan Scott, who said, "This seems silly and pointless..." But it drew an audience, and other fans went on to track the whereabouts of The Belt^TM for the remainder of that season. Of course, questions of procedure arose: could teams outside of Division III hold The Belt^TM (no), and can a team that does not make the NCAA Tournament hold The Belt^TM during the offseason (yes).

And so The Belt^TM began its journey around the country, racking up a bunch of frequent flyer miles in the UAA the season after the thread began, even finding Its^TM way in the CCIW for conference play in 2014-15. For my part, I did not discover the glory of The Belt^TM until late in 2016, when I happened to see the topic as having recently been posted in, and my curiosity was piqued. I was advised to read through the entire thread... which I then took a couple days to do, was amused, and joined the following of The Belt^TM.

When I first learned of The Belt^TM's existence, I put "Announce a Game for The Belt^TM" on my announcing bucket list. I discovered during those couple days of reading that, it turned out, I already had... twice. It was also interesting to see how the concept had evolved. Fairly early on, The Belt^TM was noted as having been trademarked, hence why every mention of It^TM includes the trademark symbol, even when referred to with pronouns. Sometime in the next couple of years, The Belt^TM went from a conceptual traveling trophy to a sentient, arguably supernatural force, and shortly after that employed "Legal Weasels" as Its^TM legal defense team, mainly for the purpose of enforcing the trademark.

A number of other fans have spent years tracking the path of The Belt^TM during its seasons since we were enlightened, and while waiting for the 2018 NCAA Tournament a number of them managed to go back to before the path was tracked, and reconstruct the full Belt^TM Path going all the way back to that aforementioned LeMoyne-Owen team. Around this time, I also decided to chart states where The Belt^TM had been held, and found myself declared the Official Cartographer of The Belt^TM. Burdened with this new role, I built out a map charting Its^TM entire history, and after discovering that the site I'd used had a limited number of free views, I had to then rebuild the map in Google Maps, but with a week of work on it, I was able to rebuild it.

So why, after a few years of tracking The Belt^TM with a number of other board posters, am I just now doing a full post on Its^TM glory? Because of North Central's season opener. The Cardinals opened their year with defending national champion UW-Oshkosh, and as has happened every year since we began tracking The Belt^TM, the defending national champion held The Belt^TM to begin the campaign, which meant for the first time in almost five years, I got to announce another Belt^TM game. The Titans prevailed to retain possession, and I figured that was that.

But then something funny happened. Oshkosh paid a visit to Kenosha, and Carthage knocked off the defending champion... and in doing so gained The BeltTM. They held It^TM for a couple weeks, even beating North Central as the holder before losing It^TM a few days later to Illinois Wesleyan. Those Titans held possession for a short time before losing It^TM to Washington University in St. Louis. And with that, the fear was that I wouldn't get to announce a game for It^TM again for who knows how long.

But then The Belt^TM proved Its^TM sovereignty, as an injured Bears team lost on New Years Eve to Millikin, giving the Big Blue The Belt^TM. And with that, The Belt^TM was guaranteed to spend the first two months of 2020 in the CCIW and giving me a chance to do another game. That game turned out to be about a week later, as Illinois Wesleyan regained possession with a win over Millikin. I first brought The Belt^TM up on Confessions of a Sportscaster as part of the Game Notes from NCC's win over Wheaton that same night, and noted that the upcoming game that Wednesday against Illinois Wesleyan would mean The Belt^TM would be coming to Naperville. And after NCC's 82-69 win over the Titans, The Belt^TM stayed in Naperville, giving North Central possession for the first time in its history.

The Cardinals are still in possession after the win over Carroll on Saturday, and on Wednesday will take It^TM to Decatur for their matchup with Millikin. I don't know how much longer this season North Central will have possession of The Belt^TM for... but I will cherish every moment.