Rowing, Baseball, Mens Swimming, and mens soccer.

I thought some might get dropped but I did not see Soccer and Swim Dive coming. UB has been quite competative in both.


http://www.ubbullrun.com/2017/4/3/151597...our-sports

(04-03-2017 07:29 AM)Bull_Is_Back Wrote:  Rowing, Baseball, Mens Swimming, and mens soccer.

I thought some might get dropped but I did not see Soccer and Swim Dive coming. UB has been quite competative in both.


http://www.ubbullrun.com/2017/4/3/151597...our-sports

It is always a shame to see athletes and fans lose their teams. As a Zips fan, UB dropping soccer hurts. They were they only program in the MAC that seemed to really want to try to challenge Akron.

The loss of men's soccer hurts the MAC, which I assume will need to find another school to affiliate so the conference can keep its automatic bid.

As for baseball: I'm surprised so many MAC schools field baseball teams, given the weather up here and everything else.

(04-03-2017 08:47 AM)Schadenfreude Wrote:  The loss of men's soccer hurts the MAC, which I assume will need to find another school to affiliate so the conference can keep its automatic bid.

As for baseball: I'm surprised so many MAC schools field baseball teams, given the weather up here and everything else.

It was only relatively recently that the MAC allowed full members to not carry baseball. Studies show that out of all the non-revenue sports, baseball costs the most to operate. Akron was the 1st to drop it 1 1/2 years ago and Buffalo is now doing the same. In the coming years I expect more MAC schools to do the same.

This is sad, but it is a reality in college athletics and UB was forced to save money so they found the sports that the MAC sponsors, but doesn't have a strong field in (which i mean from a numbers standpoint)... Rowing was just us and EMU.. Soccer was just four full MAC members, men's swimming is similar to soccer, and baseball we just don't have the facility to compete... Once Akron dropped baseballl, I knew we weren't far behind.

We have a lot of unhappy alums today, but college athletics is a business as much as we like that or not and this was a business decision that needed to be made.

(04-03-2017 09:11 AM)BullBoy Wrote:  This is sad, but it is a reality in college athletics and UB was forced to save money so they found the sports that the MAC sponsors, but doesn't have a strong field in (which i mean from a numbers standpoint)... Rowing was just us and EMU.. Soccer was just four full MAC members, men's swimming is similar to soccer, and baseball we just don't have the facility to compete... Once Akron dropped baseballl, I knew we weren't far behind.

We have a lot of unhappy alums today, but college athletics is a business as much as we like that or not and this was a business decision that needed to be made.

I agree with your comments, but I would have said:

Athletics at public universities, like the MAC schools, are like state and local government. They have defined budgets with expected revenues and expenditures and have to balance the budget. Budgets can be balanced by increasing revenues or cutting expenditures or both. Spending big bucks on education (and athletics) is definitely out of vogue for taxpayers.

And I will say this too.. We all love Athletics and that is why we are on the message board, but a University is more than just an Athletic Department. UB is building world-class medical facilities and the $2 million they are going to save each year will go to some of these projects. It was just not fiscally possible to maintain 20 sports right now.

Frustrating to hear this news. But I feel this will continue with other MAC schools.

If there is any consolation, I would hope that UB students will be active at the club level, for sports like soccer. You don't have the administration overhead of the sponsored sport, but at least the students have the opportunity to compete against other colleges/universities.

This happened to Kent State years ago with the hockey program. But the club team continues to thrive.

It would be fun if the MAC could bring Kentucky back for men's soccer. Hard to know how this will play out. Perhaps Western Illinois would be willing to shift from the Summit to the MAC or Belmont could shift from the Horizon.

Ice hockey had been rumored in the past, but those rumored have died down.

Lax teams would be perfect for UB though. Both would be quite popular with students, many of whom played.

It's almost criminal that UB doesn't have hockey or lax. Maybe this announcement paves the way.

(04-03-2017 06:30 PM)NoDak Wrote:  Ice hockey had been rumored in the past, but those rumored have died down.

Lax teams would be perfect for UB though. Both would be quite popular with students, many of whom played.

It's almost criminal that UB doesn't have hockey or lax. Maybe this announcementioned paves the way.

Nope.... None coming.

(04-03-2017 06:35 PM)Bull_Is_Back Wrote:  

(04-03-2017 06:30 PM)NoDak Wrote:  Ice hockey had been rumored in the past, but those rumored have died down.

Lax teams would be perfect for UB though. Both would be quite popular with students, many of whom played.

It's almost criminal that UB doesn't have hockey or lax. Maybe this announcementioned paves the way.

Nope.... None coming.

Of course they will deny new sports are coming. But if a major gift is coming down, they have already cleared the landing path so new sports can start. Give it at least six months, probably a year.

Admin never want to tie dropping sports with adding new ones, as that scapegoats the new ones.

(04-03-2017 06:48 PM)NoDak Wrote:  

(04-03-2017 06:35 PM)Bull_Is_Back Wrote:  

(04-03-2017 06:30 PM)NoDak Wrote:  Ice hockey had been rumored in the past, but those rumored have died down.

Lax teams would be perfect for UB though. Both would be quite popular with students, many of whom played.

It's almost criminal that UB doesn't have hockey or lax. Maybe this announcementioned paves the way.

Nope.... None coming.

Of course they will deny new sports are coming. But if a major gift is coming down, they have already cleared the landing path so new sports can start. Give it at least six months, probably a year.

Admin never want to tie dropping sports with adding new ones, as that scapegoats the new ones.

This is tinfoil hat territory.

(04-03-2017 07:32 PM)Lord Stanley Wrote:  

(04-03-2017 06:48 PM)NoDak Wrote:  

(04-03-2017 06:35 PM)Bull_Is_Back Wrote:  

(04-03-2017 06:30 PM)NoDak Wrote:  Ice hockey had been rumored in the past, but those rumored have died down.

Lax teams would be perfect for UB though. Both would be quite popular with students, many of whom played.

It's almost criminal that UB doesn't have hockey or lax. Maybe this announcementioned paves the way.

Nope.... None coming.

Of course they will deny new sports are coming. But if a major gift is coming down, they have already cleared the landing path so new sports can start. Give it at least six months, probably a year.

Admin never want to tie dropping sports with adding new ones, as that scapegoats the new ones.

This is tinfoil hat territory.

Yeah. Terry Pegula gave Penn St a major gift to start hockey, now owns the Sabres and Bills, and his company recently partnered with the Bulls. Canisius was just granted rights to play DI hockey in the Sabres practice facility downtown, pure tinfoil hat territory.

Donated a big chunk to Houghton College NY to build new athletics facilites so that could get in the Empire 8 DIII conference.

He also owns the Buffalo Bandits, a pro lax team, and the AHL's Rochester Americans. He has no interest in sports whatsoever.

But talk of NIU going to the Big12 is totally legit?

(04-03-2017 07:44 PM)NoDak Wrote:  

(04-03-2017 07:32 PM)Lord Stanley Wrote:  

(04-03-2017 06:48 PM)NoDak Wrote:  

(04-03-2017 06:35 PM)Bull_Is_Back Wrote:  

(04-03-2017 06:30 PM)NoDak Wrote:  Ice hockey had been rumored in the past, but those rumored have died down.

Lax teams would be perfect for UB though. Both would be quite popular with students, many of whom played.

It's almost criminal that UB doesn't have hockey or lax. Maybe this announcementioned paves the way.

Nope.... None coming.

Of course they will deny new sports are coming. But if a major gift is coming down, they have already cleared the landing path so new sports can start. Give it at least six months, probably a year.

Admin never want to tie dropping sports with adding new ones, as that scapegoats the new ones.

This is tinfoil hat territory.

Yeah. Terry Pegula gave Penn St a major gift to start hockey, now owns the Sabres and Bills, and his company recently partnered with the Bulls. Canisius was just granted rights to play DI hockey in the Sabres practice facility downtown, pure tinfoil hat territory.

Donated a big chunk to Houghton College NY to build new athletics facilites so that could get in the Empire 8 DIII conference.

He also owns the Buffalo Bandits, a pro lax team, and the AHL's Rochester Americans. He has no interest in sports whatsoever.

But talk of NIU going to the Big12 is totally legit?

It should be noted Penn State is his alma mater and Houghton College is his wife's alma mater.

I'd love to see Buffalo start hockey. It could be what the MAC needs to maybe start our own hockey conference or revive the old CCHA brand by prying Miami and Western Michigan away from the NCHC, bringing in Bowling Green and some of the eastern WCHA schools, and bringing in Robert Morris and other western New York schools as well.

But if you guys are cutting four sports, I'm not sure I see you launching hockey. It can generate revenue, but that's a lot of scholarships to tie up in one program.

(04-04-2017 07:30 AM)Schadenfreude Wrote:  I'd love to see Buffalo start hockey. It could be what the MAC needs to maybe start our own hockey conference or revive the old CCHA brand by prying Miami and Western Michigan away from the NCHC, bringing in Bowling Green and some of the eastern WCHA schools, and bringing in Robert Morris and other western New York schools as well.

But if you guys are cutting four sports, I'm not sure I see you launching hockey. It can generate revenue, but that's a lot of scholarships to tie up in one program.

Hockey is also very expensive on an annual basis due to the travel and can have a high investment cost depending on what facilities are or are not available. I don't have the numbers in front of me but as another poster noted on the WMU board, a D1 hockey program could very likely cost more than the 4 sports UB dropped combined.

This is no way for the flagship university of the state of New York to appear. What carry the minimum number of sports possible to be FBS and no friggin hockey. Wtf bull.

Can see baseball has it has been on the chopping block for us a number of times, but there have been promises of alum to donate. We only fund it with a few scholarships. But don't understand soccer. We have 21 sports down from the hay day of 27 sports. We could face some of these issues, but not cutting sports down to the minimum of 16 sports for FBS programs. We do have hockey. (-:

The MAC needs a second soccer affiliate ... which would include needing it to keep WVU as a soccer affiliate, since I presume that if WVU wanted to join CUSA, CUSA would not say "go away, we have 9 already".

Eastern Illinois? They are an affiliate in the Summit League. That would drop the Summit from 7 to 6, so their auto-bid would be secure, and seems like it would be easier travel for Eastern Illinois.

Howard? They are an affiliate in the Sunbelt, which would drop the Sunbelt from 6 to 5, putting their autobid in jeopardy, but Howard would be under three and a half hours drive from Morgantown, so if easy travel is a part of the case to WVU to stay, that might be a factor.

I once would have included NJIT, but they joined the Atlantic Sun in 2015, and the A-Sun sponsors soccer.

Soccer's just another row of dominoes falling. Hope everyone is happy cheering for their local P5 in the near future as minor league football eats away at the once proud MAC.