I always thought that the Tribe would be more suited as members of the Patriot League with other academically elite schools. I also think the Patriot has a standing invitation to them as a full member (and a FB offer for Richmond) should they ever decide to reciprocate. (11 member conferences are suddenly in vogue now)
The CAA and Patriot have similar footprints so it's not like their travel budget would be growing. Richmond, VCU, George Mason, and ODU have all left the conference. It's not a VA-centric league anymore. The CAA also isn't a 2 bid league like it was in the past and can't be getting all that much in tv revenue.
Trips to American, Loyola, and Navy are comprable to going to JMU, Towson, and Delaware.
Bucknell, Lafayette, and Lehigh aren't much farther than Drexel.
Holy Cross and BU are virtually the same trip as Northeastern and the same could be said of Army vs Hofstra. Colgate is just a little out of the way.
The only real travel difference is they wouldn't be going to the Carolinas for conference play but they can always use OOC games to maintain a presence in the region.
I think William & Mary and Richmond would also get more football wins by jumping ship.
Thoughts?
William and Mary would be the only public school aside from the service academies, and Richmond football would suffer by being tied down to the Patriot League and their mostly sub-par programs. They can and have won in the CAA.
If CAA is a JMU defection away from a civil war within the conference, Patriot STILL has to dump AI to get the Tribe, and/or Spider and Wildcat football.
Any school in that time zone would definetly take the association that comes with Patriot membership. But AI is just ****ing stupid if you’re not in the Ivy. It shouldn’t be a surprise who you might find lining up at the door for Patsy, and equally unsurprising who’s no-showing.
Heck, I’d wager that if AI wasn’t in place in the Patriot, Hopkins would have its lacrosse there.
(01-27-2019 04:35 PM)Fighting Muskie Wrote: [ -> ]I always thought that the Tribe would be more suited as members of the Patriot League with other academically elite schools. I also think the Patriot has a standing invitation to them as a full member (and a FB offer for Richmond) should they ever decide to reciprocate. (11 member conferences are suddenly in vogue now)
The CAA and Patriot have similar footprints so it's not like their travel budget would be growing. Richmond, VCU, George Mason, and ODU have all left the conference. It's not a VA-centric league anymore. The CAA also isn't a 2 bid league like it was in the past and can't be getting all that much in tv revenue.
Trips to American, Loyola, and Navy are comprable to going to JMU, Towson, and Delaware.
Bucknell, Lafayette, and Lehigh aren't much farther than Drexel.
Holy Cross and BU are virtually the same trip as Northeastern and the same could be said of Army vs Hofstra. Colgate is just a little out of the way.
The only real travel difference is they wouldn't be going to the Carolinas for conference play but they can always use OOC games to maintain a presence in the region.
I think William & Mary and Richmond would also get more football wins by jumping ship.
Thoughts?
Patriot League should be embracing WM and the idea of being a poor man's Ivy League. They can even set up an Ivy Cup as a playoff instead of the pointless FCS non-academic Championship.
Never bought BU and LMD as fits. Always felt William&Mary and VMI fit better.
Holy Cross
Colgate
Bucknell
Lehigh
Lafeyette
American
Army
Navy
Virginia Military Institute
William&Mary
Hard to believe it wasn’t long ago William&Mary was knocking VCU out of conference tournaments.
(01-27-2019 08:51 PM)canewton Wrote: [ -> ]What is AI
Academic Index. It’s a scoring metric used by certain schools to determine whether prospective students qualify for entry (“fit”). Consists of some formula using SAT/ACT scores, GPA, class rank, and other factors.
Ivy and Patriot both use it. Patriot’s known to be more strict with it, especially with scholarships in play.
(01-27-2019 05:40 PM)seaking4steel Wrote: [ -> ]William and Mary would be the only public school aside from the service academies, and Richmond football would suffer by being tied down to the Patriot League and their mostly sub-par programs. They can and have won in the CAA.
William and Mary is a public school on paper but they cater to a private school crowd. Their student body is rich, brilliant, or preferably both.
CAA is a JMU defection away from some serious infighting. Richmond and William & Mary could be perrenial, not occasional, contenders in the Patriot and get the prestige of being associated with those universities.
That's not something we would be interested in. We have several natural rivalries in the CAA (JMU, Delaware, Richmond) and several more have grown over time (Hofstra, UNCW, Towson, etc). W&M would rather play those schools than travel to Loyola (MD) in front of 400 people. The CAA is a bit more spread out, but that helps get the school's name out there more.
We just hired a new President and AD, they've been making some aggressive moves athletically. COA for basketball (Do any Patriot schools even offer that), hiring Mike London, new logos, improved scheduling. The school is starting to put more money in athletics, there is no ambition to drop down to the Patriot League.
(01-28-2019 08:50 AM)TDenverFan Wrote: [ -> ]The school is starting to put more money in athletics, there is no ambition to drop down to the Patriot League.
What's sad about that, for the Patriot, at least, is that they actually are trying to shed that perception. Like, they want to be an upgrade. When they brought on Boston, it was for basketball. Loyola was for added lacrosse strength. Neither translated to more success to those sports.
I never liked the Boston addition. I mean, they fit in Patriot by academic prestige, and I was glad America East was rid of them, but Boston was in budget-slashing mode, and the Patriot allows them some flexibility to offer limited scholarships and other operating standards. It shows in hoops. They were told to field lacrosse, which they are...but it's primarily funded by donors.
It's not the same company you want to keep for your revenue sports.
Football remains an issue. I do feel, however, their growth is one of the next moves in D1 realignment. It's overdue. Just, don't expect anything earth-shattering as much as one might have some short years back.
I’ve heard rumblings that ‘Nova’s administration wants in the Patriot League, but as far as W&M goes, what the W&M fan said took the words right out of my mouth.
(01-28-2019 11:36 AM)DawgNBama Wrote: [ -> ]I’ve heard rumblings that ‘Nova’s administration wants in the Patriot League, but as far as W&M goes, what the W&M fan said took the words right out of my mouth.
You mean for football, right?
No way in hell is Villanova ever leaving the Big East.
(01-28-2019 11:49 AM)dbackjon Wrote: [ -> ] (01-28-2019 11:36 AM)DawgNBama Wrote: [ -> ]I’ve heard rumblings that ‘Nova’s administration wants in the Patriot League, but as far as W&M goes, what the W&M fan said took the words right out of my mouth.
You mean for football, right?
No way in hell is Villanova ever leaving the Big East.
Of course for football!! ‘Nova leaving the BE would be insane!
I find it amusing that folks feel the need to tell the second oldest college in the country what it ought to do.
(01-28-2019 12:27 PM)AppinVA Wrote: [ -> ]I find it amusing that folks feel the need to tell the second oldest college in the country what it ought to do.
It's a public institution. It's going to get that where private ones won't.
As for Villanova and PLF, again, it's what Patriot has to do with AI. Cut the schools some slack with its requirements, and maybe you get some receptivity. As is, you're essentially saying that only Ivy-level kids can play at these places, but you yourself are not an Ivy League school. And even the Ivy isn't necessarily as hard on it. Good luck with that.
(01-28-2019 12:37 PM)The Cutter of Bish Wrote: [ -> ] (01-28-2019 12:27 PM)AppinVA Wrote: [ -> ]I find it amusing that folks feel the need to tell the second oldest college in the country what it ought to do.
It's a public institution. It's going to get that where private ones won't.
As for Villanova and PLF, again, it's what Patriot has to do with AI. Cut the schools some slack with its requirements, and maybe you get some receptivity. As is, you're essentially saying that only Ivy-level kids can play at these places, but you yourself are not an Ivy League school. And even the Ivy isn't necessarily as hard on it. Good luck with that.
I feel athletically/culturally we're in an odd spot for that. Only about 10-12% of our budget comes from the state, and only a little more than half the students are in state. We're only about 6,500 students, but have a $900 million dollar endowment. We are a public college, but in a lot of metrics compare/align ourselves more with private ones. I'm honestly not sure if there was a public/private divide in a conference (like the alleged one in the MVC, or if we were to push for membership with the private schools in the Patriot) how each side would feel about us.
I don't understand why both Nova and Richmond, who have both obtained national championships in football in the recent past, would want to drop their teams to the Patiriot to play with schools like Georgetown that put up the bare minimum to have a team. I understand that the League has begun to make efforts to better compete such as allowing scholarships, but they are still a ways off from being on par with most of FCS.
(01-28-2019 12:27 PM)AppinVA Wrote: [ -> ]I find it amusing that folks feel the need to tell the second oldest college in the country what it ought to do.
That's the great thing about the internet, right? Everyone's an expert.
(01-27-2019 08:51 PM)canewton Wrote: [ -> ]What is AI
Allen Iverson. William & Mary is 30 minutes from his hometown so you'd think it would benefit them greatly.
(01-28-2019 12:27 PM)AppinVA Wrote: [ -> ]I find it amusing that folks feel the need to tell the second oldest college in the country what it ought to do.
I'm not looking to tell William and Mary what to do; simply suggesting that it might be advantageous to move to the Patriot where the schools have a pedigree and academic ranking similar to their own. Almost all of their old instate friends are gone so I don't see the appeal of staying in the CAA.