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TDenverFan Online
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Post: #1
Conference Changes
https://d1baseball.com/columns/three-con...-alliance/

Half the article is behind a paywall, so I don't know how in depth these talks have been, but it will be interesting to follow.

I'm not sure what exactly a secondary sport is, but it's the phrase the article used. I would assume it's everything but football and basketball, but who knows.
04-27-2020 11:44 PM
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Zorch Offline
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RE: CAA, A-10, and Big East discussing possible scheduling alliance in 'Secondary' Sports
My cynicism tells me that this is another way for the CAA to be the patsy for "higher" leagues, much as has happened with the CAA's "alliance" on sharing basketball officials.

Without being able to read the whole article, my surmise is that the A-10 and the Big East would benefit the most from this, with only Hofstra and Northeastern (and possibly Delaware, Drexel, and Towson) benefiting from the CAA (does Hofstra even sponsor baseball?; I'm thinking not -- I know Drexel doesn't).

The only teams that W&M would probably add to their schedule would be Richmond and VCU (and I'm one of those who thinks that it shouldn't take a pandemic to be able to get on their schedule).

To benefit the CAA, those other leagues should agree to schedule CAA schools in round-robin or home-and-home games in basketball.
(This post was last modified: 04-29-2020 10:44 AM by Zorch.)
04-28-2020 09:12 AM
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Blow Gym rat Offline
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RE: CAA, A-10, and Big East discussing possible scheduling alliance in 'Secondary' Sports
(04-28-2020 09:12 AM)Zorch Wrote:  The only teams that W&M would probably add to their schedule would be Richmond and VCU (and I'm one of those who thinks that it shouldn't take a pandemic to be able to get on their schedule).

Looking a little more broadly geographically, it could also include GMU, Georgetown, GW and Davidson -- not a bad group. But I'm not aware we have any trouble now with scheduling them for "secondary" sports.
04-28-2020 09:43 AM
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Tribe32 Offline
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RE: CAA, A-10, and Big East discussing possible scheduling alliance in 'Secondary' Sports
I personally think this is a great idea. CAA is better in many sport than the other two. If we get some basketball home and home series with A10 and Big East, it seems like everyone wins.
04-28-2020 11:27 AM
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TDenverFan Online
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RE: CAA, A-10, and Big East discussing possible scheduling alliance in 'Secondary' Sports
(04-28-2020 09:43 AM)Blow Gym rat Wrote:  
(04-28-2020 09:12 AM)Zorch Wrote:  The only teams that W&M would probably add to their schedule would be Richmond and VCU (and I'm one of those who thinks that it shouldn't take a pandemic to be able to get on their schedule).

Looking a little more broadly geographically, it could also include GMU, Georgetown, GW and Davidson -- not a bad group. But I'm not aware we have any trouble now with scheduling them for "secondary" sports.

Yeah, I'm not sure how much this will actually change anything.

W&M baseball's OOC schedule this past season had: ECU, Duke, UVA, West Virginia, Georgetown, George Washington, George Mason, Virginia Tech, ODU, VCU, Richmond, Maryland, and Clemson. About half at W&M about half on the road.

Soccer is pretty similar, though the women did have a game at Northwestern.

The non football/basketball sports are already pretty regional, but as an alum living in Nova, I'll happily take some more road games at George(Town/Washington/Mason)
04-28-2020 11:32 AM
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RE: CAA, A-10, and Big East discussing possible scheduling alliance in 'Secondary' Sports
Val Ackerman, Bernadette McGlade, Joey D...which one do you figure to be over-matched in negotiations....??
04-28-2020 11:41 AM
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RE: CAA, A-10, and Big East discussing possible scheduling alliance in 'Secondary' Sports
If I was Joey D, I would also be talking to the ACC (Carolina, Virginia, Pennsylvania, NY, and Mass schools) and Big 10 (Penn St., Md., Rutgers), and see if there is any leverage that can be used re: Big East/A-10.

If I was Samantha, I would be pressuring for the ACC/Big 10 package, rather than the Big East/A-10 package.
04-28-2020 02:39 PM
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billymac Offline
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RE: CAA, A-10, and Big East discussing possible scheduling alliance in 'Secondary' Sports
Big East/A-10 or ACC/Big 10...which group do you think would actually answer the phone call?
It sounds good, in theory, but why wouldn't the ACC just call the SEC and say "let's help each other out" and have it be mutually beneficial?
04-28-2020 03:03 PM
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RE: CAA, A-10, and Big East discussing possible scheduling alliance in 'Secondary' Sports
(04-28-2020 03:03 PM)billymac Wrote:  Big East/A-10 or ACC/Big 10...which group do you think would actually answer the phone call?
It sounds good, in theory, but why wouldn't the ACC just call the SEC and say "let's help each other out" and have it be mutually beneficial?

I dont see the P5 hurting . They have lived as if their income is an ever-rising unlimited amount of credit. They might have finally learned the truth and have to rein in the excess a bit, but most of them wont need to worry much at all about most of this.
04-28-2020 04:24 PM
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RE: CAA, A-10, and Big East discussing possible scheduling alliance in 'Secondary' Sports
Three Conferences Discussing Regional Scheduling Alliance

College baseball coaches already have a wealth of experience dealing with roster management issues. Now, some coaches and administrators inside the Colonial Athletic Association, Big East Conference and Atlantic 10 Conference are looking to put together a temporary and regional scheduling alliance in all secondary sports to help save money in 2021.

With the coronavirus pandemic cancelling all spring sports and creating some unwanted uncertainty surrounding the college football season, college sports fans have seen some interesting happenings over the past couple of months. Some universities have announced layoffs, others have announced furloughs for athletic department employees, including some baseball coaches at places like Boise State. Some administrators are even struggling with the tough decisions of potentially cutting some Olympic sports.

Many programs around the country are investigating ways they can make life easier for their administrators from a budgetary standpoint, hence the idea of a regional scheduling alliance was created by Connecticut head coach Jim Penders. With the creation of this alliance, it would allow programs in similar regional proximities from the A-10, CAA and Big East to compete without placing a heavy burden on the programs from a financial standpoint.


“We’re working on trying to find a regional solution. It makes a lot of sense in the short term and my hope is that it would take a lot of financial burden away from the schools,” Penders said about the plan. “I first brought it up on a conference call with Big East coaches two weeks ago and I asked if anyone would be dead set against this. No one was. Essentially, we left the meeting looking to explore which other conferences would be willing to navigate this with us.”

The idea from Penders’ standpoint was to find some leagues of similar stature who have large geographic footprints. The A-10 and CAA came to mind, with the A-10 having teams in the Midwest, Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions. The CAA has teams ranging from Northeastern in Boston to College of Charleston. In other words, plane flights, i.e., expensive trips, are the norm for some programs in those leagues.

Penders spoke with several coaches from those leagues, including Rhode Island’s Raphael Cerrato, Northeastern’s Mike Glavine, St. John’s Mike Hampton, Seton Hall’s Rob Sheppard and Fordham’s Kevin Leighton. All those coaches, he said, were on board with the general framework of the alliance.

“I got on the phone with a bunch of our neighborhood programs and looked at programs/conferences that would have big cost savings from playing more of a regionally-based schedule,” he said. “Those guys all seemed pretty enthusiastic about it, and my athletic director was open to any and all suggestions as a way to save money. After all, one of the reasons we want to do this is to help our athletic directors save some money.”

“At the end of the day, we’re all trying to make sure we keep as many kids in uniform on Opening Day 2021 as we had on Opening Day in 2020,” he continued, “We owe it to the game and the people who play it. I think anything has a good chance of happening right now. It has a chance, but everyone has to be on board. This is an alliance that would not only apply to baseball for one year, but also other secondary sports.”

——–

What would the framework for this scheduling alliance look like for baseball, and potentially, other spring sports?

Though the alliance discussions are still very much in the early stages, the general idea is that the scheduling would be done with a pod approach.

For instance, the Colonial Athletic Association would not have conference play like usual. Instead, a program like College of Charleston would only play teams in its region (South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia) during the usual conference portion of the schedule. No regular season conference champion would be awarded in any of the three leagues and conference tournaments would be played. However, the tournament seedings would be based on RPIs.

No official pods have been put together throughout the discussion phase of this proposal, but programs like Connecticut ideally would be paired with Hofstra, Seton Hall, St. John’s, Massachusetts, Northeastern and Rhode Island, among others. The same kind of arrangement would be assembled for programs from these leagues in the Mid-Atlantic region, while the South Carolina-North Carolina and Virginia grouping could include Charleston, UNC Wilmington, Elon, George Mason, Davidson, Virginia Commonwealth, James Madison, William & Mary and Towson.

“We’re looking at this from a standpoint of conferences with similar constraints and geographical hallmarks,” one Colonial head coach said. “This would only be a one-time deal and would help eliminate air travel and expensive, long trips. It would help promote the idea that we’re trying to improve student-athlete safety.

“This would be a smart solution as a one-year deal until everyone gets back to normal,” the coach added. “This is going to be a collaborative effort amongst mid-major programs to minimize risk and expenditures from a travel standpoint. This will allow athletic departments to trim their budgets without teams having to cancel games to do it. This approach would give teams a full 56-game schedule without too much of a financial burden. I get the feeling from what I know that a lot of northern programs in these leagues really want this to happen. We’re on board, but I think those programs really want this to come to fruition.”

Specific details about the potential alliance are coming, but it’s clearly an idea that has many coaches from the Big East, CAA and A-10 openly engaged and intrigued. Sources say the A-10 and CAA seem to be all onboard with the idea, while it will be interesting to see if the idea resonates with other Big East athletic directors besides UConn’s David Benedict.

——–

One potential roadblock to a proposal such as this is the presence of some programs with no obvious geographic partners from the other two leagues.

Creighton out of the Big East and Saint Louis out of the Atlantic 10 are two prime examples of this, while Butler and Xavier, located in Indiana and Ohio, respectively, aren’t exactly close to teams from the CAA. They only share geographic proximity with Dayton out of the A-10.

What do you do with those programs?

“Creighton was the program initially that I thought would have the toughest time with it,” Penders said. “But then again, they’re on a flight for pretty much every conference game, so maybe it’s something they could get on board with.”

Creighton long-time head coach Ed Servais doesn’t have a dead set opinion on the A10-BigEast-CAA alliance just yet. He’s waiting for more concrete answers from his administration. But in a new world where the phrase ‘that’ll never happen’ can no longer be used, he’s being proactive in other ways, meeting for weekly Zoom calls with other coaches from the nation’s Heartland, while also meeting with fellow Big East skippers.

Servais has been meeting with coaches from Kansas, Kansas State, Missouri State, Iowa and Illinois State, along with some input from Nebraska, about college baseball’s immediate future from a scheduling standpoint. What if Creighton and these programs have to do their own regional scheduling because of state travel constraints? Should programs, moving forward, play doubleheaders on Saturday and one game on Sunday to trim some costs? Those two questions are just two of many that have come up in the Ritch Price-led Zoom calls, along with other calls involving Big East coaches.

“It kind of started out as a discussion on regional scheduling. If we have to do it, how would we do it — and quickly?, Servais said. “We’re in a really unique situation right now. My fear is that we get left behind at a school like Creighton, but we’re not going to let that happen. I’ve heard anything from our administration. Until then, we’re going to continue to believe we’ll have a regular conference schedule. We’re not really sure if we’re going to lose any games or not at this point.

“There aren’t a lot of benefits to not having football,” he continued. “But this might be one of those times.”

The fallout from the coronavirus has already hit some athletic departments hard, and that impact will be magnified this fall if a vast majority of conferences do not allow fans to attend games. The doomsday scenario would be no football at all, which would not bode well for athletic departments or the long-term health of some baseball programs.

With all the uncertainty, coaches from the Big East, CAA and A-10 are looking short and long-term. They want to make sure they find creative ways to trim their budgets. They also want to make sure they actually have a program in a few months.

Everything is on the table.
04-28-2020 04:25 PM
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RE: CAA, A-10, and Big East discussing possible scheduling alliance in 'Secondary' Sports
(04-28-2020 11:41 AM)billymac Wrote:  Val Ackerman, Bernadette McGlade, Joey D...which one do you figure to be over-matched in negotiations....??

Looks for all the world like the Big East has projected near term revenues from the NCAA, media rights, ticket sales and activity fees and concluded it can't afford itself as an all sports league for the 20 - 21 academic year. It would be more interesting to know what the outlook is beyond that.

Am not so naïve as to think the CAA has any actual leverage in these discussions as its members are stuck with geography that is only slightly more logical and revenue shortfalls that are as or more daunting than those of the Big East and A10.

Ever mindful, however, that 100 percent of putts that don't reach the hole fail to drop, it wouldn't hurt to ask the Big East and A10 for better treatment, as others have mentioned, in basketball scheduling, and for a multi-year versus one year deal, and even for a small percentage of basketball tournament revenue. The rationale for the last ask is that the schools are all in the same conference as a result of a Big East request. I leave it to others to generate the appropriate abbreviation/acronym.

While the above exercise is not without merit, it still seems akin to putting a band aid on a wound where a tourniquet is needed. It is an indication that the Big East and A10 don't really work for anything but men's basketball. A return to prior pandemic revenue levels for these leagues is not a given.

The CAA's media revenues were and will remain negligible. How in its present construct it makes sense as even a men's basketball league defies logic.
04-28-2020 07:28 PM
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Post: #12
RE: CAA, A-10, and Big East discussing possible scheduling alliance in 'Secondary' Sports
why should the CAA come to the aid of the Big East?

CAA should get a good deal if this happens.
(This post was last modified: 04-28-2020 09:46 PM by soccerguy315.)
04-28-2020 09:46 PM
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RE: CAA, A-10, and Big East discussing possible scheduling alliance in 'Secondary' Sports
What may finally take place is new "minor sports" conferences with alignments of geographically close universities forming leagues...possibly permanent leagues separate and apart from the football/basketball conferences.....

This to save both money and the minor sports from being jettisoned.

There is going to be a whole new financial reality doming out of all this.
04-29-2020 05:36 AM
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RE: CAA, A-10, and Big East discussing possible scheduling alliance in 'Secondary' Sports
(04-29-2020 05:36 AM)bubbadog57 Wrote:  What may finally take place is new "minor sports" conferences with alignments of geographically close universities forming leagues...possibly permanent leagues separate and apart from the football/basketball conferences.....

This to save both money and the minor sports from being jettisoned.

There is going to be a whole new financial reality doming out of all this.

If this has a chance of happening, (1) W&M should be a “player”, and (2) drive a hard bargain re: the Spiders (or freeze them out altogether).
04-29-2020 10:37 AM
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Tribe32 Offline
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RE: CAA, A-10, and Big East discussing possible scheduling alliance in 'Secondary' Sports
If you go back to before 1980 most conferences were actually aligned geographically. It's been the last 40 years where the P5 emerged and all of the deck chairs are being rearranged.

The names actually told you where they were in many cases.....Atlantic Coast Conference, Southeast Conference, PAC 10, Southwest Conference, Ohio Valley Conference, etc., etc., etc.

I'm all for using the pandemic for a chance at reshuffling the cards.
04-29-2020 11:26 AM
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RE: CAA, A-10, and Big East discussing possible scheduling alliance in 'Secondary' Sports
(04-29-2020 11:26 AM)Tribe32 Wrote:  If you go back to before 1980 most conferences were actually aligned geographically. It's been the last 40 years where the P5 emerged and all of the deck chairs are being rearranged.

The names actually told you where they were in many cases.....Atlantic Coast Conference, Southeast Conference, PAC 10, Southwest Conference, Ohio Valley Conference, etc., etc., etc.

I'm all for using the pandemic for a chance at reshuffling the cards.

https://www.middletownpress.com/sports/a...241258.php

UConn AD, in addition to baseball coach, on record in linked article as seeking to regionalize non-revenue sports competition.

The article is more interesting for what he has to say on the record about the present conference landscape:

Obviously, someone who doesn’t know the history of college sports could take one look at the landscape and ask how the heck did this school end up in this conference? Or how the heck did that school end up there? The only answer: It’s a long story. (unclear whether this is the reporter or AD stating above). The AD is on record for the following:

“You could create better conferences if all you were focused on was geography,” Benedict said. “Unfortunately, most decisions haven’t been made for geography.”

They’re made on $ football first and $ basketball a distant second. The rest has been television, gravy and ego. A couple hundred sports programs went under as the result of the financial crash of 2008. Who knows how many COVID-19 will claim? We do know the gravy train is stalled."

Further in the interview, the reporter neglected to ask a question. The AD notes :
“If we can’t reimagine (conference alignments), could we at least get conferences to work with one another, especially on sports where there is no revenue coming in?”

Begs the question of why can't conference alignments be reimagined?
05-03-2020 10:18 AM
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RE: CAA, A-10, and Big East discussing possible scheduling alliance in 'Secondary' Sports
(05-03-2020 10:18 AM)Florida tribe fan Wrote:  Begs the question of why can't conference alignments be reimagined?

Greed

Playing non revenue sports regionally is a win-win for these big profit schools. They still get their big money from football/basketball, but decrease the burden from their non profitable sports. Sure, playing close by benefits the smaller schools too, but mid majors are generally already regionally aligned for the most part. Create more incentives for schools to compete regionally in the for-profit sports too. Until then, it just feels like another mechanism for the haves to keep their advantages. I'm all for watching these ridiculous conferences that span half the country go belly up.
05-03-2020 12:25 PM
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RE: CAA, A-10, and Big East discussing possible scheduling alliance in 'Secondary' Sports
Or at least mid-majors getting some quid pro quo in revenue sports. The basketball games are risky for them (they could lose) for sure, but hopefully there's not mid and low major conferences willing to bail out the P5 G5 conferences that are geographically spread out.
05-03-2020 11:28 PM
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RE: CAA, A-10, and Big East discussing possible scheduling alliance in 'Secondary' Sports
I agree that ideally I'd like to see a re-alignment along geographic lines in all sports. I'm wondering if it is best as a multi-step process or if we lose leverage by committing non-revenue sports without a quid pro quo of some sort in revenue sports.
05-04-2020 04:36 PM
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RE: CAA, A-10, and Big East discussing possible scheduling alliance in 'Secondary' Sports
I don't know that a full realignment including revenue sports is realistic... but I would think the little guys should be able to get some revenue sports payoffs (home basketball games against the P5) out of this at least.
05-04-2020 04:51 PM
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