(09-10-2018 06:59 PM)chargeradio Wrote:  

(09-10-2018 03:06 PM)Stugray2 Wrote:  What happens to Field Hockey? My guess is they replace Siena, who are dropping the sport, in the MAAC. The NEC has 5 teams sponsoring now.

The NEC announced it is sponsoring field hockey again last week:

https://www.northeastconference.org/news...aspx?path=

Wagner is also starting the sport I see.

This means MAAC Field Hockey is dead. They lose 3 affiliates from the NEC (LIU, Bryant, Sacred Heart), Siena dropping the sport, plus Rider and Fairfield going with them to the NEC. Lastly AEC will take Monmouth (link). Quinnipiac has been in the Big East for a couple years already.

St. Francis (PA) of the NEC is in the A10, and they wont join this group.

It's mostly a rebranding with 5 of 7 MAAC going to the NEC, 1 dropping and one to the AEC, replaced by two new NEC teams.

(09-10-2018 08:12 PM)DavidSt Wrote:  

(09-10-2018 01:56 PM)DoubleRSU Wrote:  Did David St “call this” one too?

Yes. The rumors were also Bentley and Southern New Hampshire would follow suit. Bentley also have football, Sothern New Hampshire does not.

Merrimack To D1 Rumor Thread

I started this thread in December of 2016.

#AgeOfDavidSt

(09-10-2018 02:44 PM)Bogg Wrote:  

(09-10-2018 02:00 PM)mikeinsec127 Wrote:  

(09-10-2018 12:33 PM)ccd494 Wrote:  

(09-10-2018 12:00 PM)Bogg Wrote:  Merrimack also more closely fits the general NEC profile, as a smaller private college. NJIT eventually belongs in America East.

NJIT will be waiting a long, long time if that's their end goal.

If the CAA ever wises up and takes SUNY-SB and SUNY-A as all sports members, AE will be calling to extend an invitation to NJIT in about 5 minutes,

Not sure there's really a benefit to the CAA expanding past 10 unless they need to go to a 20-game conference schedule and need one more. There isn't a giant need for one-bid conferences to get big. AE at 9 members is slightly on the small side though.

Amen. Mid-majors should contemplate eight team leagues as long as Power 5 gerrymanders all the at large bids.

(09-10-2018 07:58 PM)Scoochpooch1 Wrote:  

(09-10-2018 01:12 PM)PDNJ Wrote:  

(09-10-2018 12:33 PM)ccd494 Wrote:  

(09-10-2018 12:00 PM)Bogg Wrote:  Merrimack also more closely fits the general NEC profile, as a smaller private college. NJIT eventually belongs in America East.

NJIT will be waiting a long, long time if that's their end goal.

Why? NJIT fits the institutional and geographic profile. They have good academics, large market, improving athletics, and are pumping serious $$$ into all their on-campus facilities: academic, athletic, cultural, et al. America East should welcome them while they have the chance.

And where are they getting "serious" money from exactly?

Seriously. From what I’ve heard, one might think they were doing what they could so they wouldn’t get gobbled up by Rutgers-Newark.

(09-10-2018 07:24 PM)Fighting Muskie Wrote:  If NJIT put together a decent FCS football team they'd be in a regional conference. I think a rebrand as "Jersey Tech" for athletics could help their image.

They are kind of well suited to start football in one respect....NJIT is heavily male, so the Title IX scholarsips to offset football would be lower than at other D1 schools. NJIT has a 4:1 male : female ratio. Many schools have more female students than males.

(09-10-2018 08:12 PM)DavidSt Wrote:  

(09-10-2018 01:56 PM)DoubleRSU Wrote:  Did David St “call this” one too?

Yes. The rumors were also Bentley and Southern New Hampshire would follow suit. Bentley also have football, Sothern New Hampshire does not.

Merrimack To D1 Rumor Thread

I started this thread in December of 2016.

No, and you should really pull your head in. You can't predict something when you are only repeating what you read or heard from somewhere else. The rumor thread was started based on a 2-year-old article with a second article published a year before that thread. In all the long lists you have posted about schools going D1 has included almost all of D2, and some of D3, NAIA, and JuCos so it's not surprising that you "predicted" this; even a broken clock is right twice a day. It's also funny that you can find this old information and yet you can't go to the Courier newspaper building in the heart of Russellville to get a copy of the article about Arkansas Tech and the Southland.

(09-10-2018 08:35 PM)Stugray2 Wrote:  Lastly AEC will take Monmouth (link).

This will coincide with the AE dropping the alliance with the western schools (Stanford, Cal, UC-Davis, Pacific).

(09-10-2018 03:12 PM)ccd494 Wrote:  When America East added UMass Lowell they invited both Lowell and NJIT to make presentations. Lowell's was great. NJIT's was very, very much not. Like, laughably not. Like, probably going to need the entire leadership in the conference office and at a number of AE schools to turn over before considering NJIT again bad.

NJIT also has a weird mix of sports because it is heavily male. It doesn't do a whole lot to help America East in any way. It's fairly large, it's public. But it doesn't add revenue or add numbers to sports America East is light in, excepting baseball.

Regardless of how a PowerPoint went several years ago, AE doesn't have very many suitable expansion candidates left next time they're looking to add a school. UMass Lowell made sense - it's significantly bigger than NJIT in terms of enrollment, the academics are still pretty good, the northern New England flagships have a history with Lowell in Hockey East (which is probably what you'd consider the flagship sport for all four schools), and (perhaps most importantly) it filled in some geography for the conference after BU's jump to the Patriot left them without a presence in Massachusetts.

That being said, there aren't many good non-NJIT choices remaining. If we assume CCSU is tethered to the NEC by football, you're basically looking at D2/D3 call-ups RIC, Southern Connecticut, or one of the "(town name) State"s in Massachusetts or New Hampshire. To my knowledge none of those schools have the finances or academics of NJIT (and presidents care about that kind of thing) and I doubt Lowell or UNH would want to elevate a lower-tier athletic department in their state to equal footing with them.

NJIT's likely on deck.

(09-10-2018 08:45 PM)The Cutter of Bish Wrote:  

(09-10-2018 07:58 PM)Scoochpooch1 Wrote:  

(09-10-2018 01:12 PM)PDNJ Wrote:  

(09-10-2018 12:33 PM)ccd494 Wrote:  

(09-10-2018 12:00 PM)Bogg Wrote:  Merrimack also more closely fits the general NEC profile, as a smaller private college. NJIT eventually belongs in America East.

NJIT will be waiting a long, long time if that's their end goal.

Why? NJIT fits the institutional and geographic profile. They have good academics, large market, improving athletics, and are pumping serious $$$ into all their on-campus facilities: academic, athletic, cultural, et al. America East should welcome them while they have the chance.

And where are they getting "serious" money from exactly?

Seriously. From what I’ve heard, one might think they were doing what they could so they wouldn’t get gobbled up by Rutgers-Newark.

Not a chance. NJIT and Rutgers-N campuses are located on opposite sides of the same street. That being said, NJIT and RU-N have been two separate and distinct schools with separate and distinct missions for decades. There is zero interest from the public, the government or the school administrations to merge the two together. Although similarly situated (ie: several campuses literally bordering each other), this is definable nothing like the recent merger of RU and UMDNJ. There are major differences. Some of which are UMDNJ was once part of RU that was spun off in the 1970's also, UMDNJ never had strong financials and was loosing huge amounts of money, finally UMDNJ was the setting for several big political scandals involving no-show jobs and padded contracts for people politically connected.

(09-11-2018 08:11 AM)Bogg Wrote:  

(09-10-2018 03:12 PM)ccd494 Wrote:  When America East added UMass Lowell they invited both Lowell and NJIT to make presentations. Lowell's was great. NJIT's was very, very much not. Like, laughably not. Like, probably going to need the entire leadership in the conference office and at a number of AE schools to turn over before considering NJIT again bad.

NJIT also has a weird mix of sports because it is heavily male. It doesn't do a whole lot to help America East in any way. It's fairly large, it's public. But it doesn't add revenue or add numbers to sports America East is light in, excepting baseball.

Regardless of how a PowerPoint went several years ago, AE doesn't have very many suitable expansion candidates left next time they're looking to add a school. UMass Lowell made sense - it's significantly bigger than NJIT in terms of enrollment, the academics are still pretty good, the northern New England flagships have a history with Lowell in Hockey East (which is probably what you'd consider the flagship sport for all four schools), and (perhaps most importantly) it filled in some geography for the conference after BU's jump to the Patriot left them without a presence in Massachusetts.

That being said, there aren't many good non-NJIT choices remaining. If we assume CCSU is tethered to the NEC by football, you're basically looking at D2/D3 call-ups RIC, Southern Connecticut, or one of the "(town name) State"s in Massachusetts or New Hampshire. To my knowledge none of those schools have the finances or academics of NJIT (and presidents care about that kind of thing) and I doubt Lowell or UNH would want to elevate a lower-tier athletic department in their state to equal footing with them.

NJIT's likely on deck.

Well, okay, let's look at why America East would want to add a school at this point.

1.) It is a great opportunity for the league.
2.) They need a warm body.

NJIT is clearly not a great opportunity. If they were, they would have been admitted to the NEC or AEC already. But they continue to be an absolute mess on and off the field.

So, the AEC would have to be in desperation "anyone will do mode." In order for that to happen at least one, probably two schools would need to have left (AEC is at 9). Just one school leaving would put the conference at 8, which is workable without having to get desperate for someone you have turned down multiple times already.

Who could leave?

-The four New England publics (Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Lowell) seem tethered together. If they leave, every conference is starting over with a white piece of paper.
-Binghamton, without football, is likely not going to be appealing to the CAA as a full member. As a public, they don't fit with the MAAC, NEC or Patriot.

That leaves four even remotely realistic candidates, from least to most likely:

1.) UMBC. UMBC could get tired of being the geographical outlier and look to join a league with less travel. That league, however, doesn't exist right now. The A-Sun and Big South are too far south. The NEC, Patriot and MAAC are private school leagues. Towson isn't going to be looking to add another Maryland school to the CAA. Plus they would be abandoning their tournament share from their NCAA win.

2.) Hartford. Hartford, institutionally, is a better fit for the NEC. And CCSU is a better fit for America East. They are a long time league member and a good league citizen, so they won't get the boot. MAYBE the AEC and NEC engineer a swap of the two schools and let CCSU keep football in the NEC, but again, that doesn't create a new opening. This is a non-issue.

3+4.) Stony Brook and Albany. DavidST's dreaming aside, Stony Brook isn't going FBS. There may not be many FBS teams in the northeast, but the region is still oversaturated when compared to those who actually care about football. There could be scenarios where the CAA comes calling, but that would be only if the CAA hemorrhaged football schools like Richmond, W&M, Villanova, Delaware and JMU. Maybe that happens, in which case:

-What do SBU and Albany gain by leaving for the CAA? Is playing football with the rump of the CAA better than Maine and UNH? Is the CAA a more stable or better basketball conference than the AEC? I'd argue no. But they could still go, in which case....

-Do Northeastern and Hofstra stick around in a deeply, deeply degraded CAA or come back to the AEC for less travel and a similar level of non-football sports?

-Does this create a regional FCS conference, so football is no longer an issue and the AEC can invite CCSU, Bryant and the like?

(09-10-2018 08:49 PM)Tom in Lazybrook Wrote:  

(09-10-2018 07:24 PM)Fighting Muskie Wrote:  If NJIT put together a decent FCS football team they'd be in a regional conference. I think a rebrand as "Jersey Tech" for athletics could help their image.

They are kind of well suited to start football in one respect....NJIT is heavily male, so the Title IX scholarsips to offset football would be lower than at other D1 schools. NJIT has a 4:1 male : female ratio. Many schools have more female students than males.

Yeah, NJIT looks good for football on paper. The long and short is this: NJIT is located in the center of Newark. It is an urban campus that sits in the city scape. There is no place to put a football practice facility. In order to build the new on-campus multi-purpose sports building, NJIT had to demolish its on-campus soccer/lacrosse facility-including the field. Then it had to demolish the old gym, to build its new soccer/lacrosse facility. In the mean time, those sports had to play their "Home" games at Drew U in Madison.

Actually Stony Brook's stated goal is to get into FBS. The state of New York could use some more FBS teams. Both Stony Brook and Albany want to get move up to a better conference. The AEC is not their goals. Since they are being blocked by Hofstra from joining full membership. The next step would be FBS for both. They want to be with James Madison and the other CAA schools. The football members of the CAA wanted both schools in as full members. Could the MAC and make a coup and go to 16 and grab both schools, James Madison and Delaware.

Serious question - why would Albany and Stony Brook care whether their olympics play in AE or CAA? It's not like there's any issue with football, because CAAF is a separate conference from the CAA, and you make the travel worse in many cases.

(09-11-2018 09:38 AM)ccd494 Wrote:  Well, okay, let's look at why America East would want to add a school at this point.

1.) It is a great opportunity for the league.
2.) They need a warm body.

NJIT is clearly not a great opportunity. If they were, they would have been admitted to the NEC or AEC already. But they continue to be an absolute mess on and off the field.

So, the AEC would have to be in desperation "anyone will do mode." In order for that to happen at least one, probably two schools would need to have left (AEC is at 9). Just one school leaving would put the conference at 8, which is workable without having to get desperate for someone you have turned down multiple times already.

Who could leave?

-The four New England publics (Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Lowell) seem tethered together. If they leave, every conference is starting over with a white piece of paper.
-Binghamton, without football, is likely not going to be appealing to the CAA as a full member. As a public, they don't fit with the MAAC, NEC or Patriot.

That leaves four even remotely realistic candidates, from least to most likely:

1.) UMBC. UMBC could get tired of being the geographical outlier and look to join a league with less travel. That league, however, doesn't exist right now. The A-Sun and Big South are too far south. The NEC, Patriot and MAAC are private school leagues. Towson isn't going to be looking to add another Maryland school to the CAA. Plus they would be abandoning their tournament share from their NCAA win.

2.) Hartford. Hartford, institutionally, is a better fit for the NEC. And CCSU is a better fit for America East. They are a long time league member and a good league citizen, so they won't get the boot. MAYBE the AEC and NEC engineer a swap of the two schools and let CCSU keep football in the NEC, but again, that doesn't create a new opening. This is a non-issue.

3+4.) Stony Brook and Albany. DavidST's dreaming aside, Stony Brook isn't going FBS. There may not be many FBS teams in the northeast, but the region is still oversaturated when compared to those who actually care about football. There could be scenarios where the CAA comes calling, but that would be only if the CAA hemorrhaged football schools like Richmond, W&M, Villanova, Delaware and JMU. Maybe that happens, in which case:

-What do SBU and Albany gain by leaving for the CAA? Is playing football with the rump of the CAA better than Maine and UNH? Is the CAA a more stable or better basketball conference than the AEC? I'd argue no. But they could still go, in which case....

-Do Northeastern and Hofstra stick around in a deeply, deeply degraded CAA or come back to the AEC for less travel and a similar level of non-football sports?

-Does this create a regional FCS conference, so football is no longer an issue and the AEC can invite CCSU, Bryant and the like?

New Jersey is likely the next move for AE in the event they go to 10. NJIT's academic standing is in line with the AE schools, they have a nine-figure endowment, they fill in geography, and they're in a high-population state for recruiting purposes. There's a reason they got invited to make a presentation.

Maybe AE hangs out at 9 for an extended period of time, but the list of possible #10s isn't very long.

(09-11-2018 09:56 AM)DavidSt Wrote:  Actually Stony Brook's stated goal is to get into FBS. The state of New York could use some more FBS teams. Both Stony Brook and Albany want to get move up to a better conference. The AEC is not their goals. Since they are being blocked by Hofstra from joining full membership. The next step would be FBS for both. They want to be with James Madison and the other CAA schools. The football members of the CAA wanted both schools in as full members. Could the MAC and make a coup and go to 16 and grab both schools, James Madison and Delaware.

Where is this stated?

And, why does New York need more FBS teams? So in addition to not caring about Buffalo, Army and Syracuse (not to mention not caring about UConn or Rutgers), they can also not care about Stony Brook and Albany?

Third, where is this money coming from? There is a 0% chance that the New York legislature agrees to spend tens of millions of dollars on Stony Brook and Albany football. ZERO.

(09-11-2018 10:15 AM)ccd494 Wrote:  

(09-11-2018 09:56 AM)DavidSt Wrote:  Actually Stony Brook's stated goal is to get into FBS. The state of New York could use some more FBS teams. Both Stony Brook and Albany want to get move up to a better conference. The AEC is not their goals. Since they are being blocked by Hofstra from joining full membership. The next step would be FBS for both. They want to be with James Madison and the other CAA schools. The football members of the CAA wanted both schools in as full members. Could the MAC and make a coup and go to 16 and grab both schools, James Madison and Delaware.

Where is this stated?

And, why does New York need more FBS teams? So in addition to not caring about Buffalo, Army and Syracuse (not to mention not caring about UConn or Rutgers), they can also not care about Stony Brook and Albany?

Third, where is this money coming from? There is a 0% chance that the New York legislature agrees to spend tens of millions of dollars on Stony Brook and Albany football. ZERO.

Stony Brook

Quote:The prospect of a move to the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) might seem like a pipe dream now, but the idea is to position Stony Brook for such a move during the next decade.

"One can't talk about moving to FBS until one is a very successful FCS program,'' Stanley said. "I can't tell you how long it will take to get there. I'm less interested in that than I am about putting the process in place and putting the components in place to help us move up.''

That is their stated goals. Their football team almost upset USF last year. Stony Brook did beat Army in 2012.

(09-11-2018 10:15 AM)ccd494 Wrote:  

(09-11-2018 09:56 AM)DavidSt Wrote:  Actually Stony Brook's stated goal is to get into FBS. The state of New York could use some more FBS teams. Both Stony Brook and Albany want to get move up to a better conference. The AEC is not their goals. Since they are being blocked by Hofstra from joining full membership. The next step would be FBS for both. They want to be with James Madison and the other CAA schools. The football members of the CAA wanted both schools in as full members. Could the MAC and make a coup and go to 16 and grab both schools, James Madison and Delaware.

Where is this stated?

And, why does New York need more FBS teams? So in addition to not caring about Buffalo, Army and Syracuse (not to mention not caring about UConn or Rutgers), they can also not care about Stony Brook and Albany?

Third, where is this money coming from? There is a 0% chance that the New York legislature agrees to spend tens of millions of dollars on Stony Brook and Albany football. ZERO.

Maine is looking good this year. You have a real chance to roll into October at 4-0.

(09-11-2018 09:38 AM)ccd494 Wrote:  

(09-11-2018 08:11 AM)Bogg Wrote:  

(09-10-2018 03:12 PM)ccd494 Wrote:  When America East added UMass Lowell they invited both Lowell and NJIT to make presentations. Lowell's was great. NJIT's was very, very much not. Like, laughably not. Like, probably going to need the entire leadership in the conference office and at a number of AE schools to turn over before considering NJIT again bad.

NJIT also has a weird mix of sports because it is heavily male. It doesn't do a whole lot to help America East in any way. It's fairly large, it's public. But it doesn't add revenue or add numbers to sports America East is light in, excepting baseball.

Regardless of how a PowerPoint went several years ago, AE doesn't have very many suitable expansion candidates left next time they're looking to add a school. UMass Lowell made sense - it's significantly bigger than NJIT in terms of enrollment, the academics are still pretty good, the northern New England flagships have a history with Lowell in Hockey East (which is probably what you'd consider the flagship sport for all four schools), and (perhaps most importantly) it filled in some geography for the conference after BU's jump to the Patriot left them without a presence in Massachusetts.

That being said, there aren't many good non-NJIT choices remaining. If we assume CCSU is tethered to the NEC by football, you're basically looking at D2/D3 call-ups RIC, Southern Connecticut, or one of the "(town name) State"s in Massachusetts or New Hampshire. To my knowledge none of those schools have the finances or academics of NJIT (and presidents care about that kind of thing) and I doubt Lowell or UNH would want to elevate a lower-tier athletic department in their state to equal footing with them.

NJIT's likely on deck.

Well, okay, let's look at why America East would want to add a school at this point.

1.) It is a great opportunity for the league.
2.) They need a warm body.

NJIT is clearly not a great opportunity. If they were, they would have been admitted to the NEC or AEC already. But they continue to be an absolute mess on and off the field.

So, the AEC would have to be in desperation "anyone will do mode." In order for that to happen at least one, probably two schools would need to have left (AEC is at 9). Just one school leaving would put the conference at 8, which is workable without having to get desperate for someone you have turned down multiple times already.

Okay, I'll bite. I don't have a horse in this race, other than being a NJ taxpayer, but I recognize a school ascending when I see it. Where is the "absolute mess" comment come from? And no, football will never be an option.

Facilities:
http://www.njbiz.com/article/20171113/NJ...nts-center

https://www.njithighlanders.com/facilities/?id=129

https://www.njithighlanders.com/facilities/?id=58


Where the money is coming from for NJ colleges and universities:
https://njbmagazine.com/monthly-articles/38905-2/

https://www.nj.gov/njefa/pdf/Comprehensi...tor(2).pdf

Hardly, an academic mess:
https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/nji...l-rankings

https://www.njit.edu/about/rankings-and-recognition

Central Connecticut State is the one that makes the most sense for the America East if they had a place for their football.

I've always suspected that part of the reason the AEC remains so small at 9 is that they want to have room to expand should the CAA fall apart. They could either absorb northerly members Hofstra, Northeastern, and Drexel or target football schools like Towson, Delaware, maybe a Central Connecticut St or Monmouth.

CCSU has a Hartford problem when it comes to AmEast, but, I’ve heard the rest of AmEast isn’t impressed with CCSU’s other stuff, either.

As for any mending of fences between the peel-off’s in CAA and the remaining AmEast body...to hear it from some this was on Boston being a real pain about football (along with other non-fb schools), but also on Delaware and the others for ploughing through with the move after AmEast pumped the brakes on gobbling up CAA.

For NJIT, I know they were gunning hard for NEC. I think theirs is a cautionary yet telling tale of ambition versus poltics in NCAA and upgrading athletic programs to D1. Supposedly, NJIT was told to wait its turn and build additional programs and infrastructure. They didn’t, moved up, and now remain outside of the northeastern conferences. You can’t force someone to take you, but what are you really supposed to do if you want to move up and feel now is the time? Without any guarantees of your place in the queue? Yet, conversely...how stupid does the NEC, MAAC, and AmEast look for stiffing a school that would definitely fit the conference AND reduce travel costs?