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Post by nycrusader2010 on Feb 27, 2024 17:21:36 GMT -5
Still a pretty crappy fit geographically. Difference is between C-USA and the MAC is that the MAC is a stable conference, C-USA is nothing more than a hodgepodge mashup of schools trying to make it in FBS. Interesting move on the MAC's end of things -- rumor was that a couple years ago when C-USA was totally collapsing, Middle Tennessee and Western Kentucky approached. The league apparently had no interest in expanding. Both WKU and MTSU would've given the MAC exposure to the south and its football recruiting landscape and would've given a one-bid league two strong basketball programs. UMass hoops is a nice get for the MAC for sure, you wonder if there's plans to add another since this addition will put the conference at an uneven 13 teams. Delaware? Not sure if it's relevant to this, but Bowling Green soccer jumped from the MAC to the MVC this year. Hoops is still in the MAC. If they jumped the MAC ship for soccer, is it possible other sports will follow? - which means MAC could be shopping. The travails of BGSU and Akron soccer are not at all relevant to what's taking place in the grand scheme of things, no.
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Post by rf1 on Feb 27, 2024 18:18:39 GMT -5
For more context on the men's basketball annual budgets for A-10 and MAC schools, I found this link for 2023 data: theresourcenexus.com/budget/A-10 Average $3.95M Dayton $5.98M VCU $5.88M St Louis $5.79M Richmond $4.20M St Joe's $4.14M Duquesne $3.96M Loyola $3.83M GMU $3.69M URI $3.63M Fordham $3.57M GW $3.30M Davidson $3.11M St Bonaventure $2.99M UMass $2.82M LaSalle $2.42M MAC Average $1.75M Ohio $2.45M Toledo $2.19M Akron $2.11M Buffalo $2.01M Bowling Green $1.83M Miami $1.63M CMU $1.58M Kent $1.58M Ball St $1.54M EMU $1.48M NIU $1.33M WMU $1.21M
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Post by longsuffering on Feb 27, 2024 23:05:52 GMT -5
The MAC has to be the finest collection of secondary state universities ever assembled. It's like the original six team Yankee Conference which was made up of the six New England flagship State universities or the Ivy League made up of eight Northeastern old elite private universities. They are all symmetrical and face similar issues as each other member does. UMass will be the only flagship State U. in the MAC but at least they will have a home for football. And a shot at the MBB auto bid if funding matters.
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Post by rf1 on Feb 28, 2024 12:08:50 GMT -5
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Post by nycrusader2010 on Feb 28, 2024 13:10:49 GMT -5
Probably the most sobering prospective: "UMass Amherst will be in a worse league than "UMass-Lowell". At least based on today's RPI. The MAC, of course, is typically a much stronger league than the A East, even if it's a 1-bid league. Overall, nothing in this article that's not already obvious. Yes it's a step down in Men's Basketball competition. Yes, basketball attendance will certainly drop, probably a lot. UMass administration made it pretty clear that dropping to FCS was not an option they were willing to explore. So somewhat cannibalizing Men's Basketball was the only option.
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Post by longsuffering on Feb 28, 2024 15:15:47 GMT -5
The opposite priority UConn, with sixteen M&W national championship trophies in the trophy case, chose. How does the UConn AD get paid big bucks for such simple logical decisions?🙂
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Post by Tom on Feb 28, 2024 16:05:30 GMT -5
The opposite priority UConn, with sixteen M&W national championship trophies in the trophy case, chose. How does the UConn AD get paid big bucks for such simple logical decisions?🙂 It is rare in today's landscape to put anything behind football. UMass to MAC gives football a home. UConn returning to Big East to leave football homeless runs counter to conventional thinking. However, UConn was relevant in the sporting world thanks to hoops. That very well could have slipped away if they didn't return. UConn football wasn't going to be relevant no matter where they went
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Post by longsuffering on Feb 28, 2024 16:26:02 GMT -5
There could be a pony under the big pile of... UMass is now a much better contender for an auto-bid in the MAC than the A-10. They have a plus budget and possibly a plus coach and facility for the MAC.
The right league met the right coach when RW took HC to five national post seasons in ten years.
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Post by trimster on Feb 28, 2024 16:27:06 GMT -5
UMass hoop fans that express opinions on their board are not a happy group with this move. I can feel their pain.
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Post by longsuffering on Feb 28, 2024 16:55:14 GMT -5
I like the part about UMass not fully knowing what it's fan base wants. Possibly better than HC in Central Mass in recent decades, UMass athletics does have a core of community support in WMass. I picked up on this years ago when online editions of WMass newspapers were free and I used to include reading the comment sections along with the article as time permitted. The locals dwarfed UMass alums commenting on UMass sports stories and were more knowledgeable.
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Post by nycrusader2010 on Feb 28, 2024 16:55:15 GMT -5
UMass hoop fans that express opinions on their board are not a happy group with this move. I can feel their pain. Those of you that watched HC dump our oncr proud hoops program into the PL can definitely relate. Only difference is that we were downgrading all our major sports while UMass is hurting one underperforming but key program to fight for relevance in another.
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Post by timholycross on Feb 28, 2024 21:15:00 GMT -5
UMass hoop fans that express opinions on their board are not a happy group with this move. I can feel their pain. Those of you that watched HC dump our oncr proud hoops program into the PL can definitely relate. Only difference is that we were downgrading all our major sports while UMass is hurting one underperforming but key program to fight for relevance in another. HC could have stayed where they were in basketball or found another league. The PL was a one sport conference for several years.
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Post by longsuffering on Feb 28, 2024 22:48:08 GMT -5
UMass hoop fans that express opinions on their board are not a happy group with this move. I can feel their pain. Those of you that watched HC dump our oncr proud hoops program into the PL can definitely relate. Only difference is that we were downgrading all our major sports while UMass is hurting one underperforming but key program to fight for relevance in another. If the PL is so weak, why do HC minor sports have such an eye popping lack of success in it? It would violate the Geneva Convention to force those teams into a stronger league. We have been trying to finance a light beer all sports league on a root beer budget. However we do seem to be slowly harnessing the Luth Effect and improving. Women's lacrosse has a winning record, baseball has a couple of impressive wins, Women's hockey won a play-in game tonight for it's first ever playoff win. Dominate the PL and then move up.
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Post by steve81 on Feb 28, 2024 22:50:38 GMT -5
I like the part about UMass not fully knowing what it's fan base wants. Possibly better than HC in Central Mass in recent decades, UMass athletics does have a core of community support in WMass. I picked up on this years ago when online editions of WMass newspapers were free and I used to include reading the comment sections along with the article as time permitted. The locals dwarfed UMass alums commenting on UMass sports stories and were more knowledgeable. This move makes are NILs more important than ever. The A10 use to be the best league without football until the new Big East. That changed things. We will never get into the BE and the A10 ceiling got lower. Dayton can be poached, Upward mobility is possible in a G5 conference as the American or perhaps ACC in the future. It is a step back in basketball. Winning cures things as we had 2,227 for fellow founding member Duquesne for the A10 season opener. The Bonnie game was great with 7,016. We need to support the NILs and see what happens. Good players go to the transfer portal and is a fact of life. NIL money is hope to slow that tide for us.It's a huge step to leave the A10 and happy for it. A simple majority of fans realize that it's the best long term move for our athletic program. It sucks for basketball centric fans still living in the 1990's. We are have a great year, but that is some perspective as it just means we are in the Top 100. This is my bias view as support the move 110%.
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Post by nycrusader2010 on Feb 29, 2024 7:35:17 GMT -5
Those of you that watched HC dump our oncr proud hoops program into the PL can definitely relate. Only difference is that we were downgrading all our major sports while UMass is hurting one underperforming but key program to fight for relevance in another. If the PL is so weak, why do HC minor sports have such an eye popping lack of success in it? It would violate the Geneva Convention to force those teams into a stronger league. We have been trying to finance a light beer all sports league on a root beer budget. However we do seem to be slowly harnessing the Luth Effect and improving. Women's lacrosse has a winning record, baseball has a couple of impressive wins, Women's hockey won a play-in game tonight for it's first ever playoff win. Dominate the PL and then move up. The PL isn't weak in minor sports though. Holy Cross is weak in minor sports. The only sport I can't stand when it comes to the PL is hoops. Total snoozefest. But to your point there, "if PL basketball is so weak, why is HC so bad?"
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Post by bfoley82 on Feb 29, 2024 7:40:10 GMT -5
Those of you that watched HC dump our oncr proud hoops program into the PL can definitely relate. Only difference is that we were downgrading all our major sports while UMass is hurting one underperforming but key program to fight for relevance in another. If the PL is so weak, why do HC minor sports have such an eye popping lack of success in it? It would violate the Geneva Convention to force those teams into a stronger league. We have been trying to finance a light beer all sports league on a root beer budget. However we do seem to be slowly harnessing the Luth Effect and improving. Women's lacrosse has a winning record, baseball has a couple of impressive wins, Women's hockey won a play-in game tonight for its first ever playoff win. Dominate the PL and then move up. Holy Cross still finished in last place in women's hockey by three wins and in a one game playoff, anyone can win a game with a couple of bounces.
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Post by longsuffering on Feb 29, 2024 9:22:52 GMT -5
If the PL is so weak, why do HC minor sports have such an eye popping lack of success in it? It would violate the Geneva Convention to force those teams into a stronger league. We have been trying to finance a light beer all sports league on a root beer budget. However we do seem to be slowly harnessing the Luth Effect and improving. Women's lacrosse has a winning record, baseball has a couple of impressive wins, Women's hockey won a play-in game tonight for it's first ever playoff win. Dominate the PL and then move up. The PL isn't weak in minor sports though. Holy Cross is weak in minor sports. The only sport I can't stand when it comes to the PL is hoops. Total snoozefest. But to your point there, "if PL basketball is so weak, why is HC so bad?" Hiring decisions between RW and DP? We won press conferences but not much else. Hiring is challenging though as Carmody had success at Princeton like DP had at Bucknell in their next to last head coaching stop. Dave won it all at Williams, too and won in the PL so fingers crossed.
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Post by nycrusader2010 on Feb 29, 2024 14:21:55 GMT -5
The PL isn't weak in minor sports though. Holy Cross is weak in minor sports. The only sport I can't stand when it comes to the PL is hoops. Total snoozefest. But to your point there, "if PL basketball is so weak, why is HC so bad?" Hiring decisions between RW and DP? We won press conferences but not much else. Hiring is challenging though as Carmody had success at Princeton like DP had at Bucknell in their next to last head coaching stop. Dave won it all at Williams, too and won in the PL so fingers crossed. I'm still bullish on Paulsen. Hoping the team surprises us in the PL tournament this year and sets a foundation for 24-25.
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Post by timholycross on Feb 29, 2024 21:10:00 GMT -5
Hiring decisions between RW and DP? We won press conferences but not much else. Hiring is challenging though as Carmody had success at Princeton like DP had at Bucknell in their next to last head coaching stop. Dave won it all at Williams, too and won in the PL so fingers crossed. I'm still bullish on Paulsen. Hoping the team surprises us in the PL tournament this year and sets a foundation for 24-25. 1. Win a prelim 2. Play Colgate tough, not like last night. At least rip Records' head band off.
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