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Post by JRGNYR on Sept 26, 2022 10:03:59 GMT -5
Unlike the other winter sport, this OOC sked is excellent. Outside of the North Dakota games, they are playing the back end of Hockey East (Vermont and UNH) middle of the pack (Merrimack) and dreadful ECAC (Brown). The best two other non conference games are solid in Quinnipiac and Clarkson. This is scheduling 101 when you're at the bottom of your league though. Very smart schedule considering where the program is. And if HC can win a few of these non-cons then it helps AHA overall in the pairwise.
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Post by JRGNYR on Sept 26, 2022 9:59:53 GMT -5
A bit of Monday morning QBing, but with such a great kicking game it's interesting the decision was made to go for it on 4th down in Colgate territory up 7-0. The stand by Colgate's D completely turned the momentum around. In the long run it ultimately didn't mean anything but it was a big moment of the game within the game at that particular point.
I understand the reward is you convert and hopefully score a TD and go up 14-0 and never look back but you're on the road, league opener, rival... kick the FG and take the points.
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Post by JRGNYR on Sept 24, 2022 13:02:27 GMT -5
Offense looks out of sync. Sleepwalking. Colgate looks amped up, as I predicted.
HC better up the execution and intensity.
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Post by JRGNYR on Sept 21, 2022 9:00:40 GMT -5
Colgate will be sufficiently amped up for this one.
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Post by JRGNYR on Sept 12, 2022 11:10:34 GMT -5
I have not read this entire thread, so apologies if this question has been asked . This win was the best football victory since ….? To me Sacred Heart would not be the answer. Even though elimination from the playoffs was at stake, SH was not nearly the high quality opponent that Buffalo was. And neither was UConn. A possible answer would have to be a team comparable to Buffalo. It has been quite a while. I'll say biggest win since at Army in '86. And I say that because Buffalo is better than last year's UConn team and better than Army in 2002. The Lehigh game in '91 was incredible and was is one of my most incredible being-at-a-live-football-game memories (along with the win at Princeton in '88), but this feels like the most impactful win since at West Point in '86.
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Post by JRGNYR on Aug 5, 2022 14:28:28 GMT -5
You control your own destiny when you are good enough The twenty-six non-Chesney coached teams can't control their own destiny under that definition. If Colgate moved to a better basketball league it actually wouldn't bother me, but I can't predict how the PL would respond about their membership for other sports. Don't spend too much time on it because it won't happen. Every multi-sport D1 conference sponsors basketball, and there are no current examples of schools affiliating their basketball programs with other leagues that isn't their primary one. That's not to say it might not happen in the future, but neither Colgate nor anybody in the Patriot League will be the trailblazers who author such a groundbreaking arrangement.
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Post by JRGNYR on Aug 3, 2022 15:57:33 GMT -5
Success is relative given that the PL in 2022 is as weak as it's ever been. Lehigh and Lafayette haven't been this bad since the 1960's, while Bucknell and Georgetown are candidates to finish in the bottom 10-15 schools nationwide. The PL continues to atrophy because its philosophy is not sought elsewhere and the member schools' ambitions are low. If and when Fordham decided to step up to the CAA, the PL would be treading water and with no easy substitutes. The Brooks Doctrine still has fans on this board but it continues to be repudiated by every Eastern school that we collectively say "they could fit in the Patriot League". I could see Fordham going CAA (if offered). Unlikely. CAA has not been looking for more football affiliates. They've been adding full members.
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Post by JRGNYR on Aug 3, 2022 12:16:46 GMT -5
Interesting to see what, if anything, the Big South does. Losing A&T and now Campbell means their football league is down to 4 members. They're partnering with the OVC starting next year to maintain AQ access to the FCS tournament, but I'm curious how excited schools like Bryant and Robert Morris are going to be traveling to Lindenwood, Murray State, Eastern Illinois, etc.
If only there was a northeast based FCS league that could benefit from adding 1 or 2 affiliate members in football...
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Post by JRGNYR on Jun 24, 2022 15:18:03 GMT -5
This is going to continue to be fascinating theater to watch - a Supreme Court makeup and opinion that is continually diverging from the overall opinion trends of the majority of the American public. Sometimes issues one group (reading certain media and/or listening to the loudest protests) ) is convinced is outside the mainstream turn out to be very much in the mainstream. Just a thought. I think the first thing we'd need to define is how large of a percentage of public support is needed for something to merit being named "mainstream." Is it simple majority? Is it 60%? 67%? I don't know. Maybe some entity has defined it already, but maybe it's still up to interpretation. According to the latest polling conducted by the Pew Research Center, 61% of Americans are in favor of abortion in "all or most cases" compared to 37% who feel it should be illegal in all or most cases. That's not too far off from a 2-to-1 advantage. In my opinion, if almost 2 out of 3 people believe something, that's mainstream. It's hard to get 2 out of 3 people to agree on anything these days. Naturally, those percentages shift when applying certain demographic data - religious beliefs/affiliation, party, education level, age, race, sex, etc., but the research is pretty interesting. www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2022/06/13/about-six-in-ten-americans-say-abortion-should-be-legal-in-all-or-most-cases-2/. I'm going to stick with my assertion that at least when it comes to overall public opinion, the Court's decision today diverges significantly from the mainstream American stance. It looks like the research was conducted in March prior to the topic coming back to the forefront of the nation's conscience with the leak last month. I think if the same research was conducted now, I'd guess we'd be at least at 2 to 1 in favor if not more.
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Post by JRGNYR on Jun 24, 2022 12:37:13 GMT -5
This is going to continue to be fascinating theater to watch - a Supreme Court makeup and opinion that is continually diverging from the overall opinion trends of the majority of the American public.
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Post by JRGNYR on Jun 13, 2022 8:57:08 GMT -5
Some height coming in. Three of the newcomers are listed at 6-0 or taller.
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Post by JRGNYR on May 11, 2022 12:27:29 GMT -5
Now that intermittent commuting is back, I'll add this to my podcast list.
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Post by JRGNYR on Mar 29, 2022 12:54:24 GMT -5
Then be prepared to no longer be D-1. Why? I think just as a general item, if you're a "small school" and you want overarching or fundamental changes in D1 to something like sport sponsorship minimums, the response by and large is going to be, "then don't be a Division 1 school." But maybe it's a moot point. There's going to be a shift in how Division I operates that'll come to pass likely sometime later this year, so what it looks like and what the minimum requirements are could force some institutions to have to make decisions. Maybe sport sponsorship minimums are lowered from 14 for D1, and if that comes to pass it's likely very bad news for some sports. However, I don't see HC dropping any programs. Having a large, broad-based athletic program is part of the institutional vision of the school. If the vision changes, then different story.
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Post by JRGNYR on Mar 29, 2022 12:26:36 GMT -5
Whatever. Bear minimum. And de-emphasize even the non major varsity sports. Also lobby to get that stupid rule changed for a small school. It’s half the the problem here. Then be prepared to no longer be D-1.
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Post by JRGNYR on Mar 29, 2022 12:17:46 GMT -5
I’d keep football, m/w basketball, and m/w hockey but only if men’s hockey upgrades conferences, plus whatever can be most cheaply cobbled together on the women’s side to comply with Title 9. I think you need 14 sports (min of 6 for both men and women) to be in D1 Minimum of 6 men, 8 women or 7 and 7.
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Post by JRGNYR on Mar 15, 2022 14:22:00 GMT -5
Future FBS games, by school (per FB Schedules) HC: Buffalo (2022), BC (2023), Northern Illinois (2025), Miami OH (2026), San Jose St. (2029) Fordham: Ohio (2022), Buffalo (2023),. Bowling Green (2024), Boston College (2025), Hawaii (2026) Colgate: Stanford (2022), Army (2022), Syracuse (2023), Colorado (2027) Lafayette; Temple (2022), Duke (2023), Buffalo (2024), Connecticut (2026) Bucknell: Navy (2024) Lehigh: None Georgetown: No one returns their calls. Assuming the obvious that one FBS game per year is desired, then '24 is a pressing project right now followed by '27 and '28. I'm assuming Navy is out in '24 since they already have Bucknell. Army already has 10 games on its '24 slate (according to FB Schedules) with four listed as true home games, so maybe they're in the market. Potential dates would be 9/14, 10/12 and 10/26, depending on what the PL schedule looks like and other HC non-cons that are set up. Tough to turn down a fall Saturday at Michie. Another FBS school I'd be interested in seeing HC schedule is Temple. The Owls have Lafayette at home this fall, and don't have home FCS games scheduled yet for '24 or '27 (or '25 for that matter, but HC is already going to NIU). It could be that Temple is keeping a date open in case the American decides collectively to go to 9 conference games as a result of realignment, but I put that at less than 50/50 (and maybe the league has already stated its position on it, not sure). Seems like HC and UMass will match up for a game before too long, perhaps '27 after back-to-back years with flights to MAC schools.
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Post by JRGNYR on Feb 7, 2022 8:30:08 GMT -5
Blame Powerpoint. The Bullet point has been the means of communicating in businesses narratives to leadership for over 30 years. Guess most have a short attention span and have never read War and Peace. It becomes a decision between "keep doing what you're doing with diminishing results" or "get on the train and embrace it like everybody else." There's a lot of talk on this board at various times where people wish that HC's athletic office "got with the times." In this case they have and some people still don't like it. The bulletpoint presentation serves a few purposes beyond what we've already spoken about. It's also easier for TV/digital talent and production to consume with their prep. It's a more efficient use of time for the SID who's creating the content in the first place. That then frees them up to work on other content or projects. And yes, those shorter bursts are more social media friendly which is a big driver for communications in general, not just in college athletics. SIDs don't like doing a lot of work that isn't going to get read, and it's honestly not fair to the time and effort they put in to ask them to create content that most people won't consume. I've worked on countless multi-page conference weekly releases that I knew were never going to be read cover to cover by the majority of people. As some of the old guard has moved on from the industry and a few more forward-thinking people have assumed leadership roles, they've understood that to "know your audience" requires recognition of the preferred method of content consumption, especially when it comes to recaps and game results.
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Post by JRGNYR on Feb 6, 2022 19:32:04 GMT -5
Totally agree - BUT, what they should be preparing is a comprehensive preseason article on the team and not just the flimsy ‘5 things to know’ that they’ve done for other sports (which contains info many of us already know) For the most part, a lot of schools have moved away from the long preseason articles and the newspaper style recaps in favor of bulletpoints because it's quick and easily digestible. The other formats were a lot of work for little to no ROI. In short, people aren't reading long previews and recaps anymore. You can disagree with it, but it's the way things have moved for a few years now.
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Post by JRGNYR on Feb 2, 2022 11:55:10 GMT -5
Apparently HC scrimmaged Harvard yesterday. Lack of information sharing/posting from team/athletic dept is notable. They figured out how to share videos of the assistant coach eating lunch in the off season … but it’s otherwise been hard to come by info about the team. Anyone know if this weekend’s opener will be broadcast on espn+? It doesn’t say on the schedule. Could've been a closed scrimmage. Some schools will advertise scrimmages, others won't list any on their website. As noted above, HC is stretched a bit on the SID side considering the # of sports they have. The winter/spring crossover season that we're in right now is also one of the busiest times of the year. With that in mind, dedicating already stretched resources to a contest that has no bearing on anything other than the coaches getting a better look at some personnel is probably not really high on the priority list - and it shouldn't be unless you have the resources available to properly dedicate to it.
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Post by JRGNYR on Jan 30, 2022 15:55:09 GMT -5
I want HC to succeed in every sport, but particularly in lacrosse. With proper attention and resourcing in place, in my opinion HC could be a sleeping giant.
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Post by JRGNYR on Jan 23, 2022 10:50:49 GMT -5
Or that the Packers beat themselves.
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Post by JRGNYR on Jan 21, 2022 16:45:28 GMT -5
On the topic of expansion, does anyone recall why the PL added Loyola & BU? In retrospect, was this a good decision? When the power conferences all started expanding beyond 12 teams for football media market reasons, one result is that they all increased the number of regular season conference games in Men's and Women's Basketball. As a result, there were less non-conference games available. Therefore, you started to see a domino effect of mid-and-low-major conferences following suit when it came to expansion. While I personally don't think Loyola and BU add much to the league as far as engaged fan bases and MBB tradition, they definitely helped even things out geographically. And both strengthened a lot of the minor sports, with the elephant in the room being Loyola lacrosse. My fiancee is a Loyola grad so that's also fun being in the same conference. Bingo on the bold.
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Post by JRGNYR on Jan 8, 2022 12:24:14 GMT -5
Was told last night that longtime swim/dive coach Barry Parenteau passed away this week. Did some digging and found a tribute from Kevin Shea that's posted here:
Though my junior year roommate swam for Barry, I didn't get to know him personally until my four years working with the Patriot League. I rarely saw him without a big smile on his face at the championship meet. It was clear he had a special relationship with his athletes, and all of the other coaches and officials genuinely liked him and enjoyed his company. He took great pride in seeing his athletes establish personal bests or break school records at the PL Championships. To be blunt, they were never going to compete for conference championships for reasons out of Barry's control, so he made it about being the best they could be in their fastest meet of the year and have fun doing it.
He adored his athletes and delighted in their success. It was always about them, never about him.
RIP.
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Post by JRGNYR on Dec 10, 2021 8:18:38 GMT -5
One of my biggest takeaways from the press conference... gratitude. That he spent the first few minutes thanking the most important people in his life, both personally and professionally, was very classy IMO. Seems very authentic, which is also what I've heard about him from a few others who know him.
Rooting hard for him.
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Post by JRGNYR on Dec 7, 2021 17:19:42 GMT -5
Had a gramdson who was accepted at both HC and Villanova. He just graduated from Villanova and was very happy with his experience and education ( got a good starting job this summer) Granddaughter was undergratuate a Villanova, has transferred to Holy Cross. She is an athlete and is very happy with her decision although she thinks the academics are harder at Holy Cross. Just sayin........ I may have previously shared the story of a classmate who came to HC as a Pre-Med football player, but blew out his knee early on, and never played a down. After his first month or two at UVA Medical School, he thought, "Really? This is all you got?" He was shocked at how much easier the workload was compared to the undergrad Pre-Med program at HC. Oh yeah, he graduated #1 in his UVA Med School class. I felt similarly when I got to grad school for my M.S., although to be fair it was a state school and a different approach. I have no issues with the education I received at either stop. When I started my MBA at Lehigh (unfinished, got sidetracked early by Hurricane Sandy and life and lost all momentum), that provided about as comparable an experience as I had to my first semester at HC. Total whirlwind and a feeling that I was getting my a** handed to me (which I was).
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