Zoom call with Marcus Blossom for Classes of 1970 & 1971

Not much for him to say about this.
Totally out of his control.

The Zoom was recorded and may be available for general viewing in a few days.

Thought Marcus was more forthcoming than he's been in the past and, as such, some of the stuff probably shouldn't be shared at this time as it will come out fairly soon. 

He was asked if we are in the PL "forever" and he said he doesn't think and sure hopes never D3 but when asked about the Ivy League he "doesn't see" them letting Holy Cross or anyone else in their league. His concern, he says, is less about the league and more about being more competitive (i.e. winning). I did understand him to say that with COVID one of the takeaways might be schedules or conferences might become more regional in the future.

He saw COVID as both hurting and helping HC recruiting. Because COVID caused the campus to be shut down and campus visitors essentially banned, that hurt, when other schools might have been open. There was a minor advantage in that there has been no AAU and some of the bigger schools might be missing out on recruits we had already established relationships with and are under the radar of the big boys. 

He clarified the travel ban of Canadians onto campus. Apparently only 1st time internationals were not allowed into the US until in-person classes. One international student (women's basketball) was allowed in because she had previously established status having attended a US prep school (the Irish girl, I'm guessing). Since in-person classes are planned to start February 4, international students will be allowed in 30 days prior to that date. 

All head coaching positions are filled but there are still some assistant coach vacancies. He was not asked nor did he go into which ones. 

As for cutting non-revenue sports (think the recent 60 Minutes episode), he said he likes lots of sports but he prefers to be successful. He believes winning is good for morale, spirit and all that kind of stuff. He was asked if it was true that the NCAA subsidizes minor sports so that the cost to the College in minimal. He said that the NCAA gives something like $30,000 (in total or each sport was unclear to me) IF a school runs more than a certain number of sports. He thought it was more than 15. So, they don't subsidize it per se. He did say that full schollies are only for football, men's and women's basketball and hockey and the rest are either only partials or not schollie-funded at all and many non-revenue sports athletes are full pays. 

There may be news coming soon on spring football and what the schedule will look like. He had more but don't feel at liberty to post now. 

70-- did you learn anything about the status (playing this season?) of Gerrale Gates?

I don't envision Holy Cross doing much if any pruning of minor sports. They are one of the best hooks HC has to attract high academic full pay student athletes away from the Little Ivies and other highly rated non D-1 schools we aspire to emulate academically.

Logic 101

My understanding on scollies is that only football, M/W/ basketball, and M/W ice hockey are at the scollie caps (football being at the PL cap). The scollies for all other sports are below the NCAA cap. My understanding also is that coaches in the other individual sports that receive scollie money have discretion on whether to award fulls or partials, and to spread the scollie money among more than a few players, that coaches opt for partials.

I don't have a good understanding of how need-based aid can be combined with scollie aid in the other sports (i.e., all sports other than football, hoops, and ice hockey).

True enough.  When MB has talked about this in the past, I took his statements to mean that women's ice hockey was allocated scollies up to the cap, but these scollies are being phased in over a period of years.