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Post by trimster on Jul 22, 2021 16:51:44 GMT -5
I rarely think about what happened 40 years ago vis-a-vis the Big East or the A 10. It is ancient history. I just don't agree with the one or the other argument when it comes to success in academics and athletics. For the record, I wouldn't want HC to give up its academic integrity for success in athletics at a big time level or any level for that matter. Holy Cross exists to provide an excellent education, not to be a sports factory.
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Post by nycrusader2010 on Jul 22, 2021 18:05:34 GMT -5
Per capita, it's probably Harvard today.....if we had gone Big East, it would have been Holy Cross, easily. If wed continued Willard-era level of success and UMASS was still at least regularly making the NIT like they were last decade, it would probably be a 3-way tie between HC, UMASS and BC. The most passionate hoops fan base in MA is BC, simply by default. Tough to be compketely apathetic when you play Duke, UNC, Syracuse, Pitt, Maryland and Virginia at least once each every year. And I think they still play PC annually? Harvard could make 5 straight Sweet 16s under Amaker and we could continue to lose half our roster to transfers for the next 5 years and HC still has a better fan base than Harvard.
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Post by hceconhist on Jul 22, 2021 20:52:10 GMT -5
The fact remains HC did not join the Big East. Is there some reason why we need to hear about it so often every year? Trying to change history? It is easy to speculate how things might have gone when there is no way to ever be proved wrong. How about this scenario? HC would have little or no following because of ties to gambling and betting on Big East games after joining the conference. HC then deemphasized all sports and has not had a winning season in any sport since...gaining an annual spot in last place in the Big East (or in whatever place they ended up after being thrown out of that league). Now people might then be posting ceaselessly "Why did we ever join that darned Big East." Please give the Big East decision a rest. Just sayin' Another one: HC joins the Big East and leverages its momentum, history, and connections across the Eastern Seaboard to succeed in the 80s and early 90s. However, as schools continue to find new ways to recruit talent and HC (as a solely undergraduate institution) struggles to finance increasingly glitzier facilities, the program begins a long, downward trend. Like you said, it is incredibly easy to assume that everything would've worked out and we would now be paying BU and UNH for easy wins in November/December. Unpopular opinion here: there is nothing wrong with being in the PL.
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Post by cmo on Jul 23, 2021 8:18:25 GMT -5
The fact remains HC did not join the Big East. Is there some reason why we need to hear about it so often every year? Trying to change history? It is easy to speculate how things might have gone when there is no way to ever be proved wrong. How about this scenario? HC would have little or no following because of ties to gambling and betting on Big East games after joining the conference. HC then deemphasized all sports and has not had a winning season in any sport since...gaining an annual spot in last place in the Big East (or in whatever place they ended up after being thrown out of that league). Now people might then be posting ceaselessly "Why did we ever join that darned Big East." Please give the Big East decision a rest. Just sayin' Unpopular opinion here: there is nothing wrong with being in the PL. The travel
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Post by hchoops on Jul 23, 2021 8:22:35 GMT -5
What league, other than the MAAC(undesirable), would have less travel ?
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Post by nycrusader2010 on Jul 23, 2021 10:14:08 GMT -5
What league, other than the MAAC(undesirable), would have less travel ? America East
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Post by hceconhist on Jul 23, 2021 10:45:25 GMT -5
^Or the NEC, with MSM and St. Francis PA being the exceptions - but I doubt anyone here wants to join that conference!
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Post by hceconhist on Jul 23, 2021 10:48:06 GMT -5
Unpopular opinion here: there is nothing wrong with being in the PL. The travel If you want to move up to a significantly better conference, travel is a cost you are going to have to absorb.
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Post by longsuffering on Jul 24, 2021 10:38:26 GMT -5
For the same reason we left the Yankee Conference, we need a league where our non scholarship athletes can compete considering we only have 1400 and 1600 or so M&W students in the whole school. Opponents like Lafayette and Colgate are in a similar boat despite their distance. The service academies are prestigious league mates but tough matchups, BU has a huge student body, and AU and Loyola are not only far away, but like BU they cherry pick the sports they compete in and that is a disadvantage.
Lehigh, Bucknell, Colgate, Lafayette and Holy Cross are all roughly peer schools, with some differences like hockey and wrestling, in their approach to athletics despite the distance and that is one positive about the PL. Somebody posted that HC needs to increase minor sports recruiting budgets and that makes sense. If you are not offering an athletic scholarship, you need to have quality contact with skilled recruits.
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