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Post by DFW HOYA on Sept 15, 2023 18:34:52 GMT -5
I think an America East Football Conference would be a great idea and would be down for HC to join in all sports if it were to happen and if we could leverage those relationships to get into Men's Hockey East. 5) Once they’ve conferred, all 3 will approach the PL and discuss the possibility of a merger (under certain conditions, such as allowing non medical redshirts) 6) I think the PL will be pressured by Fordham and HC to agree to most of the demands from “the Big 3.” 7) The big 3 will agree to join the PL. Georgetown will exit stage right ( probably will head to Pioneer) and Bucknell will be told to “step up and adapt” or look for a new conference. 8) We pop the champagne and celebrate this wonderful new version of the PL! Georgetown has no interest in the Pioneer. And why would it leave if Villanova showed up? These schools aren't joining the PL and Bucknell isn't getting pushed out, even if the schools form a football-only conference outside of the PL adminsistrative structure.
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mainejeff
Climbing Mt. St. James
UMaine Sports Forum: https://umainesports.freeforums.net
Posts: 77
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Post by mainejeff on Sept 17, 2023 10:22:45 GMT -5
I posted this earlier on the AE board......
Had some more crazy thoughts this morning regarding Delaware leaving the CAA and possibilities for AE.
If Delaware leaves the CAA I think that Maine, UNH, Albany and Bryant need to pressure America East to sponsor the sport and make a power play to get URI & Villanova on board as affiliates. In addition I'd go after Monmouth as an all-sports member and attempt to get Stony Brook back in the fold (that might be difficult after the ugly break-up). And finally go after Holy Cross for all sports including football as well.
In this scenario AE Football would look like this:
Maine UNH Holy Cross Bryant URI (affiliate) Albany Stony Brook Monmouth Villanova (affiliate)
Hoops would look like this:
Maine UNH Vermont UMass-Lowell Holy Cross Bryant
Albany Binghamton Stony Brook NJIT Monmouth UMBC
I know that this is a fantasyland scenario but.....thoughts?
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Post by longsuffering on Sept 17, 2023 10:45:04 GMT -5
I posted this earlier on the AE board...... Had some more crazy thoughts this morning regarding Delaware leaving the CAA and possibilities for AE. If Delaware leaves the CAA I think that Maine, UNH, Albany and Bryant need to pressure America East to sponsor the sport and make a power play to get URI & Villanova on board as affiliates. In addition I'd go after Monmouth as an all-sports member and attempt to get Stony Brook back in the fold (that might be difficult after the ugly break-up). And finally go after Holy Cross for all sports including football as well. In this scenario AE Football would look like this: Maine UNH Holy Cross Bryant URI (affiliate) Albany Stony Brook Monmouth Villanova (affiliate) Hoops would look like this: Maine UNH Vermont UMass-Lowell Holy Cross Bryant Albany Binghamton Stony Brook NJIT Monmouth UMBC I know that this is a fantasyland scenario but.....thoughts? Substitute Merrimack for Monmouth. Have you seen the price of gasoline recently? Why not have a fuel efficient imaginary league.
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Post by longsuffering on Sept 17, 2023 11:04:42 GMT -5
I just noticed UMBC is in the fantasy. Wouldn't the Retrievers bunch up with Loyola, Navy and American in whatever mythical league they create? And why such a big faux league that reduces the mathematical chances of each team getting an auto bid in each sport?
If I'm day dreaming up a new league it's eight teams and as local as possible. That frees up more OOC games to schedule aspirational opponents and gives each member a better shot at post season play with a little cushion if a school decides my day dream is their nightmare and sings "hey, hey, you, you, get off of my cloud."🙂
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Post by efg72 on Sept 17, 2023 11:32:09 GMT -5
Don't join a league unless it is to our advantage
Create something fresh that doesn't seem like change to those that love the PL but significantly improves the brand and level of play- for now that incremental move will offer monumental benefits for Holy Cross during the early realignment phases
Just a thought, and if you go down a creative path make the leadership believe it was their idea😇😱
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mainejeff
Climbing Mt. St. James
UMaine Sports Forum: https://umainesports.freeforums.net
Posts: 77
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Post by mainejeff on Sept 17, 2023 12:42:11 GMT -5
Don't join a league unless it is to our advantage Create something fresh that doesn't seem like change to those that love the PL but significantly improves the brand and level of play- for now that incremental move will offer monumental benefits for Holy Cross during the early realignment phases Just a thought, and if you go down a creative path make the leadership believe it was their idea😇😱 My AE scenario does that for Holy Cross IMO. Football would be 8 conference games that include backyard conference games vs. UNH, URI & Bryant....and also some traditionally strong opponents in UNH and Villanova. This league would produce 2-3 NCAA bids annually. MBB - At least as good as the Patriot with better travel in a division with UNH, Vermont, UMass-Lowell, Bryant and Maine. WBB - A step up with strong Maine, Vermont and Albany programs. Men's Soccer - AE ranked #3 in the country Women's Soccer - Competitive league with better travel Field Hockey - Major step up...better programs and facilities in AE. Baseball - Better than Patriot....both competitively and facility wise. Softball - Better than Patriot.....both competitively and facility wise.
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Post by longsuffering on Sept 17, 2023 13:05:58 GMT -5
Don't join a league unless it is to our advantage Create something fresh that doesn't seem like change to those that love the PL but significantly improves the brand and level of play- for now that incremental move will offer monumental benefits for Holy Cross during the early realignment phases Just a thought, and if you go down a creative path make the leadership believe it was their idea😇😱 My AE scenario does that for Holy Cross IMO. Football would be 8 conference games that include backyard conference games vs. UNH, URI & Bryant....and also some traditionally strong opponents in UNH and Villanova. This league would produce 2-3 NCAA bids annually. MBB - At least as good as the Patriot with better travel in a division with UNH, Vermont, UMass-Lowell, Bryant and Maine. WBB - A step up with strong Maine, Vermont and Albany programs. Men's Soccer - AE ranked #3 in the country Women's Soccer - Competitive league with better travel Field Hockey - Major step up...better programs and facilities in AE. Baseball - Better than Patriot....both competitively and facility wise. Softball - Better than Patriot.....both competitively and facility wise. So Maine gets to stay with it's long term partners URI, UNH, UVM but HC has to throw it's co-founding PL partners down a sewer hole? What's not addressed in this fantasy league exercise is that the fine New England land grant universities share a similar mission and the fine core Patriot League liberal arts schools share a similar mission also. No problem playing each other but wouldn't the Presidents prefer kindred souls to band together with so their school's overall mission isn't always the minority viewpoint in league discussions and votes?
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Post by efg72 on Sept 17, 2023 13:39:40 GMT -5
Don't join a league unless it is to our advantage Create something fresh that doesn't seem like change to those that love the PL but significantly improves the brand and level of play- for now that incremental move will offer monumental benefits for Holy Cross during the early realignment phases Just a thought, and if you go down a creative path make the leadership believe it was their idea😇😱 My AE scenario does that for Holy Cross IMO. Football would be 8 conference games that include backyard conference games vs. UNH, URI & Bryant....and also some traditionally strong opponents in UNH and Villanova. This league would produce 2-3 NCAA bids annually. MBB - At least as good as the Patriot with better travel in a division with UNH, Vermont, UMass-Lowell, Bryant and Maine. WBB - A step up with strong Maine, Vermont and Albany programs. Men's Soccer - AE ranked #3 in the country Women's Soccer - Competitive league with better travel Field Hockey - Major step up...better programs and facilities in AE. Baseball - Better than Patriot....both competitively and facility wise. Softball - Better than Patriot.....both competitively and facility wise. Mainjeff Appreciate what you want to put together as it does help build a New England/NE brand and potentially reduce travel and expenses. Where it falls significantly short is improving the league in the hearts and minds of our Crossports/board elders and of course the leadership that might forever be committed to being a member of the PL as we know it today. Start with the Football version of the PL and then look to add schools that have some academic standing- imho a couple like Villanova, Albany, and UNH. Figure the existing PL will lose Fordham as soon as the Blue Hens declare their new future- so net we add two conference games, allows us to play two FBS games and one Ivy each year. Hockey and Hoops tbd a year from now- Hockey East and a higher level for hoops A Yankee Conference will do for all other sports
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Post by longsuffering on Sept 17, 2023 18:37:46 GMT -5
All other sports involve the minor sports where HC would compete head to head with walk-ons against schools with five or more times as many potential walk-ons in each sport and perhaps five or six fewer (would have said "less" before Crossports grammar police ticketed me 🙂) sports to spread the athletic budget across.
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hc69
Crusader Century Club
Posts: 224
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Post by hc69 on Sept 17, 2023 19:33:20 GMT -5
I’ve been thinking about posting this for a while. Now is the time.
The three most stable athletics conferences in the nation are the IL, PL, and NESCAC. The three most academically prestigious conferences in the country are the IL, PL, and NESCAC. Of the 32 schools in these conferences the only one that is not ranked in the top 50 in its Carnegie classification is American, which is somewhere in the 60s among research universities. The three highest conference graduation rates in the country are for the IL, PL, and NESCAC. It is no coincidence that academic excellence and conference stability go hand in hand. These three conferences are first and foremost academic conferences. They are stable because their members are not looking to jump to another conference or form some mythical new conference to “move up,” or because of the illusion that the road to academic excellence runs through athletics success. Indeed, their academic excellence disproves the illusion. They are conferences where the missions of the member schools are driven by academic success. Athletics is not a mission of its own, it is adjunct to the academic mission.
These schools want to be in a conference where the members share the traditional model of the importance of academic excellence and the role of athletics in this model. Army and Navy and illustrative. They are FBS in football for historical reasons. There are several other conferences they could be in for their other sports but they choose to be in the PL because of our shared academic values.
We should have no interest in being in a conference with the likes of Campbell, Elon, Hampton, NC A&T, Towson, Bryant, Albany, NJIT, UMass-Lowell, etc. They are nothing like us.
For the Fr. Brooks detractors. Somewhere the good father is looking down and saying, “I told you so.” Before almost everyone else he realized where Division I football and basketball were headed. Athletics was no longer going to be part of the academic missions of the schools. It was going to be big business with a mission unto itself and only big schools with lots of resources could compete at the national level. A small, elite, sectarian liberal arts college with 2,500 students wasn’t going to be able to compete in that world. Some lament the fact that we didn’t join the Big East, as if that would have led us to the promised land. Somehow they believe that had we done so we would be competing for national championships with Alabama and Georgia in football and Duke and North Carolina in basketball. That wasn’t ever going to happen. For those of you with this view, consider Georgetown. They had a great run with JT as their coach. But the last ten years or so should be sobering. Fr. Brooks was right.
We’re where we belong and where our academic leadership wants us to be. They’re right as well.
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Post by purplehaze on Sept 17, 2023 20:43:39 GMT -5
Our enrollment is now 3200. Many of our minor sports would not be able to compete with the best of the NESCAC - that’s how bad we are. With some prudent cuts to some sports from the 27 to 23 or so would create a much more sound overall program with the same total budget. Yes, the PL works for now but opportunities to shift affiliation may be worth considering down the road
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Post by mm67 on Sept 17, 2023 20:48:41 GMT -5
I’ve been thinking about posting this for a while. Now is the time. The three most stable athletics conferences in the nation are the IL, PL, and NESCAC. The three most academically prestigious conferences in the country are the IL, PL, and NESCAC. Of the 32 schools in these conferences the only one that is not ranked in the top 50 in its Carnegie classification is American, which is somewhere in the 60s among research universities. The three highest conference graduation rates in the country are for the IL, PL, and NESCAC. It is no coincidence that academic excellence and conference stability go hand in hand. These three conferences are first and foremost academic conferences. They are stable because their members are not looking to jump to another conference or form some mythical new conference to “move up,” or because of the illusion that the road to academic excellence runs through athletics success. Indeed, their academic excellence disproves the illusion. They are conferences where the missions of the member schools are driven by academic success. Athletics is not a mission of its own, it is adjunct to the academic mission. These schools want to be in a conference where the members share the traditional model of the importance of academic excellence and the role of athletics in this model. Army and Navy and illustrative. They are FBS in football for historical reasons. There are several other conferences they could be in for their other sports but they choose to be in the PL because of our shared academic values. We should have no interest in being in a conference with the likes of Campbell, Elon, Hampton, NC A&T, Towson, Bryant, Albany, NJIT, UMass-Lowell, etc. They are nothing like us. For the Fr. Brooks detractors. Somewhere the good father is looking down and saying, “I told you so.” Before almost everyone else he realized where Division I football and basketball were headed. Athletics was no longer going to be part of the academic missions of the schools. It was going to be big business with a mission unto itself and only big schools with lots of resources could compete at the national level. A small, elite, sectarian liberal arts college with 2,500 students wasn’t going to be able to compete in that world. Some lament the fact that we didn’t join the Big East, as if that would have led us to the promised land. Somehow they believe that had we done so we would be competing for national championships with Alabama and Georgia in football and Duke and North Carolina in basketball. That wasn’t ever going to happen. For those of you with this view, consider Georgetown. They had a great run with JT as their coach. But the last ten years or so should be sobering. Fr. Brooks was right. We’re where we belong and where our academic leadership wants us to be. They’re right as well.
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Post by mm67 on Sept 17, 2023 20:54:59 GMT -5
I’ve been thinking about posting this for a while. Now is the time. The three most stable athletics conferences in the nation are the IL, PL, and NESCAC. The three most academically prestigious conferences in the country are the IL, PL, and NESCAC. Of the 32 schools in these conferences the only one that is not ranked in the top 50 in its Carnegie classification is American, which is somewhere in the 60s among research universities. The three highest conference graduation rates in the country are for the IL, PL, and NESCAC. It is no coincidence that academic excellence and conference stability go hand in hand. These three conferences are first and foremost academic conferences. They are stable because their members are not looking to jump to another conference or form some mythical new conference to “move up,” or because of the illusion that the road to academic excellence runs through athletics success. Indeed, their academic excellence disproves the illusion. They are conferences where the missions of the member schools are driven by academic success. Athletics is not a mission of its own, it is adjunct to the academic mission. These schools want to be in a conference where the members share the traditional model of the importance of academic excellence and the role of athletics in this model. Army and Navy and illustrative. They are FBS in football for historical reasons. There are several other conferences they could be in for their other sports but they choose to be in the PL because of our shared academic values. We should have no interest in being in a conference with the likes of Campbell, Elon, Hampton, NC A&T, Towson, Bryant, Albany, NJIT, UMass-Lowell, etc. They are nothing like us. For the Fr. Brooks detractors. Somewhere the good father is looking down and saying, “I told you so.” Before almost everyone else he realized where Division I football and basketball were headed. Athletics was no longer going to be part of the academic missions of the schools. It was going to be big business with a mission unto itself and only big schools with lots of resources could compete at the national level. A small, elite, sectarian liberal arts college with 2,500 students wasn’t going to be able to compete in that world. Some lament the fact that we didn’t join the Big East, as if that would have led us to the promised land. Somehow they believe that had we done so we would be competing for national championships with Alabama and Georgia in football and Duke and North Carolina in basketball. That wasn’t ever going to happen. For those of you with this view, consider Georgetown. They had a great run with JT as their coach. But the last ten years or so should be sobering. Fr. Brooks was right. We’re where we belong and where our academic leadership wants us to be. They’re right as well. Beautifully written statement of the role of athletics in a prestigious academic conference. Expect HC will remain in the PL where it belongs. I don't have the facts but I believe the majority of alums agree with your sentiments. Luckily, alums don't decide policy. No doubt TPTB at HC share your view, Thanks for your post.
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Post by thecrossisback on Sept 17, 2023 21:08:38 GMT -5
I’ve been thinking about posting this for a while. Now is the time. The three most stable athletics conferences in the nation are the IL, PL, and NESCAC. The three most academically prestigious conferences in the country are the IL, PL, and NESCAC. Of the 32 schools in these conferences the only one that is not ranked in the top 50 in its Carnegie classification is American, which is somewhere in the 60s among research universities. The three highest conference graduation rates in the country are for the IL, PL, and NESCAC. It is no coincidence that academic excellence and conference stability go hand in hand. These three conferences are first and foremost academic conferences. They are stable because their members are not looking to jump to another conference or form some mythical new conference to “move up,” or because of the illusion that the road to academic excellence runs through athletics success. Indeed, their academic excellence disproves the illusion. They are conferences where the missions of the member schools are driven by academic success. Athletics is not a mission of its own, it is adjunct to the academic mission. These schools want to be in a conference where the members share the traditional model of the importance of academic excellence and the role of athletics in this model. Army and Navy and illustrative. They are FBS in football for historical reasons. There are several other conferences they could be in for their other sports but they choose to be in the PL because of our shared academic values. We should have no interest in being in a conference with the likes of Campbell, Elon, Hampton, NC A&T, Towson, Bryant, Albany, NJIT, UMass-Lowell, etc. They are nothing like us. For the Fr. Brooks detractors. Somewhere the good father is looking down and saying, “I told you so.” Before almost everyone else he realized where Division I football and basketball were headed. Athletics was no longer going to be part of the academic missions of the schools. It was going to be big business with a mission unto itself and only big schools with lots of resources could compete at the national level. A small, elite, sectarian liberal arts college with 2,500 students wasn’t going to be able to compete in that world. Some lament the fact that we didn’t join the Big East, as if that would have led us to the promised land. Somehow they believe that had we done so we would be competing for national championships with Alabama and Georgia in football and Duke and North Carolina in basketball. That wasn’t ever going to happen. For those of you with this view, consider Georgetown. They had a great run with JT as their coach. But the last ten years or so should be sobering. Fr. Brooks was right. We’re where we belong and where our academic leadership wants us to be. They’re right as well. I disagree if he was looking down watching that BC game how could he not think he made a mistake. They never thought that HC could come close to beating BC again. How did that workout?
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mainejeff
Climbing Mt. St. James
UMaine Sports Forum: https://umainesports.freeforums.net
Posts: 77
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Post by mainejeff on Sept 17, 2023 21:39:11 GMT -5
Times are a changing in both higher education and college athletics. It's prudent to consider all options and opportunities.
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Post by DFW HOYA on Sept 17, 2023 22:30:43 GMT -5
The three most stable athletics conferences in the nation are the IL, PL, and NESCAC. The three most academically prestigious conferences in the country are the IL, PL, and NESCAC. Of the 32 schools in these conferences the only one that is not ranked in the top 50 in its Carnegie classification is American, which is somewhere in the 60s among research universities. The three highest conference graduation rates in the country are for the IL, PL, and NESCAC. It is no coincidence that academic excellence and conference stability go hand in hand. These three conferences are first and foremost academic conferences. They are stable because their members are not looking to jump to another conference or form some mythical new conference to “move up,” or because of the illusion that the road to academic excellence runs through athletics success. Indeed, their academic excellence disproves the illusion. They are conferences where the missions of the member schools are driven by academic success. Athletics is not a mission of its own, it is adjunct to the academic mission. The three most academically prestigious conferences in the country are the IL...and may now be the ACC and Big Ten. Eight of the Ivy Leaguers are in the US News Top 25, but so are six in the ACC, and the Big Ten Academic Alliance (formerly the CIC) welcomes UCLA and USC into the gold standard for institutional research. Ten of the 30 top schools ranked by institutional research now reside in the Big Ten. The PL and NESCAC schools as a whole do not carry the research investments that increasingly define academic prestige, nor the academic spending that elevate Ivy schools. Athletically that may be fine, but the ratings simply do not view American, Loyola, Bucknell or Lafayette as academic and research powers. .
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Post by KY Crusader 75 on Sept 17, 2023 23:13:42 GMT -5
Interesting points to be sure. I must say, though, that the typical Bucknell guy or Colgate gal is likely to be “smarter” than the typical IU guy or Wisconsin gal.
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Post by longsuffering on Sept 17, 2023 23:14:44 GMT -5
Times are a changing in both higher education and college athletics. It's prudent to consider all options and opportunities. We agree that times are a changing. I am concerned about Holy Cross getting lost in the shuffle of all the changes. The four years of tuition is sky high for a bachelors degree so I like the mutual support of other very expensive private colleges who face similar issues including in sports, and who don't have Ivy League level of prestige and endowments to fall back on or State Legislatures to provide some of the funding like many schools in your proposed new league. Plus a new conference doesn't give Holy Cross any greater access to league championships and post season berths. HC FB has done that four years in a row out of the PL.
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Post by longsuffering on Sept 17, 2023 23:25:50 GMT -5
Interesting points to be sure. I must say, though, that the typical Bucknell guy or Colgate gal is likely to be “smarter” than the typical IU guy or Wisconsin gal. They say Yon Yonson from Wisconsin is a pretty quick hick.🙂 Avery LaBarbera would be a good one to compare intelligence as she has been a student in the PL, Big Ten and ACC three consecutive years. I'd say the Big Ten and ACC are strong academically like the PL, but aren't a peer group for HC like the PL schools are.
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Post by cruskater31 on Sept 18, 2023 5:18:25 GMT -5
What do Vanderbilt and LSU have in common? Or Northwestern and Ohio State? Clemson and FSU have made it clear they are not peers of Stanford and Cal. Conferences are based on multiple factors not just athletic reputation, academic reputation, or geography. I would say a mutual, shared interest in providing the best possible location to compete is at the heart of a conference. Geography is also a major contributing factor. For each of us on this board, there is a different reason for being in a conference. After working at Georgetown for 3 years, I can say there isn't much in common with Holy Cross other than our shared Jesuit values. All three Pennsylvania schools in our conference have grad programs. If we are going to be in a conference with schools with grad programs, I would prefer one with more geographic proximity. Beat Colgate.
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Post by gks on Sept 18, 2023 6:30:20 GMT -5
What do Vanderbilt and LSU have in common? Or Northwestern and Ohio State? Clemson and FSU have made it clear they are not peers of Stanford and Cal. Conferences are based on multiple factors not just athletic reputation, academic reputation, or geography. I would say a mutual, shared interest in providing the best possible location to compete is at the heart of a conference. Geography is also a major contributing factor. For each of us on this board, there is a different reason for being in a conference. After working at Georgetown for 3 years, I can say there isn't much in common with Holy Cross other than our shared Jesuit values. All three Pennsylvania schools in our conference have grad programs. If we are going to be in a conference with schools with grad programs, I would prefer one with more geographic proximity. Beat Colgate. Couldn't have said it better.
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Post by cfrivals on Sept 18, 2023 6:51:31 GMT -5
America East?? Cmon! Do you see the level of FB we are playing right now? We are FBS level. HC should have beat a power 5 school who almost upset the #3 team in the country. Blew out the top team in the Ivies. Think any PL games are going to be close? HC needs think bigger, we should be thinking as Delaware is. FBS is where we need to be.
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Post by hcpride on Sept 18, 2023 7:08:26 GMT -5
What do Vanderbilt and LSU have in common? Or Northwestern and Ohio State? Clemson and FSU have made it clear they are not peers of Stanford and Cal. Conferences are based on multiple factors not just athletic reputation, academic reputation, or geography. I would say a mutual, shared interest in providing the best possible location to compete is at the heart of a conference. Geography is also a major contributing factor. For each of us on this board, there is a different reason for being in a conference. After working at Georgetown for 3 years, I can say there isn't much in common with Holy Cross other than our shared Jesuit values. All three Pennsylvania schools in our conference have grad programs. If we are going to be in a conference with schools with grad programs, I would prefer one with more geographic proximity. Beat Colgate. Exactly. If only MIT could get out of the NEWMAC - folks would see they are pretty good academically. Ditto University of Chicago and the Midwest Conference - I hear that might be a decent school. Johns Hopkins - can't be a good place with a stellar academic reputaion as their football league is not made of academic 'peers'. We can go on and on (Stanford, Vandy, Wake, Duke, Northwestern... that particular argument for remaining in PL football is just too easy to skewer).
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Post by Ignutz on Sept 18, 2023 7:27:54 GMT -5
I’ve been thinking about posting this for a while. Now is the time. The three most stable athletics conferences in the nation are the IL, PL, and NESCAC. The three most academically prestigious conferences in the country are the IL, PL, and NESCAC. Of the 32 schools in these conferences the only one that is not ranked in the top 50 in its Carnegie classification is American, which is somewhere in the 60s among research universities. The three highest conference graduation rates in the country are for the IL, PL, and NESCAC. It is no coincidence that academic excellence and conference stability go hand in hand. These three conferences are first and foremost academic conferences. They are stable because their members are not looking to jump to another conference or form some mythical new conference to “move up,” or because of the illusion that the road to academic excellence runs through athletics success. Indeed, their academic excellence disproves the illusion. They are conferences where the missions of the member schools are driven by academic success. Athletics is not a mission of its own, it is adjunct to the academic mission. These schools want to be in a conference where the members share the traditional model of the importance of academic excellence and the role of athletics in this model. Army and Navy and illustrative. They are FBS in football for historical reasons. There are several other conferences they could be in for their other sports but they choose to be in the PL because of our shared academic values. We should have no interest in being in a conference with the likes of Campbell, Elon, Hampton, NC A&T, Towson, Bryant, Albany, NJIT, UMass-Lowell, etc. They are nothing like us. For the Fr. Brooks detractors. Somewhere the good father is looking down and saying, “I told you so.” Before almost everyone else he realized where Division I football and basketball were headed. Athletics was no longer going to be part of the academic missions of the schools. It was going to be big business with a mission unto itself and only big schools with lots of resources could compete at the national level. A small, elite, sectarian liberal arts college with 2,500 students wasn’t going to be able to compete in that world. Some lament the fact that we didn’t join the Big East, as if that would have led us to the promised land. Somehow they believe that had we done so we would be competing for national championships with Alabama and Georgia in football and Duke and North Carolina in basketball. That wasn’t ever going to happen. For those of you with this view, consider Georgetown. They had a great run with JT as their coach. But the last ten years or so should be sobering. Fr. Brooks was right. We’re where we belong and where our academic leadership wants us to be. They’re right as well. Bravo. Well said, hc69. None of the PL or IL schools will ever win the NCAA basketball title, but making a run in the tourney, and getting people excited can happen. None of the PL or IL schools will ever win the FBS championship, but winning the FCS championship can be a realistic goal for PL schools. Hockey and lacrosse national titles are realistic goals for both PL and IL schools - a stretch, maybe, but not out of the realm of possibility. I don't want Holy Cross in a football or basketball league with URI, Maine, UMass-Lowell and similar schools. We've proven that we can be one of the top programs in FCS football, and unless we badly stub our toe in the coming weeks, we should be seriously considered for a top-four tournament seed - all despite the alleged drag of the PL (and IL OOC games).
Is our situation perfect? No. But are we in a league with very similar (absent AU and BU) schools with the same priorities? I believe we are. NESCAC schools aren't moving up to D-1, nor should we move to D-3, and the IL won't be expanding anytime soon. (If they ever do, I don't see a Catholic school being at the top of their invite list.)
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Post by Pakachoag Phreek on Sept 18, 2023 7:28:52 GMT -5
There must be some new hallucinogens circulating these days.
IIRC, the smallest school in FBS is the University of Tulsa, with a total enrollment that is about 25 percent higher than HC. (I'm excluding the three academies, because they are a special case.) There is no LAC that is in FBS.
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