Post by brokenboat on Mar 18, 2014 14:26:02 GMT -5
Lot's of debate on the board again about what is the right fit in terms of conference affiliation for Fairfield. Interested to see how the board votes.
Post by ctghostman on Mar 18, 2014 15:17:43 GMT -5
The MAAC needs to be a little more like the Big East and get back to what it was in the 80s. Geographically, the Buffalo schools don't fit. We need a Philly and MA presence too. The CAA is terrible geographically. While the Patriot's academic profile is great, we want more from athletics. The MAAC, with tweaks, works well for us.
The MAAC needs to be a little more like the Big East and get back to what it was in the 80s. Geographically, the Buffalo schools don't fit. We need a Philly and MA presence too. The CAA is terrible geographically. While the Patriot's academic profile is great, we want more from athletics. The MAAC, with tweaks, works well for us.
Post by redseastag on Mar 18, 2014 16:12:47 GMT -5
I want to be with other Catholic schools that other students and alums care about and applied to. Who fits that category? Loyola, Fordham, Siena (somewhat, plus great bball following there in Albany), Holy Cross, St. Joe's (even though it will never happen), etc. BC is too big for their britches and PC is doing too well to consider playing with the smaller schools. I will never understand how Fairfield, Fordham, Loyola, Holy Cross, and other alike institutions haven't banded together. It is in all their best interests.
It depends on how you view the University moving forward. If you want to recruit from the same pool academically and not expand to other markets, stay in the MAAC. The league is completely mismanaged and does NOTHING to get exposure for its member schools. Fairfield's profile is high, despite the MAAC affiliation, and is more than capable of staying at or near their #3 ranking by US News and World Report.
If you think Fairfield should change its profile and try to broaden is recruiting reach, the CAA is where the University needs to go. It would be an even better move if they could bring a Holy Cross or a Fordham with them. In my opinion, a league that encompasses most major East Coast markets would be a huge plus for Fairfield's ability to attract students. Boston, CT, LI, NY, Philadelphia/Delaware, Baltimore, Northern Virginia, Central NC, Wilmington, NC, and Charleston, SC, all within the same league. Scheduling would be quite simple with North/South divisions. 6 home and away within your division, 2 home and away in the other division, plus two single home and single away out of your division. 18 games with the road cities paired up to make four games into two trips.
Let's say Fairfield did make the move to the CAA and Holy Cross went with them. Many might think that's far fetched, but I know more than a few well heeled HC alum who want out of the PL. Here's an example of your home schedule. Holy Cross, Northeastern, Hofstra, Drexel, Delaware, William and Mary, James Madison, UNC Wilmington, and College Of Charleston. Throw in 3 or 4 OOC games, with one marquee name and you have a sellable product. In addition, having a presence in Boston, Philadelphia, LI, and Northern Virginia helps with alumni outreach.
Time for the powers that be at the University to make a decision. Stick with the same hand or try to move onward and upward.
Where you want to go and who wants your are two different things. You need to be invited, courted by another conference. Fairfield is not attractive to any othe conference. We have a small fan base, no student interest, a historical track record of losign/mediocre seasons, no defined TV market and old, dumpy on campus arena. We do have a nice off campus place to play, but that is not enough
Where you want to go and who wants your are two different things. You need to be invited, courted by another conference. Fairfield is not attractive to any othe conference. We have a small fan base, no student interest, a historical track record of losign/mediocre seasons, no defined TV market and old, dumpy on campus arena. We do have a nice off campus place to play, but that is not enough
ANY Commissioner can reach down and pluck teams from a lower tier league. Does Ensor strike you as a guy who wants to work? As far as the CAA is concerned, they added Southern schools to replace Southern schools, with Elon being added for next season. Now, they need to add two Northern schools for balance. Albany and Stony Brook are in the CAA for football, and word is that Hofstra will not allow Stony Brook to join as a full member. Albany's football underperformed terribly in the CAA. Two spots, both for Northern schools, as the CAA needs to get to 12 for TV.
The MAAC is not the “Right Fit” or perfect fit. But from a Basketball perspective it is a good Mid Major conference. The MAAC is not our problem. Our problem is that we have not consistently won in the MAAC. Our first 20 years we had the poorest record in the MAAC, but had 3 MAAC Championships. The last 13 years we have had the best MAAC record in regular season, but Zero MAAC Championships.
If we would have got to the NCAA’s a few times in the last 14 years, we would probably be in another league right now. I really like some of the teams in the MAAC…… Iona, Manhattan, Quinnipiac, Siena, Marist, and Monmouth. They are the “Right Fit”, but they need to be combined with Holy Cross, Fordham, St Joes and Lasalle.
Post by reindeerfan on Mar 20, 2014 9:32:58 GMT -5
The Maac is not the right fit but neither is the CAA or patriot. I don't see value in moving from one bad fit to another. The Maac could be the right fit if they had better leadership. Had the Maac secured Hofstra and Northeastern instead of Quinn and Monmouth, I would have felt better about the conference.
Post by gofairfield on Mar 20, 2014 11:38:28 GMT -5
If the MAAC replaced Canisius and Niagara with schools much closer to the rest of the MAAC, that would be a huge improvement. If we were to go anywhere, I would rather go to the Patriot League for the academic prestige alone. I would rather play against Lehigh and Colgate than St. Peter's and Rider. And I would still play Manhattan, Iona and Loyola every year.
1) totally new conference of academically similar Catholic schools (shed the baggage of the MAAC brand). Cherry pick the best that fit the profile (akin to what the Big East did 35 years ago). 2) complete restaging of the MAAC with higher standards (commissioner, home facilities, budgets and academics). Probably force out St. Pete's and Buffalo schools 3) higher conference (not Patriot)
Stagparty, Totally new conference, Out of the question! No teams would be willing to participate. Why, becuse there is not automati to the NCAA tourney for a new conference. , no $$$. No money, no new conference. The American Conference was the exception this year becuse it broke away form the " Big East" and was given an automati.Also the teams in the american conference are strong enough to get an "at large bid" even if not granted a automati. That would not be the case with a bunch of small catholic schools as you indicated. Each team partcipating in the NCAA tourney earns "one unit" for every game it particpates in. Each "Unit" earned is worth $1.6M to the school or to the schools conference. So for example if an NCAA PIG team wins the national championship , it would have played in 7 games to become the champ, earning $1.6M for each unit or $11.2M for the tournament. Money talks!