2 Questions -
1. Would Colgate agree to go in a different subdivision from Bucknell, Lafayette, and Lehigh?
2. The South division seems rather weak...I would wonder if SBU wouldn't be better served by even the Big South in terms of RPI for an at-large spot.
Thoughts?
The south seems weak because there are 4 scholarship programs in the north and only Stonybrook with scholarships in the south. Such a Patriot League would only work if everyone was comprised of the same scholarship limits. You'd likely see improvement in by the other Patriot League schools if that were the case.
But really, back to NU and Hofstra losing football...
If there anyone who doesn't think that if both schools had been in such a more regional conference, that they'd still be around? More importantly, what if the Patriot offered partial scholarships. Who says the number HAS to be 63? I'd think URI would be in a safer spot if they could lower the number a bit.
T-Dog wrote:What were the original schedules? It would be easier to decipher a solution going off what they were.
From what I've heard, that not exactly true...because I've heard that teams not scheduled to play from the north and south will ply...that teams scheduled to play a road game my get a home match against a scheduled team...
It's really a mess...especially due to the expressed concerns from Maine, UNH, UMass and URI about potential excess travel...
I noticed that Rhode Island was going to have home games against the three other NE4 teams next year so either they're going to fly to the former CAA South 4 times (would they drive to Nova and UD?) or they'll have to go to UNH, UMass or Maine again this year.
I tried to look at what was the schedules and figure how to piece teams together but it's looking more like they'll just have to start over and try to avoid as many duplicate games from 2009.
T-Dog wrote:What were the original schedules? It would be easier to decipher a solution going off what they were.
From what I've heard, that not exactly true...because I've heard that teams not scheduled to play from the north and south will ply...that teams scheduled to play a road game my get a home match against a scheduled team...
It's really a mess...especially due to the expressed concerns from Maine, UNH, UMass and URI about potential excess travel...
From Maine's point of view........
They were scheduled to play NU and Hofstra at home (along with UNH and Villanova)..........and UMass, URI, W&M, and Towson on the road. This season they had Delaware and Richmond at home and JMU on the road.
Without knowing what they will actually do........I'm guessing that either Delaware or Richmond will be off Maine's schedule. I think that JMU and Delaware or Richmond will come to Orono. It would be the 2nd year in a row for the Hens or Spiders playing at Maine.
Wouldn't be surprised if Stony Brook gets a diff CAA team as a replacement for the Hofstra game. It would need to be a home game though, so URI might be a very good candidate.
Redwyn wrote:Wouldn't be surprised if Stony Brook gets a diff CAA team as a replacement for the Hofstra game. It would need to be a home game though, so URI might be a very good candidate.
I believe Bryant was supposed to travel to Hofstra this year, so I wonder if a CAA teams has Bryant visit.
I still don't know why URI, Brown and SBU haven't scheduled games with Bryant.
Redwyn wrote:Wouldn't be surprised if Stony Brook gets a diff CAA team as a replacement for the Hofstra game. It would need to be a home game though, so URI might be a very good candidate.
I believe Bryant was supposed to travel to Hofstra this year, so I wonder if a CAA teams has Bryant visit.
I still don't know why URI, Brown and SBU haven't scheduled games with Bryant.
Maybe this is the way that something like this can happen for SBU and Bryant
T-Dog wrote:Anyone have a clue what the CAA schedule will be next year? Will they just fill in the holes in the best they can or will they wipe the slate clean?
They're re-doing the entire thing. They already did one rough draft, and are tweaking it now based on feedback from the members. Everyone will be playing 8 of the 9 other members.
Back when only Northeastern had left, the majority of the CAA favored plugging a new member into Northeastern's spot and approached Fordham towards that end, but then Hofstra made their announcement and there was no saving the original schedule.
collegesportsinfo wrote:Is there anyone who doesn't think that if both schools had been in such a more regional conference, that they'd still be around?
I don't think conference affiliation had anything to do with Northeastern and Hofstra dropping football. Northeastern would still have had unsolvable problems with facilities and the worst attendance of any full scholarship football team in all of Division I. And I don't think Hofstra flew to a single conference game last year, so it wasn't an issue of the conference not being regional enough. Both of them rejected the idea of joining the NEC, which would have been an even more regional conference than what's proposed. They simply decided there wasn't enough interest in football to justify the cost. Clearly true in Northeastern's case, debatable in Hofstra's case but too late now. I think the only way they would have stuck around is if the Patriot League had brought them in, and then they'd have done it for the benefit of being associated with great academic institutions. But without the Patriot Leaguers on board, there's no doubt in my mind that if we had formed a regional league with these jokers, they'd still have dropped their teams and now we'd be screwed.
I just saw that according to a JMU source, JMU and UNH won't be playing next year, so they dodged the URI bullet (being whoever from the South wouldn't play URI would play UNH, Maine and UMass and thus the hardest schedule in the CAA)
T-Dog wrote:I just saw that according to a JMU source, JMU and UNH won't be playing next year, so they dodged the URI bullet (being whoever from the South wouldn't play URI would play UNH, Maine and UMass and thus the hardest schedule in the CAA)
I think that whoever doesn't play Towson will have the most difficult schedule in the CAA.......meaning one of the CAA North teams will.
I'm surprised UNH and JMU won't play each other, since they haven't played in the previous 2 years either. You'd think if there was one team UNH was going to miss, it'd be from the Nova-W&M-Towson pod, which they've played the last 2 years. I thought UMass was guaranteed a Towson game based on that, but I guess we've been bumped up to the most likely to miss them list with Maine, unless they're going to be cruel and prevent Towson and URI from playing each other.
But idk if they would return the trip this year. I hope in the future we can see more matchups.