Maine in the CAA to stay; URI to go (early?)

[89Hen]

Villanova winning NC's

You had me nodding until that little gem.

I threw that in to show how I really like the CAA as a whole.

[mainejeff]

Maine is not going anywhere.

Especially since they have no choice. If isolated UMaine wants to compete in a full scholarship FCS league, it's the CAA or nothing.

In the very near future, UMaine is going to be faced with the reality of having to invest even more institutional resources in their FB program, especially related to travel and, if they hope to compete for recruits, facilities. Given the continued state of the economy, UMaine's FB red ink, their dwindling FB attendance, and the continued departure of former Yankee rivals (UConn, BU and now URI), it's not unreasonable for the media to continue to ask questions about the future of Black Bear FB. The Cos and the rest of the UMaine AD had better get used to it.

They can ask the same old questions until they are blue in the face........but they'll get the same old answers!

Maybe the same questions about conference affiliation should be directed toward more likely candidates to bolt from the CAA........like Nova, JMU, ODU, and Georgia State.

[henfan]

Jeff, you don't have to go into your senseless defensive mode. Many of us appreciate UMaine FB and hope that the Black Bears are FB conference partners for years to come.

The reality is that UM is now faced with a future of devoting even more instutitional resources to a program with dwindling attendance. It's no wonder people are asking questions. Those questions will likely continue if URI bolts and unless UM can find a way to get more fans interested in what they're doing.

[andy7171]

Sun Belt invite

Gosh, I shudder when I hear those three words, and I don't even like JMU.

"Sun Belt Invite" is like the Ni, Peng and Neee-Wom of the FCS world.

Are those Ni Hao Kai Lan characters?

[mainejeff]

Jeff, you don't have to go into your senseless defensive mode. Many of us appreciate UMaine FB and hope that the Black Bears are FB conference partners for years to come.

The reality is that UM is now faced with a future of devoting even more instutitional resources to a program with dwindling attendance. It's no wonder people are asking questions. Those questions will likely continue if URI bolts and unless UM can find a way to get more fans interested in what they're doing.

Not defensive at all........like I said, y'all can keep asking until you are blue in the face.

On a side note, UMaine is naming their interim AD today for the 2010-2011 school year. He is Steve Abbott, a recent Republican candidate for Governor of Maine, an Orono High School and Harvard grad, and son of former UMaine football coach and AD, Walt Abbott........seems like someone FINALLY got it right up in Orono.

His local and UMaine football ties should help solidify the program going forward.

http://www.pressherald.com/news/UMaine- ... im-AD.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://www.abbottforgovernor.com/conten ... eve-abbott" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[tribe_pride]

Especially since they have no choice. If isolated UMaine wants to compete in a full scholarship FCS league, it's the CAA or nothing.

In the very near future, UMaine is going to be faced with the reality of having to invest even more institutional resources in their FB program, especially related to travel and, if they hope to compete for recruits, facilities. Given the continued state of the economy, UMaine's FB red ink, their dwindling FB attendance, and the continued departure of former Yankee rivals (UConn, BU and now URI), it's not unreasonable for the media to continue to ask questions about the future of Black Bear FB. The Cos and the rest of the UMaine AD had better get used to it.

They can ask the same old questions until they are blue in the face........but they'll get the same old answers!

Maybe the same questions about conference affiliation should be directed toward more likely candidates to bolt from the CAA........like Nova, JMU, ODU, and Georgia State.

Let me echo that we appreciate Maine being part of the CAA. That said, if you've been to the CAA message boards, you'll see those questions directed at ODU and Georgia State (big time). I don't know that most of us buy yet that JMU will leave unless something big comes along and we don't believe that is happening in the next few years. Also, we are iffy on Villanova leaving to Big East due to attendance and stadium issues although there is a some discussion about them. Patriot -maybe but the championship last year kind of puts a damper on going non-scholly talk.

[ccd494]

What facilities upgrades does Maine need? They have brand new field turf, the stadium seats 10,000+, they built a brand new indoor practice dome, and they just built a brand new student rec center which is allowing them to make the old fieldhouse athletes only with renovated weight/training facilities.

The next big project is a new basketball arena (3,000 or so seats) in that fieldhouse. Baseball just got a makeover. Then, you have to think the hockey facility is next in line for an upgrade (Alfond is aging, but any new arena will have to seat 7,000+ and will not be cheap). Football upgrades are unlikely to occur any time in our lifetimes.

[mainejeff]

Football upgrades are unlikely to occur any time in our lifetimes.

A bit of hyperbole, but yeah......there isn't really much to upgrade if we are staying FCS (duh!) and in the CAA. Personally, I'd like to see a new endzone training facility, coaches offices, film rooms, a few endzone luxury skybozes and a "Hall of Fame" lobby.......it would probably help sell the program even more to recruits. Also, some type of beautification project to make Alfond Stadium look and feel more collegiate (brick, trees, landscaping, shrubs planted at the beyond the South endzone for a more 'enclosed" feel)........but those things are "extras".

The CAA South fans obviously have a different outlook on things........if you don't have 20,000 seats and talk with a drawl, they don't want you.

[aceinthehole]

I have to think the State of RI has a lot more problems and funding priorities than full-scholarship football in a Southern-based conference. As bad as the economy is, RI is in the worst shape of any New England/Northeastern state.

Unemployment is so high in Rhode Island that when the labor department said Friday that the rate fell to 11.9 percent in July, economists were encouraged. It was the first time in 11 months that unemployment was below 12 percent — and it's still one-third higher than the jobless rate in Connecticut.

At various points in this recession, Rhode Island has had the highest unemployment in the nation, or has been ranked second or third. Now, it's the fourth worst, behind Nevada, Michigan and California.
...
It's not just that it's small — Delaware and Vermont aren't suffering like this, and North Dakota, which has a far smaller workforce, has the lowest unemployment rate in the nation.
...
Rhode Island, like Massachusetts and Connecticut, is a high-cost place to do business, with strict regulations, high taxes and relatively high wages.

But it lacks powerful engines of wealth like Greater Hartford's insurance industry and Fairfield County's finance, which bloomed because it's next to New York. It doesn't have universities that are as economically significant as Harvard, MIT and Yale.

The economic hardship does not start and stop abruptly at the state line, of course. Some of Connecticut's poorest towns, and some of the state's highest unemployment, are in the eastern part of the state.

Rhode Island's workforce is less educated than its neighbors and is disinclined to leave the home state to find work elsewhere. That keeps businesses from moving there, in an era when employers tend to move to where the right workers are living. "If somebody was looking to move to Rhode Island, we have a workforce that in some areas lacks skills," said Edward Mazze, distinguished university professor of business administration at the University of Rhode Island.

http://www.courant.com/business/hc-rhod ... 9649.story" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Ivytalk]

Jeff, you don't have to go into your senseless defensive mode. Many of us appreciate UMaine FB and hope that the Black Bears are FB conference partners for years to come.

The reality is that UM is now faced with a future of devoting even more instutitional resources to a program with dwindling attendance. It's no wonder people are asking questions. Those questions will likely continue if URI bolts and unless UM can find a way to get more fans interested in what they're doing.

Not defensive at all........like I said, y'all can keep asking until you are blue in the face.

On a side note, UMaine is naming their interim AD today for the 2010-2011 school year. He is Steve Abbott, a recent Republican candidate for Governor of Maine, an Orono High School and Harvard grad, and son of former UMaine football coach and AD, Walt Abbott........seems like someone FINALLY got it right up in Orono.

His local and UMaine football ties should help solidify the program going forward.

http://www.pressherald.com/news/UMaine- ... im-AD.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://www.abbottforgovernor.com/conten ... eve-abbott" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Good down-east creds! I wish him and Maine well.

[biobengal]

What facilities upgrades does Maine need?

I can think of several improvements that would make the stadium much more appealing for spectators. These improvements would be relatively affordable and make it a wonderful place to see a football game. Start with removing the track and sliding the visitor bleachers and turf over to the grandstand.... making the spectators right on top of the action. Next, build a berm between the parking lot and the stadium, similar to what has been done between the softball and baseball stadium. Do the same with the north end zone...... then, years down the road add a real visitor side.

[93henfan]

Gosh, I shudder when I hear those three words, and I don't even like JMU.

"Sun Belt Invite" is like the Ni, Peng and Neee-Wom of the FCS world.

Are those Ni Hao Kai Lan characters?

Go to 55 secs:

[youtube][/youtube]

[dgreco]

Couldn't find another thread (aka, this was the first return on my search)...

http://www.projo.com/college/content/Bu ... d32d4.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

This week Bryant, nearing the end of its third transition year, will welcome 25th-ranked Robert Morris of the Northeast Conference, the league that Bryant has joined for all sports and the league that the University of Rhode Island will join for football in 2013.

[AZGrizFan]

You had me nodding until that little gem.

I threw that in to show how I really like the CAA as a whole.

I wasn't aware they had more than one.

[AZGrizFan]

I have to think the State of RI has a lot more problems and funding priorities than full-scholarship football in a Southern-based conference. As bad as the economy is, RI is in the worst shape of any New England/Northeastern state.

Unemployment is so high in Rhode Island that when the labor department said Friday that the rate fell to 11.9 percent in July, economists were encouraged. It was the first time in 11 months that unemployment was below 12 percent — and it's still one-third higher than the jobless rate in Connecticut.

At various points in this recession, Rhode Island has had the highest unemployment in the nation, or has been ranked second or third. Now, it's the fourth worst, behind Nevada, Michigan and California.
...
It's not just that it's small — Delaware and Vermont aren't suffering like this, and North Dakota, which has a far smaller workforce, has the lowest unemployment rate in the nation.
...
Rhode Island, like Massachusetts and Connecticut, is a high-cost place to do business, with strict regulations, high taxes and relatively high wages.But it lacks powerful engines of wealth like Greater Hartford's insurance industry and Fairfield County's finance, which bloomed because it's next to New York. It doesn't have universities that are as economically significant as Harvard, MIT and Yale.

http://www.courant.com/business/hc-rhod ... 9649.story" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Not to turn this into a political discussion, but this is the direction the entire COUNTRY is headed....perhaps we could use RI as a look into our future unless we pull our collective heads out of our asses.

[93henfan]

Rhode Island, like Massachusetts and Connecticut, is a high-cost place to do business, with strict regulations, high taxes and relatively high wages.

Not to turn this into a political discussion, but this is the direction the entire COUNTRY is headed....perhaps we could use RI as a look into our future unless we pull our collective heads out of our asses.

Communist.

[Tubby Raymond]

[quote="mainejeff] Such a hater......... [/quote]

Such a douchebagger

[JALMOND]

Sun Belt invite

Gosh, I shudder when I hear those three words, and I don't even like JMU.

"Sun Belt Invite" is like the Ni, Peng and Neee-Wom of the FCS world.

"Sun Belt Invite" in the east sounds similar to "WAC Invite" in the west.

Not really where anyone should aspire to be, IMO.

[mainejeff]

[quote="mainejeff] Such a hater.........

Such a douchebagger[/quote][/quote]

F-off, a-hole.......unlike gohens.net........they won't ban me here for challenging you Blue Hen douches.