Davidson to the A10?

[upstater]

The CAA rejection was a bad idea in hindsight. At the time, the explanation was the travel costs would be very high, as the league would be BU, Northeastern, then a bunch of teams primarily located in Virginia. I don't know how good of a reason or not that was, but competitively, it was a bad decision.

When you look at the Colonial today, it's essentially the old Am. East.

 

[whaler11]

The difference in basketball between the Patriot League and America East is nearly invisible to the naked eye.

If you care about academics why wouldn't you surround yourself with Lehigh and American versus UMass- Lowell and Hartford. Binghamton's saga alone would make it an improvement.

 

[upstater]

The difference in basketball between the Patriot League and America East is nearly invisible to the naked eye.

If you care about academics why wouldn't you surround yourself with Lehigh and American versus UMass- Lowell and Hartford. Binghamton's saga alone would make it an improvement.

Because Boston U., Binghamton and Stony Brook are all AAU schools with good academic reputations. It's not a bad academic conference at all, better than most, so I'm trying to figure out how this got started.

 

[whaler11]

Because Boston U., Binghamton and Stony Brook are all AAU schools with good academic reputations. It's not a bad academic conference at all, better than most, so I'm trying to figure out how this got started.

Yeah America East is decent. It's public schools outside of Hartford though so BU wasn't a great fit. Binghamton may be in the AAU - but I can see wanting to get away from that train wreck.

Certainly the attendance at BU couldn't get worse. Not like there was risk.

 

[upstater]

Yeah America East is decent. It's public schools outside of Hartford though so BU wasn't a great fit. Binghamton may be in the AAU - but I can see wanting to get away from that train wreck.

Certainly the attendance at BU couldn't get worse. Not like there was risk.

BU got worse outside the ECAC. When I was there, they were drawing 4000 a game (capacity). But they had good players (2 NBA) and good coaches. When Am East started losing ground, the program suffered. They even began to move games to Case Gym instead of Walter Brown.

One thing about BU that makes it an odd fit in any conference, it's a big private. It's not like the small privates it has joined. Boston U. is like New York U., Syracuse, Northwestern, USC, etc. Just a handful of such schools in the country.

 

[whaler11]

BU got worse outside the ECAC. When I was there, they were drawing 4000 a game (capacity). But they had good players (2 NBA) and good coaches. When Am East started losing ground, the program suffered. They even began to move games to Case Gym instead of Walter Brown.

I imagine they draw a few hundred these days because all the support has moved to hockey. Also becoming a school that draws so many international students doesn't bode well for attendance.

It's almost impossible for a northeast mid-major to be successful long term in basketball. Vermont is about the ceiling. Rhode Island and Stony Brook have a bigger ceiling I guess - but URI almost lost their coach after going 8-103.

 

[upstater]

I imagine they draw a few hundred these days because all the support has moved to hockey. Also becoming a school that draws so many international students doesn't bode well for attendance.

It's almost impossible for a northeast mid-major to be successful long term in basketball. Vermont is about the ceiling. Rhode Island and Stony Brook have a bigger ceiling I guess - but URI almost lost their coach after going 8-103.

They used to draw even more for hockey back then when they were winning national championships regularly and had many future NHL all-stars going there. Hockey has been big at BU for many decades. The int'l student population has also dropped by a huge number at Boston U. since the 1980s. Used to be 15%. It's now 7%. 1,300 students total. There's a reason for this. BU opened up campuses in Sydney, London, Dubai, Brussels, and they did it long before this trend caught on. It's huge Middle Eastern contingent (at least when I was there) now studies in Dubai instead.

As an urban school, Boston U. has natural advantages over Vermont. They simply haven't cared enough since the 1980s.

 

[IMind]

I actually think BU is a pretty good fit for the Patriot League. You can sustain a solid national program from there (see Lehigh Wrestling) while keeping the rest of your budget relatively low. Scholarships in basketball and football...