OT: Operation 351 begins its 6th season. | The Boneyard

OT: Operation 351 begins its 6th season.

Joined
Aug 26, 2011
Messages
1,205
Reaction Score
4,432
For those who don't know me, Operation 351 is my personal journey to visit every D1 college basketball site to see a basketball game. My travels are documented on my blog at www.journeyto351.com. When I started 5 years ago, there were a total of 351 D1 schools. That number has changed over the years. With Savannah State dropping down to D2, the number for the 2019-20 season will be at 352 teams.

As has been a tradition for the past 5 years, I annually repost a Boneyard quote from Fishy that I rate as one of the funniest in Boneyard history as he commented on my mission:

“You have no chance of doing it. But beyond that, you don’t want to. At some point, you’ll find yourself at Houston Baptist watching them host Incarnate Word wondering just why you threw your life away. Then, you’ll make your way back to your $29 a night hotel room in Cow Dick, Texas, and drown yourself in the toilet.”

I am at now 81 games and going strong!

Here are my choices for the upcoming season dependent on weather, scheduling conflicts and life:
  1. Syracuse and Colgate – hopefully in early November or March because of the weather
  2. Canisius and Niagara – ditto
  3. George Mason and Maryland Eastern Shore
  4. Bucknell and Penn State
  5. St. Francis PA and Mount St. Mary
  6. West Virginia, Pittsburgh and Robert Morris – hoping for a trifecta in one visit
  7. South Florida – Against UConn representing my annual Operation 351 trip with my wife
  8. Tulane and (LSU or New Orleans or Nicholls St.) - Tulane is playing UConn. A visit to the Big easy with good friends of ours.
Looking forward to an exciting season for the men and an eventual trip on the Metro North bar car for a trip to MSG!
 
Joined
Dec 8, 2015
Messages
12,229
Reaction Score
91,018
For those who don't know me, Operation 351 is my personal journey to visit every D1 college basketball site to see a basketball game. My travels are documented on my blog at www.journeyto351.com. When I started 5 years ago, there were a total of 351 D1 schools. That number has changed over the years. With Savannah State dropping down to D2, the number for the 2019-20 season will be at 352 teams.

As has been a tradition for the past 5 years, I annually repost a Boneyard quote from Fishy that I rate as one of the funniest in Boneyard history as he commented on my mission:

“You have no chance of doing it. But beyond that, you don’t want to. At some point, you’ll find yourself at Houston Baptist watching them host Incarnate Word wondering just why you threw your life away. Then, you’ll make your way back to your $29 a night hotel room in Cow Dick, Texas, and drown yourself in the toilet.”

I am at now 81 games and going strong!

Here are my choices for the upcoming season dependent on weather, scheduling conflicts and life:
  1. Syracuse and Colgate – hopefully in early November or March because of the weather
  2. Canisius and Niagara – ditto
  3. George Mason and Maryland Eastern Shore
  4. Bucknell and Penn State
  5. St. Francis PA and Mount St. Mary
  6. West Virginia, Pittsburgh and Robert Morris – hoping for a trifecta in one visit
  7. South Florida – Against UConn representing my annual Operation 351 trip with my wife
  8. Tulane and (LSU or New Orleans or Nicholls St.) - Tulane is playing UConn. A visit to the Big easy with good friends of ours.
Looking forward to an exciting season for the men and an eventual trip on the Metro North bar car for a trip to MSG!

Do you fly to all these places??
 
Joined
Dec 8, 2015
Messages
12,229
Reaction Score
91,018
Mostly plane or train. The drivable ones are slowly disappearing as I venture more out of New England.

Wow amazing.

What's your favorite small venue so far?
 
Joined
Aug 26, 2011
Messages
1,205
Reaction Score
4,432
Wow amazing.

What's your favorite small venue so far?
Princeton was a cool place. If you are a Disney fan, picture yourself walking into Spaceship Earth.

Yale at the Payne Whitney gym used to be an old church in the early 1900's. You can still see the cathedral glass windows high above the court. The seats slope down at an incredible pitch!
 

HuskyHawk

The triumphant return of the Blues Brothers.
Joined
Sep 12, 2011
Messages
31,860
Reaction Score
81,477
For those who don't know me, Operation 351 is my personal journey to visit every D1 college basketball site to see a basketball game. My travels are documented on my blog at www.journeyto351.com. When I started 5 years ago, there were a total of 351 D1 schools. That number has changed over the years. With Savannah State dropping down to D2, the number for the 2019-20 season will be at 352 teams.

As has been a tradition for the past 5 years, I annually repost a Boneyard quote from Fishy that I rate as one of the funniest in Boneyard history as he commented on my mission:

“You have no chance of doing it. But beyond that, you don’t want to. At some point, you’ll find yourself at Houston Baptist watching them host Incarnate Word wondering just why you threw your life away. Then, you’ll make your way back to your $29 a night hotel room in Cow Dick, Texas, and drown yourself in the toilet.”

I am at now 81 games and going strong!

Here are my choices for the upcoming season dependent on weather, scheduling conflicts and life:
  1. Syracuse and Colgate – hopefully in early November or March because of the weather
  2. Canisius and Niagara – ditto
  3. George Mason and Maryland Eastern Shore
  4. Bucknell and Penn State
  5. St. Francis PA and Mount St. Mary
  6. West Virginia, Pittsburgh and Robert Morris – hoping for a trifecta in one visit
  7. South Florida – Against UConn representing my annual Operation 351 trip with my wife
  8. Tulane and (LSU or New Orleans or Nicholls St.) - Tulane is playing UConn. A visit to the Big easy with good friends of ours.
Looking forward to an exciting season for the men and an eventual trip on the Metro North bar car for a trip to MSG!

I remember that quote. A Fishy classic. Good luck, but if this is your pace, it's going to take a long, long time. Let me know when you are headed to Allen Field House.
 
Joined
Jan 6, 2015
Messages
6,880
Reaction Score
54,895
For those who don't know me, Operation 351 is my personal journey to visit every D1 college basketball site to see a basketball game. My travels are documented on my blog at www.journeyto351.com. When I started 5 years ago, there were a total of 351 D1 schools. That number has changed over the years. With Savannah State dropping down to D2, the number for the 2019-20 season will be at 352 teams.

As has been a tradition for the past 5 years, I annually repost a Boneyard quote from Fishy that I rate as one of the funniest in Boneyard history as he commented on my mission:

“You have no chance of doing it. But beyond that, you don’t want to. At some point, you’ll find yourself at Houston Baptist watching them host Incarnate Word wondering just why you threw your life away. Then, you’ll make your way back to your $29 a night hotel room in Cow Dick, Texas, and drown yourself in the toilet.”

I am at now 81 games and going strong!

Here are my choices for the upcoming season dependent on weather, scheduling conflicts and life:
  1. Syracuse and Colgate – hopefully in early November or March because of the weather
  2. Canisius and Niagara – ditto
  3. George Mason and Maryland Eastern Shore
  4. Bucknell and Penn State
  5. St. Francis PA and Mount St. Mary
  6. West Virginia, Pittsburgh and Robert Morris – hoping for a trifecta in one visit
  7. South Florida – Against UConn representing my annual Operation 351 trip with my wife
  8. Tulane and (LSU or New Orleans or Nicholls St.) - Tulane is playing UConn. A visit to the Big easy with good friends of ours.
Looking forward to an exciting season for the men and an eventual trip on the Metro North bar car for a trip to MSG!
Very cool personal project! Inspirational for a 32-year-old like me with similar interests in visiting different basketball arenas. If UConn plays @ SMU on a weekend, I'll be at Moody!

If you end up going to Mount St. Mary's, I highly recommend crossing the bridge from Newburgh to visit Beacon. A fun little Main Street and nearby one of the best art museums in the country: Dia:Beacon.
 
Joined
Aug 27, 2011
Messages
2,649
Reaction Score
15,208
As someone who also likes to see new arenas looking forward to the new BE. Can finally pull of the Indiana trip I've been wanting - go see UConn @ Butler, game in Bloomington, maybe hit up Purdue or ND depending on how schedules work out.
 

Fishy

Elite Premium Poster
Joined
Aug 24, 2011
Messages
17,955
Reaction Score
129,171
If you end up going to Mount St. Mary's, I highly recommend crossing the bridge from Newburgh to visit Beacon. A fun little Main Street and nearby one of the best art museums in the country: Dia:Beacon.

Mount St. Mary’s is a lovely little campus - my daughter has gone there for swim meets. And I second the recommendation about Beacon....my daughter’s swim team actually practices at Beacon High every night.

But that Mount St. Mary’s is DIII.

The DI version is down in Maryland.
 
Joined
Aug 26, 2011
Messages
1,205
Reaction Score
4,432
Mount St. Mary’s is a lovely little campus - my daughter has gone there for swim meets. And I second the recommendation about Beacon....my daughter’s swim team actually practices at Beacon High every night.

But that Mount St. Mary’s is DIII.

The DI version is down in Maryland.
Thanks for the clarification. I am headed to Mount St. Mary's in MD obviously. My nephew is attending the seminary school.
 

ConnZag3

NCAA Hoops Connoisseur
Joined
May 19, 2014
Messages
357
Reaction Score
691
For those who don't know me, Operation 351 is my personal journey to visit every D1 college basketball site to see a basketball game. My travels are documented on my blog at www.journeyto351.com. When I started 5 years ago, there were a total of 351 D1 schools. That number has changed over the years. With Savannah State dropping down to D2, the number for the 2019-20 season will be at 352 teams.

As has been a tradition for the past 5 years, I annually repost a Boneyard quote from Fishy that I rate as one of the funniest in Boneyard history as he commented on my mission:

“You have no chance of doing it. But beyond that, you don’t want to. At some point, you’ll find yourself at Houston Baptist watching them host Incarnate Word wondering just why you threw your life away. Then, you’ll make your way back to your $29 a night hotel room in Cow Dick, Texas, and drown yourself in the toilet.”

I am at now 81 games and going strong!

Here are my choices for the upcoming season dependent on weather, scheduling conflicts and life:
  1. Syracuse and Colgate – hopefully in early November or March because of the weather
  2. Canisius and Niagara – ditto
  3. George Mason and Maryland Eastern Shore
  4. Bucknell and Penn State
  5. St. Francis PA and Mount St. Mary
  6. West Virginia, Pittsburgh and Robert Morris – hoping for a trifecta in one visit
  7. South Florida – Against UConn representing my annual Operation 351 trip with my wife
  8. Tulane and (LSU or New Orleans or Nicholls St.) - Tulane is playing UConn. A visit to the Big easy with good friends of ours.
Looking forward to an exciting season for the men and an eventual trip on the Metro North bar car for a trip to MSG!

Just a heads up that we're still at 353 actually as Merrimack is joining D1 to offset the dropdown of Savannah St.
 
Joined
Aug 26, 2011
Messages
1,205
Reaction Score
4,432
InstitutionAthleticsCurrent Division II conferenceFuture Division I conferenceStart YearActive
(Full member)
Notes
Merrimack CollegeWarriorsNortheast-10 ConferenceNortheast Conference2019–202023–24[4]
Bellarmine UniversityKnightsGreat Lakes Valley ConferenceASUN Conference2020–212024–25[5]
Dixie State UniversityTrailblazersRocky Mountain Athletic ConferenceWestern Athletic Conference2020–212024–25[6]
C.W. Post Campus of Long Island UniversityPioneersEast Coast ConferenceNortheast Conference2019–202019–20The LIU Post athletic program will merge with that of LIU Brooklyn to become a single Long Island University (LIU) athletic program, competing as the LIU Sharks. Teams in sports that Post sponsors but Brooklyn doesn't will be reclassified to Division I. [7]
University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego)TritonsCalifornia Collegiate Athletic AssociationBig West Conference2020–212024–25

You are correct. There is an interesting scenario at the CW Post campus. I attended LIU previously. The CW Post campus is merging into LIU. I have made the decision not to revisit there since it was and still remains a D1 school.

Not happy about visiting Merrimack since I had completed all the New England schools at this point.

Cal Baptist and Northern Alabama went D1 last year bring the total to 353.

Tough shooting at a moving target. :)
 
Last edited:
Joined
Mar 4, 2014
Messages
16,560
Reaction Score
19,301
44421
 
Joined
Sep 6, 2011
Messages
12,082
Reaction Score
63,178
Not happy about visiting Merrimack since I had completed all the New England schools at this point.

You can go ahead and skip Merrimack. Not missing anything.
 

ConnZag3

NCAA Hoops Connoisseur
Joined
May 19, 2014
Messages
357
Reaction Score
691
USC Upstate might have been the "greatest" when I visited last year. Smallest gym in D1 with a capacity of around 800. Went for a weekday afternoon game before Xmas and I couldn't even find where they were selling tickets to the game so just walked into the gym for free, no questions asked.
 

Online statistics

Members online
574
Guests online
3,448
Total visitors
4,022

Forum statistics

Threads
155,774
Messages
4,031,172
Members
9,864
Latest member
Sad Tiger


Top Bottom