Hofstra's President made a power play dumping football that has blown up in his face. I will say that Albany and Hofstra do have one thing in common...they are both located in a non-desirable location.
Have you been to Syracuse?
As a guy who schlepped to place Commercial Mortgages around upstate NY ... Syracuse was often just blacklisted by institutions. And Albany is ... sheep-like in consistency.
ON FOOTBALL terms ... there is this notion that WE in New England and New York just are a wasteland. In this world where there are 12 FBS programs in the State of Texas and 4 Power 5 Programs in North Carolina. Rutgers fans (NJ like you?) smirk about all their high ratings. Let us talk demographics - there are 39 million people in NY and NE. How does that contrast to a OK or MS? Football playing HS's dropping ... shizzle ... well I see major highly rated Prep schools raising their Football programs. Both in NJ (*Blair and Hun are far higher than 5-7 years ago) and the NE (*seems like all of them ... but certainly Taft and Cheshire are elevated far higher just in CT). These have to be more desirable than Last Chance U (or even the bogus Milford Academy).
At UAlbany, let me make a prediction: Greg Gattuso (former Edsall DL guy at Maryland and with Wannstedt at Pitt) is going to be a damn good HC. His recruiting will pick from MD and Western PA ... but he also can develop kids from the suburban and urban Upstate NY High Schools that have NOT been touched. Do you think Syracuse University ever fostered skills at the 8th grade to 11th grade level? This new Stadium at UAlbany is gorgeous and probably expandable to 15,000 and then 25,000 easy. This is not a low level plan. And, I know neither Buffalo nor Stony Brook is either. To keep up URI, Maine and UNH is going to have to pull them up dramatically ... and I think they are going to fall behind.
Will UAlbany or Stony Brook rise like Coastal Carolina or Georgia Southern to a higher tier? I think we are looking at a separation at the higher level. Certainly what Harbaugh is doing at Michigan looks far different than Maryland or Rutgers; and then Alabama or Clemson. Nothing immediate. But ... Cartels cheat. That is what participants do: Econ 101. I see separate revenue streams empowering the elite from the chaff. That will leave openings for the Buffalos ... but also Albany and Stony Brook. And UConn. Because Rutgers isn't safe forever either.
We see 5 New England kids on Michigan's Class list - thanks to Harbaugh and Don Brown. I can't remember that ever being the case. For UConn, we needed HCRE eye and a re-energized staff more than ever. And apparently, Edsall Jr is pitching in with kids from his Colorado computer.
