Comments on: Northeastern Drops Football, CAA Drops the Ball

By: bevo

bevo — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 18:00:06 +0000

Interesting thought about the America East's cupability in Northeast's decision. How much was the American East's decision or indecision driven by the non-football schools?

A lot of athletics administrators on the Division III prefer conferences where most if not all sports compete because everyone remains on equal footing in terms of expenses related to budget, recruiting, and administrative support.

Sports like football, ice hockey, and to lesser extent, wresting, change the equation. If those sports are not in the same conference as the other sports such as basketball, softball, baseball, etc., then it creates problems for the school.

How different would the eastern conferences look had the American East and not the A-10 absord the Yankee Conference?

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 11:06:50 +0000

This doesn't come as a surprise. I was reading an article that shows Northeastern draws between 1,500 to 2,000 fans a game. I know high school football teams that draw better than that.

This makes economic sense for Northeastern, they can (as mentioned in an earlier post) put the money towards their hockey team, put it towards upgrading dorms, or invest the money for any future University project.

The thing that surprises me more is that more Division I-AA programs with poor attendance hasn't drop the guillotine on their football programs. Division I-AA and Division II football is a tough business, and I admire those who work very hard to make their programs successful.

When Division I-AA schools are competing against the Division I-A powers on a Saturday, have very little or no t.v. exposure, which equals very little or no t.v. money, it's very difficult to turn a profit.

By: Matt Peloquin

Matt Peloquin — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 21:24:45 +0000

I agree that the subject of the article is misleading. The ball being dropped was by Northeastern when they left. The CAA needed a #6 and NU took the bait. Now the CAA is fine without them for football or any sports for that matter.

The origins of this mess actually lies in the hands of the America East. When the schools in the Yankee Conference were forced to move from a football-only conference to an existing one (so that schools would have more say regarding NCAA votes) multiple conferences had a chance for sponsorship.

The America East topped that list.

They had members such as Delaware who were pushing hard for football sponsorship. But the America East leadership dropped the ball. Delaware soon planned to leave the AE and Hofstra, Towson and Drexel came with them.

Had the America East sponsored football instead of the A10, you would have had a number of AE all-sports members today: Hofstra, NU, Maine, UNH, Delaware and Towson. Associate members in the region would include UMass and URI.

So regardless of what happened with the CAA schools like ODU and GA State, the AE football conference would have had the opportunity to remain as only JMU & W&M; would be football members in the CAA (with ODU and GSU to follow).

Fastforward all these years and now you have a failed program in NU. Sad to see.

THIS WE KNOW:

Money caused them to end football. And CAA membership has drained their budget in the area of travel expenses. And the CAA TV money is not much of an upgrade for them. Had they remained in the New England based AE, I have little doubt they would be playing football at NU in 2010.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 20:59:08 +0000

Put that money to the hockey program and tell BU, BC and Harvard to pound sand!

By: Solohawks

Solohawks — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 19:45:51 +0000

the thing is there would be no caa football without northeastern. caa had 5 members out of 12 members in the old a10. the other 7 had no desire to rock the boat. umass, uri, nova, and richmond leaving unh, maine, and northeastern as those who had to be offered full membership in order to initate the change from a10 to caa. now having said that with their recent decision i would not be surprised if they sought a more geographically friendly conference. if they do no harm no foul and everyone will be happy

By: bevo

bevo — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 12:40:34 +0000

Hear! Hear! If Hofstra had leaders, then they too would be on the phone with the America East.

You have to wonder. If UMass, URI, Maine, New Hampshire, Hofstra, and Northeastern had formed a football only conference, then would Northeastern kept the sport? Where was the ECAC leadership during the A10 to CAA mess?

By: Nathan Brice

Nathan Brice — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 08:47:06 +0000

I would completely agree with almost everything written here. Northeastern will probably not be able to complete in the Colonial. The America East might have several new schools here within the next few years. It makes so much more sense on so many levels.