FB: Centennial Conference

[Ralph Turner]

One of the tough things that the La Salle players may run into is money. A junior even a Sophomore may not, unless an excellent player, get a chance at a grant since the school may have talk to incoming freshmen. They may get a better shot at Div II.

Overall it is sad that these players have to go through this.

I wonder what about the aid package that he got at LaSalle is going to be different than the one he gets from the MAC schools, or the ACFC schools, or schools in the new NAC or even an NJAC School.

[PA_wesleyfan]

Ralph

I think La Salle gives a subtantial amount of academic scholarships that aren't  as available at other schools. The  PA. DII state schools give out some and there are athletic scholarships but I am not sure that they equal what these kids are getting.

[Ralph Turner]

Ralph

I think La Salle gives a subtantial amount of academic scholarships that aren't  as available at other schools. The  PA. DII state schools give out some and there are athletic scholarships but I am not sure that they equal what these kids are getting.

Then my thought is, how much academic scholarship does an 1100 SAT at LaSalle get a player versus an 1100 SAT package at a nearby D-3?  More financial aid at Wesley for an 1100 SAT than LaSalle or less?

[PA_wesleyfan]

Ralph

I don't know that answer.. But I can say that we are probably talking more about 1300's at La Salle. So for a scholarship football player at La Salle probably more

[PA_wesleyfan]

  That would be one reason that La Salle isn't as competative. The kids are MORE student first and football second than most football playing schools. We are not talking Ivy league, don't get me wrong, but a kid isn't going to La Salle to play up a level. They are going there because of the high level education they can get for the money and until now be able to be on a football team.

[muledaddy]

Gentlemen,

I think it is very sad for the kids who committed themselves to that school on the basis of the oppportunity to play football that the rug should be pulled out from under them in this manner.Lasalle, and others like it , have to hang their institutional heads in shame for treating the players this way.

[Ralph Turner]

Gentlemen,

I think it is very sad for the kids who committed themselves to that school on the basis of the oppportunity to play football that the rug should be pulled out from under them in this manner.Lasalle, and others like it , have to hang their institutional heads in shame for treating the players this way.

Muledaddy, I am interested in your comments and offer you the "virtual consultancy" of what to do with the LaSalle football program.

We know these facts.

You realistically are 4-5 years away from D-III or even going to D-II.  Do you dismantle all of your scholarship programs to go D-III for the sake of one sport?

Which D-III conference (or even D-II conference) wants you as its expands the way that the SCAC accepted Birmingham-Southern and their move to D-III?  (Please "google" these board and the Daily Dose for extensive discussion about BSC from 2006.)

What about the alumni who are big D-I basketball fans?  What do you do for them in D-III?

You are down to four members in your non-scholarship D-I FCS conference, down from 10 members in 1997.  Where will find games among peer institutions? 

Joining the Pioneer Conference would add considerable expense for airline flights to San Diego CA and Jacksonville FL.  What does that expenditure do to other sports?

Your athletic budget is such that you cannot commit any more money to D-I FCS-style scholarship athletics.  Did you find a big sugar daddy over the last 10 years who wanted you to move to scholarship football?

The article sees how the $700K spent on football can strengthen other sports.  What alternatives do you recommend to this?

You called out LaSalle for making a tough decision.  I appreciate your thoughts on solving the problem that is LaSalle and "non-scholarship football" in the Northeast.

[muledaddy]

Ralph,

All kidding aside, doesn't a school owe it to the players /students to budget
enough to see the program through the 5-10 years of growing pains to establish
a credible team and a position within a an existing d3 conference? To do otherwise,
at the outset, is poor planning and an unrealistic view of the non scholarship college football world. I live outside Philly, didn't understand Lasalle, especially in light of its location (like Temple, surrounded by the inner city high crime neighborhoods) attempting to institute a football program, but hoped they would commit the time and money necessary to overcome these obstacles and get up and running.
They didn't.

[Ralph Turner]

Muledaddy,

Thanks for the response.

I see that they committed 11 years to the experiment, and as I understand it, the league that they were in went "(football) belly-up".

As a D-1, they cannot go D-III unless the entire athletic department goes D-III.

I will take the other side of this argument and understand that they had a hard call to make.

Thanks.   

[Neckbeard]

Many have said that As a D-1, LaSalle cannot go D-III unless the entire athletic department goes D-III.  How is it that Johns Hopkins can have one of the top D1 lacrosse programs in the country while the rest of their athletic programs are DIII?

[religion_major]

Hopkins, along with several other schools like Colerodo College Ice Hockey, played DI in a single sport before that rule was changed.  The rule change allowed existing programs in "minor" (not football or basketball) sports to play a single sport at the DI level while playing other sports at a different level.  The rule stipulates that a school must opperate their football program at the DI FCS level at least in order to participate in DI basketball if the school chooses to sponsor football. 

[ock7]

It seems that ice hockey, lacrosse, and wrestiling are the prominent D1 sports sponsored by D3 institutions.

LaSalle struggled, in my mind, because they were classified as D1-AA, yet they could not offer scholarships.  In fact, they were not even able to match the need-based financial aid packages that the D3 schools were offering to their football recruits.

[BTEXPRESS]

In LaSalle's defense, the non scholarship IAA Football concept doesn't seem to work. Look at the other schools that were in this conference when LaSalle joined 11 years ago. St John's, Canisius, Fairfield, St Peter's and Siena all dropped their Football programs. Other than Fairfield, all the rest were private catholic colleges. Maybe there is a theme there. Now what does Iona and Marist do? They are ships without a port.

[mandfense]

Unless I'm mistaken, I think for any Lasalle player looking to transfer and play next season, they'd have to transfer to a D2 or D3 program.  If they transfer to a 1A or 1AA program, they'd have to sit out a year.

I watched Lasalle play TCNJ this year.  They basically were a D3 program masquerading as a 1AA program.  It's a shame that they had to disband the program.  As a football fan, you never want to see that.

[Pat Coleman]

They basically were a D3 program masquerading as a 1AA program. 

And not a very good one -- Massey ranked them directly behind Howard Payne, who was ranked 186th in Division III.