FB: Empire 8

[Ralph Turner]

I am grateful for the March Madness contract that helps defer most of the expenses involved with conducting national championships for our student-athletes.

[Knightstalker]

I came across this article on ESPN.com and thought it was interesting. Wondering what everyone else thinks? I will save my thoughts for now, but I have some strong thoughts...

http://espn.go.com/college-sports/story/_/id/7148175/ncaa-student-athletes-ask-cut-television-revenue-cover-school-costs

KS actually likes the idea, especially the money put aside to be used to complete their degree when the scholarship runs out or to use for a graduate degree.  KS also likes the idea of maintaining the scholarship if the kid has a career ending injury.  But will this cause bad blood between the football and basketball players and the non-revenue generating athletes?

[Yanks 99]

I came across this article on ESPN.com and thought it was interesting. Wondering what everyone else thinks? I will save my thoughts for now, but I have some strong thoughts...

http://espn.go.com/college-sports/story/_/id/7148175/ncaa-student-athletes-ask-cut-television-revenue-cover-school-costs

KS actually likes the idea, especially the money put aside to be used to complete their degree when the scholarship runs out or to use for a graduate degree.  KS also likes the idea of maintaining the scholarship if the kid has a career ending injury.  But will this cause bad blood between the football and basketball players and the non-revenue generating athletes?

I am pretty sure that most major college sports teams do in fact honor they scholarships when a player has a career ending injury.  The kid from Rutgers that broke his neck certainly is getting a ton of support from the University...based on the ESPN documentary I saw.  Can you imagine not honoring a scholarship in the event of a legitimate career ending injury that occurred on the field, or during practice?  That type of news would get out fast, and spread like wild fire.  If you are sitting on the couch with your kid and a USC coach is giving you his final pitch, and your kids college choice is down to USC and Notre Dame...and you found out or had strong evidence that USC didn't honor the scholarship of a former player who got hurt during the previous few seasons, are you telling me that there would be anything that this coach could say (outside of some major, major violation) that would convince you (as the parent) to send your kid to USC? 

[sjfcards]

I came across this article on ESPN.com and thought it was interesting. Wondering what everyone else thinks? I will save my thoughts for now, but I have some strong thoughts...

http://espn.go.com/college-sports/story/_/id/7148175/ncaa-student-athletes-ask-cut-television-revenue-cover-school-costs

KS actually likes the idea, especially the money put aside to be used to complete their degree when the scholarship runs out or to use for a graduate degree.  KS also likes the idea of maintaining the scholarship if the kid has a career ending injury.  But will this cause bad blood between the football and basketball players and the non-revenue generating athletes?

That is one of the concerns that I have about the idea of paying athletes. You have to do it for everyone. You can not single out Football and Basketball athletes because they generate the most dollars. I love the idea of putting that money aside for athletes to use upon graduation or to complete their education. However, I don't know how you can fairly distribute the wealth. A star football player generates far more revenue than the last guy on the bench for the water polo team, etc.

The bottom line to me is that as long as college presidents, conferences, and the NCAA is making decisions based on huge sums of money, then the athletes should be getting some/most of that revenue. When you sign the NCAA consent form (something every athlete of every NCAA team is required to do), you are agreeing to follow the NCAA rules in return for the NCAA and school to protect your image and best interest. If people tune into see Stanford because Andrew Luck is a beast then how is the NCAA protecting his image by not giving him any of the dollars generated?

Don't even get me started on the money generated from jersey sales and video games (EA sports has an exclusive agreement with the NCAA to use school logos etc, but can not legally use players names. However, you can download the rosters of any team online into the game, and the likeness to individual players is so close that with the online hookup if a player adds a visor to his facemask it is their the following week...oh wait, now I am started).

[Knightstalker]

I came across this article on ESPN.com and thought it was interesting. Wondering what everyone else thinks? I will save my thoughts for now, but I have some strong thoughts...

http://espn.go.com/college-sports/story/_/id/7148175/ncaa-student-athletes-ask-cut-television-revenue-cover-school-costs

KS actually likes the idea, especially the money put aside to be used to complete their degree when the scholarship runs out or to use for a graduate degree.  KS also likes the idea of maintaining the scholarship if the kid has a career ending injury.  But will this cause bad blood between the football and basketball players and the non-revenue generating athletes?

I am pretty sure that most major college sports teams do in fact honor they scholarships when a player has a career ending injury.  The kid from Rutgers that broke his neck certainly is getting a ton of support from the University...based on the ESPN documentary I saw.  Can you imagine not honoring a scholarship in the event of a legitimate career ending injury that occurred on the field, or during practice?  That type of news would get out fast, and spread like wild fire.  If you are sitting on the couch with your kid and a USC coach is giving you his final pitch, and your kids college choice is down to USC and Notre Dame...and you found out or had strong evidence that USC didn't honor the scholarship of a former player who got hurt during the previous few seasons, are you telling me that there would be anything that this coach could say (outside of some major, major violation) that would convince you (as the parent) to send your kid to USC?

This paragraph seems to indicate that this isn't the case everywhere.  It may be an individual school thing, they want to make it an NCAA thing.
"The athletes asked that other points be addressed -- such as allowing injured athletes to retain their scholarships and receive sports-related medical expenses -- which seem like common sense, and also requested that the cost-of-attendance figure currently being debated be pushed from $2,000 per athlete to $3,200. Considering that an independent study found that a full scholarship leaves athletes short $2,951 annually, that doesn't seem too crazy, either."

[sjfcards]

I came across this article on ESPN.com and thought it was interesting. Wondering what everyone else thinks? I will save my thoughts for now, but I have some strong thoughts...

http://espn.go.com/college-sports/story/_/id/7148175/ncaa-student-athletes-ask-cut-television-revenue-cover-school-costs

KS actually likes the idea, especially the money put aside to be used to complete their degree when the scholarship runs out or to use for a graduate degree.  KS also likes the idea of maintaining the scholarship if the kid has a career ending injury.  But will this cause bad blood between the football and basketball players and the non-revenue generating athletes?

I am pretty sure that most major college sports teams do in fact honor they scholarships when a player has a career ending injury.  The kid from Rutgers that broke his neck certainly is getting a ton of support from the University...based on the ESPN documentary I saw.  Can you imagine not honoring a scholarship in the event of a legitimate career ending injury that occurred on the field, or during practice?  That type of news would get out fast, and spread like wild fire.  If you are sitting on the couch with your kid and a USC coach is giving you his final pitch, and your kids college choice is down to USC and Notre Dame...and you found out or had strong evidence that USC didn't honor the scholarship of a former player who got hurt during the previous few seasons, are you telling me that there would be anything that this coach could say (outside of some major, major violation) that would convince you (as the parent) to send your kid to USC?

This paragraph seems to indicate that this isn't the case everywhere.  It may be an individual school thing, they want to make it an NCAA thing.
"The athletes asked that other points be addressed -- such as allowing injured athletes to retain their scholarships and receive sports-related medical expenses -- which seem like common sense, and also requested that the cost-of-attendance figure currently being debated be pushed from $2,000 per athlete to $3,200. Considering that an independent study found that a full scholarship leaves athletes short $2,951 annually, that doesn't seem too crazy, either."

A friend of mine had a full scholorship to Alabama Huntsville for Hockey and had his scholorship taken away after a career ending knee surgery. He does not blame the program since it is the job of the coach to win, and he could not help that situation any more, but it would be nice if the ncaa would allow schools to honor their commitment to an athlete without penalizing the program.

[sjfcards]

kind of slow on here this week...

[wesleydad]

if salisbury loses to wesley, what does that do to the east and the e8?  the shame is that the weather is going to be a mess and that will surely hurt salisbury trying to run the triple option in a driving rain.  well, that is if it actually happens, the forecasts have been rather poor this week and i hope they are wrong again, i would rather see wesley win in nice weather to eliminate any excuses either way.

[dewcrew88]

This loss stings like hell, and it's hard for me not to view this as a low point for the program. BUT I have to say I do not view it like that, mostly because I'm weirdly happy to see Utica get such an important win. They have been a franchise that was a joke and turned it around by doing all the right things. Congrats to them.

I thought for a long time before responding to this post.  (It probably didn't help, though.)
The characterization of your loss to Utica being the low point for your program stings me, as well.
And thanks for the congratulations, but to me, you make it sound like UC is like someone's crazy, (but loveable) Uncle.
"Hey Uncle Joe, congrats on getting that monkey off your back."  (Wink wink, nudge nudge.)
Well, crazy Uncle Joe, I mean Utica, is 5-2.  I know three of those wins were against LL teams, but I haven't seen anyone else come close to hanging 45 on Salisbury, much less lead them by 14 in the third quarter.  (Keep in mind that I'm looking at UC's remaining three games and feeling more than a little queasy.)
I have more than passing familiarity with Ithaca's tradition, so I know what a string of seasons like this must feel like, but Utica played hard, and did what they had to do to win that game.  They could have quit when they had a TD called back and missed the subsequent FG.  They could have quit when the offense got stuffed for a safety after that,  but their defense kept them in it long enough for the offense to get it done.
Sorry to get long-winded, and I know there aren't many UC folk out here, but I just wanted to put it out there that the game was about more than IC's woes of late.

haven't been on the boards in a while, busy with the regular job... but I have a simple comment to this: dewcrew likes this post.

[dewcrew88]

This loss stings like hell, and it's hard for me not to view this as a low point for the program. BUT I have to say I do not view it like that, mostly because I'm weirdly happy to see Utica get such an important win. They have been a franchise that was a joke and turned it around by doing all the right things. Congrats to them.

I thought for a long time before responding to this post.  (It probably didn't help, though.)
The characterization of your loss to Utica being the low point for your program stings me, as well.
And thanks for the congratulations, but to me, you make it sound like UC is like someone's crazy, (but loveable) Uncle.
"Hey Uncle Joe, congrats on getting that monkey off your back."  (Wink wink, nudge nudge.)
Well, crazy Uncle Joe, I mean Utica, is 5-2.  I know three of those wins were against LL teams, but I haven't seen anyone else come close to hanging 45 on Salisbury, much less lead them by 14 in the third quarter.  (Keep in mind that I'm looking at UC's remaining three games and feeling more than a little queasy.)
I have more than passing familiarity with Ithaca's tradition, so I know what a string of seasons like this must feel like, but Utica played hard, and did what they had to do to win that game.  They could have quit when they had a TD called back and missed the subsequent FG.  They could have quit when the offense got stuffed for a safety after that,  but their defense kept them in it long enough for the offense to get it done.
Sorry to get long-winded, and I know there aren't many UC folk out here, but I just wanted to put it out there that the game was about more than IC's woes of late.

Dude, i'm sorry you feel this way, because this post was, for me, about showing that it was more than just embarrassment for me; you seem to have skipped the part of my post that I bolded above. The reason the loss doesn't sting as much is because I know how good a team Utica is. It's not just that Ithaca's gotten worse, it's that the balance of power in the E8 has totally shifted. If we had lost to you guys in 2006 it wouldn't have been as bad because it would have so obviously been a fluke. That is what I am saying. I have been rooting hard for Utica since Blaise was hired because, as I said in my original post, they are a team doing all the right things to win.

I'll try harder next time, but if you guys are gonna keep winning, you're going to have to learn how to take a compliment .

I was there for 66-0.
I remember being psyched as hell the year we LOST only 10-0 to the Bombers.
That win is a signature one, I don't care how bad IC fans think their team is.
I hope UC can have another signature win this week against SJF, that's another monkey to eradicate.

[dewcrew88]

This loss stings like hell, and it's hard for me not to view this as a low point for the program. BUT I have to say I do not view it like that, mostly because I'm weirdly happy to see Utica get such an important win. They have been a franchise that was a joke and turned it around by doing all the right things. Congrats to them.

I thought for a long time before responding to this post.  (It probably didn't help, though.)
The characterization of your loss to Utica being the low point for your program stings me, as well.
And thanks for the congratulations, but to me, you make it sound like UC is like someone's crazy, (but loveable) Uncle.
"Hey Uncle Joe, congrats on getting that monkey off your back."  (Wink wink, nudge nudge.)
Well, crazy Uncle Joe, I mean Utica, is 5-2.  I know three of those wins were against LL teams, but I haven't seen anyone else come close to hanging 45 on Salisbury, much less lead them by 14 in the third quarter.  (Keep in mind that I'm looking at UC's remaining three games and feeling more than a little queasy.)
I have more than passing familiarity with Ithaca's tradition, so I know what a string of seasons like this must feel like, but Utica played hard, and did what they had to do to win that game.  They could have quit when they had a TD called back and missed the subsequent FG.  They could have quit when the offense got stuffed for a safety after that,  but their defense kept them in it long enough for the offense to get it done.
Sorry to get long-winded, and I know there aren't many UC folk out here, but I just wanted to put it out there that the game was about more than IC's woes of late.

When your record in the E8 is 6-26 since 2006 (It was probably a lower winning percentage before that but it doesn't show it on this site)...I'd say that qualifies as the crazy/lovable uncle

Max, thanks for the compliment, we appreciate it.  Sorry, I can be a little thin-skinned at times.  I just didn't put the emphasis onthe most important part of your post.
Boobie, Yeah, it was undoubedly lower, but I'm not talking about 2006, or 2007, etc.  I'm talking about extending the slightest bit of respect for what they've done in 2011.  I think they've earned it.  Maybe especially based on 2006, 2007, 2008, etc.
Some of the Fisher guys have been all over this board this week about the lack of respect from U of R when they were up and coming.
How about projecting a little of that Utica's way?

I think we've all been very respectful of Utica on this board. We understand the program is making strides and we've praised the coaching staff for years. While it sort of was a backhanded compliment, it's also sort of a realistic statement. This is a really bad Ithaca team, and they're going to be setting a lot of firsts for the program, most of them negative. This loss, because of the timing of it crystalizes a lot of those things. It's not that we're using it to try and take down the win. We're all aware of the strides Utica's made as a program. It's simply that it's impossible to differentiate the two at this point. It's unfair I know, but it's true

it's the beauty of sports, isn't it. Parity is all over the E8, which makes it one of the best leagues in D3 ... and not only in football.
Any one team can beat another on any given Saturday /cliche
but hell, anyone guess that Salisbury would beat Alfred 69-0?

[dewcrew88]

I will say this as well- Its tough being second banana to another sport...Its like Football at Duke.......Duke has a football team?  UC's Hockey team is nationally ranked and leads the nation in attendance year after year... That is a tough act to compete with let alone follow.

That's the 800-pound gorilla. I ask this respectfully: Do you think, for a guy like Blaise, Utica is a "forever" job? Or do you think his success in turning around the Utica program will lead to him moving on, maybe going somewhere where football is a little bigger, even at the D-III level? I wonder. I mean, Blaise is a young guy--late 30's I believe. Is he going to stay at Utica for 30-35 years? Maybe, but IDK.

no. he'll do as much as he can at Utica and he'll continue to advance -- if he wants to.

[dewcrew88]

Bombers---Blaise has to sell UC at 34k a year.....
Not an easy task....

bullsh!t, 34K. That's retail. These kids are getting good financial aid and grants and all that too.

[dewcrew88]

Yanks- NO argument there either....
It just was a shock to me that UC is more expensive than Fisher!

as a parent, I would have a hard time telling my kid that they should go to Ithaca ($48,000+ each year tuition plus room/board only) over St. John Fisher ($36,000+ each year tuition plus room/board only) if my kid wanted a business degree (or another non-specialized degree)

That's another thing to think about. At every school, there are certain academic programs that are better than others, and therefore worth the extra cost. Not trying to rip on any specific program, or person who studies that program, but it's just the reality. If you don't have a lot of football players in those programs, it's tougher to get them to swallow the cost.

UC has one of the top Criminal Justice programs around, one that you could infer would get a lot of football players who want to be cops or the equivalent or whatever after graduation. I'm sure it's the same thing at Fisher and Ithaca and Alfred or wherever. Although with Alfred, you'd have to make ceramic vases or something.

[dewcrew88]

early prediction:  SJF 33
                          The 'new' best team in the E8 that ends in "ica" (phonetically of course)  17

this is a pretty close prediction... although, i wonder how SJF's pass defense will be against Benkwitt with all his weapons. (Acevedo, Meier, Dunn, etc.)