FB: Empire 8

[fisheralum91]

Im still waiting for Bombers to respond after completely throwing Utica under the bus.
Its one thing to throw out crap about a City, but another to duck a response.
Look, Utica isn't a city for everyone, but I sit on 8 boards of directors in the area including the Chamber of Commerce, so when somebody slams the area, I take it personally.

Back to football-----Bills at Fisher in a few weeks!!!

[D3viewer]

Im still waiting for Bombers to respond after completely throwing Utica under the bus.
Its one thing to throw out crap about a City, but another to duck a response.
Look, Utica isn't a city for everyone, but I sit on 8 boards of directors in the area including the Chamber of Commerce, so when somebody slams the area, I take it personally.

Back to football-----Bills at Fisher in a few weeks!!!

And Johnny Utah welcomed "Mooseknuckles" to the board but not me. Sniff.

[D3MAFAN]

I could see Salisbury eventually landing in the NJAC. Frostburg is kinda the oddball location wise. They probably location/ability wise belong in the PAC conf. They used to be a decent powerhouse. Now it seems not so much. Cortland is probably happy in the NJAC..they can just zip down I 81 to all those Jersey schools. The E8 adding Bport and Buff St make it more of diverse Upstate NY conf. Probably the best that can be hoped for right now. The Liberty League..not to offend ye ole E8ers..remains as the upper echelon academic league..

I think that Frostburg State would give the PAC 10 members today, so it doesn't seem to be that to unrealistic, but I thought Carnegie Mellon was coming on as an affiliate member...not sure. As far as Salisbury, NJAC wouldn't be that bad, they played Montclair State, Kean, William Patterson, and Morrisville State a couple of times a few years ago. Also, as far as upper echelon academic league, that's important to the student-athlete, but it has nothing to do with winning playoff games.

[Pat Coleman]

Carnegie Mellon and Case Western are coming into the PAC, in fact.

[dahlby]

fisheralum91:
Plus K to you for your service to your community!

[fisheralum91]

Thanks dahlby!
I hope to give back as much as the community has given me.
There is much to do, but much to be proud of!

One trait that my dad gave me was to be part of the solution not the problem.
That and to keep the eye on the half full glass of beer!

[Knightstalker]

Thanks dahlby!
I hope to give back as much as the community has given me.
There is much to do, but much to be proud of!

One trait that my dad gave me was to be part of the solution not the problem.
That and to keep the eye on the half full glass of beer!

Especially around old sailors, we will drink it on you if you turn your head.   

[fisheralum91]

ks,
My brother in law is a USMC  full bird col.  I know too well not to lose sight of that Utica Club!

[MooseKnuckles]

   Thanks all for the input on Utica.  I agree with "Utes"...would like to see graduation rates of only football players in 4-6 years.  Nevertheless, it appears Utica has some work to do in the Empire 8 "classroom".  Speaking of the Empire 8, I saw that Brockport will join in 2014.  How does that work?  Do they tell Frostburg or Salisbury to move along?  In that same vein, why does Cortland play in the NJAC?  I think the Empire 8 is considered one of the tougher DIII football conferences.  Cortland is usually tough as well and would fit right in.  I'm sure the idea of an all NY Empire 8 is enticing to many fans.  Many factors to consider with travel, costs, etc.  What about Hobart?  Have they ever shown an interest in joining?  What are you guys thoughts on an all NY Empire 8?

Welcome to the boards mooseknuckles.......

As far as the E8, I think Salisbury and Frostburg were always going to be looked at as temporary members.  And I don't think they would ever be asked to leave, they did the league a favor in the first place and are probably welcome to stay as long as they want.

Cortland will probably want to stay in the NJAC, as it is filled with similar schools, and I would also add that you don't want to have every league have all the great teams.  Balance is nice.

The all NY d3 league discussion has been beaten like 1000 dead horses, and will basically not happen.

Hobart isn't going anywhere, they are in a upstate league for the most part anyway.

   That makes sense.  I guess it just seemed odd that Frostburg and Salisbury would choose the Empire 8 instead of some other conferences that are closer to them.  Thanks for the reply/replies.  Don't want to be known as a dead horse beater so I'll make an effort to us the "search" function in a more effective manner.

[Jonny Utah]

   Thanks all for the input on Utica.  I agree with "Utes"...would like to see graduation rates of only football players in 4-6 years.  Nevertheless, it appears Utica has some work to do in the Empire 8 "classroom".  Speaking of the Empire 8, I saw that Brockport will join in 2014.  How does that work?  Do they tell Frostburg or Salisbury to move along?  In that same vein, why does Cortland play in the NJAC?  I think the Empire 8 is considered one of the tougher DIII football conferences.  Cortland is usually tough as well and would fit right in.  I'm sure the idea of an all NY Empire 8 is enticing to many fans.  Many factors to consider with travel, costs, etc.  What about Hobart?  Have they ever shown an interest in joining?  What are you guys thoughts on an all NY Empire 8?

Welcome to the boards mooseknuckles.......

As far as the E8, I think Salisbury and Frostburg were always going to be looked at as temporary members.  And I don't think they would ever be asked to leave, they did the league a favor in the first place and are probably welcome to stay as long as they want.

Cortland will probably want to stay in the NJAC, as it is filled with similar schools, and I would also add that you don't want to have every league have all the great teams.  Balance is nice.

The all NY d3 league discussion has been beaten like 1000 dead horses, and will basically not happen.

Hobart isn't going anywhere, they are in a upstate league for the most part anyway.

   That makes sense.  I guess it just seemed odd that Frostburg and Salisbury would choose the Empire 8 instead of some other conferences that are closer to them.  Thanks for the reply/replies.  Don't want to be known as a dead horse beater so I'll make an effort to us the "search" function in a more effective manner.

No worries mooseknuckles, you wouldn't be able to find those conversations anyway, but it's been talked about. 

The Hobart SID used to put together an upstate football coaches poll/standings/stats packet that was fantastic.  I wonder why that stopped and for what reason.

[Jonny Utah]

Im still waiting for Bombers to respond after completely throwing Utica under the bus.
Its one thing to throw out crap about a City, but another to duck a response.
Look, Utica isn't a city for everyone, but I sit on 8 boards of directors in the area including the Chamber of Commerce, so when somebody slams the area, I take it personally.

Back to football-----Bills at Fisher in a few weeks!!!

And Johnny Utah welcomed "Mooseknuckles" to the board but not me. Sniff.

I'll be honest D3viewer, I didn't notice if you were knew or not, and you already had posts in the double digits.

So hi, welcome to the boards.

[sjfcards]

   Thanks all for the input on Utica.  I agree with "Utes"...would like to see graduation rates of only football players in 4-6 years.  Nevertheless, it appears Utica has some work to do in the Empire 8 "classroom".  Speaking of the Empire 8, I saw that Brockport will join in 2014.  How does that work?  Do they tell Frostburg or Salisbury to move along?  In that same vein, why does Cortland play in the NJAC?  I think the Empire 8 is considered one of the tougher DIII football conferences.  Cortland is usually tough as well and would fit right in.  I'm sure the idea of an all NY Empire 8 is enticing to many fans.  Many factors to consider with travel, costs, etc.  What about Hobart?  Have they ever shown an interest in joining?  What are you guys thoughts on an all NY Empire 8?

I have it on good authority that Cortland was approached about joining the E8 and declined for several reasons. Ultimately C-State decided that NJAC was a better fit so decided to stay where they were/are.

[ITH radio]

Hobart's athletic communications moved from to a centralized / overarching group a few years back.  That plus the additions of new sports (both men's and women's) and improvement of programs (longer seasons, more travel) which added to the work load probably made this football extra harder to pull off / fell off the priority list.

That and conference affiliations being what they are (e.g., 3 of the 8 LL teams are not in Upstate), probably had an impact too. 

[mattvsmith]

FisherAlum91,
As a native of the NYS route 12 corridor, I have to give Utica (city, not college) The Rev seal of approval. I'm not an expert on the city, but every time I e been there it has treated me well. I especially like the Matt Brewery. Fred Matt is a Hobart Alumnus. I used to attend the old Latin Mass at a parish on the southern edge of the city. That was nice. Isn't there a big race there every year? Does the zoo still exist?
I also seem to remember that several towns around Utica are quite nice. I haven't been there in years. Since I'll be in the USA for the first time in three years as of July 13, I may have to take a quick trip up there and check it out.

[mattvsmith]

One thing struck me very negative about Utica College when I looked at its website: too many adjunct instructor openings. Hiring adjuncts is a trend because it saves money on benefits, but there were a crazy number of openings like 35. Usually you just see a few openings for general education courses, but 35 openings says to me that they are very consciously sacrificing academic quality to save money.
Back when I lived in AZ the community colleges had very few adjuncts, and the adjuncts we had were engineers from defense contractors who would come in to teach calculus the way they knew their companies wanted. One guy from general dynamics was a real hard-core task-master for the fundamentals of math. Brutal but awesome. In that case adjuncts can really bro g something to the school. But if the school is overloaded with absentee professors struggling to make a living by piecing two-four adjunct jobs then the students suffer.
Oh well...I hope the football team is alright. Like others here, I'd like to see their graduation rates. I'm guessing that the football players have above average grades and graduation rates. I tend to think that after the nerds, student athletes have the most academic discipline.