MBB: Landmark Conference

[cugrad]

Aw, yes!  Brings back wonderful memories of the CAC board, with the exception of somebody other than Catholic is receiving some hits.  It's good to share the pain!

[cold_case]

id sooner him call him out for his appearance rather than his performance. 

Great use of the english language.

Speaking of.....

Depends on how you phrase the word

[Matt Letourneau]

Aw, yes!  Brings back wonderful memories of the CAC board, with the exception of somebody other than Catholic is receiving some hits.  It's good to share the pain!

I know, I'm just sitting back and watching the show.  Usually I'm the one under heavy artillery.

Looks like a big storm coming this weekend--I wonder if some games will get cancelled.  I would imagine that the Scranton trip south is in serious jeopardy at this point.

[NEPAFAN]

 You SU guys wouldn't be able to hack it in the old MAC Freedom board.



What is the league policy with cancellations? Big storm coming to the East Coast this weekend. Just curious if anyone has any insight!

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

NEPAFAN... don't know if there is a policy... but I know there are already discussions. And I have already raised my suggestion to solve the problem and keep teams off the roads for Friday and Saturday.

Move the games to the final weekend of the season. Yes, the "travel-partner" games are this weekend, but that is an easy fix. Move those games to earlier in the week (Tuesday and Wednesday) and that frees up the weekend for these travel games. It will keep everyone from trying to figure out where two long trips will be inserted into the middle of weeks when there is already a lot of travel on the weekends.

And this gets me to a point I have been meaning to bring up. Matt, you keep talking about the weekend games and attendance and understanding the academic side but not agreeing with it. Take academics out of it all together. There is a lot of time spent on buses in this league. You cannot expect Catholic to travel to Scranton, Moravian, Drew, or Kings Point in the middle of a week for a game. That is at least three hours, if not four, ONE WAY for a game. That means teams aren't returning until 2 am on average (if not later) for half of their conference away games.

Now, to avoid the 6 or more hours on the bus while also playing a game in the middle, you want those games on the weekends. If you still want to play during the week, that means playing your closest games during the week. But that means Catholic and Goucher would always play each other on a Wednesday. Same for Scranton and Moravian and Kings Point and Drew... that isn't really fair.

So the remedy that keeps teams from missing too many classes, avoids teams returning at 2 or 3 in the morning from their longest trips, and makes playing games easier is to play back-to-back games on the weekends. I hope that all makes sense... this isn't an academic-only arguement... its also a travel and well-being one... and for this league this is truely the best option it could have.

[susiddad]

Or we could just have drew goucher and moravian just forfeit the games they are invovled in and play the rest.

As for SS, anyone who knows him, knows he doesn't go buy Casanova.  He will pose plenty for hobo's at Scranton shortly. 

Please note next year and for more to come, I will be lumping Scranton in with Drew's Goucher's etc....

[NEPAFAN]

Or we could just have drew goucher and moravian just forfeit the games they are invovled in and play the rest.

As for SS, anyone who knows him, knows he doesn't go buy Casanova.  He will pose plenty for hobo's at Scranton shortly. 

Please note next year and for more to come, I will be lumping Scranton in with Drew's Goucher's etc....

Why don't you concentrate on having your boys actually win something first?

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Why should Goucher forfeit their game with Scranton when the Royals are something like 1-8 on the road this year? Remember... every game actually affects other teams in the league more this season then in years past.

[ronk]

Dmac,
   Your suggestion for the potentially-postponed games sounds great to me and could be used as the choice for the 1st set of games to be postponed in any year. If there were multiple weekends of postponements, they'd need a plan B, but this would take care of the 1st weekend.

[Matt Letourneau]

NEPAFAN... don't know if there is a policy... but I know there are already discussions. And I have already raised my suggestion to solve the problem and keep teams off the roads for Friday and Saturday.

Move the games to the final weekend of the season. Yes, the "travel-partner" games are this weekend, but that is an easy fix. Move those games to earlier in the week (Tuesday and Wednesday) and that frees up the weekend for these travel games. It will keep everyone from trying to figure out where two long trips will be inserted into the middle of weeks when there is already a lot of travel on the weekends.

And this gets me to a point I have been meaning to bring up. Matt, you keep talking about the weekend games and attendance and understanding the academic side but not agreeing with it. Take academics out of it all together. There is a lot of time spent on buses in this league. You cannot expect Catholic to travel to Scranton, Moravian, Drew, or Kings Point in the middle of a week for a game. That is at least three hours, if not four, ONE WAY for a game. That means teams aren't returning until 2 am on average (if not later) for half of their conference away games.

Now, to avoid the 6 or more hours on the bus while also playing a game in the middle, you want those games on the weekends. If you still want to play during the week, that means playing your closest games during the week. But that means Catholic and Goucher would always play each other on a Wednesday. Same for Scranton and Moravian and Kings Point and Drew... that isn't really fair.

So the remedy that keeps teams from missing too many classes, avoids teams returning at 2 or 3 in the morning from their longest trips, and makes playing games easier is to play back-to-back games on the weekends. I hope that all makes sense... this isn't an academic-only arguement... its also a travel and well-being one... and for this league this is truely the best option it could have.

I agree about the solution to cancelling games.

I'm not totally against weekend games--certainly not.  But I do think it'd be nice to sprinkle some weeknight games in once and a while.  I don't get your argument that it would be unfair to play your closest games during the week.  Why? 

I think it makes sense to do the longer trips the way they've been doing them.  But plenty of leagues do 3-4 hour trips on weeknights--DC to Salisbury wasn't exactly 20 minutes. 

Also, keep in mind I was saying this in the context of explaining why I thought attendance was down.  Regardless of whether there is a better alternative or not, I do think the league schedule is contributing to lack of interest from students and fans.  Maybe that's just part of the package when these teams signed up for it, but I for one miss having a charged atmosphere at big league games.  I don't really think that rivalries that involve the student bodies are ever going to develop.

[saratoga]

First: Dave, a very logical fix. Hope the league goes for it.
Second: Susiddad: Not that this league is really quite where it wants to be nor have all of the teams in it reached their full potential but, talk the smack when SU actually cuts the nets. As much as I bitch about the Royals not being where they should be, the guys from your fine institution have had some pretty good talent in the past few years with not a whole lot to show for it. And, lumping the Royals in with the 2 schools you've mentioned is fine with me. Both Drew & Goucher have some outstanding young talent & will be a factor in the next few years (save this Cold Case). As for the Crusaders, they've failed to get it done 2 years ago when Mr. Cannon led the # 4 seed Juniata team into Houts & dropped them & then last year another disappointment vs. a far less talented...you guessed it, Scranton team. Talk is cheap, get it done. And, by the way, should Londo keep playing like he has...he's in. Now go study.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

I'm not totally against weekend games--certainly not.  But I do think it'd be nice to sprinkle some weeknight games in once and a while.  I don't get your argument that it would be unfair to play your closest games during the week.  Why? 

I think it makes sense to do the longer trips the way they've been doing them.  But plenty of leagues do 3-4 hour trips on weeknights--DC to Salisbury wasn't exactly 20 minutes. 

Also, keep in mind I was saying this in the context of explaining why I thought attendance was down.  Regardless of whether there is a better alternative or not, I do think the league schedule is contributing to lack of interest from students and fans.  Maybe that's just part of the package when these teams signed up for it, but I for one miss having a charged atmosphere at big league games.  I don't really think that rivalries that involve the student bodies are ever going to develop.

Matt - my point that it isn't fair is simple... would you want to know that Catholic and Goucher would never play on weekends if the schedule was shortest-distance for weekdays, longest-distance for weekends? You would only see Scranton, Moravian, Merchant Marine, and Drew on weekends. And for that matter, some games may not be played in different parts of the season meaning some teams may get easier finishes to the season then others every year.

Scheduling is about being fair to each team, year in and year out... you can't just slot half the schedule to weekdays and half of it to weekends and have it be the same half every year. And you could say that the fact some teams woudl always play certain teams while in the middle of the academic week while others only play on academic days off wouldn't be fair either simply because of the distractions and pressure of weekday games.

As for your example of CUA playing Salisbury... that is a two hour trip... and the longest on CUA's CAC schedule (except maybe York). That is ONE trip for each squad. We are talking about four trips of an hour or two longer (CUA to Merchant Marine is four hours minimum each way)... that is a lot to ask for any team, especially in the middle of the week.

Finally, because of the time off needed to accomodate a trip from DC to NYC for a game in the week, you might as well expect a student to miss a full day of school. 7:30 pm game time, team is probably leaving at 1 pm on average (earlier if they are traveling with the women's team as well) and then returning at probably 2:30 am. That means they are missing a half-day on the day of the game and I can't imagine they will make it to the first half of the next day's classes. (Though, I do realize there could be some truely dedicated student-athletes that will get to that 8am class on just a couple of hours of sleep.)

I understand some don't like the weekend-only games, but it makes the most sense for this conference. On top of the fact, these schools got together in-part because of the academic expections at each institution... saying that doesn't matter over a trip to DC/NYC twice a year seems backwards.

And it seems many schools are doing fine with weekend games, attendance wise - Goucher even!

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

First: Dave, a very logical fix. Hope the league goes for it.

saratoga - just thinking that the decision is to not get the teams on the road and then realize Saturday's games are too dangerous. Make the decision early and just reschedule everything. Plus the fact, I may end up at the TV station for most of the weekend covering the storm (December's blizzard saw me at the station from 5am to 6pm on a Saturday, including 9 hours in the control room)... and I rather not miss a chance to see Scranton or Moravian because of the storm!

[Matt Letourneau]

Middle Atlantic Region
1. Albright 14-1 16-2
2. Lycoming 12-3 16-3
3. Cabrini 16-2 16-2
4. Franklin and Marshall 16-3 16-3
5. St. Mary's (Md.) 13-3 16-3
6. Elizabethtown 13-5 13-5
7. York (Pa.) 14-4 15-4
8. Alvernia 11-4 13-6
9. Catholic 13-4 15-5

[NEPAFAN]

Can someone explain how usmma can be in the landmark but be in the Atlantic region?


Also, if I recall cold case is an SU alum , so he can critize all he wants.