MBB: Landmark Conference

[NJRoyal137]

This Cabrini news is wild - I wonder if we'll see more mergers and buyouts in the future?

Does this mean past Cabrini alum are now part of the Villanova alumni database?

We ain't seen nothing yet!! While some of the obvious issues have been taken care of over the last few years, there is a lot more to come. Some smaller schools are proactively reaching out to larger schools with close proximity or with shared values (religion). Also, larger schools are doing their own due diligence and making phone calls to smaller schools.

St. Joseph's swallowing up Philadelphia Pharmacy and Sciences made too much sense for St. Joe's........as does this move by Villanova. Some of the schools in trouble would surprise you and I'm not just talking about D3 schools. A bunch of D2's are in trouble and some smaller D1's (LaSalle to name a local one) are as well.

7-10 years out.........we might see 400-500 less traditional colleges and universities. Southern New Hampshire perfected the model. Build a massive online University and then plow some of the profits back into the traditional University. They have a stud baseball team, an improving hoops team and word is that they are seriously looking at football.

Grand Canyon copied the SNHU model to a great degree. Now, look at how many "legit" brick and mortar colleges and universities are offering the online model. Arizona State is growing like a weed as is Purdue.

For anybody who thinks things have been crazy up to this point.........this has been child's play and we are in the top of the first inning, with maybe an out, maybe two. Things are going to get ugly over the next several years.

The Alumni Development/Alumni Relations/Fundraising departments are going to be banging on the doors like never before........and we are going to see a level of "professional fundraiser" the likes of which most colleges and universities have never employed.

I'm just hoping Johns Hopkins can stick it out until Bloomberg opens up his checkbook again!

I wonder how my University of Scranton will fare - perhaps they merge with Lackawanna College + Marywood down the line and create a super school in the Electric City. They seem to be doing well financially, but who really knows? Maybe Lafayette College - Scranton or Lehigh University - Scranton could be in our future given their endowments that are north of a billion 

Scranton should be in great shape.

Great school = Successful Alums

Successful Alums = $$$$$$$

Catholic Values of Giving of $$$$$$ = Great Shape

We're not talking Ivy, NESCAC and others types of giving..........but we can't talk about great schools and not giving back to the school that gave us our start.

Again, not Bloomberg and Hopkins type of giving, but there are many successful Scranton alums who need to dig even deeper, if they are able, as the numbers look daunting for many schools in the years to come.

It's like shedding tears during a St. Jude's Children's Hospital commercial (the most recent one is touching like I've never seen).........but not picking up the phone and giving.

Talk is great, feelings and emotions are beautiful, but without action it means nothing.

Agreed. I would like to see Scranton get a little more creative and strategic with their fundraising programs, but the more we give - the better. Especially now that my loans are paid off! I do wonder if they would acquire Marywood and Lackawanna College down the line in order to grow their footprint and gain some real estate in order to grow the university.

[Great Day to be a Royal]

I'd speculate the University would have less than zero interest in acquiring Lackawanna.

Women's soccer and volleyball released their schedules. Simple case of how do good teams get better? Play top tier competition. Soccer plays 6 NCAA Tournament teams, including National Champions.

Volleyball plays 12 NCAA Tournament teams, including National Champions.

Better competition drives you.

[NJRoyal137]

Love to see it. Keep raising the bar and become among the best in D3 athletics (and academics)

[saratoga]

Trying to do some projections for the Royals this season.

Let's start with graduation losses & their typical points scored per game.
* J.Danzig 23 ppg.
*S. Braunstein 13 ppg
Total loss on average of 36 ppg before the game even starts.

Factor in that even with these players, the Royals are 20/25 ppg. behind the best of the best in DIII. as witnessed in their season ending loss to RMC.

So these generalizations now put the Royals approx. 50 points behind the best teams in DIII if the season started tomorrow.

What are the chances Danzig has brought in an elite group of freshmen who will make up that deficit?

Has he even attempted to bring in a 5th. year player to add experience and talent?

My guess is the point differential will be extremely hard to make up with the returning players as they can only do so much.

Can't wait to see what his freshman class looks like.

If it doesn't rate as one of the best in his 22 years, then the prognosis will be like any other Scranton team...15-10 & pray you land somewhere in the Landmark playoffs, then roll the dice.

Hoping for the best but history casts a long shadow.

[Tim the Enchanter]

Royals have confirmed on twitter 4 incoming freshmen but not formally announced who they are.  If it's the 4 I'm thinking of, three are guards about the same size as Danzig/Braunstein who knows if any are ready for college-level play.  One is a big man who seems to be a project and doubt will contribute much behind McLaughlin and Hanley.

I've not heard anything from the transfer front.

Agreed, it's a lot of points to make up.  How much more can you get from McLaughlin?  Mathews-Spratley and Khoza showed growth last year; are they ready to break out?  Will Spratt see more PT now that Danzig is gone and show us more of what he can do?  Of the others, Parland and Spatola are good all around players but I don't see them becoming high scorers right now.  Will one of the other guards who had inconsistent minutes last year separate themselves from the pack?  We shall see...

[ronk]

 I evaluate Spatola's season much like Bridget Monaghan's frosh season for the women - deferential as a frosh PG to the upper classmen starters and getting them the ball as a team player. By the end of the year as the postseason ensued, both teams needed each frosh PG to become a bigger factor offensively and they came through as they gained confidence in their play relative to their teammates. I see him as a consistent double figure scorer going forward, making up for some of the points per game that Saratoga mentioned as graduating.

[ronk]

 Some info on Scranton incoming frosh PJ Kellachan:

https://fundraisers.hakuapp.com/patrick-kellachan 

[NEPAFAN]

Am I reading this right? We have to pay for landmark games now?  How is this a good model?

https://athletics.scranton.edu/news/2023/7/13/general-landmark-conference-announces-historic-partnership-with-flosports.aspx?utm_medium=sidearm-email&utm_source=athletics.scranton.edu&utm_campaign=Landmark+Conference+Announces+Historic+Partnership+with+FloSports&utm_content=64418e9b-0a8b-43ed-873d-431d00846fed

[Pat Coleman]

Yes, you are reading correctly.

[saratoga]

Dear Commish,

If I may be so bold to ask, what the hell was wrong with the previous setup?
I think every Landmark school did a really nice job on their broadcasts and it didn't cost the consumer anything.
Please explain how paying for these same broadcasts is now better?
Better for whom, FloSports?

[NEPAFAN]

Dear Commish,

If I may be so bold to ask, what the hell was wrong with the previous setup?
I think every Landmark school did a really nice job on their broadcasts and it didn't cost the consumer anything.
Please explain how paying for these same broadcasts is now better?
Better for whom, FloSports?

I read somewhere that they are getting 7 figures for the deal, the Commish was making comments behind the rationale..but you guessed it, the rest of the article was behind a paywall.


https://www.extrapointsmb.com/p/heres-landmark-conference-signed-diiis-first-big-streaming-deal

[jmcozenlaw]

Am I reading this right? We have to pay for landmark games now?  How is this a good model?

https://athletics.scranton.edu/news/2023/7/13/general-landmark-conference-announces-historic-partnership-with-flosports.aspx?utm_medium=sidearm-email&utm_source=athletics.scranton.edu&utm_campaign=Landmark+Conference+Announces+Historic+Partnership+with+FloSports&utm_content=64418e9b-0a8b-43ed-873d-431d00846fed

The Atlantic League of Professional Baseball (the top Indy League and a partner, who tried out many of the new rules you see in MLB.........of MLB) abandoned the excellent YouTube broadcasts of the last several years for Flobaseball. The typical Lancaster Barnstormers game had around 2820 viewers on YouTube. That number is now about 90% less with Flobaseball.

It had to be for some type of upfront check because they have lost most viewers...............most of who decided not to "go with the Flo".

Money.....Money.....Money.....Money.....Money.....Money.....Money. Who cares about the fans. Show me da money!!!!!

[Pat Coleman]

The conference is getting seven figures to divide among 10 schools and five years, making it a little over 20K per school per year.

From that, the schools have to purchase a whole bunch of equipment from Flo, and from the rest of the money they'll have to hire more camera operators, after which maybe they'll have money left to invest in more broadcasters or training or whatever.

Dave McHugh had an excellent thread on this on Twitter yesterday:
https://twitter.com/d3hoopsville/status/1679586780356460547

[NEPAFAN]

The conference is getting seven figures to divide among 10 schools and five years, making it a little over 20K per school per year.

From that, the schools have to purchase a whole bunch of equipment from Flo, and from the rest of the money they'll have to hire more camera operators, after which maybe they'll have money left to invest in more broadcasters or training or whatever.

Dave McHugh had an excellent thread on this on Twitter yesterday:
https://twitter.com/d3hoopsville/status/1679586780356460547

Thank you, I meant to look at Dave's thoughts but forgot to do it yesterday. I wish I could look at the pay wall article I posted because it might have been a counter-point to Dave's tweets.

[Pat Coleman]

I am sure that piece is indeed written from the perspective of the conference office because who would have been interviewed to provide the other voice?