Combining programs/schools

Jonny Utah · February 25, 2018, 09:02:40 AM

Not sure if this has been discussed before but this is the first I've heard of it. (I posted on the ECFC football page as well)

So I'm working at the NECC women's basketball semi-final game the other day (Newbury College vs. Elms College), and the Newbury AD tells me that Hellenic College (small Greek Orthodox school in Boston) and Newbury have "combined" athletic departments and students at Hellenic College can play sports at Newbury College.

Now I read in the Boston Globe today that Mt. Ida and Lasell are looking to "merge" schools (something different than Newbury and Hellenic). Would this now mean that Lasell students could play football at Mt. Ida?

This seems to be a new thing, with Boston University "merging" with Wheelock as well. Obviously BU is D1 and Wheelock has several d3 programs. Not sure how that is going to work out in the future as well in terms of athletics.
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Ralph Turner · February 25, 2018, 09:35:00 AM

http://lyndonstate.edu/about/northern-vermont-university/

These guys missed a real naming opportunity when they combined to become 2 campuses to form Northern Vermont University, NVU-Lyndon and NVU-Johnson. Why not Lyndon Johnson State University?

Poor ol' LBJ. He was a school teacher, too. He can't get anyone to name a college after him!

His alma mater was Southwest Texas State Teachers College, then later Southwest Texas State University and now...

Texas State University -- San Marcos

deiscanton · February 25, 2018, 09:40:24 AM

Quote from: Jonny Utah on February 25, 2018, 09:02:40 AM
Not sure if this has been discussed before but this is the first I've heard of it. (I posted on the ECFC football page as well)

So I'm working at the NECC women's basketball semi-final game the other day (Newbury College vs. Elms College), and the Newbury AD tells me that Hellenic College (small Greek Orthodox school in Boston) and Newbury have "combined" athletic departments and students at Hellenic College can play sports at Newbury College.

Now I read in the Boston Globe today that Mt. Ida and Lasell are looking to "merge" schools (something different than Newbury and Hellenic). Would this now mean that Lasell students could play football at Mt. Ida?

This seems to be a new thing, with Boston University "merging" with Wheelock as well. Obviously BU is D1 and Wheelock has several d3 programs. Not sure how that is going to work out in the future as well in terms of athletics.
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Boston University and Wheelock formally merge on June 1. Any Wheelock athletes wishing to still compete in d3 athletics will have to transfer, as the Wheelock athletics dept officially closes then. As of June 1, Wheelock students officially become students of Boston University, with the right to either walk on to a Boston University varsity team or compete for a d1 athletic scholarship.

Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan) · February 25, 2018, 11:17:10 AM

Newbury has been playing their games at Hellenic college for a long time. I'm not aware if Hellenic college ever had sports to begin with. It might just be an opportunity for them to provide athletics to students and Newbury to get more access to athletes?

As far as I know, the two Vermont campuses are planning to maintain separate athletic departments - like the Penn State satellite campuses do.

My alma mater, Eastern Nazarene College is in the process of merging administration with Trevecca Nazarene University in Tennessee. TNU is a d2 school and the plan is for each campus to retain its athletic department like the NVU schools are doing.

Of course, both Pomona-Pitzer and Claremont-Mudd-Scripps have had combined athletic departments for quite a while now. It seems to work ok for them.

Jonny Utah · February 25, 2018, 12:08:44 PM

Quote from: Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan) on February 25, 2018, 11:17:10 AM

Newbury has been playing their games at Hellenic college for a long time. I'm not aware if Hellenic college ever had sports to begin with. It might just be an opportunity for them to provide athletics to students and Newbury to get more access to athletes?

As far as I know, the two Vermont campuses are planning to maintain separate athletic departments - like the Penn State satellite campuses do.

My alma mater, Eastern Nazarene College is in the process of merging administration with Trevecca Nazarene University in Tennessee. TNU is a d2 school and the plan is for each campus to retain its athletic department like the NVU schools are doing.

Of course, both Pomona-Pitzer and Claremont-Mudd-Scripps have had combined athletic departments for quite a while now. It seems to work ok for them.

Yea Newbury doesn't have a gym large enough to hold a crowd, and I know Wheelock used Hellenic College as well. (Pine Manor has also let Wheelock and Newbury use their facilities for basketball games). And Pine Manor and Hellenic are probably the smallest gyms in the country for seating capacity so that tells you what Newbury has.

Not sure if Hellenic ever had any NCAA sports, but the Celtics practiced in their gym before they built their Waltham/Brighton facilities. Also spoke with the Hellenic AD who was hinting at some recruiting in Greece for potential players/students.

The Mt. Ida/Lasell thing is what got me thinking though. Those are two schools with some decent sports at least, and Mt. Ida actually has a football program with a solid foundation from what I can tell with good kids on the team and an AD who is very supportive of the program.

Caz Bombers · February 25, 2018, 06:16:39 PM

Bennington College has no sports teams, but Bennington students are allowed to compete as Southern Vermont College Mountaineers.

Gregory Sager · February 26, 2018, 10:57:11 AM

Quote from: Ralph Turner on February 25, 2018, 09:35:00 AM
http://lyndonstate.edu/about/northern-vermont-university/

These guys missed a real naming opportunity when they combined to become 2 campuses to form Northern Vermont University, NVU-Lyndon and NVU-Johnson. Why not Lyndon Johnson State University?

Poor ol' LBJ. He was a school teacher, too. He can't get anyone to name a college after him!

His alma mater was Southwest Texas State Teachers College, then later Southwest Texas State University and now...

Texas State University -- San Marcos

At the very least, one of the two NVU campuses should name their women's teams the Lady Birds.

justafan12 · February 26, 2018, 12:52:27 PM

Not sure if this is the same type deal but the Claremont Mudd Scripts Athenas are made up of three different schools:

Claremont McKenna College
Harvey Mudd College
Scripps College

I am not sure if they are located close to each other or not.

Gregory Sager · February 26, 2018, 01:54:50 PM

They're all adjacent to each other in Claremont, CA, as are Pomona College and Pitzer College. Those five undergraduate schools -- Claremont McKenna, Harvey Mudd, Scripps, Pomona, and Pitzer -- are called "the 5 C's". Together with the two graduate schools that are also located there in Claremont (Claremont Graduate University and Keck Institute), they're called "the 7 C's", although they're generally known throughout American academia as "the Claremont Colleges".

BTW, CMS's women's teams are called the Athenas. CMS's men's teams are called the Stags.

Jonny Utah · February 26, 2018, 02:00:14 PM

Quote from: justafan12 on February 26, 2018, 12:52:27 PM
Not sure if this is the same type deal but the Claremont Mudd Scripts Athenas are made up of three different schools:

Claremont McKenna College
Harvey Mudd College
Scripps College

I am not sure if they are located close to each other or not.

Yea they appear to be in the same block of buildings (from what I can see from google maps). Mt. Ida and Lasell are a few miles apart and don't really have anything do to with each other. No reason for a student at one of those schools to be taking classes at the other (There are probably a few dozen actual colleges and online programs that can be used for that). I was wondering what they would do if they combined athletic programs (not schools like BU and Wheelock). Use one name or combine them?

smedindy · February 26, 2018, 04:35:40 PM

St. Ben's and St. John's (MN) students take classes at both institutions, but they're a special case.

The Claremont Collees are a consortium and are all within a square mile of each other. They all have their specialties, with Scripps being an all women's college.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claremont_Colleges

Gray Fox · February 26, 2018, 04:40:53 PM

Maybe Occidental and Caltech can combine for football.

smedindy · February 26, 2018, 04:43:24 PM

In D2 - the U of Alaska system floated the idea of Fairbanks and Anchorage combining programs, but this was quashed by the NCAA. The state system was going through budget hell thanks to funding cutbacks.

It was a silly idea anyway. Not only are they 6 1/2 hours apart by car (less than an hour by air, but that's $$), the schools have vastly different funding for scholarships.

Anchorage funds almost all of their teams at full capacity for scholarships, while Fairbanks does not.

Merging schools is different than combining programs. In many states, small high schools combine programs to form specific teams (in Minnesota, usually that's in hockey and football - and little Thorp High School here in Washington has to combine with others at times to field teams). I don't think that's possible in the NCAA.

ADL70 · February 26, 2018, 06:07:53 PM

NY Poly merged with NYU in 2014.

deiscanton · February 27, 2018, 07:31:08 AM

Quote from: ADL70 on February 26, 2018, 06:07:53 PM
NY Poly merged with NYU in 2014.

Actually, Polytechnic University first became NYU-Poly before formally merging with NYU and becoming NYU's Tandon School of Engineering.

Polytechnic University was part of the original NYU at the time of NYU's founding in the late 19th century, as I understand it. The merger was just a school returning to the original fold.