(02-23-2021 03:15 PM)dan10 Wrote:  I think COVID is going to fast track conferences back to something more sensible and those things will be happening once again sooner, rather than later. When those dominos start to fall, I expect Drexel to drop to DII or more than likely find its way back into the AEast as an outcast (CAA wont make it)

I would say that there is a ZERO percent chance of Drexel falling down to a Division II athletic program. That NEVER happens and even with Covid happening, I don't see any schools doing that. There's too much value in Division I athletics, just from a marketing standpoint. Why would Drexel give that up when so many DII schools are seeking the chance to play at that level? And a new Athletic Director is not going to come in and destroy something that the university is proud of. Personally, I don't think things are quite as dire as you make it out to be.

I guess there's a chance that Drexel could find themselves in America East again, but the Patriot or the MAAC are a better fit. I have no opinion on the future of the CAA. If I were a betting man, I would put my money on the CAA staying put as it is, and Drexel remaining a part of the CAA.

I agree on dropping down. I think we will be a man without a home though, which makes DII much more likely. We have so little in common with many universities that we are a tough sell on pairing up with, especially since we dont have success to help make our case. Covid is going to make much more local conferences happen again. The costs for so much travel has shown how crazy the expenses had gotten, even for massive universities. That split does not benefit us either since we are an outlier in our general area too. With that said, the second JMU goes FBS the CAA is done, even if it means a split and merger situation. I honestly think AEast maybe Patriot will be our only possible DI outcomes once the CAA splits/devolves.

(02-23-2021 03:42 PM)dan10 Wrote:  I agree on dropping down. I think we will be a man without a home though, which makes DII much more likely. We have so little in common with many universities that we are a tough sell on pairing up with, especially since we dont have success to help make our case. Covid is going to make much more local conferences happen again. The costs for so much travel has shown how crazy the expenses had gotten, even for massive universities. That split does not benefit us either since we are an outlier in our general area too. With that said, the second JMU goes FBS the CAA is done, even if it means a split and merger situation. I honestly think AEast maybe Patriot will be our only possible DI outcomes once the CAA splits/devolves.

I read what you say but I wholeheartedly disagree about Division II, and the odds of our men's basketball team making the final four in the next 10 years is greater than them dropping to DII in the next 10 years. There's no benefit to having Division II athletics at all, so if it comes to that they'd be better off dropping all sports altogether.

Being a college with a Div I athletics program is a big deal, and if they were to drop out, it would have serious negative consequences for the university as a whole.
Case and point. Name a big time national university that does not have Division I sports that can sell their school at a national level without Division I sports. I can name about 12-20 of them, and Drexel would not be able to tread water with any of them. Drexel needs the Division I athletics program to survive as a university.

So ending the discussion about Division II, since that's not going to happen, let me ask about other Division I conferences, since that's more realistic. Why do you think that the MAAC isn't a good fit? Rider and Monmouth are schools that align with Drexel, and geographically, it fits perfectly. I could see Hofstra and Northeastern also fitting in with those schools.

They are all private schools which is nice, but the largest school is Quinnipiac at 10k enrollment. THey are small privates where we are a large private. We are at 22k roughly. The average enrollment in the MAAC is just under 5k. Being 4 times larger just for starters puts us way out of place. Hofstra is a good partner since we have been with them a long time, Hofstra is also just under 11k. Northeastern is truly the only school that we very closely align with.

Our endowment is also 3-5 times any school in the MAAC.

No baseball hurts but wouldnt be a hard no.

Getting into the schools you have some religious institutions and liberal arts type schools. I know our business school has grown leaps and bounds from a decade ago but not sure how we would align with those schools

Edit: As far as school standing, we are much more aligned with Patriot League schools like Bucknell, Lehigh etc as private engineering based research universities where academics matter. Our size doesnt fit well there either, though

I'm not sure that we have to align perfectly with the other schools in the conference. As you said, there really is no one-size fits all conference. The MAAC used to be that way with the religious schools until they started accepting small private non-denomination schools like Rider and Monmouth.

Back in the early days of the CAA, we had fans of the big schools like VCU, GMU, JMU, ODU questioning why the CAA accepted Drexel, due to the smaller fan base. I think the Philadelphia market made Drexel very attractive to the CAA. There is a lot of value to getting media attention on TV and in newspapers in the 2nd largest media market on the east coast. It also helped the CAA's regional TV contract with Comcast at the time. And I think that a major media presence would be very attractive to the MAAC or the Patriot League, playing the assumption that the CAA does fall apart. Under Zillmer, I would assume that Drexel would try to be one of the last passengers left on a sinking CAA ship. But with new leadership on its way, I would hope that it would be important for the new AD to evaluate Drexel's place in the CAA and consider other options.

I think our dream is the A-10 if a school in that conference leaves. We are probably on scale with LaSalle and St Joes especially if we had the recruitment boost of the A-10. I don't think the CAA would want Drexel, Hofstra or Northeastern to leave ( NY, Philly and Boston) are huge cities.

(02-24-2021 11:06 AM)Dragon For Life Wrote:  I think our dream is the A-10 if a school in that conference leaves. We are probably on scale with LaSalle and St Joes especially if we had the recruitment boost of the A-10. I don't think the CAA would want Drexel, Hofstra or Northeastern to leave ( NY, Philly and Boston) are huge cities.

I'm not a big fan of the A-10. There are way too many teams for a conference that is still just a one or maybe 2-3 bid conference. LaSalle's decision to go to the A-10 hasn't worked out for them other than that one crazy run that they had to the sweet 16. The geographic footprint is also way too large.

It also doesn't benefit Drexel that there are 2 other city schools in the conference. I just can't see Drexel winning in the A-10. I can see them winning in the MAAC or PL. I'd much rather see Drexel have success in a smaller conference than be a regular 10th to 12th place team in a stronger one.

During Drexels 20 days off it was all opponent based? That is wild if so. Too bad for the kids.

(02-25-2021 07:38 PM)UofRfan Wrote:  During Drexels 20 days off it was all opponent based? That is wild if so. Too bad for the kids.

Drexel has not had a Covid shutdown on their team since before the season started in November. All 10 of their cancelled CAA games and 13 cancelled games overall were due to opponent Covid issues.