NCAA is hanging on by a thread. They are now officially athletes first, students 2nd. They are not amatuers any more, and that will be finalized once they get more money from likeness thats coming. So yes it is now a minor league (always has been, but now more accepting of that term). Only reason it hasnt broken off to its own league is because of the NCAA trying to get as much money as possible, which is why I say they are hanging on by a thread. I see a possibility of schools backing out of NCAA in certain sports to form a league of their own (especially with some viability of the super league over in Europe for soccer) or at least exploring it knowing their schools are the ones raking in the money. The future landscape is definitely in doubt and its a shame. The more the collegiate game becomes like the NBA the less interest I have in it. Over the past 20 years it has greatly shifted that way, which is unfortunate.

hell of a lacrosse game today. i'll turn into a regular fan if i see enough games like that. we were down 3-4 goals the whole game before we came back and won 12-11 on a goal with 11 seconds left. tough way for towson's season to end

i was reading the recap and saw that the game winner was scored by a freshman. 4 of the key players they mentioned are freshmen or sophomores. looks like a generally young team that's building to be good for a while.

it was nice to see drexel teams celebrating with big wins for the second time this year. it wasn't a title...but i got the feeling we don't win down at towson often and is the type of win that puts you on track to a title. of course crew is on the front page of drexeldragons.com right now. i'm excited to have reasons to be interested in some of these other sports that have a chance to really build our whole athletic department's profile.

Without the popularity of March Madness, D1 would have already had a FBS/FCS-esque split, in my opinion. The power teams are playing by rules that benefit them, and everyone else is forced along for the ride. The tourney is the single thread that's holding everything together.

i was thinking yesterday that it could turn out to be like high school sports especially in states where private schools compete in separate playoffs. new jersey is like that i believe. there's been a push for pennsylvania to do the same.

honestly i don't think it would be that bad...and might be better. the power 5 would skim off the best players...and unfortunately money which could be the downfall for mid/low major schools. if they're smart about it though...they would realign with closer schools so we can get back into regional rivalries. i don't want to be playing elon, charleston, and uncw when we could be playing lasalle and st. joe's. i don't need kids on the roster that don't want to stay either. maybe there could be stricter transfer rules...like you have to play at least 2 years...so you're getting the kids that actually want to be student athletes.

I think that is mostly the rub, I think the NCAA as a whole for football and basketball is moving away from the student athlete and just accepting themselves as a minor league feeder to the professional leagues. All of the freedom of movement and soon-to-be likeness money points towards that. I wouldnt be shocked if they end up dropping some of the APR requirements in those sports and stop calling them students at all and just call the amateur athletes. I will be interesting because they are definitely toeing the line on amateurism anyhow.

Why should the Power 5 stop at calling them amateur athletes? Just pay the salaries and make them professionals.

You know, if they wanted to, the NBA owners could put a stop to all of this college basketball bullcrap and help college basketball get back to what it was and should be.

The NBA should increase the profile of their G-League with a national TV contract, and start competing with colleges directly for top recruits. They could say, here are your choices...
1. Go to college, be forced to go to boring classes, make a tiny stipend, live in little dormitories....OR
2. Prepare yourself from the start to what you want to do for a living...play in the NBA. We'll start paying you a 6 digit annual salary as soon as you graduate from high school. Or heck...you don't even need to graduate from high school.

This will separate the student athletes from the guys who just want to college basketball to a minor league step to the NBA.

You touched on the hitting the nail on the head...$$$

The NBA wants to exploit the NCAA for free or close to free farm system. Could the invest, absolutely, but they dont want to unless they have real good reason to. If someone else is willing to foot the bill, why should you? They have spent more for the G-league in recent years to sort of try and do that, but definitely not to the scale that would be required to be serious. With the NCAA continuing to bend and offer more and more to the athletes, again, why would the NBA do something differently that would cost them money?

come to think of it...essentially the same thing happens with the nfl. they don't have a minor league system at all aside from college football. it would have to be in the spring...but i've always wondered how a legit football minor league system doesn't exist. it probably doesn't exist because the nfl doesn't want it to exist for money reasons...like you're saying. the ncaa probably likes the money it rakes in too so everybody wins.

all i hear about on sports talk radio is the draft. now it's aaron rodgers who gave them a gift with his rumors about leaving. all we heard about last year was where brady was going. it's football...football...football. a spring season with all these draft picks would be huge. even giving practice squad guys a chance to play would be successful. the nfl is a marketing machine so the only explanation for not having a lower league has to be money concerns.

NFL does not want to pay for minor leagues. That is why the other stand alone leagues have tried and failed. They even tried spring football so as not to compete and work as a feeder league and it still failed. FCS is in their playoff as they mostly opted out of this past fall and there is little fanfare for it. I dont think that the NFL would want a spring league as their minor league because multiple times Spring football has failed. People associate football with fall and are focused on other sports in spring (baseball, basketball). It is absolutely about money and not the product, so they would still want college football to stay their feeder. And yes as long as the NCAA is making money, they are happy to oblige. Both sports are clearly at a crossroads as the college kids dont want to be students, they want paid, now its only a question of who foots the bill. The schools will be glad to be associated with whomever (NCAA or NFL/NBA) as long as someone is paying them. Schools just want money too.

I am with you, If the power conferences or whatnot wish to break off and form a true minor league system, have at it! I am ok with making a baseball like guarantee that if you commit to college you are locked in for 2 years. If you wish to go pro out of high school, more power to you, go play in "x league". Let there be a true college league with those who plan to get an education while playing sports.

i think spring football could work if it's done right with affiliation to the nfl. the players union might whine about injury risk and whatnot having some of those guys play almost all year. they're already trying to get out of minicamps and training camps seem to be getting shorter with less contact.

i always love to hear people break down the draft like they have any idea about these players. if they had a chance to see them on the field themselves...they would take it. nfl doesn't need to take that financial risk when they can dominate the sports conversation with the draft and free agency.

what's this overtime elite run by kevin ollie all about? it sounds like they're trying to take kids away from high schools which is probably already happening with schools like img who play national schedules. same deal...if you think you're too good for your local high school competition...go play somewhere else. you probably have obnoxious parents nobody wants to deal with anyway.

His deal is just another shot at elite AAU competition without being under the AAU umbrella

https://www.courant.com/sports/college/h...story.html

So months after dan10 and I had a debate about whether Drexel or other schools would drop down to Division II, University of Hartford announced today that they are dropping Division I athletics and moving to Division III. This is happening just 2 months after UH advanced to the NCAA Tournament in Men's Basketball for the first time ever.
As expected, a lot of athletes and alumni are not happy, and rightfully so. We will see if other schools follow suit. Or maybe schools wait to find out how well it works out for Hartford.

When I was touring colleges a billion or so years ago, I visited Hartford and my parents wanted me to go there, though it was too far and I didn't want to leave Philadelphia. I'm really glad I didn't go to school there.

Its definitely short-sighted for them. I doubt it pays off for them. I expect them to end up similar to UAB football in that they will be back in 2-3 years after they realize the mistake. Definitely a bold move though

just looked up the uab case quick and found this. i'm sure there's a lot more to the story...

https://www.sbnation.com/college-footbal...017-season

is it really short sighted to make these changes? or is it short sighted to be part of this trend that you must have division 1 football and basketball even if it costs you money? i read a book a number of years ago called "death to the bcs" that went through how much schools lose on things like bowl games...and lose money in general.

ultimately schools are supposed to be...schools. if making changes like this make them better at what they're supposed to be...i would be fine with it. 2 months ago i would've advocated for drexel to make this type of move. when i was there 15 years ago...if you took away the athletic department...would anyone have really noticed? i always feel like i'm seeing things when i watch lacrosse or other sports wearing drexel jerseys because it was like they didn't exist when i was an undergrad. you really had to make an effort to go see them by walking through a not so great neighborhood.

i still think schools like us are on the block...especially after the pandemic. sweeping basketball titles and (fingers crossed) possibly lacrosse titles are very timely and could save us. i look at those as the two sports that can give us exposure (which can help attract students to campus and retention) and eventually make us money. that's why all the squash non-sense was short sighted for sure.

We have had this discussion before, but there are definitely schools where the exposure and gains are likely not possible and makes sense to drop down. There are other schools, including us, that have not had a ton of success to this point but have always had real opportunities to turn the corner and be successful. Those schools that bypass such an opportunity are short-sighted. Alumni engagement matters.

UAB missed the mark on seeing that. W&M missed the mark when they cut sports that were well funded behind the scenes. On the heels of making the NCAA Hartford appears to be making that same mistake. Hartford is a city with many alumni and growth potential. Ignoring the potential impact of a tournament run seems misguided. If they waited a year or two, and saw no impact from the NCAA, then sure follow the study and all the research they did, but ignoring the potential and jumping the gun, seems misguided.

Ultimately, I think we mostly agree, that there are too many DI schools in general especially for basketball, but I dont think we are one of those with the right leader. Under Zillmer, who seemed to have 0 focus on building anything of use, dropping down made plenty of sense. Maybe it will in the future too depending who we hire. The potential of our university though, should indicate otherwise in my opinion. This is not to say to ignore academics. They should be able to work together and compliment one another.

Hey All... did you hear about Hartford downgrading athletics? Looks like all to save 9 million dollars a year...

https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basket...vision-iii

(05-08-2021 12:08 AM)Dragon For Life Wrote:  Hey All... did you hear about Hartford downgrading athletics? Looks like all to save 9 million dollars a year...

https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basket...vision-iii

You're late to the game DFL. Read a few posts upwards.

This is from the AE Boards:

Quote:This is what blew me away about Hartford report.

Tuition, fees, and room & board is listed at about $60k. But we know this is just the MSRP or "sticker price" - nearly no one who attends Hartford ever pays that amount. This price is simply to make the school appear it is more in line with other private schools it wishes to be compared to - I assume the Boston U., Northeastern, etc. of the region.

The average student gets a 53% discount rate, meaning most student are actually paying slightly more more than $28k. Clearly, this makes the school more affordable to the average student and really is what is driving enrollment numbers. Also, they need a 75% acceptance rate to get more of these kids in the door.

We know that UHa, like most other mid-majors offer a limited amount of athletic scholarships and the majority of student-athletes are paying their own way, as this is also an enrollment and revenue booster. However, they are reporting that the non-scholly student-athletes are paying at a 94% discount, meaning student-athletes are actually paying less than $5k a year. That is amazing and in might also be why many teams struggle competitively. If an average athlete can get on a D-I roster for just $5k - that's an amazing opportunity.

Honestly, that budget can never be sustained in a pre-COVID environment. And if I were a UHa alum, I would want to know who, when, and why they went to a 94% subsidy model for non-scholly athletes. Despite sports fans and media members criticizing the school for the poor public relations, this is not even close to a D-I model of finance.

Quote:Hartford at full "sticker price" - 5k enrollment @ $60k = $300 M

4,675 students @ $30k (50% discount) = $140.2 M
325 student-athletes @ $5k (94% discount) = $1.6 M
Total revenue = $141.8 M

By getting the existing 325 student athletes to pay at 50% discount would raise $8.1 M. Do you think these student-athletes and recruits would stay at the higher rate in D-I? If the answer is yes, Hartford could sustain. But if they can't recruit D-I non-scholly kids to UHa at a much higher tuition, they likely have to consider the recommendations for D-III

I think the President is legitimately asking the Board - why is the University discounting one department (Athletics) so much more than others (Music, English, etc) with very limited success vs. peers?

https://www.basketballforum.com/threads/...t-15350552

If those numbers are correct, I can see the rationale behind the move.

i saw a couple interesting headlines on espn.

the overtime elite league picked up the nos. 3 and 12 recruits in the high school junior class. it said they could make up to 7 figures in the league.

a football player who committed to texas is skipping his senior season of high school football to focus on academics (yeah right) and rehabbing his body to prepare for the wear and tear of his position.

for the first one i say good riddance. i don't miss those types of players in college basketball. for the second one...i hope this doesn't start a trend of kids skipping their senior year of football. i wonder what his friends think who have played with him for most of their lives and were thinking about winning championships with him. it comes off as incredibly selfish to me...especially the #82 recruit.

i guess they're both similar situations...but i've always thought there was a different culture in football where the team meant something. the bowl game opt outs were the first big sign that this might not be the case anymore.

i'm getting into the women's college world series. oklahoma vs jmu at 4 pm. ou fans are upset they didn't play at like midnight last night. might be the most ridiculous thing i've ever seen fans get upset about...and i follow an sec football team too. i remember people being upset about florida playing at lsu because a hurricane was moving through florida. that was pretty dumb. this might be worse.

i know some people have been upset with jmu but i'm rooting for them. it can only be good for the caa to have a team advancing this far. coastal carolina's run in baseball put that school on the map a few years ago. you have to credit jmu's athletic department across the board for what they've done. seems like they're in the mix in every sport.