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Women's NIT changes format for 2021 season
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J.B. Offline
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Women's NIT changes format for 2021 season
Field is now reduced to 32 teams, divided up into 4 regions and each team gets to play a minimum of 4 teams. All games from each of the 4 regions will be played at the same location.

Drexel has always pretty much been a lock for the Women's NIT each year, but now it's not so certain. I guess it would depend on how many mid-majors they want to include.

https://womensnit.com/news/2021/2/9/gene...lJ5U5tf3oY
02-09-2021 12:28 PM
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J.B. Offline
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RE: Women's NIT changes format for 2021 season
For 2021, teams do not need to have a .500 or better record to earn a berth into the WNIT. Selection criteria for at-large teams will include the NET ranking, strength of schedule, record against top 100 teams, COVID-related factors, teams performance in the final 20 games, among others.
02-10-2021 01:07 PM
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hiroshimacarp Offline
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RE: Women's NIT changes format for 2021 season
really have to question the utility of any of these other tournaments this year. somebody must be making money. i realize we're a women's basketball school and everything. i hope we decline an invite if we get it though.
02-10-2021 03:32 PM
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J.B. Offline
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RE: Women's NIT changes format for 2021 season
(02-10-2021 03:32 PM)hiroshimacarp Wrote:  really have to question the utility of any of these other tournaments this year. somebody must be making money. i realize we're a women's basketball school and everything. i hope we decline an invite if we get it though.

You know that will never happen. Drexel Athletics doesn't have very much to brag about other than their numerous WNIT appearances and their WNIT Championship. Drexel is probably one of the last teams that would turn down an invitation.
02-10-2021 07:53 PM
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dan10 Offline
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RE: Women's NIT changes format for 2021 season
Turning down an invite would be silly. It would still be an earned accomplishment. Only reason it should be turned down is if the players who have earned it decide they dont wish to participate
02-11-2021 08:35 AM
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hiroshimacarp Offline
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RE: Women's NIT changes format for 2021 season
do they brag about that at season ticket holder and other events? i'm just curious. winning the whole thing in 2013 was a huge accomplishment. no doubt about that. it would look silly to be touting that hard though especially 7 or 8 years after the fact.

what do you think of the concept of drexel as a women's basketball school? i threw it in there in my last post. i think of schools like odu in the day, tennessee, or at a smaller level for me...messiah since their team always wins their conference. obvious difference is all those programs win conference championships and go to the dance. it's the closest we seem to have to a consistent contender.

sadly i don't feel like we have any program we can call a "flagship". squash and crew don't count. sorry. it looks like even the squash programs have managed to become solidly mediocre. the men's team was 10-9 and women's team 12-8.
02-11-2021 08:35 AM
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dan10 Offline
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RE: Women's NIT changes format for 2021 season
We are a research institution, not an athletics one. Womens basketball is definitely our best sport, in the last 15 years anyhow. Prior to that it barely existed. We are always a top 3 CAA team, which is a good womens basketball conference. Even if the championships have not been there. If you win the NIT, mens or womens, that is worth bragging about. Even if its to point that is where we try to be each and every year. Programs, especially smaller ones, have to bring up those accomplishments no matter how old, because it is what youve got. Tennessee women still bring up those accomplishments, despite being 10? years gone now. In men's look at a school like Indiana. They still live in the Bob Knight era that has been gone a loooong time. Accomplishments should not be diminished especially ones in the last 10 years. We have had many WNIT appearances as well, so its easy to brag on making it and showing a title and pointing that as a typical goal.

As far as other sports, lacrosse had a chance but never broke thorugh with multiple coaching changes. Wrestling has had ups and downs but nothing consistent. The kid we booted from our program is winning a lot at Iowa, a true wrestling power. But I still agreed with kicking him out. You can look at CAA titles as a whole to realize that we just dont care, in any sport. Its who we are. It may be frustrating, but it wont change without changes to those in charge of it all
02-11-2021 08:57 AM
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J.B. Offline
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RE: Women's NIT changes format for 2021 season
I've been saying for years that Women's Basketball is their flagship program. Squash is nothing but a niche program. I wouldn't put it in that category. Even thought they can't make it into the NCAA Tournament, Women's Basketball has been a top tier mid major program for about 12 years now. I don't follow squash, nor does anybody, so I don't know what they've accomplished. And I don't even care to look it up either.

I remember watching Drexel admissions videos back in 1990, when I was applying to the school, and in part of the video they had a focus on Drexel's MBB NCAA bid that happened four years earlier in 1986, and all of the hoopla and campus excitement that went along with it. I'm sure that in today's admissions videos, they're promoting Drexel's WNIT championship and the excitement around it, and maybe also showing DAC Pack videos from 2012. I guarantee that their admissions videos now are not bragging about Drexel's squash programs winning championships, if they ever have.
(This post was last modified: 02-11-2021 09:02 AM by J.B..)
02-11-2021 09:00 AM
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hiroshimacarp Offline
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RE: Women's NIT changes format for 2021 season
i hadn't heard about that wrestler. really embarrassing and glad we kicked him out. i'm hardly a wrestling expert but i've never seen anything like that. also glad he didn't wind up at penn state. it looks like they were lined up to take him though.

ultimately i guess it comes down to what will get kids to come to your school and get them to stay. retention used to be horrible. that was 15 years ago (hard to believe) so i'm not sure where we stand on that. the sam houston state game is what i would pitch to potential students. nights like that retain current students and alums. jb...you were around for championships and i have to image that forms a big part of your connection.

i'm trying to decide what i think drexel's reputation is to the general public. overall it seems good. more of a reaction than a community college or a state school like psu...although around here it seems like everybody went to psu. where somebody went to school means less to me as i get older. jb could speak better about how it matters to a teenager who's looking at schools and what really matters to them. everybody is into "research" these days so i'm not sure how much we stand out in that department. co-op sets us apart and still isn't something out front in our advertising...which is probably should be.
02-11-2021 12:23 PM
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J.B. Offline
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RE: Women's NIT changes format for 2021 season
To answer your question about what teenagers are interested in....
I noticed by the choice of schools of my daughter's graduating class is that sports from a spectator standpoint doesn't matter to most of them. For the few that it does, they're more likely to choose a big time program. Lots of students are attending Big TEN and SEC programs, and just as many are attending Division II or III schools. I think for mid majors, it's a small selling point and a good way to promote the school spirit atmosphere, but I don't think students are choosing Drexel, or any CAA schools for that matter, because of sports.

When my daughter was choosing a school, we looked at numerous factors. In her case, she's a big sports fan and I've had a bond with her over sports for years, as she was attending Drexel games with me since she was 3 weeks old. So attending a school with Division I sports was a selling point for her. Rider is the best of both worlds as it's a small school with the faculty attention and class sizes of smaller Division II and III type schools, but with the bonus of Division I athletics to rally behind.

Also, I will say that I've noticed that the bigger your sports programs are, the more likely you are to have a bond to your program. My friends who are Penn State alumni, are Penn State obsessed in every way possible. Can't say it's the same with my friends who attended Lycoming or Gwynedd Mercy College. For Mid-Majors alumni, it's more of a bandwagon thing. Most of my Drexel alumni friends may rally around winning programs but don't really care. My long term bond with our basketball programs is clearly the exception among local Drexel alumni.
(This post was last modified: 02-11-2021 03:02 PM by J.B..)
02-11-2021 02:00 PM
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dan10 Offline
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RE: Women's NIT changes format for 2021 season
Funny thing about big schools and athletics is that those schools WANT that connection. Sports brings people together, mostly. They sell themselves about their sports. Winning naturally brings everyone together to rally behind, and winning happens much more at those big schools than it does smaller guys. With that said, the atmosphere and experiences you can gain from the smaller schools outweighs those opportunities at big schools where you are "just another fan". Convincing others of what can be gained experience-wise at a smaller school is just tougher. I think both can be extremely satisfying. With that said, things like the DAC Pack bond and AAD dont happen at a big school. Those things came about because of being a small school where we dont have a big following, so connections are easier, "closeness" to the program is actually attainable. That closeness is not necessarily something all people want from sports, and thats where the difference lies. You can be tied to a program by attending games in large crowds where nobody even knows who you are. You can be tied to a program where everyone around the building know you on a first name basis. Neither is right or wrong. They are just different.

For me everyone I meet that knows who Drexel is know about Drexel because of its co-op program and engineering program. Beyond that, few know of Drexel. Surprisingly here in the midwest more actually know about Drexel basketball than I ever would have guessed. When I first said I went to Drexel when asked, most immediately said "They are pretty good at basketball and made the tournament a few times recently didnt they?" So our selection Sunday runs that all ended up short did last in people's memory, at least out here in basketball territory.
02-11-2021 02:34 PM
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J.B. Offline
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RE: Women's NIT changes format for 2021 season
(02-11-2021 02:34 PM)dan10 Wrote:  Surprisingly here in the midwest more actually know about Drexel basketball than I ever would have guessed. When I first said I went to Drexel when asked, most immediately said "They are pretty good at basketball and made the tournament a few times recently didnt they?" So our selection Sunday runs that all ended up short did last in people's memory, at least out here in basketball territory.

That's why there is value in being a division I program, even at a mid-major. Just having that occasional mention in ESPN, like in their big comeback win against Delaware, or that occasional spot on an NCAA bracket, is free marketing. Those who are not sports fans don't understand that Division I value. It's why so many small schools are willing to make the monetary investment to Division I.
02-11-2021 03:16 PM
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