DFW HOYA
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Post by DFW HOYA on Feb 24, 2023 8:08:17 GMT -5
It must be getting difficult finding any schools who want to play Georgetown. Here are the non-conference schedules for the other Patriot League teams:
Bucknell: at James Madison (Sun Belt) VMI at Cornell Two open/TBA
Colgate: at Syracuse (ACC) at Villanova Penn at Cornell Dartmouth
Fordham: at Albany Wagner at Buffalo (MAC) Stonehill at Stony Brook
Georgetown: at Columbia Four open/TBA
Holy Cross: Merrimack at Boston College (ACC) at Yale Harvard at Army (Independent)
Lafayette: at Sacred Heart at Duke (ACC) Columbia Monmouth at Princeton
Lehigh: Villanova at Merrimack Cornell at Dartmouth at Monmouth
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CTHoya08
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Post by CTHoya08 on Feb 24, 2023 14:41:58 GMT -5
I know that one of the evergreen topics around here is whether there are any viable alternatives to the Patriot League for Georgetown, but has there ever been any serious consideration of Patriot League expansion? I don’t have any particular candidates in mind, but just having six league games is kind of a pain from a scheduling perspective, I would imagine.
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DFW HOYA
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Post by DFW HOYA on Feb 28, 2023 16:58:23 GMT -5
I know that one of the evergreen topics around here is whether there are any viable alternatives to the Patriot League for Georgetown, but has there ever been any serious consideration of Patriot League expansion? I don’t have any particular candidates in mind, but just having six league games is kind of a pain from a scheduling perspective, I would imagine. Rev. John Brooks, SJ, one of the co-founders of the Patriot League, famously said that "We have created a model for others to follow. So far, no one has followed." The PL (originally, the Colonial League until the CAA called the attorneys) was built as a doppelgänger to the Ivy League: small I-AA institutions that didn't want the bright lights of the Big East or A-10 and comfortable being the Ivy's younger brother in scheduling and recruiting. Seven schools were committed (Bucknell, Colgate, Davidson, Holy Cross, Lafayette, Lehigh, and William & Mary), until W&M backed out over dropping scholarships and Davidson cut and ran after two seasons and combined 1-20 record. Now, short of schools, the PL ditched its original dreams and began to pick up schools not committed to football but which were comfortable playing non-scholarship sports: the academies (except football), Fordham (went in fort all sports, then backed out except for football), Boston University (dropped football), American and Loyola (never had it). Fordham joined football to replace Davidson, Towson came in for a few years, and Georgetown essentially replaced Towson. Today, the PL is all the expense (and more) of maintaining a full a scholarship football program with restrictive admissions that eliminate 85% of eligible FCS recruits. By not allowing students below, say, an 1200 SAT, PL schools are essentially competing with Ivy schools and they lose many more than they gain. Now, of course, Georgetown is not only losing the the Ivies on aid, but to PL schools who can offer a free ride to kids that aren't able to be admitted to GU. A school like Monmouth, who the PL cognoscenti dismissed long ago, can now compete in the CAA and draw better recruits than it could if it had joined. For those who have forgotten, here's the box score of the Monmouth-Georgetown game. The budgets of six PL schools now rank among the 20 highest in the FCS subdivision...but not the seventh. Fordham is approaching an $8 million football budget. As yourself this: Georgetown will accept a gift from a donor to add scholarships to every NCAA sport it runs, except one. Why? The answer "it's too expensive" is a dodge.
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CTHoya08
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Post by CTHoya08 on Mar 1, 2023 6:25:11 GMT -5
Thanks. I appreciate the context. I don’t know much about the overall landscape of FCS football and wondered if there might be some independent team that might be looking for scheduling stability, or maybe a geographical misfit in another conference, or perhaps a team in a weaker league looking to move up, even if it meant tougher academic standards. (N.B., and to emphasize, I don’t even know if there really are any weaker leagues, and if so, if they are in the east.)
It seems like an ideal scenario for the PL would some kind of formal scheduling alliance with the Ivies, but it’s pretty obvious why the Ivies would never be interested in something like that. Although the six hockey-playing Ivies do house their teams in the ECAC . . . .
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DFW HOYA
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Post by DFW HOYA on Mar 1, 2023 7:46:16 GMT -5
Thanks. I appreciate the context. I don’t know much about the overall landscape of FCS football and wondered if there might be some independent team that might be looking for scheduling stability, or maybe a geographical misfit in another conference, or perhaps a team in a weaker league looking to move up, even if it meant tougher academic standards. (N.B., and to emphasize, I don’t even know if there really are any weaker leagues, and if so, if they are in the east.) It seems like an ideal scenario for the PL would some kind of formal scheduling alliance with the Ivies, but it’s pretty obvious why the Ivies would never be interested in something like that. Although the six hockey-playing Ivies do house their teams in the ECAC . . . . Yes, there are some geographical misfits: Bryant (RI) and Robert Morris (PA) play in the Big South Conference, which co-schedules games with the Ohio Valley Conference, meaning these schools are traveling as far west as Missouri and Illinois for conference games. There is also Marist, playing in the far-flung Pioneer League, with regular travel to places such as San Diego, Des Moines, and Minneapolis for games. Do fans care about these teams? No. Could these schools play in the Patriot League? More or less, yes. But the PL doesn't want them--not "academic" enough. The only schools they want are Villanova, Richmond, and William & Mary, and none of these three want to play there. The PL had an informal scheduling alliance with the Ivies for many years; namely, three non-conference games a year, but it's been fading as PL teams seek FBS guarantee games and the Ivies have been padding its schedules with Pioneer opponents. Many Ivy League schools simply do not want to, of choose not to schedule Georgetown at all, either as a matter of distance, Georgetown's substandard gameday facilities, or for the simpler reason that GU has been largely noncompetitive. After 2023, Brown is the only Ivy on future schedules and, to be honest, I don't think anyone outside the football office gets excited about playing Brown.
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Post by aleutianhoya on Mar 1, 2023 8:18:19 GMT -5
I know that one of the evergreen topics around here is whether there are any viable alternatives to the Patriot League for Georgetown, but has there ever been any serious consideration of Patriot League expansion? I don’t have any particular candidates in mind, but just having six league games is kind of a pain from a scheduling perspective, I would imagine. As yourself this: Georgetown will accept a gift from a donor to add scholarships to every NCAA sport it runs, except one. Why? The answer "it's too expensive" is a dodge. I have no real knowledge. But I suspect it is simply an example of not doing something that is very difficult, may well fail, and doesn't absolutely need to be done. Raising money for the Thompson center was hard, but it had to be done for our signature sport and the school wouldn't allow it to fail. Increasing scholarships gradually for baseball may be somewhat hard but its no big deal if it fails. Football IS more expensive. That may be a dodge but it's not completely untrue. You raise money for a handful of scholarships, doing even that may be hard, and it may not result in any meaningful improvement, given the number of scholarships at play elsewhere. I'm not justifying the mindset, but if you're an administrator and you want "wins," you may well look to other easier areas of improvement. And steer potential donations accordingly. I don't buy that there's any sort of larger plot to keep football "down." You'd just drop the program if that were the case.
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Post by Admin on Mar 20, 2023 20:17:10 GMT -5
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boxout05
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Post by boxout05 on Mar 21, 2023 22:51:05 GMT -5
Stonehill? Coach Cooley already making his mark on the athletics department!
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DanMcQ
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Post by DanMcQ on Mar 27, 2023 16:16:01 GMT -5
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Post by Problem of Dog on Apr 15, 2023 22:52:57 GMT -5
These schedules are going to get sadder and sadder each year. And this one is pretty sad.
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Post by ColumbiaHeightsHoya on May 2, 2023 14:12:13 GMT -5
These schedules are going to get sadder and sadder each year. And this one is pretty sad. Nothing wrong with the games from columbia on and we play our MAAC rivals Marist. Now I'll be honest, I couldn't tell you where Stonehill or Sacred Heart are so we are really talking about two games here. Butler, Villanova & UConn should be on the schedule vs. Sacred Heart & Stonehill. UConn as a $ game to get paid. Butler & Nova due to the hoops affiliation.
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CTHoya08
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Post by CTHoya08 on May 5, 2023 14:12:00 GMT -5
Stonehill is a small Catholic school in Easton, Mass. Ed Cooley played basketball there.
Sacred Heart is a large Catholic school (the second-largest in New England) in Fairfield, Conn. Bobby Valentine (yes, that one) was the athletic director from 2013-21.
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