Date Posted:20:19:14 05/02/03 Fri Author: BUfan2 Subject: Re: A-10 and CAA will have to decide whether or not offer FB
Great post. The only weakness I see is your take on Villanova ("Villanova having to my knowledge already rejected
CAA football and full membership opts for full Patriot."). As far as I know, the Patriot League allows scholarships ONLY for basketball. I know Villanova has traditionally had a VERY strong XC/track program (with scholarships). A move to the Patriot for all sports (is that what you meant by "full Patriot"?) would kill that program.
>Great post. The only weakness I see is your take on
>Villanova ("Villanova having to my knowledge already
>rejected
>CAA football and full membership opts for full
>Patriot."). As far as I know, the Patriot League
>allows scholarships ONLY for basketball. I know
>Villanova has traditionally had a VERY strong XC/track
>program (with scholarships). A move to the Patriot for
>all sports (is that what you meant by "full Patriot"?)
>would kill that program.
I didn't really know where to put Villanova because I can't figure them out. I know they don't want to go 1-A in football because they were offered the same Big East deal as UConn and turned it down. They've got to see the handwriting on the wall as far as the Big East goes. Maybe they have a deal to be the 11th or 12th member once 10 1-A football schools are obtained; otherwise, they are toast. Maybe they figure they'll go to my "fallout" league and continue to play A-10 football.
I just saw them turning down these CAA options and figured Patriot made sense from the significantly reduced travel costs and ability to play quality 1-AA football. And I never thought they would opt for any of the all sports A-10/AE options and they apparently have turned down the similar CAA options.
Just another example of a school that must really examine where they want their athletic programs to be and needing to decide what is most important.
I don't claim to be any kind of expert on this stuff. It's just a topic near and dear to me, wanting some stability after all the changes to the AE/NAC over the past 15+ years and watching the Big East evolve in UConn country. I can live with the AE as it currently exists and be quite content (things could be MUCH worse), but I'd rather not have to deal with a cherry picking of NU in a couple of years, then BU after that, then Hartford, etc.
