Notre Dame College Update

[Uindy18]

Salem may not be a perfect addition, but they do have more students that two current members (Wheeling and D&E).

Exactly. While any school has it's issues, Salem and WV Tech make sense geographically and historically. After them, your options are NAIA or DIII schools outside WV. End of the day, there is no Charleston or West Liberty-type school to go add.

[Bballfan]

Wheeling is definitely in trouble. Since the Catholic Church backed out financing I can't imagine them surviving much longer. Lot of propaganda saying they are not, but when you start to read those articles you know the end is near.

[Stea1th]

(it turns out that football attendance isn't the only number schools overstate)

[Stea1th]

As you can imagine, a lot of schools greatly exaggerate their advertised/published enrollment numbers. You can check out the Department of Education's official numbers for each school at the link below.

[Ram040506]

Enrollment per MEC school:

Concord- 2,800
D&E- 805
Fairmont State- 4,100
Frostburg State- 5,294
Glenville- 2,000
Point Park- 3,300
Charleston- 2,300
West Liberty- 2,776
West Virginia State- 3,000
West Virginia Wesleyan- 1,400
Wheeling- 1,171

As of 2022, per Data USA, Salem is reported to have 984 students.

Wheeling has been rumored to be in trouble. Nobody ever knows what is going on with WVW, but I can't imagine they are doing fantastic either. Will be interesting to follow the MEC over the next 3-5 years with so many schools facing similar difficulties. Rumors of the PSAC looking to poach as well either Frosburg/Fairmont or West Lib. Who knows...

[Stea1th]

Salem may not be a perfect addition, but they do have more students that two current members (Wheeling and D&E).

[Bballfan]

Salem has bounced around in different athletic conferences and has had a number of name changes. They are not exactly stable, and have approximately 250 students on campus. I really don't understand how they stay open.

I don't think the Mountain East wants anything to do with them.

[Uindy18]

Apologies for bumping an old thread, but Salem has been releasing some of their athletic schedules, and although neither side has said anything, it would seem that the MEC quietly extended the scheduling agreement they had with them after Alderson Broaddus's departure into the 2024-25 season, as their schedules appear to be very MEC heavy again.

On the surface it would seem that this was done out of convenience to account for NDCs closure, but something about it seems a bit off to me... The agreement last year was largely because AB was a mess and closed only weeks before the fall season was about to begin, but NDC closed with decent enough time that the MEC front office probably could've reworked the schedules if they wanted to. Part of me is thinking that it's possible this might be a prelude to Salem actually joining the MEC... Or it could just be the front office/teams not wanting the hassle of reworking all the schedules and seeing an easy fix, and I'm just overthinking.

I know most on this forum balk at this idea, but Salem is not a bad add for the MEC in my opinion. The last 5 years for the MEC have been turbulent, including 3 school closures. Salem would help stabilize the conference, keep costs down on non-football sports, and has historic ties to every school in the conference.

Then, the MEC can explore the other expansion options whether that be Bluefield State, WV Tech, Bluefield (VA), Pikeville, Rio Grande, etc.

Another fun factoid: Salem has also been posting historic schedules, including football. Every season they played from 1940 through 1988 (when they dropped the team) is posted here along with some old game programs and media guides: https://salemtigers.com/sports/2015/...223153057.aspx

[Stea1th]

NDC AD Scott Swain kind of quietly shifted over to Point Park in January (the same week that PP was announced as being invited to join the MEC). He was officially announced as the PP AD in April. He seems intent on building a more-complete Athletic Dept. PP has recently announced the addition of Mens and Womens Lacrosse; and also, Mens and Womens Wrestling.

[Finchwidget]

I'm thinking it's the latter and overthinking it. It's hard enough to get schedules filled out, and if there is a quick fix available for the problem, I'm sure they all jumped at it.

You're probably right. It's at least a little interesting to me though that Salem appears to be "behaving themselves" enough to get an extension on their agreement from last year. If this was the old Salem that everyone always talks about, the one of the 2010s that got kicked out of 2 different conferences, I'd find it hard to believe the MEC would find the quick scheduling fix to be worth the hassle of keeping them around for a second season

[Ram040506]

Apologies for bumping an old thread, but Salem has been releasing some of their athletic schedules, and although neither side has said anything, it would seem that the MEC quietly extended the scheduling agreement they had with them after Alderson Broaddus's departure into the 2024-25 season, as their schedules appear to be very MEC heavy again.

On the surface it would seem that this was done out of convenience to account for NDCs closure, but something about it seems a bit off to me... The agreement last year was largely because AB was a mess and closed only weeks before the fall season was about to begin, but NDC closed with decent enough time that the MEC front office probably could've reworked the schedules if they wanted to. Part of me is thinking that it's possible this might be a prelude to Salem actually joining the MEC... Or it could just be the front office/teams not wanting the hassle of reworking all the schedules and seeing an easy fix, and I'm just overthinking.

I'm thinking it's the latter and overthinking it. It's hard enough to get schedules filled out, and if there is a quick fix available for the problem, I'm sure they all jumped at it.

[Finchwidget]

Apologies for bumping an old thread, but Salem has been releasing some of their athletic schedules, and although neither side has said anything, it would seem that the MEC quietly extended the scheduling agreement they had with them after Alderson Broaddus's departure into the 2024-25 season, as their schedules appear to be very MEC heavy again.

On the surface it would seem that this was done out of convenience to account for NDCs closure, but something about it seems a bit off to me... The agreement last year was largely because AB was a mess and closed only weeks before the fall season was about to begin, but NDC closed with decent enough time that the MEC front office probably could've reworked the schedules if they wanted to. Part of me is thinking that it's possible this might be a prelude to Salem actually joining the MEC... Or it could just be the front office/teams not wanting the hassle of reworking all the schedules and seeing an easy fix, and I'm just overthinking.

[boatcapt]

Honestly, I think the MEC should lean into being a strong basketball conference, that also has football, especially if they lose Frostburg. Point Park is a great add for this.

The PSAC has a LOT of dead basketball weight, and it hurt the conference when it came to playoff selections. The MEC is already the best basketball conference top to bottom in the region, and a couple more good adds could make you dominant. Football has a much tougher path after losing NDC.

Being the best top-to-bottom league does have it's down side. Often we beat each other up during conference play which hurts during playoff selections.

[boatcapt]

Has the CIAA ever came after WVSU ?

I don't know if they have ever come after them. Haven't seen any CIAA posters (not that there are many on this board) speculate about trying to add them.

[boatcapt]

Obviously, it's just guys throwing ideas at a message board; but it is interesting seeing some PSAC posts saying "if not Frostburg, what about WLU or Fairmont?" I always viewed WLU (rightly or wrongly) as the school most in-step with MEC admin. But, as the MEC continues to become more WVIAC-like, and less like what was originally envisioned, any chance that some of the core schools gets wandering eyes? Any thoughts from the WVIAC old-timers on here?

I kind of see WLU and Frostburg as opposite sides of the same coin. WLU is really good in basketball and really bad in football...Frostburg is really good in football and really bad in basketball. Fairmont is decent in both but then driving distance starts to become an issue in a hypothetical move from the MEC to the PSAC.

Then there is Lake Erie College. Bad in both football and basketball but good from a driving distance standpoint (Gannon, Edinboro and Rock less than 100 miles away) with the longest drive being Pitt-Johnstown at just under 200 miles.