"HURST OUT OF PSAC?

[ctrabs74]

From the PSAC point view Frostburg makes senses, but from Frostburg's point of view with Fake Notre Dame closing, they from a football perspective may be able to dominate the MEC. also Frostburg has other sports, does the women's lacrosse, softball really want to travel to Gannon??? I think Frostburg's travel for the other sports is doable, the only have to travel to UNC-Pembroke for football only.

Gannon (229 miles) and Edinboro (212 miles) are about the same distance to Charleston (219 miles) and West Virginia State (225); Gannon and Edinboro are closer to Frostburg than Concord (264 miles).

Also, there are six potential PSAC rivals within 125 miles of Frostburg - Cal (71 miles), IUP (95 miles), Seton Hill (84 miles), Shepherd (91 miles), Shippensburg (109 miles) and UPJ (61 miles) - compared to four MEC schools within 125 miles - Fairmont State (81 miles), Davis & Elkins (98 miles), West Liberty (124 miles) and West Virginia Wesleyan (121 miles), with Wheeling close at 128 miles (this does not include future MEC member Point Park, which is 107 miles from Frostburg).

Granted, East Stroudsburg (278 miles) might be a bit of a beating from a road trip perspective, but they're the only "outlier" team for Frostburg as all of the other PSAC East rivals are less than 250 miles away (West Chester at 223 miles is the third furthest PSAC school behind Gannon and ESU - as crazy as it sounds, Mansfield is about the same distance away from Frostburg and divisional rival West Chester at 225 miles). And Frostburg might only be making that trip to ESU once every three years in basketball, while you're making two trips to Charleston and one trip to Athens (Concord) every single year.

It's almost a wash between PSAC/MEC distance wise, however, Edinboro and Gannon would be the only PSAC West divisional rivals over 200 miles away, compared to three (Charleston, Concord, WV State) in the MEC. Given the divisional setups for basketball and other "olympic" sports, the PSAC probably has the edge over the MEC.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Ashland is perfectly placed within the GMAC, I'd be shocked if they were looking to leave.

The privates also don't typically like to be in a conference full of publics. They often claim our abysmal academic admissions standards put them at too much of a disadvantage.

[EastStroud13]

The America East only has four schools which sponsor football outside of the league: SUNY Albany, Bryant, Maine and New Hampshire. With that said, you also have a pair of A-10 schools (Rhode Island and Richmond), plus Villanova from the Big East. And all seven schools mentioned are part of the CAA.

Maybe the four AE schools could convince URI and Richmond to break way from the CAA and bring in Merrimack and Sacred Heart - granted, that's a very long shot, since neither the A-10 nor AE seem interested in sponsoring football, even under those circumstances. You also have another Big East school in Georgetown who competes in the Patriot League (Georgetown and Fordham basically fill the spots of Army and Navy for Patriot League football), which currently sits at seven members.

There might be options out there for Merrimack and/or Sacred Heart to join a league for football, but there obviously aren't any guarantees.

There has certainly been enough dissatisfaction with the state of the CAA that I think they could get the affiliates on board if they really tried... but yeah, they don't seem interested at all.

[ctrabs74]

I think those three MEC's are probably the most likely thought of ones. Ashland might be a bit too far for the PSAC's liking.

Ashland is pretty much close to the center of the GMAC (even more so with Nashville-based Trevecca Nazarene moving to the Gulf South); they have seven GMAC schools less than 100 miles away: Findlay, Lake Erie, Malone, Ohio Dominican, Tiffin, Ursuline (women's only) and Walsh. Kentucky Wesleyan is pretty much their longest road trip (395 miles)* with Northwood a close second (265 miles). Even Cedarville (133 miles), Hillsdale (166 miles) and Thomas More (193 miles) aren't horrendously long road trips. By contrast, Ashland's shortest road trip in the PSAC West would be Slippery Rock (135 miles).

If I were to rank the likeliest MEC school to jump to the PSAC, it would probably be Frostburg, Fairmont and West Liberty in that order.

* - Maybe if you swap UIndy (265 miles from Ashland) from the GLVC with Kentucky Wesleyan, the GMAC might have a more compact footprint. Granted, UIndy would still be an outlier (as it stands now, UIndy is the only GLVC team in the Eastern time zone), but at least the furthest they'd likely have to travel in the GMAC is the eastern suburbs of Cleveland (UIndy to Lake Erie College is 346 miles) as opposed to the Kansas City metro area - presuming KWC were to slither their way back into the GLVC (which I doubt).

[Finchwidget]

The America East only has four schools which sponsor football outside of the league: SUNY Albany, Bryant, Maine and New Hampshire. With that said, you also have a pair of A-10 schools (Rhode Island and Richmond), plus Villanova from the Big East. And all seven schools mentioned are part of the CAA.

Maybe the four AE schools could convince URI and Richmond to break way from the CAA and bring in Merrimack and Sacred Heart - granted, that's a very long shot, since neither the A-10 nor AE seem interested in sponsoring football, even under those circumstances. You also have another Big East school in Georgetown who competes in the Patriot League (Georgetown and Fordham basically fill the spots of Army and Navy for Patriot League football), which currently sits at seven members.

There might be options out there for Merrimack and/or Sacred Heart to join a league for football, but there obviously aren't any guarantees.

The AE could probably convince Rhode Island, but I think getting Richmond to leave some of its biggest rivals to play in a New England based conference would be a tough sell

[ctrabs74]

The AE could probably convince Rhode Island, but I think getting Richmond to leave some of its biggest rivals to play in a New England based conference would be a tough sell

I'd agree with you about Richmond; I only mentioned them because they're part of the A-10 with Rhode Island (and, for that matter, NEC football member Duquesne).

[IUPNation]

The privates also don't typically like to be in a conference full of publics. They often claim our abysmal academic admissions standards put them at too much of a disadvantage.

Nobody thinks Gannon, Mercyhurst or Seton Hill are prestigious institutions.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Nobody thinks Gannon, Mercyhurst or Seton Hill are prestigious institutions.

They do

[IUPNation]

They do

If they were high schools they are the Bishop McCort and Bishop Carroll..and not say Pittsburgh Central Catholic.

Villanova is by far the premier Catholic University in PA

Then St Joes and Duquense are Level 2

Scranton, Kings College, LaSalle are Level 3

Everyone else is just where you go when you can’t get in above…IUP has more money than Mercyhurst.

[Fightingscot82]

Lincoln is an HBCU and probably prefers to be in the CIAA with similar institutions. They really don't offer anything to the Pee Sack.

New Haven is just too far for them to go to PA every other week or for us to go there. It just doesn't work.

Your top choices are Frostburg, Fairmont, West Liberty and I'm just going to put it out there....why not Ashland?

New Haven is also on the NEC invite list.

[Fightingscot82]

The privates also don't typically like to be in a conference full of publics. They often claim our abysmal academic admissions standards put them at too much of a disadvantage.

They argue they can't compete with our base tuition. They're discounting to get close to our full tuition. So a 50% scholarship might take a kid to $20,000 but a 50% scholarship at IUP might take him to $0.

[Ship69]

If they were high schools they are the Bishop McCort and Bishop Carroll..and not say Pittsburgh Central Catholic.

Villanova is by far the premier Catholic University in PA

Then St Joes and Duquense are Level 2

Scranton, Kings College, LaSalle are Level 3

Everyone else is just where you go when you can’t get in above…IUP has more money than Mercyhurst.

No Notre Dame?

[IUPNation]

No Notre Dame?

It’s in Indiana. I was only listing the ones in Pennsylvania.

Villanova has over a billion in the bank. Mercyhurt has about 45 million. They are not prestigious. This move reeks of desperation. They may end being Cabrini than Duquesne.

[boatcapt]

Always overlooked in the recuring PSAC replacement team derby is Lincoln University PA. I mean, they are in-state, they have both football and basketball and if mileage is the key factor many seem to think it is, then adding Lincoln to the East and moving one of the east's most western schools to the west seems pretty logical. I'd think Millersville, WCU and Kutztown would be salivating at the prospect of having an in-state conference opponent 40, 30 and 60 (respectively) miles away. Also a milage win for Lincoln PA as they are the northern outlier in the largely Virginia based CIAA. I mean, if mileage is truly the dominant factor for schools, seems like a no brainer for all involved.

So why no interest in Lincoln? Is there something else?

[Fightingscot82]

Always overlooked in the recuring PSAC replacement team derby is Lincoln University PA. I mean, they are in-state, they have both football and basketball and if mileage is the key factor many seem to think it is, then adding Lincoln to the East and moving one of the east's most western schools to the west seems pretty logical. I'd think Millersville, WCU and Kutztown would be salivating at the prospect of having an in-state conference opponent 40, 30 and 60 (respectively) miles away. Also a milage win for Lincoln PA as they are the northern outlier in the largely Virginia based CIAA. I mean, if mileage is truly the dominant factor for schools, seems like a no brainer for all involved.

So why no interest in Lincoln? Is there something else?

Lincoln is an HBCU in a conference of other HBCUs. I imagine they're happy.