UVM Hoop Cat

Heard both for an announcement on Wed or Thursday for UMass-Lowell or an announcement for UMass-Lowell and Bryant?

__________________
"Let's win this game for all the small schools that never had a chance to get here"
- Hoosiers,
& UVM mens basketball NCAA's 2005

Vermonster

lol the only thing I know about UMASS Lowell is that they play in Hockey East.

Had no clue that they were garbage when it came to academics.

Alumni96

Academics is the biggest red herring in the history of Conference realignment.

SaltySeawolf

Reminds me of the movie Clue. Tim Curry, when they kept redoing the ending, kept saying "communism is a red herring." Do not ask me why I remember that - but it is bringing a smile to my face.

Rhett1

Because they're not... they're a National Research University comparable to the bottom half of the current conference academically.

Also, the reputation of Lowell as a rough town holds little weight here. Lowell is big. Traveling fans will spend zero time in the bad neighborhoods and there's plenty to do in the good ones. Hell, downtown Lowell is actually pretty cool. Stay near Belvidere, Pawtucketville, Centralville, Christian Hill, etc. and avoid The Acre. Done.

As far as facilities and geographic location goes, well, you're looking at the future host of conference tournaments in men's & women's hoops and baseball, at the very least.

Remember kids, Lowell was always the only realistic expansion option that didn't compromise the institutional profile of the conference. This is it. This is the last one. Be kind to them and be thankful for them. That is why they've been added before Bryant or CCSU or Merrimack or whoever. Whoever is added next will represent a significant compromise by the membership. Over time, some of you will become dissatisfied by that next school. By then Lowell will just look like another conference member of a similar profile to your schools, because, whether a few posters here like it or not, that's what they've always been.

Vermonster

Protip: Never take what a write to heart.

UVM Hoop Cat

UMass-Lowell isn't garbage if your alternative is...community college or a for-profit school like University of Phoenix or some place like that. If you're voluntarily applying to and hoping to attend UMass-Lowell, many mistakes would have to have been made along the way to arrive at that situation.

That said, I do agree that at this point academics do not matter in the least when when it comes to conference alignment, and UMass-Lowell is a fit in every other aspect of the AE.

__________________
"Let's win this game for all the small schools that never had a chance to get here"
- Hoosiers,
& UVM mens basketball NCAA's 2005

Aceinthehole

Nor an athletic one. They have a budget less than $7 million per year.

animal

And do you not think this is going to go up? They're not going to move up and level fund athletics, that would be a recipe for an NJIT disaster. I am sure America East wouldn't extend an invite unless UML committed to significantly increasing the budget.

__________________
“It’s sad for a school like Binghamton. Why should we have to be dealing with this kind of stuff? I guess you can almost rationalize it for a school bringing in millions to support an entire athletic program. I personally wouldn’t support it. But at Binghamton? We have 5,000 seats and $10 a ticket. What are we doing here?”

- Dennis Lasser, Binghamton University professor

iBOsbu

Thats D2 budget. I am sure with move to D1 it will change, at least double.

iBOsbu

My thought exactly

iBOsbu

You know why it makes more sense,
Just go through the top public university list

#37 Binghamton
#40 Stony Brook
#40 Vermont
#51 New Hampshire
#65 Albany
#83 Maine
#87 UMBC
#94 UMass-Lowell

Similar institutiions all in top 100 (Hartford is private).

I still hope we add Bryant but I guess they dont want to go independent with their football program.

LittleMike

I happen to like the city of Lowell. They have a great Red Sox farm team which draws well. I go to the hockey games vs BU and they always have good crowds. The community supports their teams and the school is improving academically. They have a very good reputation for Engineering and Biotech.

Overall, I think it makes great sense and I wish UML best of luck for a bright D1 future.

Dane96

I am calling pooh-pooh on your post. And before you shoot me down, I too live here...I drive past and through Lowell every weekend on the way to Vermont...and SBU and UA are very familiar with the athletic profile as we were former conference mates. Did I mention I was a former partner in a coffee Cafe in Lowell that catered to a huge soccer crowd?!?

Lowell is a HORRIBLE academic school (and don't go throwing out US NEWS or whatnot)in any sense of the word compared to the AE brethren. NONE OF US...NOT ONE...would choose this school as a school they want to have their child attend.

As for Downtown Lowell, it is pretty because it's old...but that is it. They have some great ethnic festivals...but you are talking about a town that is mostly made up of Laotian, Vietnamese, Brazilian and some Portuguese immigrants. They are not going to support that school in a rah-rah DI way. And Lowell is still dangerous in many areas...but I am not holding that against them because that would be akin to saying Albany is dangerous because of Arbor Hill.

I am not being a snob academically or athleticly, and I do understand UA was once a DII school. However our academic profile was completely different than Lowell.

Does Lowell have potential: Sure...sure does. But they need HUGE bucks from the state for their "research" growth that they simply are not going to receive today or tomorrow.

Am I happy that I will be able to take a 45 minute drive to catch my Danes play...sure.

However, they do not add football and they do not add men's lacrosse. I'd have preferred waiting for the fallout that WILL occur with the CAA/A-Ten/Catholic 7/PL meltdown (more on that another time for me...and I believe the PL will get stronger with the pickup of W&M down the line).

Alternatively, I would have been happy with Bryant as the sole add.

Dane96

This.

I would have preferred CCSU and Bryant...any day of the week.