Here's the thing though: they DO have scheduling agreements with other conferences...it's just not some "official alliance" but, AE and NEC/MAAC schools play each other enough each year. It all sounds nice in practice, but when you realize that neither side would go for it because teams don't want to be locked into games they have to play by mandate that could cost them the chance to get a payday elsewhere, or not go to a nice vacation tourney, etc. Any AE or NEC/MAAC type school can schedule each other any time they want. For various reasons, some more valid than others, they choose not to.
Well, not all of us. Maine home games against NEC/MAAC teams in the last five years:
Which is why I added the next sentence. Nothing is stopping any one of these schools from scheduling games with one another. They don't because of travel (why go to Vermont, UNH or Maine, and pass 5 or more other D1s closer and on the way), fear of losing, wanting open dates to get buy games, not liking the other coaching staff, their ADs don't like one another, they would rather just beat up on a D3 because it counts as a win on the record book, the coach is on the hot seat and needs easy wins to trick their AD that they should get extended, etc. Things that for the most part are excuses, and very rarely legitimate reasons. We don't need some forced arrangement to make these teams play one another; they can make it happen themselves. It is actually as easy as saying, "Yes, let's play one another." They just don't, and I do not forsee any administrative action or collaboration between competing conferences in this region of the country, which is ruled by petty politics of status over who is superior and who is not.
Maybe when Morse Arena opens....they can at least get a URI or UMass to open the facility.....a 2 for 1 deal as you said. Even better.....Cooper Flagg makes a sizable donation to Duke with the caveat that Duke plays at Maine to open the new arena.😱 Imagine Duke at Maine with Ace Flagg in a Maine uniform and Cooper in attendance? Ticket scalpers would have a field day.
Considering as the Ivies already play fewer than the max amount of games (I think they all played 27 games last year), they may just...not.
In the portal era, who knows if Maine's new team is any good.
I don’t take Maine lightly these days. Ace Cooper alone looks like he could be a difference-maker.
Who knows? The hype machine for Maine men's basketball is non-existent. Markwood is MIA on social media and the MBB social media accounts are the least active among Maine's major sports. It's all a bit weird in this day and age. Of course winning would make this all a moot point but any other team in the league with Cooper's bro and a new arena just around the corner would probably be on it 24/7.
Yeah, I hear you, and can apply that same caution flag to any team. I would just be surprised if there was much of a backslide at this point for Maine. Markwood is a good coach and it seems like he’s finding his rhythm here.
I don't think the amount of social media posts makes a single difference. Or what the team posts about any player.
You sound like an old dude with that statement. I disagree that social media doesn't make a single difference. Social media has allowed the Maine athletic program to join the 21st century. Before social media anyone could say whatever they wanted to about Orono, Maine and who was going to prove them wrong since no one ever went there? Pictures don't lie and it's a level playing field on FB, Instagram and Twitter (I refuse to call it X)......it's all about how you manage your accounts and how much time & effort you put into it. Markwood is a family guy (great!) and seems to embrace the off-season (great!) but he does little to promote and hype the program like other Maine coaches do. I would hope that will change a bit as time goes on but you can't make a zebra change its stripes.
Aren't you the same person who just said that ticket scalpers would have a field day if Maine played Duke?
. I mean, I get that it would be a game with fun storylines, but I doubt scalpers care much about a matchup of any ACC team and an AE team. Your own personal hype machine is definitely on though. 
