Nobody asked me, but…here’s how Hofstra could end up in the A-10

Hopefully, the reconfigured A-10 will have a more mathematically accurate name. (This won out over a picture of Jillian Barberie, sorry fellas)

Just because I’m writing about how Hofstra could end up in the Atlantic 10 doesn’t mean I believe it can or should happen. I haven’t changed my mind since three months ago yesterday, when I wrote that a move to the A-10 would by no means provide the Flying Dutchmen basketball team an easier path to the NCAA Tournament nor fuller houses at the Arena. That Litos agrees with me means I might actually be on to something for one of the few times in the last nine months.

But assuming a move to the A-10 is what the administration wants, here’s how it could work. Merely adding Hofstra to the A-10—and making it the A-15—won’t work. A 14-team conference is already as bloated as the before picture in a NutriSystem ad. My plan does reduce the A-10 to 13 teams, not quite a Jillian Barberie-esque loss, but better than the way it was. (This is what happens when you write in the middle of the night...NutriSystem references)

Here’s what would have to happen:

1.) Richmond and Charlotte to the CAA. Longtime CAA fans still haven’t forgiven Richmond for bolting the CAA for the A-10 in 2001, a move which set off the whole poaching of the A-East by the CAA. But those at the administrative level are more practical about these things, and I imagine both the CAA and Richmond would admit they never should have divorced in the first place. Litos reports Richmond’s A-10 games have all the excitement of a church service, but a return to the CAA would instantly make the Spiders the biggest rival of every other Virginia school in the CAA. Plus, Richmond’s national champion football team already plays in the CAA. This is a fine fit. Make it happen.

Charlotte, meanwhile, is already selling personal seat licenses in anticipation of its first season of football in 2013. That’s right: The school is selling you the chance to buy tickets to a program that is at least four years from debuting. God Bless America.

Charlotte administrators hope to follow the path of South Florida and make I-AA a quick pit-stop on the way to I-A (and, one presumes, the Big East). Such big plans might make the CAA reluctant to welcome Charlotte, especially since it’d probably mean having to add yet another football-playing school by the middle of next decade, but hey, Hofstra wants to leave after eight years, so having to reconfigure on the fly is nothing new.

2.) Fordham to the Patriot League. As mentioned Monday, the move to the A-10 has been an unqualified disaster for the Fordham men’s basketball team. The Rams lack the facilities to compete in the A-10 and their academic standards remain at a Patriot League level. This, too, is a reunion that makes sense for both sides. The one hurdle might be Fordham’s desire to add football scholarships: The blog Lehigh Football Nation does a great job of explaining why the rest of the Patriot League may not be ready to sink that kind of dough into its football programs any time soon. But at the least, Fordham to the Patriot League in every other sport makes all sorts of sense.

3.) Saint Louis to the Horizon League. What, exactly, is Saint Louis doing in the Atlantic-10, anyway? I guess you could say the same thing about Ohio schools Xavier and Dayton, but at least Ohio has a semblance of a connection to the east coast. Not so much Missouri.

Switching conferences is nothing new for Saint Louis, which has played in six leagues in the last 35 years. One of those was the precursor to the Horizon League. Saint Louis back to the Horizon League is so perfect that I have to figure the school considers itself too good for the Horizon. But the Billikens’ men’s basketball team has as many NCAA Tournament berths in the last 50 years as Hofstra: Four. In addition, Saint Louis’ men’s soccer program has won a record 10 national titles, but none since 1973. You guys are not above the Horizon League. Go there.

4.) Hofstra, Northeastern and Drexel to the A-10. Talk about burying the lede. The A-10 is a good match for the CAA Three on multiple levels. The A-10 is the best existing home for Hofstra and Northeastern if they deemphasize or drop football. With no football team, Drexel no longer fits with a southern-based conference that wants to be known as much for its football as its basketball. And the three schools leaving together provide each other some traditional rivals in the new conference.

In addition, each school has some nice natural rivalries with the current A-10 membership. Hofstra and St. Joseph’s have played a couple great NIT games in the last five years. Drexel’s inclusion gives the A-10 four of the Big 5 Philly schools. And Northeastern provides the A-10 three New England schools.

As important as the fit for men’s basketball is the fit in every other sport. The A-10 sponsors 14 of Hofstra’s 18 sports. We’ve already placed the football team in the new ECC, and presumably, the CAA would welcome Hofstra as an associate member in men’s lacrosse and wrestling (where it is the league’s highest-profile program in both sports) as well as women’s golf.

The A-10 sponsors 15 of Northeastern’s 19 sports, and both of the Huskies’ crew and hockey teams already compete outside of the CAA. (The A-10 sponsors women’s crew, but not men’s crew) And the A-10 sponsors 14 of Drexel’s 16 sports, with the only exceptions being men’s lacrosse (where Drexel could join Hofstra as an associate member of the CAA) and men’s crew.

Here’s how the new A-10 would look:

Dayton
Drexel
Duquesne
George Washington
Hofstra
LaSalle
Massachusetts
Northeastern
Rhode Island
St. Bonaventure
St. Joseph’s
Temple
Xavier

An odd number of teams isn’t as unusual as I thought: Nine Division I conferences have an odd number. So unless someone powerful within the A-10 has triskaidekaphobia, this could work.

Nor would scheduling be nearly as difficult as I thought. With 12 opponents, an 18-game schedule in which each team has six opponents it plays twice a season and six opponents it plays once a season is quite doable.

The six teams Hofstra would play twice would be Drexel, LaSalle, UMass, Northeastern, St. Joseph’s and Temple. For fun’s sake, I decided Northeastern would play Drexel, Duquesne (gotta cater to the fans who loathe Ron Everhart for bolting for the Dukes), Hofstra, UMass, Rhode Island and St. Bonaventure twice each. And Drexel would play Hofstra, George Washington, LaSalle, Northeastern, St. Joseph’s and Temple twice apiece.

Damn. Reservations about how it’ll help the men’s basketball programs aside, this actually sounds possible. So that means it won’t happen. And I still think my third idea—detonating the Division I landscape and creating four new conferences, one of which will feature Hofstra as a core founding member—is the best idea. Tune in later today or first thing tomorrow for that.

Email Jerry at defiantlydutch@yahoo.com. And join the Defiantly Dutch group at Facebook today!

Hofstra vs. Bucknell: Like clockwork, every 14 years

"Hey Nat I know you said you'd tell my dad if I ever bet again, but this guy wants to bet me Hofstra won't play Bucknell again for another 14 years!"

Seeing Bucknell on the football schedule brings back a lot of fond memories. The first football game I ever covered at Hofstra—and the first road game I ever covered in any sport—was at Bucknell on Sept. 10, 1994. It involved getting up at 5:30 am—amazingly, I did not sleep through the alarm—and taking the spirit support/band bus to Lewisburg, PA.

I remember packing a Walkman (click the link, kiddies) and a lot of tapes I’d recorded off CD, including this criminally underrated gem by Cheap Trick which I now have loaded on my iPod. (No idea why I can remember stuff like that, yet forget to do the laundry)

I remember Bucknell handing out “Hammer Hofstra” buttons as fans walked in. I should have grabbed one of those, especially since Hofstra hammered Bucknell 45-21. It’d be a cool memento—not as cool as a basketball signed by VBK and three other guys, but pretty neat nonetheless.

You probably could have made a lot of money if you bet me that night that Hofstra would not play Bucknell again for another 14 years—if only I could have found somebody willing to bet on the future schedules for Hofstra football. Hey, I bet this guy would have chased that action! (Watching a Very Special Episode of Beverly Hills 90210 as I write has its advantages)

At the time, the Flying Dutchmen were in their second season as a full-fledged Division I-AA independent and just beginning to stir as The Little Team That Could. The administration recognized it couldn’t remain an independent forever and was hopeful that playing multiple games per season against Patriot League foes would lead to an offer to join a conference that, like Hofstra, was filled with schools whose football teams had just moved from Division III to I-AA and did not award scholarships in football.

Hofstra also believed it was a good academic fit with the Patriot League, which is one tier below the Ivy League (I’ll pause long enough for you to choke your laughter). The Patriot League—filled with institutions at least a century older than Hofstra—did not think likewise and ignored Hofstra’s pleading eyes.

The Flying Dutchmen’s brilliant ’94 season changed the University’s expectations for the football program. In January ’95, Hofstra gave up on the Patriot League—whose existence appeared endangered with Fordham and Holy Cross reportedly seeking new homes—and began offering scholarships as it turned its gaze towards the Yankee Conference.

“The reason we held back on football scholarships is that we wanted to maintain our relationship with the Patriot League,” President James Shuart told Newsday in 1995.

That relationship came to a screeching halt once Hofstra began offering scholarships. The Flying Dutchmen played four Patriot League teams in 1993 and three apiece in 1994 and 1995, but since then, the program has played more playoff games against Patriot League foes (two) than regular season games (one).

“We’re not playing with the same type of kids they’re playing with,” Fordham coach Nick Quartaro told Newsday after Hofstra beat the Rams, 36-15, in 1995. It was the last game between the two schools, who met 22 times in the previous 23 years.

While feelings were no doubt bruised on both sides, Hofstra and the Patriot League thrived independent of each other. Hofstra eventually landed in the conference formerly known as the Yankee and currently known as the CAA and made the playoffs as an independent in 1995, 1997, 1999 and 2000 before winning the A-10 in the program’s debut season in 2001. A CAA school has reached the I-AA title game four times in the last five years and four of the top 10 teams in this week’s I-AA Top 25 poll are from the CAA, including top-ranked James Madison.

The Patriot League survived, but with just six football schools, it accepted Towson as a football-only member in 1997. Joe Gardi, who was offended by the Patriot’s snub, always took great delight in pointing out how the conference had to stoop to accepting a state school in order to remain viable. (Towson left for the CAA after the 2003 season)

Despite its non-scholarship status, the Patriot League receives an automatic bid to the I-AA tournament—Lehigh lost to Hofstra in 1999 but beat the Flying Dutchmen in 2001—and Gardi had to like what he saw in 2003, when Colgate proved non-scholarship opponents could run with the big dogs by reaching the Division I-AA championship game, where it fell to Delaware 40-0.

The funny thing is I’d bet today’s Powers That Be would be perfectly content if Hofstra had landed in the Patriot League and if Bucknell was an annual foe instead of a once-every-three-Olympiads-and-then-some non-conference opponent. It’s no secret that the football team is a blight on the bottom line—as one unidentified member of the athletic department described the program to Newsday’s Steve Marcus in 2004: “Dig a hole, put five million in it and throw dirt over it”— nor that President Rabinowitz isn’t a huge fan of athletics in general.

But Hofstra’s too invested in the CAA to turn back now. The bright side to remaining in the top I-AA conference in the land is the opportunity to make back some of the football investment via $250,000 games against I-A schools such as UConn, Boston College and Army.

There’s no money to be had in visiting Bucknell for the first time in 14 years, just a chance for the Flying Dutchmen to erase the sting of last weekend’s record-setting thrashing at the hands of James Madison. Conventional wisdom says Hofstra should beat the non-scholarship Bison, who were picked to finish sixth in the seven-team Patriot League, but, well, that didn’t work so well against Albany. And Bucknell—which is 3-1 and no stranger to nail-biters; its four games have been decided by a total of 14 points—is surely not lacking for motivation in its only game of the season against a program with the full allotment of scholarships.

I’ll guess two things: That Dave Cohen and his staff pray Cory Christopher can continue to take every single snap…and that special teams will be the difference in another game decided by less than seven points. Which, you know, makes me nervous.

(To the surprise of no one, I wrote much more than I expected, so the mailbag and links will have to wait until next week)

Email Jerry at defiantlydutch@yahoo.com.