Re: THE SUNY's for those who wish to be informed -- America East Forum

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Date Posted: 00:57:30 04/11/03 Fri
Author: BingGrad
Subject: Re: THE SUNY's for those who wish to be informed
In reply to: animal 's message, "Re: THE SUNY's for those who wish to be informed" on 20:09:07 04/10/03 Thu

I don't understand the knock on Binghamton for not being a broad athletic program. Heck, the AE sponsors 21 sports and Binghamton competes in 20 of them. Only Vermont can match that -- and that's giving them credit for Mens Indoor Track where they didn't field a team this past winter. Northeastern participates in only 13 (the fewest by far, Maine comes next with 16), rumbles about leaving the conference but still wants to host the hoops tournament.

So Binghamton is the conferences broadest athletic program. Sure, some of the others play hockey (we weren't very good at that -- 3 or 4 years of NCAA division III and only about 2 wins) but we wrestle (fairly well, I might add) and apparently most of the other AE schools don't.

Not strong in the Olympic sports? They just won men's swimming and took 3rd on the womens side. Track is admittedly a step or two behind the better half of the league, but at least Binghamton fields a decent sized team that is competitive in many individual events -- unlike some other AE members (Hartford) that just show up with a half-dozen athletes, score 0 and call it supporting the conference.

Other sports? They'll probably qualify for the NCAA's in Golf this year -- how many AE schools can claim an NCAA qualifier that didn't get in via an AE automatic bid?

Despite the above, this has been a disappointing year for Binghamton athletics -- better things were and are expected of Women's hoops and both soccer teams.

I doubt Binghamton will ever field a football team. They need only to look west at the fiasco that is Buffalo athletics to see that there's no need to flush money down the low-level football drain. How much money would the other AE schools have to support their athletic programs with if they'd drop their football teams?

Unless they reconfigured the track when they rebuilt it a few years ago, you can't even fit a 120 yard football field inside it. The straight-aways are only about 90-100 yards.

Sorry if this sounds defensive or rubs some folks the wrong way, but I just don't get the reaction. Binghamton joins the conference, supports it 110%, builds a new on-campus arena which will be the class of the conference and wants to host the basketball tournament where it will probably put 1,000 locals in the seats for any game that's played. And this is bad? As for how few things there are to do outside of the basketball tourney -- how is any AE location save Boston any different?

Here's an open question to those who are so dead set against Binghamton hosting. Have you ever been there?

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[> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> Re: THE SUNY's for those who wish to be informed -- Dane96, 14:09:31 04/11/03 Fri

>Sorry if this sounds defensive or rubs some folks the
>wrong way, but I just don't get the reaction.
>Binghamton joins the conference, supports it 110%,
>builds a new on-campus arena which will be the class
>of the conference and wants to host the basketball
>tournament where it will probably put 1,000 locals in
>the seats for any game that's played. And this is
>bad? As for how few things there are to do outside of
>the basketball tourney -- how is any AE location save
>Boston any different?
>
>Here's an open question to those who are so dead set
>against Binghamton hosting. Have you ever been there?

Its a response for what fans witnessed years ago, witnessed by the buying of tv games at a large expense and the relative uniformed posting of BingoBooster who put most of us in a corner. Remember, this is a league of dogs...so we will fight ourselves out of a corner.

Thing is this, Hartford would pack Chase, UVM would pack Patrick, on and on, for first round games. UA as a central locale, is an easy drive for all (MAINE being the furthest at maybe 6 hours max). The school had near sellouts in DIII, packed the gym for our WInter Homecoming each year we have had it...w/ crappo teams (our team that is) and hosting the ECAC's which meant nothing to the team or school since we were moving up. THat tourney featured 3600 for our game vs. Merrimack and 2000 for the finals which we didnt make. The state championship is held at Glens Falls for H.S. and is regularly packed. Even St. Rose packs Colonie High Gym for the Key Capital Classic (not sure if they still have it) and Colonie High is a 2k capacity.

People love hoops in the capital district, which is an area that has well over 250,000 people. SO...the argument goes...the tournament should not be bought...when others can do a good job. Thats where the issue lies.

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[> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> Re: THE SUNY's for those who wish to be informed -- BUfan2, 15:34:10 04/11/03 Fri

>Here's an open question to those who are so dead set
>against Binghamton hosting. Have you ever been there?

I wouldn't say I am "dead set" against Binghamton hosting the tournament, but I AM with those who don't think awarding Binghamton the tournamnet for a multi-year deal is a good thing. My reasons are mainly the distance (for just about everyone) and a lack of stuff to do in Vestal and the surrounding area.

And, yes, I've been there -- twice -- when BU played there the past two years. It wasn't too bad when the Bing game was two days after the Albany game (Albany breaking up the trip as a half way stop from Boston), but going here just for that game this year was bad. Loooooog drive and very little to do once there. Hotels were relativley cheap, but none top or even average tier. OK places to eat but nothing special. And no attractions close by -- except I saw signs for the Howe Caverns, but that didn't look very inviting in the dead of winter. If projections turn out to be true, and the tournament is in Vestal, I for one will be looking to Bing posters for tips on stuff to do that's close by. I'll be there, but I won't be happy about it.

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[> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> Re: THE SUNY's for those who wish to be informed -- BingGrad, 23:54:38 04/11/03 Fri

I'll be the first to admit that there isn't much to do in Binghamton or Vestal -- especially in the winter. There are some very nice outdoor spots nearby, but not really suitable for tournament time. Is the situation really that different in any AE city other than Boston?

BTW, if you haven't done so already, the Baseball Hall of Fame is in Cooperstown about 80 miles from Binghamton (60 miles on I-88 back towards Albany then 20 miles north) along with 2 or 3 other nice family oriented museums. If the tourney were played so that it were 4 games on day 1 and then 2 night games on day 2 with a 7:00 start, you could make a nice day trip out of Cooperstown -- though it'd be a long day.

(Of course when Boston goes out in the first round, you could just stay the whole day in Cooperstown and just keep on truckin' back to Beantown with your tails between your legs the next morning!)

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