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Date Posted: 22:48:31 02/23/09 Mon
i would doubt that ensor only wants a gonzaga. i also doubt that siena could become a gonzaga. they can be one of the best mid-majors on a consistent basis but gonzaga is on another level that will never be reached by siena or any other maac school. as they currently stand, the maac schools are just too small to invest the funds needed to become gonzaga. in siena's case, the school is less than half the size of gonzaga and has been established for half as many years. gonzaga's financial support can never be matched by siena, so there is no way they can consistently compete with them. there is a reason why st. peters is bad almost every year, its their budget!!!
what Ensor wants is obvious.
he wants to make money or at the very least, not lose money (like the tournament does every year it is not in albany). he wants people (not just siena fans) to purchase all session passes. if enough siena fans do this, it doesn't matter if siena wins it all or loses saturday, so that is why he pushes all-sessions to siena fans. if the tickets are purchased, the maac makes money and that means the most to ensor (his performance is judged in large part by the finances of the league, which includes monies distributed to member schools by conferernce). however, i would suspect that in most seasons, ensor and the rest of the maac staffers are rooting for the best team because that is how they can make more money. the ncaa pays the league each year for the amount of ncaa games they have had over the past 5 years. if you send one team each year for 5 years and they lose in the first round each year, the maac receives 5 "units". since siena won last year, the maac will receive 2 "units" for 2007-2008 season alone, hence increasing their "take" by at least 20% per year for the next 4 seasons. therefore, if the maac sends their best team to the ncaa, the maac has their best chance of getting a win and adding directly to their (and member schools)pocketbooks. since the money that comes into the maac from the ncaa tournament is shared equally among its members, you and i are also rooting for the best team to win the maac championship (if our team doesn't). in addition to the extra $$$, the league and school get millions of dollars worth of free publicity, etc. this year, things are a little different. with niagara showing that it is a viable contenter and potential first round upset possibility, i would bet anything that ensor is hoping siena wins out and loses to niagara in the maac championship. this would give the league the best chance at getting two teams into the ncaa tournament (i admit a mild longshot for siena at-large). if maac gets two teams into to tournament they get two "units" automatically for 2008-2009 season. if they both won, that would give them four "units", and so on. so it is easy to see how the maac can benefit a lot more by siena losing in championship then winning. since the odds of siena or niagara winning a game against a top-25 team on a neutral court are both low, the best situation for the maac is to get the extra "unit" through having two teams in dance.
so, in summary, if you think ensor wants siena to win, you better think again. the only thing ensor wants is the $100+ for each seat in the arena and he doesn't care who buys them. i can't see how you or anyone else expect him to jeopardize the financial take of the tournament by holding the best seats (that can be easily sold to public)for people that historically don't show up. they are already losing money by no longer letting season ticket holders purchase their season location as i know a lot of people purchase session by session or wait for potential game monday to change in policy.
anyways, hopefully this can clear up some of the confusion around the situation and not lead to more spin and unfounded complaining...
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