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-   -   A10 fall soccer anouncemet Re: coronavirus (http://www.udpride.com/forums/showthread.php?t=34333)

soccerflyer 05-20-2020 12:41 AM

A10 fall soccer announcement Re: coronavirus
 

soccerflyer 05-20-2020 01:22 AM

My takeaways:
-Shame that the league has to go back to 4 playoff teams from 8, and also cut the number of conference games from 10 to 8. Suppose there is a tie for 4th. With an unbalanced schedule, there are sure to be snubs, potentially.

-Salvaging the season is an important goal above all others

-All of this is dependent of course on whether they can get all 14 schools to reopen in time to play soccer and also to not cut "optional" sports and all associated travel.


The A10's release seems to be about preservation of the existing conferences and that's obviously their prerogative so hopefully this short term plan is seen as sustainable, when the time comes to kick off the season.

Chris R 05-20-2020 01:54 AM

If A10 schedules are regionally focused, they may be even more lopsided in terms of which
"pod" you get into. That alone may essentially determine if you have a realistic chance of making the shortened 4-team A10 tourney. You might end up playing twice as many A10 tourney contending teams as someone else with a soft bottomfeeder pod that back-doors in to the A10 tourney.

Lastly, how much are they really saving by cutting the tourneys from 8 to 4 teams? I guess the conventional answer is "Well Chris, 50%." But 50% of what? Is that 50% of $100,000, or 50% of $10,000? I wonder if we're picking pennies off the floor in the name of savings but penalizing the student-athletes more than what the savings (and theoretical safety) is.

At this point, I can see the A10 limiting attendance to just admins and media for things like soccer and volleyball. I would really feel for the fans but even more so the players because part of what makes UD athletics special is the relationship b/t the students/fans and the teams/players.

jack72 05-20-2020 10:15 AM

Sports are awesome, and I am a sport's freak, but at some point the budget deficit is too great and it is time to either pay your own way, like UD by a huge basketball income, or get donors to pay for it. Tuition and fees keep going up and cannot pay for Suzy and Johnny rowing and playing tennis.

Does not matter how much this cut saves. It, along with several others, add up to real dollars. As I was told early in my financial career by a seasoned veteran, "Watch your dollars, but most importantly, watch your pennies, because they add up to dollars before you know it."

Time for colleges to start lopping off some of their administrative bureaucracies and niceties.

UD62 05-20-2020 11:23 AM

A few figures for 2018. (As UD is private not all information is made public)

Total athletic expense $29+ million, total sports related income about $18+M.

MBB income $14.2M, expense $7.25M (+$6.95)

Football income $81,000, expense $1.2M (-$1.2)

Student fees do exist but data not available, same with donations

This is kind of broad brush but gives an idea of some costs and income. Couldn't find date for other sports. more specific date may exist but this was just a google search

soccerflyer 05-21-2020 10:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chris R (Post 629485)
If A10 schedules are regionally focused, they may be even more lopsided in terms of which
"pod" you get into. That alone may essentially determine if you have a realistic chance of making the shortened 4-team A10 tourney. You might end up playing twice as many A10 tourney contending teams as someone else with a soft bottomfeeder pod that back-doors in to the A10 tourney.

Lastly, how much are they really saving by cutting the tourneys from 8 to 4 teams? I guess the conventional answer is "Well Chris, 50%." But 50% of what? Is that 50% of $100,000, or 50% of $10,000? I wonder if we're picking pennies off the floor in the name of savings but penalizing the student-athletes more than what the savings (and theoretical safety) is.

At this point, I can see the A10 limiting attendance to just admins and media for things like soccer and volleyball. I would really feel for the fans but even more so the players because part of what makes UD athletics special is the relationship b/t the students/fans and the teams/players.

I could argue the conference tournament format may stand to save even more than half in terms of some variable costs. Remember it's going from 7 games down to 3 games, or 57%, and 4 or 5 sites down to 1 site, or 75-80%. So the impact from travel, officiating crews, and other oversight of the tournament is potentially greatly reduced.

Sure, the play-in round format was a fun add while it lasted, and was beneficial for the fans of the top four seeds to have that opportunity to play a first round championship game locally. But those teams 1 thru 4 also deserve to make it to the final showcase, rather than contend with anupstart team to stave off elimination. I had always felt that 6 qualifying teams was the ideal balance, and 8 teams may have been too many. Occasionally the low seed has even had a losing record.

I have some added suggestions for long term.

1. Unbalanced scheduling is the price we will pay in the short term for the cuts in travel. But when it becomes safe and conscionable to travel again, they really must re-prioritize getting the regular season back to balanced by any way possible. While we have only 8 regular season games as the men have for awhile, we may experience greater perceived imbalances, and this usually results in some very thin tiebreakers.

2. Currently, the rotating host sites try to be in the spirit of overall neutrality, but in my suggested version we can perhaps do a little better.
My plan would provide an added incentive to perform well in the regular season but could also preserve some long term neutrality by excluding repeats.
In 2019 St Louis won the regular season, hosted the finals (by coincidence), and also won the championship. In my theoretical example for securing the 2020 host, St Louis should be considered not be eligible to host consecutively (as per current guidelines) but I would also have deemed them ineligible on the basis that they won the prior year tournament. I would then offer hosting to last year's #2 seed GW, and proceed down the list until a suitable host may be secured.

But regardless of any of our misgivings, this announcement about trimming costs and travel responsibly is a much better alternative to a canceled season. I hope all the teams are able to recommit so that this good conference may continue to grow and thrive despite these difficult times.

soccerflyer 11-29-2020 10:31 AM

With this season's schedule starting approximately Feb 3, maybe we will be treated to a snow bowl at Baujan.

soccerflyer 01-03-2021 06:20 PM

Tentatively, the season will open 2/3 on the road with an exhibition at Toledo. The home opener 2/7 will be against D-1 newcomer, Bellarmine. A10 schedules have not yet been made public. Also noted on the A10 site, the tournaments will be hosted at the highest seed this year for men's and women's soccer, and with there being fewer at large opportunities for the 2021 Spring season, and only four playoff berths instead of the usual eight, this regular season's importance has been amplified.

soccerflyer 01-22-2021 08:05 PM

Only some teams in A10 have released schedules already. From these, I gather that the A10 regular season dates will be Thursdays and Sundays, from March 11 to April 8, 2021. It appears that there are about three pods or divisions if you want to call them that. Davidson, George Mason, Richmond, VCU, and GW are in the midatlatlantic pod playing a home and home series for a total of 8 conf games. URI, UMass, St Joe's, La Salle, and Fordham are in another pod. This leaves somewhat undetermined as of yet the four remaining teams in Dayton, St Louis, St Bonaventure, and Duquesne. Will those teams play 6 games or the full 8? It is strange to think how an unbalanced schedule is supposed to play out. If I had my best guess, each pod would send one team to the finals, and then the best overall second team could join the tournament as the fourth seed. Does that make sense? I like to offer this as just my speculation at this time, we will see what actually comes to pass as the remainder of conference schedules come into fuller view.

Dayton also has added a non conf match at Butler on Feb 21, after an exhibition against Bowling Green which is set for Feb 18 at home.


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