Just hazarding a guess, but BU and BC both benefit from the fact that they are located in Boston. Think that location doesn't matter? Where would you rather live: the heart of New England, or the middle of nowhere upstate New York? RIT will struggle to bring in applicants, even though they are a well-respected school.
Quite honestly, neither one. I'll stay right where I am - far away from either.... Where would you rather live: the heart of New England, or the middle of nowhere upstate New York?
Will it be in the Consol Energy Center (or whatever they're going to call it)?
If so, that's a huge step-up from the BCA. Of course, if they don't put at least six or seven thousand in the seats, it's going to be a barren wasteland, and atmosphere is going to be hard to come by.
Where would you rather live: the heart of New England, or the middle of nowhere upstate New York?
Indeed BU benefits from a larger applicant pool in the Boston area (compared to greater Rochester), but is hurt by the fact that you can't swing a dead cat without hitting another college/university vying for the same applicants.
Rochester is hardly the middle of nowhere. It's not a top-tier city, but it's not Binghamton, Plattsburgh, or Watertown, either.
Powers &8^]
I'd take Bingo over Rochester in a heartbeat.
I'd take Bingo over Rochester in a heartbeat.
As far as Niagara, I never quite got what their issue wasz other than they somehow convinced themaelves that they were a potential Boston College of the North.
This is for the NCAA Championship event, not the Atlantic Hockey Championship, it should be noted.
Rochester is hardly the middle of nowhere. It's not a top-tier city, but it's not Binghamton, Plattsburgh, or Watertown, either.
I don't remember, but I'm guessing whomever called Upstate New York the middle of nowhere must be from Boston. Give me a break. Rochester is the third largest city in New York (second largest if you don't count the cess-pool in downstate). The county has ~ 800k population (may be less after this year's census). So middle of nowhere isn't exactly what I would call it.
Rochester is hardly the middle of nowhere. It's not a top-tier city, but it's not Binghamton, Plattsburgh, or Watertown, either.
Powers &8^]
Geography major, anyone?![]()
When did Boston get relocated to the South?
You do know that if you go pretty much straight WEST on I-90 from Boston, you end up in Buffalo, about 30 minutes from Niagara Falls. So unless I'm missing something, I'm not sure that 2 or 3 degrees difference in latitude indicates a significant difference enough to say NU wants to be the BC of the North, really.
Especially when you get out to the more rural-type suburbs (such as Rush, Henrietta, Brockport, etc.).
I think someone else kind of alluded to it, but their reasoning was that they were hoping to land in either CCHA or HEA within a few years of going D-I. So in the meantime, they'd join what was not so much a conference but a scheduling arrangement for D-I independents where they would not be restricted on scholarships and would have a larger window for NC games against as many quality opponents as possible. Hence they're ability to land an at-large bid to the tournament and beat UNH 5-1, (like who hasn't?) pretty early in their D-I life (fourth year as a program, first or second actually playing a full D-I schedule).It was just that I never quite understood Niagara's insistence on playing in a league like the CHA. It isn't like they were playing against the elite of the sport, and in the AHA/MAAC, where I really think there was a desire to have them, they'd have had a pretty good chance to get tourney bids, and they could have scheduled out of conference probalby as well as they did in the CHA when you look at who other AHA teams play/have played. I'm not knocking the schools in the CHA, but Bimidji isn't Minnesota, nor is Wayne State, Michigan. I'm not sure what the goal was, that's all. For all intents and purposes, both leagues were single bid leagues most years. and at the top, they were both pretty good...both have as many final four teams since they both got autobids as the much more highly heralded ECAC I think, so its not like they had no chance to make a run. The AHA I think has at least as many, maybe more 1st round wins.
By the way, I actually think that it is Buffalo, not Rochester that is the 2nd largest city in New york state. The metro areas might be close though. Not really sure, though I suspect if you include the Canadaian side Buffalo is significantly larger there too.
Jim, let me try again. I believe our preference for the CHA essentially revolved around two points. The first was that there was a more serious intent on our part to develop the hockey program to a higher level. Hence, although unsuccessful, we did seriously bid for the ECACHL open spot that went to Q-pac. We continued to hold out hope that we might see one of the Big Four conferences step up "for the greater good" of D1 hockey when it became apparent that CHA would eventually fold. Neither did that happen. We didn't achieve our aspirations ... are you going to blame us for having higher goals and trying to achieve them? But our hopes for a program that reached higher levels in D1 aligned more closely with those of the core schools in CHA than the apparent program objectives of most, if not all, of the AHA schools.... It was just that I never quite understood Niagara's insistence on playing in a league like the CHA. It isn't like they were playing against the elite of the sport, and in the AHA/MAAC, where I really think there was a desire to have them, they'd have had a pretty good chance to get tourney bids, and they could have scheduled out of conference probalby as well as they did in the CHA when you look at who other AHA teams play/have played. I'm not knocking the schools in the CHA, but Bimidji isn't Minnesota, nor is Wayne State, Michigan. I'm not sure what the goal was, that's all. ...
BTW ... originally being from Utica area - when you look at a map of NYS, I think Utica is about as close to the middle as you can get in such an irregularly shaped state. And there is not all that much around it, either, so is Utica truly a little bit of something in the absolute middle of nowhere?
Hmmm ... probably a better description than mine.Having spent the last 25 years living in (or at least near) Utica, I often think of it as nothing in the middle of somewhere....