Official 2009-2010 Northeastern University Huskies Season Thread - Life Post Thiessen

[njdevscup30]

Re: Official 2009-2010 Northeastern University Huskies Season Thread - Life Post Thiessen

Re: Official 2009-2010 Northeastern University Huskies Season Thread - Life Post Thiessen

I'm not happy about it. With proper support football could have been successful. :-( I understand it was probably the best decision now, but things could have been done to prevent this.

 

[DieHardDog]

Re: Official 2009-2010 Northeastern University Huskies Season Thread - Life Post Thiessen

Re: Official 2009-2010 Northeastern University Huskies Season Thread - Life Post Thiessen

While I am glad to see the football program go, I feel bad for the players and staff at the same time. Hopefully the athletics department follows through with the plans they have set forth in the articles regarding scholarships and helping players find other schools to play at. I'm interested in seeing where this funding will ultimately go and what will be done with Parsons field now that football is gone.

Back to hockey - Vermont on Friday. They tied with Lowell, beat Providence and split with BC. Should be an interseting match up, too bad it's during break.

 

[chase.ma]

Re: Official 2009-2010 Northeastern University Huskies Season Thread - Life Post Thiessen

Re: Official 2009-2010 Northeastern University Huskies Season Thread - Life Post Thiessen

I support the decision to cut the program because there is a plan which they are trying to stick to at NU. Roby realized that NU had come to a crossroads where they were either going to A) cut the program or B) invests millions in a stadium/recruiting/facilities. The school decided that the price to revive the program was too steep and cut their losses. I'm fine with that, as long as the money and scholarships are reinvested into other mens sports, as I am sure they will be. It takes some serious balls to cut a program like this, but I think it will ultimately lead to better mens athletics at NU.

Hockey is going to benifit mostly from the money aspect of this decision. They may get a few scholarships but most of the hockey players are on a full ride anyway.

 

[kcnuloyal]

Re: Official 2009-2010 Northeastern University Huskies Season Thread - Life Post Thie

does ESPNU count?

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/38578/n620975145_2114708_3635067.jpg

Haha...it's iffy, but I'll allow it. I stand corrected.

 

[choog]

Re: Official 2009-2010 Northeastern University Huskies Season Thread - Life Post Thie

Chase- I feel like there are a few laws out there preventing all this money from going into men's sports. I expect the women's soccer team to get more funding. Hopefully, though, men's hockey and basketball teams will see a substatial boost. I'd love to see a nice crowd at the basketball games too. It actually got pretty loud in there against Utah already!

 

[Timmy461]

Re: Official 2009-2010 Northeastern University Huskies Season Thread - Life Post Thiessen

Re: Official 2009-2010 Northeastern University Huskies Season Thread - Life Post Thiessen

I support the decision to cut the program because there is a plan which they are trying to stick to at NU. Roby realized that NU had come to a crossroads where they were either going to A) cut the program or B) invests millions in a stadium/recruiting/facilities. The school decided that the price to revive the program was too steep and cut their losses. I'm fine with that, as long as the money and scholarships are reinvested into other mens sports, as I am sure they will be. It takes some serious balls to cut a program like this, but I think it will ultimately lead to better mens athletics at NU.

Hockey is going to benifit mostly from the money aspect of this decision. They may get a few scholarships but most of the hockey players are on a full ride anyway.

They can't give anymore than the 18 scholarships that the NCAA mandates. The program could benefit from a bigger recruiting budget or more perks for players but there is nothing on teh scholarship level that can be gained by this. The money will be spread and don't be suprised if a decent portion of it goes in there pockets.

 

[NUMcNeely]

Re: Official 2009-2010 Northeastern University Huskies Season Thread - Life Post Thiessen

Re: Official 2009-2010 Northeastern University Huskies Season Thread - Life Post Thiessen

Let's talk about hockey on a hockey forum, shall we?

UVM is one of those ya but teams, similar to the Houston Texans in football. A couple of wins here and there where you think they maybe a top team in hockey east this year and a couple of losses where you scratch your head and ask, how could they have lost that game? UVM also had a streak where they couldn't score for love nor money for a couple of games, sound familiar? Strong defensively and in net, though madore seems to have taken a step back, with sporadic offensive production. I feel that NU has turned a corner and that tie at PC should light just a big enough fire under their butt to get the W, 4-3 Huskies.

 

[choog]

Re: Official 2009-2010 Northeastern University Huskies Season Thread - Life Post Thiessen

Re: Official 2009-2010 Northeastern University Huskies Season Thread - Life Post Thiessen

...and NU and BU drop out of all considerations for the top 20. When's the last time neight BU nor NU got a single vote? Anyone?

A win against Vermont this weekend would be a great boost here. Lord knows we need the points. Let's hit .500 in HE! This will be tough, as our guys will be playing in a quiet arena for once. Too bad - we have a remarkable record at home so far, no doubt thanks to the DogHouse.

 

[Chickens@NU]

Re: Official 2009-2010 Northeastern University Huskies Season Thread - Life Post Thiessen

Re: Official 2009-2010 Northeastern University Huskies Season Thread - Life Post Thiessen

...and NU and BU drop out of all considerations for the top 20. When's the last time neight BU nor NU got a single vote? Anyone?

A win against Vermont this weekend would be a great boost here. Lord knows we need the points. Let's hit .500 in HE! This will be tough, as our guys will be playing in a quiet arena for once. Too bad - we have a remarkable record at home so far, no doubt thanks to the DogHouse.

It's not so bad to see NU not getting a vote, but the last time both NU and BU did not get a vote was March 22, 2004. The final vote for that year. The following year we got a vote for the first poll, they got votes for the poll after. that is the last i can see.

 

[chase.ma]

Re: Official 2009-2010 Northeastern University Huskies Season Thread - Life Post Thiessen

Re: Official 2009-2010 Northeastern University Huskies Season Thread - Life Post Thiessen

Chase- I feel like there are a few laws out there preventing all this money from going into men's sports. I expect the women's soccer team to get more funding. Hopefully, though, men's hockey and basketball teams will see a substatial boost. I'd love to see a nice crowd at the basketball games too. It actually got pretty loud in there against Utah already!

Choog, actually all of the money and scholarships can go to mens athletics, I can't believe Im saying this but Title IX is going to work in favor of men's athletics for once. Mens and Womens athletics must be offered the same amenities, number of scholarships, and university dollars for a school to become compliant with Title IX. Normally football programs make this difficult because there can be 50+ guys on a team and well over 20 full scholarships. On top of that football programs normally cost a lot of money and thus, schools have to distribute thos 20+ scholarships and all of the funding across womens sports. Women don't have a sport fielding 50+ student athletes so the money is normally distributed amongst multiple womens sports.

In our case, Title IX will work for Mens athletics. If we were to just abolish the 20+ scholarships and million or so dollars spent on football, we would create an inequallity at NU that would favor the women, which is not allowed because of Title IX. So the AD has two options, distribute the scholarships and funding to other mens teams, or cut womens funding and scholarships to bring them into balance once again.

They can't give anymore than the 18 scholarships that the NCAA mandates. The program could benefit from a bigger recruiting budget or more perks for players but there is nothing on teh scholarship level that can be gained by this. The money will be spread and don't be suprised if a decent portion of it goes in there pockets.

I assume that Men's hockey is at 18 right now, and men's basketball will not be able to take extras on due to recent NCAA sanctions, so the scholarships will fall to other sports like track and field and baseball, which I know are not currently at the NCAA maximum. As I said above, next year, the university must still invest equally in mens and womens athletics. The one loophole to this would be if they can retroactively assign a disproportionate amount the costs of the matthews renovations to mens athletics since men hockey and mens basketball use Matthews while only Womens hockey uses it. Roby had a full review of every sport and many of our programs are underfunded, and do not have the maximum number of scholarships allowed by the CAA or the NCAA. Trust me, they know what they are doing, they eliminated football knowing that it will allow them to improve in other sports.

 

[chase.ma]

Re: Official 2009-2010 Northeastern University Huskies Season Thread - Life Post Thiessen

Re: Official 2009-2010 Northeastern University Huskies Season Thread - Life Post Thiessen

It's not so bad to see NU not getting a vote, but the last time both NU and BU did not get a vote was March 22, 2004. The final vote for that year. The following year we got a vote for the first poll, they got votes for the poll after. that is the last i can see.

Well PC got 2 votes and we just took 3 points from them. I know its only 2 votes, but someone still thinks they are better than us. If we beat UVM, you will see us have some votes again. As for BU, I hope they keep losing because they are still scary regardless of thier record. I still feel like they can break out any minute. Did I mention they are always a second half team? I won't be happy until they are mathamatically eliminated from winning the conference, getting into the NCAA's ect. ect. ect.

 

[choog]

Re: Official 2009-2010 Northeastern University Huskies Season Thread - Life Post Thiessen

Re: Official 2009-2010 Northeastern University Huskies Season Thread - Life Post Thiessen

Chase- good points there... i like where your head's at.

I was talking to a professor today about all this, and he also brought up some good points (about basketball, mostly...)

To have a top-knotch program, you really only need one huge recruit per year. (think, Lebron, KG, Wade, etc...)

So it really shouldn't take much money to improve the program... The fact that we have huge improvements in the facility, and and up and coming program should bring in some good recruits.

So that leaves hockey! More scholarship money (when the seniors graduate), more money for scouts, recruiting...

Actualy besides that.. anyone have any thoughts on how more fuding could help a team win more games when it already has a full squad of scholarships, already has a newly rennovated building, alreday has an amazing coach...?

 

[Agganis]

Re: Official 2009-2010 Northeastern University Huskies Season Thread - Life Post Thiessen

Re: Official 2009-2010 Northeastern University Huskies Season Thread - Life Post Thiessen

Title IX is not just equal money, it is equal roster spots, meaning NU needs to begin fielding more men's teams or expand the rosters of the current men's teams to cover the ~85 roster spots that Football generated. And since I'd have to assume hockey is already capped for scholarships and with the NCAA sanctions I believe basketball is also that means if scholarships are given out it will be to the other smaller sports and the only benefit the two bigger sports could see are a plethora of walk-ons. Also NU doesn't have to fill all ~85 slots next year, just begin to expand the available spots every year until they reach a balance again.

 

[Craig P.]

Re: Official 2009-2010 Northeastern University Huskies Season Thread - Life Post Thiessen

Re: Official 2009-2010 Northeastern University Huskies Season Thread - Life Post Thiessen

Hockey is going to benifit mostly from the money aspect of this decision. They may get a few scholarships but most of the hockey players are on a full ride anyway.

I would assume that hockey is already fully funded scholarship-wise. The potential positive impact would be in freeing up money to increase coaches' salaries, recruiting budget, that sort of thing. I don't know if there are any men's teams that aren't fully funded, but certainly cutting the 60-whatever football scholarships (Agannis, it's 60-some, I want to say 63 in FCS, as opposed to the 85 in the FBS) would open up the opportunity to increase scholarships in any such sports.

In our case, Title IX will work for Mens athletics. If we were to just abolish the 20+ scholarships and million or so dollars spent on football, we would create an inequallity at NU that would favor the women, which is not allowed because of Title IX. So the AD has two options, distribute the scholarships and funding to other mens teams, or cut womens funding and scholarships to bring them into balance once again.

You omitted the third option, which is that NU is currently out of compliance, and cutting the football program will, in and of itself, put NU in compliance, and thus there will be no spill-over to men's teams. I don't think that's likely to be the case, but the possibility cannot be dismissed out of hand.

 

[chase.ma]

Re: Official 2009-2010 Northeastern University Huskies Season Thread - Life Post Thiessen

Re: Official 2009-2010 Northeastern University Huskies Season Thread - Life Post Thiessen

Title IX is not just equal money, it is equal roster spots, meaning NU needs to begin fielding more men's teams or expand the rosters of the current men's teams to cover the ~85 roster spots that Football generated. And since I'd have to assume hockey is already capped for scholarships and with the NCAA sanctions I believe basketball is also that means if scholarships are given out it will be to the other smaller sports and the only benefit the two bigger sports could see are a plethora of walk-ons. Also NU doesn't have to fill all ~85 slots next year, just begin to expand the available spots every year until they reach a balance again.

Yeah, as Agganis said, NU doesnt have to reach equality next season, but instead show progress towards it. Maybe NU makes a push to start a LAX team here? It will take some innovative thinking to equal out the roster spots over the next few years. An increase in the recruiting budget, for teams maxed out on scholarships, will allow the coaches to see more players. You may see more coaches, more recruiters, and better off ice equipment and training. There are other things, in the way of NU paying for regional telecasts, which may occur. Im just throwing ideas out there, but the bottom line is, I can't see anyway that it wont help mens hockey.

 

[chase.ma]

Re: Official 2009-2010 Northeastern University Huskies Season Thread - Life Post Thiessen

Re: Official 2009-2010 Northeastern University Huskies Season Thread - Life Post Thiessen

You omitted the third option, which is that NU is currently out of compliance, and cutting the football program will, in and of itself, put NU in compliance, and thus there will be no spill-over to men's teams. I don't think that's likely to be the case, but the possibility cannot be dismissed out of hand.

If they weren't in compliance, they were very very close. Im pretty sure they were even in terms of scholarships this past year. NU will have M/W Basketball, M/W X-Country, M/W Hockey, M/W Rowing, M/W Soccer, M/W Soccer. On the mens side they will have Baseball and on the womens side they will have swimming, volleyball, and field hockey. When NU re-evaluated their teams, they did not recommend cutting any other team. So I dont see them cutting swimming, volleyball, or field hockey. I am pretty sure they will be able to distribute most of the football scholarships to the existing mens programs. Anyway, on the hockey front, none of this will matter, its dollars that will make a difference for cronin and crew. Hopefully he gets that new contract ironed out soon.

 

[NJ2NU]

Re: Official 2009-2010 Northeastern University Huskies Season Thread - Life Post Thie

Heard the news this morning. Sounds like you guys won't be getting anywhere near the "ZOMG!!!!!1!1!!! College football is SUCH a YOOOOGE part of college life - how can BU drop such an integral part of the college atmosphere????" garbage that commentators spewed when BU dropped its program. You're lucky in that regards. It's tough, but it sounds like you're kinda OK with the decision.

Based upon the Globe articles comments, it looks like the sole source of outrage is the 'I'm a 60 something year old alumnus who gives NU $75 a year and do not care that it would require millions of dollars of other people's money to make NU football close to presentable' set.

I hate that group of people.

 

[choog]

Re: Official 2009-2010 Northeastern University Huskies Season Thread - Life Post Thiessen

Re: Official 2009-2010 Northeastern University Huskies Season Thread - Life Post Thiessen

I have to say that I really love our administration...

I date a BC girl and so I have quite a bit of insight into their... conservative (to say the least) agenda. I often hear her complaints about how the administration only cares about the wants/needs/desires of the alumni (specifically, the donors)

Any time a school does something that's clearly against the wishes of the big donors or alumni (I personally know a few from my co-op at Deloitte who feed *big bucks* into the football program) it shows that the guys high up are listening to someone else (THE STUDENTS!!)

From making tickets to co-op students available when they ask for it, to renovating Matthews arena, to bagging a program that no students were interested in, NU shows time and time again that it actually cares what its students are asking for.

Hockey - seriously considering driving back from CT for the hockey game, then going back to CT that night to continue the holiday weekend with the family... But how many students will be around? Anyone have an educated guess on a number?

I know we can beat UVM, and I know we are a better team than the experts think. At this point, it's just a matter of consistency in two regards- on the ice, and off (injuries, illness...)

Can't wait to see which team shows up!

Also - is NUTV really as bad as people complain about? If I can't make the road trip I'll be watching online

 

[HuskyMan]

Re: Official 2009-2010 Northeastern University Huskies Season Thread - Life Post Thiessen

Re: Official 2009-2010 Northeastern University Huskies Season Thread - Life Post Thiessen

It was a risky move by the AD but can pay off.

I've been told the money saved, at least the part that will be reinvested back in athletics (which is not all from what I can gather), much of it will go to the underfunded sports that have still found success, such as men's and women's soccer. Baseball as well.

NU can only do so much more in terms of men's and women's hockey, and men's and women's basketball, both are at full scholarship limits due to conference rules that mandate it...

On the whole this can be good for the athletic department, can help to create sports that have a much better chance for success...

 

[Agganis]

Re: Official 2009-2010 Northeastern University Huskies Season Thread - Life Post Thiessen

Re: Official 2009-2010 Northeastern University Huskies Season Thread - Life Post Thiessen

An increase in the recruiting budget, for teams maxed out on scholarships, will allow the coaches to see more players. You may see more coaches, more recruiters, and better off ice equipment and training. There are other things, in the way of NU paying for regional telecasts, which may occur. Im just throwing ideas out there, but the bottom line is, I can't see anyway that it wont help mens hockey.

Yes, however when I see a school cut a program or team past experience tells me more often than not the primary motive is to cut a financial drain on the school to help balance the books rather than to invest the money they were previously losing into something else where they can lose the money. While I'm sure the hockey program will see an increased budget I'm not sure how significant it will be. Since hockey is this biggest revenue sport I would not be surprised if the AD wanted to at least keep the program self sufficient so that not every sport is at an operating loss. And I'm not sure how the stadium renovation will affect revenue, however last year the program turned a profit of just under $160,000 so if that is the case that doesn't leave much room for a spending increase.

EDIT: Correction that $160,000 figure was for 2007 not 2008