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RIT Tigers 2017 / 2018. Is time to go out and capture some prey!

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Re: RIT Tigers 2017 / 2018. Is time to go out and capture some prey!

TigerFan86-87 said:
Why do people keep making this argument, year after year after year? It's completely meaningless. The size of the market has absolutely nothing to do with the existence or lack of a DI program at the local colleges and universities.
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It's not completely meaningless. What it means is that the market is big enough that D-I sports could attract support from the locals, which translates to less subsidization of the sports by the university.

Boise, Stillwater, and Lincoln have big public universities in rural states where the entire state feels an affinity with the teams. Syracuse, too, to an extent; SU hoops are popular throughout New York State. RIT wouldn't have those advantages, but we do have a metro population of sufficient size.


Powers &8^]
 
Re: RIT Tigers 2017 / 2018. Is time to go out and capture some prey!

komey1 said:
I think that most of us would be willing to make this trade off for improving hockey.
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I'm not so sure. Unless you're positing it's the only way to improve hockey.


Powers &8^]
 
Re: RIT Tigers 2017 / 2018. Is time to go out and capture some prey!

Russell Jaslow said:
Let's suppose RIT goes D1 across the board. Let's suppose when they do, they actually put together a decent BB team, good enough to maybe grab an AQ in a mid-major conference. What happens then? Does the publicity of a BB team in March Madness even if they never win the first round exceed that of a hockey team which traditionally has been the sport at RIT, even a very competitive hockey team after they start giving scholarships out?

Could be. Especially with the casual local sports fan who only pays attention when March Madness rolls around. Then, suddenly, that traditional hockey team isn't so traditional anymore...
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Granted that those are big "ifs", but...
in the case that it did happen, it still might be tough to break into the stranglehold SU has on the local college basketball fans in Rochester. There are already enough mid-major basketball programs in central and western NY that struggle in the vast Orange shadow, with the obvious exception of St. Bonaventure. The Bonnies have a long history on their side and have established their own niche, but are not in a true mid-major conference. Canisius and Niagara are both DI in a larger market than Rochester, and have been for a long time. I would imagine that both of them combined couldn't draw anywhere near as many fans as SU to a game at Key Bank Center. When either the Griffins or the Purple Eagles make the tournament on occasion, i'm sure they get a fair amount of coverage in the Buffalo sports media, but once that fascination fades the following regular season sees little if any significant coverage of their MAAC games because nobody cares about that conference or those opponents (kind of like the AHC). I imagine it being similar if RIT were to be in the same situation. Nobody would be clamoring for tickets to an RIT vs Fairfield regular season basketball game even if the Tigers happened to make the NCAA tournament the year before and lost 108-52 to Duke, Kentucky, UCLA, Kansas, or whomever (or worse, to another potential # 16 seed in the play-in round).
That being said, you are right. Basketball > Hockey regardless, whether we like it or not. So the hockey team would likely fade further into the background of local college sports coverage unless they offer scholarships, change conferences, start playing more notable opponents on a regular basis here at home and actually start winning. But even with all that, it's tough enough to compete with minor-pro sports teams in a pro sports town. If you have to compete against a significantly more popular sport within your same school, well that's another challenge altogether.
 
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Re: RIT Tigers 2017 / 2018. Is time to go out and capture some prey!

LtPowers said:
I'm not so sure. Unless you're positing it's the only way to improve hockey.


Powers &8^]
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It's not the only way, but it is the easiest way.

One thing I would also say is that I am not sure it's worth it to go all the way to DI to get scholarships for hockey if there is no room to get into a better conference. I will need to see proof that all the increased scholarship limits the conference has results in more multi-bid years.
 
Re: RIT Tigers 2017 / 2018. Is time to go out and capture some prey!

Under the current administration it's more likely we move hockey to D3 than the rest of the school to D1, based on what I have seen/heard.
 
Re: RIT Tigers 2017 / 2018. Is time to go out and capture some prey!

komey1 said:
It's not the only way, but it is the easiest way.
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Exactly

komey1 said:
One thing I would also say is that I am not sure it's worth it to go all the way to DI to get scholarships for hockey if there is no room to get into a better conference. I will need to see proof that all the increased scholarship limits the conference has results in more multi-bid years.
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Yes. More scholarships (whether by being DI or DII) may or may not result in much better results if the increased scholarship allowances of the AHC don't amount to much as far as increasing the conference's stature. The AHC teams have improved and many have new or larger facilities to use now, but the national implications are not significant enough at this point. That, hopefully, is a longer term deal. If we don't see results (more at-large bids) within the next 5 to 10 years, it may never come to fruition for AHC and another conference would be the only way. But as you state, if there isn't room to move it's all moot.
 
Re: RIT Tigers 2017 / 2018. Is time to go out and capture some prey!

TigerFan86-87 said:
Yes. More scholarships (whether by being DI or DII) may or may not result in much better results if the increased scholarship allowances of the AHC don't amount to much as far as increasing the conference's stature. The AHC teams have improved and many have new or larger facilities to use now, but the national implications are not significant enough at this point. That, hopefully, is a longer term deal. If we don't see results (more at-large bids) within the next 5 to 10 years, it may never come to fruition for AHC and another conference would be the only way. But as you state, if there isn't room to move it's all moot.
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The fact that the quality of play within the AHC has improved (as well as, more marginally, the league's OOC results) as scholarship numbers have grown proves that even within the AHC there is plenty of room to improve via scholarships.
 
Re: RIT Tigers 2017 / 2018. Is time to go out and capture some prey!

RIT Winters said:
Under the current administration it's more likely we move hockey to D3 than the rest of the school to D1, based on what I have seen/heard.
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that would be very lame. I dont know much about Munson though. I loved the energy and direction Destler took with the school
 
RIT Winters said:
Under the current administration it's more likely we move hockey to D3 than the rest of the school to D1, based on what I have seen/heard.
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Not sure how to feel about that. One the one hand, downgrading is generally a bad sign. On the other hand, maybe we get less depressing results in the win column. Maybe.
 
Re: RIT Tigers 2017 / 2018. Is time to go out and capture some prey!

Schmitty said:
Not sure how to feel about that. One the one hand, downgrading is generally a bad sign. On the other hand, maybe we get less depressing results in the win column. Maybe.
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Well, we'd definitely get the change in coaching staff wanted by some. No way Wilson would stick around if we moved back to D3, that would be a slap in the face to him and the whole program.
 
Re: RIT Tigers 2017 / 2018. Is time to go out and capture some prey!

I think it would be a HUGE mistake to drop back to DIII in hockey. It would be a MAJOR step backwards and I'm pretty sure some people would stop giving to RIT if that happened.
 
Re: RIT Tigers 2017 / 2018. Is time to go out and capture some prey!

komey1 said:
I think it would be a HUGE mistake to drop back to DIII in hockey. It would be a MAJOR step backwards and I'm pretty sure some people would stop giving to RIT if that happened.
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May I ask where all this DIII talk even came from? It's a very disturbing topic.
 
Re: RIT Tigers 2017 / 2018. Is time to go out and capture some prey!

Rochester said:
May I ask where all this DIII talk even came from? It's a very disturbing topic.
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It stemmed from comparing Munson to Destler. Munson is interested in improving other sports where Destler was consistantly at the hockey games. Considering that Simone had to be dragged kicking and screaming to DI, I would be shocked if this ever happened.

Also, I think it's from frustration of 2 straight seasons of losing in the playoffs to the last place team in the league.
 
Re: RIT Tigers 2017 / 2018. Is time to go out and capture some prey!

Rochester said:
May I ask where all this DIII talk even came from? It's a very disturbing topic.
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Agreed. Even I'm not for taking that drastic of a step, and I'm a person who'd be ok with cutting our entire roster and giving the club team a shot at this point. :P
 
Re: RIT Tigers 2017 / 2018. Is time to go out and capture some prey!

Rochester said:
May I ask where all this DIII talk even came from? It's a very disturbing topic.
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It's not even a topic worth the time and energy it takes to type this. It will not be happening any generation soon. As Russell alluded to, the GPC is pretty much a monument to DI commitment.
 
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