Loyola-Chicago to the A10

[RhodyKyle]

I trust experts who truly know this sport.

[ramster]

I swear some of y'all will be negative about literally anything. Everyone who's pointing to GMU is seemingly ignoring Davidson who plays in a similar size arena and has been nothing but a benefit for the conference.

I remember a couple posters very unhappy when Davidson was added.

This is a solid addition for the A-10.

Good geographically for Dayton and St Louis

Like how there were talks going on since summer and virtually no mentions or rumors of Loyola Joining the A-10

Maybe a 16th team gets added. Temple? Wichita State? I like the move.

[Rhodymob05]

My hope is that its not a George Mason situation.

[ramster]

Not bad to pick up a team picked 2nd preseason poll

1. Drake (29 first-place votes), 411 points.
2. Loyola (8), 363.
3. Northern Iowa (6), 354.
4. Missouri State, 325.
5. Southern Illinois, 228.
6. Bradley, 171.
7. Valparaiso, 151.
8. Evansville, 148.
9. Indiana State, 147.
10. Illinois State, 68.

https://www.pjstar.com/story/sports/col ... 531682002/

[Rhode_Island_Red]

Did the CAA bounce URI football? I can remember times when SBU, Duquesne and URI were awful in MBB. Even UMASS in the mid-80's prior to "Here's Johnny". Fordham is the A10's presence in NYC. They were one of the first to pay their head coach $1M. Leave Fordham alone.

Nobody in New York except for alumni gives a rat's ass about Fordham.

[Rhodymob05]

Does this mean Temple is out?

[Rhody15]

Looks like Keaney Gym.

Slowly working your way up to Rhody72 troll status, nice work.

Troll status? So lay out the facts of how this new gym team expands the A10. Tell us how this makes the A10 better. I don't see it. I see George Mason times 2 here.

You see George Mason because you’re negative with everything on this board, choosing to ignore VCU, Butler, St Louis, Davidson moving up successfully in conferences.

And calling them a "gym team" after they've made a Final Four and Sweet 16 the last few years just shows how literally nothing is good enough for you.

[Rhody74]

Does this mean Temple is out?

I don’t know about Temple but I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a 16th team being negotiated with.

[NYGFan_Section208]

Comments from the Loyola Massage Board

Most all were surprised by the announcement.

http://www.ramblermania.net/forum/viewt ... 7&start=30

How come we don't have a massage board?

[reef]

Just saw this news , very excited great move for the A10 !!

[KeaneyBluBallz]

F fordham and the ram they rode in on.

Id trade fordham and lasalle to the maac for iona and manhattan in a new york minute.

[rhodylaw]

Slowly working your way up to Rhody72 troll status, nice work.

Troll status? So lay out the facts of how this new gym team expands the A10. Tell us how this makes the A10 better. I don't see it. I see George Mason times 2 here.

You see George Mason because you’re negative with everything on this board, choosing to ignore VCU, Butler, St Louis, Davidson moving up successfully in conferences.

And calling them a "gym team" after they've made a Final Four and Sweet 16 the last few years just shows how literally nothing is good enough for you.

The similarities to George Mason are definitely there - you can’t compare to Davidson who has the same coach, St.Louis which has beautiful facilities and spent money on Travis Ford, VCU who kept Shaka during the transition to the A10.

However, I still don’t hate the addition. Even if they turn out to be George Mason at least they try to be competitive and want to get back to the final four level team. Better then some other options out there, and the recent buzz doesn’t hurt.

[Rhody15]

Troll status? So lay out the facts of how this new gym team expands the A10. Tell us how this makes the A10 better. I don't see it. I see George Mason times 2 here.

You see George Mason because you’re negative with everything on this board, choosing to ignore VCU, Butler, St Louis, Davidson moving up successfully in conferences.

And calling them a "gym team" after they've made a Final Four and Sweet 16 the last few years just shows how literally nothing is good enough for you.

The similarities to George Mason are definitely there - you can’t compare to Davidson who has the same coach, St.Louis which has beautiful facilities and spent money on Travis Ford, VCU who kept Shaka during the transition to the A10.

However, I still don’t hate the addition. Even if they turn out to be George Mason at least they try to be competitive and want to get back to the final four level team. Better then some other options out there, and the recent buzz doesn’t hurt.

Loyola has an 18.5 million dollar practice facility.

[Rhodymob05]

Some of their fans seem cocky about it. I hate em already lol.

[Obadiah]

I'm not generally fond of dumping on rival teams (though I do make an exception with PC), so attacking Fordham and especially George Mason is not in my DNA. George Mason has come out of the gate this season with three strong wins. They will get a major test tonight versus Maryland, so we will know about the 2021-22 team later tonight. Apart from that, GMU is a large public university with a good sized arena, a school that we should want to be successful. And welcome Loyola Chicago to the A-10!

[Rhody72]

Nobody in New York except for alumni gives a rat's ass about Fordham.

Nobody in NYC gives a rats ass about most city college athletic team. But there are many good NYC athletes who want to visit home to play in front of friends and family. And, Fordham is one of the stronger academic institutions in the A10,

[KingstonLane]

Can never make some people happy around here

Loyola is one of the strongest brand names in mid major college basketball over the last 5 years. That’s worth something, a lot actually. The coach leaving doesn’t change how the program has been elevated on a national level. That will be the case more often than not for mid majors, good coaches leave. Deal with it.

[Rhody15]

I'm not generally fond of dumping on rival teams (though I do make an exception with PC), so attacking Fordham and especially George Mason is not in my DNA. George Mason has come out of the gate this season with three strong wins. They will get a major test tonight versus Maryland, so we will know about the 2021-22 team later tonight. Apart from that, GMU is a large public university with a good sized arena, a school that we should want to be successful. And welcome Loyola Chicago to the A-10!

...Fordham and George Mason are our rivals? Since when?

[Rhody15]

Can never make some people happy around here

Loyola is one of the strongest brand names in mid major college basketball over the last 5 years. That’s worth something, a lot actually. The coach leaving doesn’t change how the program has been elevated on a national level. That will be the case more often than not for mid majors, good coaches leave. Deal with it.

Yup, people choosing to be miserable 24/7/365 on their board.

[ramster]

I'm not generally fond of dumping on rival teams (though I do make an exception with PC), so attacking Fordham and especially George Mason is not in my DNA. George Mason has come out of the gate this season with three strong wins. They will get a major test tonight versus Maryland, so we will know about the 2021-22 team later tonight. Apart from that, GMU is a large public university with a good sized arena, a school that we should want to be successful. And welcome Loyola Chicago to the A-10!

...Fordham and George Mason our are our rivals? Since when?

All 13 teams in the A10 are URI rivals to me. And now Loyola joins to make it 14 URI rivals.

Some may be viewed differently based on geography, length of time in the A10, etc.

URI’s best rivalries in the past were UMASS, UCONN, Boston College, PC (with 2 games per year), Northeastern, New Hampshire……but that all changed a lot with the New England schools going to many different conferences A10, A shame really across the country for rivalries.

As Ed Cooley has said many times URI is not a rivalry game, and he put an exclamation point to that statement a year ago.

[Rhody15]

I'm not generally fond of dumping on rival teams (though I do make an exception with PC), so attacking Fordham and especially George Mason is not in my DNA. George Mason has come out of the gate this season with three strong wins. They will get a major test tonight versus Maryland, so we will know about the 2021-22 team later tonight. Apart from that, GMU is a large public university with a good sized arena, a school that we should want to be successful. And welcome Loyola Chicago to the A-10!

...Fordham and George Mason our are our rivals? Since when?

All 13 teams in the A10 are URI rivals to me. And now Loyola joins to make it 14 URI rivals.

Some may be viewed differently based on geography, length of time in the A10, etc.

URI’s best rivalries in the past were UMASS, UCONN, Boston College, PC (with 2 games per year), Northeastern, New Hampshire……but that all changed a lot with the New England schools going to many different conferences A10, A shame really across the country for rivalries.

As Ed Cooley has said many times URI is not a rivalry game, and he put an exclamation point to that statement a year ago.

Cooley just says it's not a rivalry game to work up and troll our fanbase, which seems to work.

Obviously it a rivalry game, everyone knows it in both fanbases. If it wasn't a rivalry, the PC ticket office wouldn't be holding out on selling tickets to the public until the last second.


And you may be the only URI fan who actually thinks every A10 team, including Loyola, is our rivals. That is crazy talk, and really makes zero sense.

I'd say UMass and VCU (due to our recent success against them) would be the top two A10 rivals.

[ramster]

...Fordham and George Mason our are our rivals? Since when?

All 13 teams in the A10 are URI rivals to me. And now Loyola joins to make it 14 URI rivals.

Some may be viewed differently based on geography, length of time in the A10, etc.

URI’s best rivalries in the past were UMASS, UCONN, Boston College, PC (with 2 games per year), Northeastern, New Hampshire……but that all changed a lot with the New England schools going to many different conferences A10, A shame really across the country for rivalries.

As Ed Cooley has said many times URI is not a rivalry game, and he put an exclamation point to that statement a year ago.

Cooley just says it's not a rivalry game to work up and troll our fanbase, which seems to work.

Obviously it a rivalry game, everyone knows it in both fanbases. If it wasn't a rivalry, the PC ticket office wouldn't be holding out on selling tickets to the public until the last second.


And you may be the only URI fan who actually thinks every A10 team, including Loyola, is our rivals. That is crazy talk, and really makes zero sense.

I'd say UMass and VCU (due to our recent success against them) would be the top two A10 rivals.

Cooley says it every year, not just once.

More realignments will take place as Football impacts the segregation of schools. UMASS will likely not be in the A10 long term. VCU could opt for another conference too.

Rivalries took major hits and nothing like they were.

It’s more now like we have 14 rivalries or zero rivalries depending on your view.

This years PC game will be a superspreader event. No masks and Covid raging. Fun.

[steviep123]

The trick is to get more Davidsons and Butlers (yes I know only a year), and VCUs in and less Fordhams and LaSalles. On paper, Fordham was a good choice due to their NYC presence and their stacked endowment - but they haven't used it correctly to help athletics (or at least men's basketball), so either they don't want to have hoops succeed or they are just bad at it. So in practice they are a bad addition.

As for LaSalle, other than that one sweet 16 run, they haven't done much since joining the league 26 years ago. That year, if memory serves, the A10 (after the BE stole Rutgers and West Virginia), the A10 added Xavier, Dayton, Va Tech, LaSalle and Fordham. 3 of the 5 were good adds. I do recall Al Skinner at the time being against LaSalle (I don't know the reasoning - perhaps too many Philly schools?). Regardless he was right and Fordham could and should be better. I was thrilled when LaSalle was about to leave for the Patriot league and then didn't. I wish they had. Them and Fordham should either put up or shut up.

Rant over.

Welcome Ramblers and Sister Jean!

[ramster]

I have a tough time with URI finishing in 10th place listening to complaining about the 12th, 13th and 14th place teams - of which we were 13th under Baron not too long ago.

Rant over.

Welcome Ramblers and Sister Jean!

Solid addition. Well done A10 Commissioner.

[bigappleram]

It’s not the best move the league could make IMO but it’s not the worst either. The league would increase in strength greatest by going down to 12 teams (you all know who goes) but that seems off the table. So if the Commish was hell bent on adding then Loyola was amongst the most compelling. I suspect there will be a 16th added and heard Belmont was the program. Who knows.

And Ramster and others cmon with saying since we had 1 bad year we can’t cast stones at Fordham and LaSalle. That is just being ridiculous. This isn’t about 1,2,3 bad seasons this is about 10,20,30 years of bad results and no intention to invest in their own facilities. Put the resumes next to each other of our program and theirs and it will look like David and Goliath. They both belong in the Patriot League with likeminded institutions.

[adam914]

Overall I'm happy with adding Loyola. It's certainly not a home run or anything, but given the current landscape of college athletics it's probably about as good of an addition as we could expect, so I'll take it. Just need to hope that the move to the A10 helps propel them to a higher level where they are a solid opponent most years.

[ramster]

BAR,

It’s ok to say LaSalle and Fordham suck and should be gone from the A10. We all get it.

It’s kind of like mask wearing discussion in the Covid thread. Enough already.

[ramster]

It’s not the best move the league could make IMO but it’s not the worst either. The league would increase in strength greatest by going down to 12 teams (you all know who goes) but that seems off the table. So if the Commish was hell bent on adding then Loyola was amongst the most compelling. I suspect there will be a 16th added and heard Belmont was the program. Who knows.

And Ramster and others cmon with saying since we had 1 bad year we can’t cast stones at Fordham and LaSalle. That is just being ridiculous. This isn’t about 1,2,3 bad seasons this is about 10,20,30 years of bad results and no intention to invest in their own facilities. Put the resumes next to each other of our program and theirs and it will look like David and Goliath. They both belong in the Patriot League with likeminded institutions.

Belmont is going MVC it appears.

The stones are cast at Fordham, LaSalle, UMASS and lately even George Mason regardless of what kind of year URI has. It just seems worse to do it with a 10-15 record and 10th place.

[rhodylaw]

It’s not the best move the league could make IMO but it’s not the worst either. The league would increase in strength greatest by going down to 12 teams (you all know who goes) but that seems off the table. So if the Commish was hell bent on adding then Loyola was amongst the most compelling. I suspect there will be a 16th added and heard Belmont was the program. Who knows.

And Ramster and others cmon with saying since we had 1 bad year we can’t cast stones at Fordham and LaSalle. That is just being ridiculous. This isn’t about 1,2,3 bad seasons this is about 10,20,30 years of bad results and no intention to invest in their own facilities. Put the resumes next to each other of our program and theirs and it will look like David and Goliath. They both belong in the Patriot League with likeminded institutions.

We sucked last year and still had a sub-200 RPI. There is a difference between us and a program like Fordham that routinely is over 250 in RPI and drags the conference down.

[RF1]

Dana O'Neil wrote the following about the Explorers in The Athletic piece about the addition of Loyola:

"La Salle’s enrollment and credit rating are both dropping at alarming rates and some in and around Philly have wondered how long the school can sustain its Division I status."

La Salle University has been in a downward trajectory for several years. It caused much controversy several years ago when its college art museum sold off many artworks to raise funds. Its enrollment has been dropping. The closing of many Catholic high schools in metro Philadelphia has made recruitment of students far more difficult in recent years. It is encountering the problems that many small private colleges are facing today - dwindling college age student demographics and worsening cost/benefit profiles. As college costs have dramatically risen, increasingly expensive small privates without top academic reputations have struggled to attract students.

One wonders if dropping out of the A-10 is the least of its worries. Could it be headed to a merger with another school or even worse, closure?

[bigappleram]

But we had some Baron years where we sucked so we are no different.

[McRam]

Fordham is not going anywhere. If you were to follow the entire A10 Athletic Programs, both men and women Fordham is above average. Also they are not the reason for low RPI and other ranking organizations. They are just one school. And they usually find a way to beat us once a year. During our frequent droughts in MBB, one can wonder how many fans from other schools wished we would leave the A10. Gotta get off that high horse.

Time will tell, but, Kyle Neptune the ex Jay Wright assistant at Billanova, should make a big difference.

He completely turned over the roster from last season and their first signing for next year is a true 4*

Guessing they will not be last this year.

[McRam]

Not sure we should dump on Loyola, they do have one more National Champioship banner hanging than we do!!

[McRam]

Why would we want them? The only reason they were any good is because of a coach that isn't even there anymore.

1963, 1964, 1966, 1968, 1985, 2018, 2021. Those are the times they've made the tournament.

Feels like we just added Chicago Fordham

So we made it 10 times. 3 more than us, Really not much a difference, especially for a one conference league.

[Obadiah]

Frankly, the general support at most mid-west schools, like southern schools, is much beyond what northeast schools can muster, This especially true of facilities as a look at Liberty and Appalachian State athletics facilities clearly show.

Ironically, the other school in the A-10 with endowment and enrollment problems is St. Bonaventure and I thought they had a more systemic problem than La Salle.

[gorhody89]

Surprised that some are not happy, seems like a solid addition. Understand that they lost their coach but the school has clearly invested in the program more than atleast half existing A10 schools.

[NYGFan_Section208]

It’s not the best move the league could make IMO but it’s not the worst either. The league would increase in strength greatest by going down to 12 teams (you all know who goes) but that seems off the table. So if the Commish was hell bent on adding then Loyola was amongst the most compelling. I suspect there will be a 16th added and heard Belmont was the program. Who knows.

In other words...as the kids say..."meh"

[NYGFan_Section208]

It’s not the best move the league could make IMO but it’s not the worst either. The league would increase in strength greatest by going down to 12 teams (you all know who goes) but that seems off the table. So if the Commish was hell bent on adding then Loyola was amongst the most compelling. I suspect there will be a 16th added and heard Belmont was the program. Who knows.

And Ramster and others cmon with saying since we had 1 bad year we can’t cast stones at Fordham and LaSalle. That is just being ridiculous. This isn’t about 1,2,3 bad seasons this is about 10,20,30 years of bad results and no intention to invest in their own facilities. Put the resumes next to each other of our program and theirs and it will look like David and Goliath. They both belong in the Patriot League with likeminded institutions.

We sucked last year and still had a sub-200 RPI. There is a difference between us and a program like Fordham that routinely is over 250 in RPI and drags the conference down.

Really....can't read get that worked up about the difference between 150 and 250....

[KingstonLane]

For those of you not happy with the addition of Loyola, who would have you preferred? Serious question

[NYGFan_Section208]

For those of you not happy with the addition of Loyola, who would have you preferred? Serious question

Can't say I'm not happy with it...just doesn't seem to move the needle one way or the other...

[ramster]

It’s not the best move the league could make IMO but it’s not the worst either. The league would increase in strength greatest by going down to 12 teams (you all know who goes) but that seems off the table. So if the Commish was hell bent on adding then Loyola was amongst the most compelling. I suspect there will be a 16th added and heard Belmont was the program. Who knows.

And Ramster and others cmon with saying since we had 1 bad year we can’t cast stones at Fordham and LaSalle. That is just being ridiculous. This isn’t about 1,2,3 bad seasons this is about 10,20,30 years of bad results and no intention to invest in their own facilities. Put the resumes next to each other of our program and theirs and it will look like David and Goliath. They both belong in the Patriot League with likeminded institutions.

We sucked last year and still had a sub-200 RPI. There is a difference between us and a program like Fordham that routinely is over 250 in RPI and drags the conference down.

There definitely is a difference. We all know it.

Trashing Fordham should have it’s own section on this board. It would definitely give the Covid thread some good competition

[section(105)]

You see George Mason because you’re negative with everything on this board, choosing to ignore VCU, Butler, St Louis, Davidson moving up successfully in conferences.

And calling them a "gym team" after they've made a Final Four and Sweet 16 the last few years just shows how literally nothing is good enough for you.

The similarities to George Mason are definitely there - you can’t compare to Davidson who has the same coach, St.Louis which has beautiful facilities and spent money on Travis Ford, VCU who kept Shaka during the transition to the A10.

However, I still don’t hate the addition. Even if they turn out to be George Mason at least they try to be competitive and want to get back to the final four level team. Better then some other options out there, and the recent buzz doesn’t hurt.

Loyola has an 18.5 million dollar practice facility.

………and we apparently have a intramural court or two………with dreams of it becoming something more………

[RF1]

[TruePoint]

Maybe someone else has brought this up (apologies if I missed it) but in skimming this thread I haven’t seen mentioned the primary reason why Loyola coming into the league is great for us: another excuse to travel to Chicago - maybe the most underrated weekend trip destination in the country and an absolute world class city.

[PlayMikeMotenMore]

I trust experts who truly know this sport.

Great overuse of the word "great."

Not a "great" program. A "hot" program at the moment. But Loyola was dormant for years. Has history with an NCAA title (in 1963) and recent success. But is DePaul a "great" program? Not now, but it was at one time.

Chicago is a not a "great" market. It's a great city. But college basketball struggles mightily to get noticed. It's primarily a pro-sports town and on the college side, it's a Big Ten city. And Illinois is really the only program that makes significant waves with interest in the city. (Notre Dame does in football but not in hoops.) Loyola, DePaul, NWestern, UIC, all struggle to draw attention.

This is an odd move by both the A-10 and Loyola. Their Olympic sports coaches have to be scratching their head. Women's volleyball, soccer, softball, etc. They primarily recruit locally. Gonna be hard to sell kids (and parents) to go play your softball game halfway across the country. Tough for parents to travel to watch their kids play.

[PeterRamTime]

It’s not the best move the league could make IMO but it’s not the worst either. The league would increase in strength greatest by going down to 12 teams (you all know who goes) but that seems off the table. So if the Commish was hell bent on adding then Loyola was amongst the most compelling. I suspect there will be a 16th added and heard Belmont was the program. Who knows.

And Ramster and others cmon with saying since we had 1 bad year we can’t cast stones at Fordham and LaSalle. That is just being ridiculous. This isn’t about 1,2,3 bad seasons this is about 10,20,30 years of bad results and no intention to invest in their own facilities. Put the resumes next to each other of our program and theirs and it will look like David and Goliath. They both belong in the Patriot League with likeminded institutions.

We sucked last year and still had a sub-200 RPI. There is a difference between us and a program like Fordham that routinely is over 250 in RPI and drags the conference down.

Our NET was still 105 in a down year and we owned a good win over Seton Hall and zero bad losses in the non-conference.

We were a boon for the conference's metrics at the end of the day

Something Fordham has never come close to accomplishing. The highest RPI ranking they've ever had was 107 in 07 when they were 18-12. The only year they had a decent team

And a 107 RPI isn't really close to as good as 105 in the NET so even their best year they've ever had since being in the A-10 doesn't even compete with one of our FEW bad years.

[ramster]

It’s not the best move the league could make IMO but it’s not the worst either. The league would increase in strength greatest by going down to 12 teams (you all know who goes) but that seems off the table. So if the Commish was hell bent on adding then Loyola was amongst the most compelling. I suspect there will be a 16th added and heard Belmont was the program. Who knows.

And Ramster and others cmon with saying since we had 1 bad year we can’t cast stones at Fordham and LaSalle. That is just being ridiculous. This isn’t about 1,2,3 bad seasons this is about 10,20,30 years of bad results and no intention to invest in their own facilities. Put the resumes next to each other of our program and theirs and it will look like David and Goliath. They both belong in the Patriot League with likeminded institutions.

We sucked last year and still had a sub-200 RPI. There is a difference between us and a program like Fordham that routinely is over 250 in RPI and drags the conference down.

Our NET was still 105 in a down year and we owned a good win over Seton Hall and zero bad losses in the non-conference.

We were a boon for the conference's metrics at the end of the day

Something Fordham has never come close to accomplishing. The highest RPI ranking they've ever had was 107 in 07 when they were 18-12. The only year they had a decent team

And a 107 RPI isn't really close to as good as 105 in the NET so even their best year they've ever had since being in the A-10 doesn't even compete with one of our FEW bad years.

Got it.
You don’t like Fordham

[KeaneyBluBallz]

Maybe someone else has brought this up (apologies if I missed it) but in skimming this thread I haven’t seen mentioned the primary reason why Loyola coming into the league is great for us: another excuse to travel to Chicago - maybe the most underrated weekend trip destination in the country and an absolute world class city.

yup. easy in and out, cheap flights on SWA out of Warwick, good beers, great pizzas. great hockey town.

the only caveat, it's winter. yeah, it snows here, tough new englanders, blah blah blah.

boy, their snow is something else I tell ya.

[reef]

Like this move a lot I would think Loyola is instantly a top 6 team in league at least for the first few years

[ramster]

https://www.anonymouseagle.com/platform ... -expansion