UAalum72

The State Office Campus, with parking lots empty on weekends and easy interstate access, would seem a logical spot, but the whole point of moving the state offices out and renovating the campus is to attract businesses that would return the property to the tax rolls. A public university facility doesn't seem to fit with the plan.

Walking by at lunch today I saw BamBam, and as I suspected, there will be ads on the upper panels (the old scoreboard has Coke and Powerade logos). He also said the tough years are over, but then like me he's a Red Sox fan. Adding seats to the baseball field will be tough working around the un-dugouts they've got, unless you put them on the roof of the dugouts. The artificial turf stadium would be for lax and/or field hockey. 12K would be OK, at least for a start, especially if they put in footings that could support a later expansion. Putting it off-campus or in the parking lot would go against a hope to bring the stadium closer to the podium and dorms.

and here are pictures, there should be another section of the scoreboard atop what's already there

about half of it is up, although they weren't working at noon, whether because of the rain or lunch, I don't know

Albany is far from the worst site out there, but that's not what you want. Other little things like the non-displaying picture on the Facilities page contribute to the halfassed look. It's not just the athletics dept. either, some stuff on the U home page is a little dated too. Basically you've got to make it look like the people who run the university and project its image care about their work. Maybe they'll take a volunteer's help after I retire (but better if they improve themselves in the next five years first).

Do you know where you're going to park, if there are that many people taking the bar exam on workdays? There's also construction on the I-90/I-787 interchange and on Washington Ave. eastbound, and you're traveling during rush hour, but I don't know how much it's snarling traffic. It may be easier and cheaper to go down Wolf Road to the Northway Mall and take the #1 or #55 CDTA bus ($1, 25 minutes)down to Swan St. or (during rain) the Capitol Building. You can go from the Capitol lobby straight down into the Empire St. Plaza, unless war on terrorism security has cut off access to the general public.

At least one home OOC game - Dartmouth schedule lists us hosting them 12/30/04 Patriot League blog says we play at Lehigh 11/30

Yeah Patch, haven't you learned yet that to say a $iena recruit is NOT a top 100 makes it a negative post toward them? as well as complaining about the discussion being cut off. Thanks for keeping their weaselness in the forefront.

That seems to be correct

Link at http://www.sportsnetwork.com/default.asp?c.../AGN3332712.htm Third & Long: Preseason Rankings - Delaware encore in store ? By Tony Moss, The Sports Network The official Sports Network I-AA Top 25 and I- AA-Mid-Major preseason polls, which are voted on by a panel of sports information directors and media throughout the country, will be revealed in August: 1. Delaware (15-1) - Blue Hens will seek national championship repeat, with an untested backfield the only major question mark in that quest. 17. Lehigh (8-3) - Thirteen starters, including All-American tight end Adam Bergen, are back for a team that deserved to make the playoffs in 2003. 38. Fordham (9-3) - Rams should be solid in the first year of the Ed Foley era, but graduation of QB Kevin Eakin, RB Kirwin Watson, and WR Javarus Dudley will be too much to overcome. 63. Hofstra (2-10) - What happened to Hofstra? Of A-10 teams, only Rhode Island has more losses (17) than the Pride’s 16 of the past two seasons, and drastic improvement in ’04 would be a surprise. 82. Brown (5-5) - Bears welcome back the nation’s leading rusher in Nick Hartigan, but the absence of wideout Lonnie Hill (academics) is a big hurt. Mid-Major: 1. Duquesne (8-3) 2. Albany (7-4) 3. Dayton (9-2) 4. San Diego (8-2) 5. Monmouth (10-2) 6. Valparaiso (8-4) 7. Morehead State (8-3) 8. Drake (6-6) 9. Sacred Heart (6-5) 10. Stony Brook (6-4) 11. Jacksonville (5-6) 12. Iona (6-5) 13. Robert Morris (6-4) 14. Wagner (6-5) 15. Davidson (3-8) 16. Central Connecticut State (3-8) 17. Marist (4-6) 18. Austin Peay (4-7) 19. Butler (2-9) 20. La Salle (3-8) 21. Saint Peter’s (2-8) 22. St. Francis (PA) (1-9).

Thanks, and thanks to D Johnston at College Football Flags for creating it. Go to 'NEWS' or 'OTHER FLAGS' page 5. There's also one of the dog w/ Great Danes on a purple background. He requests you copy it to your PC or web site so all the hits don't overload his server. I've asked DP to load them up here.

Lehigh Football Blog has a good runthru of the possibilities of the CAA's plans, and their effect on the Patriot League and eastern I-AA football in general, although he totally ignores the NEC in his calculations.

Ideally, Stony Brook will hire someone with a Siena connection

CAA seems to think they'll pick off 'nova, or Maine & New Hampshire, and immediately pick up the playoff auto-bid. Or maybe just take over administration of A-10 FB. I don't know how long a conference has to exist before being eligible for an automatic bid, but the CAA will be a year or two behind the Great West and the Big South. If A-10 FB holds together by adding us, SB and Duq, its RPI may not be high enough to keep the auto bid. It still might be better than the MEAC. The NCAA playoff committee decides who gets the spot, but I don't know if they base their choice on the previous years' performances or their projection of the coming season; for the first time in a while they'll have a real decision to make. Wait, the BS conference doesn't have six teams yet.

No stories in any of the local papers, but McElroy was on channel 13 last night. I thought he said they had some Sasaki people there, was anything about the master plan revealed?

I'm not sure Maine would want to reduce scholarships, especially since this league would almost surely not get an automatic bid to the I-AA playoffs. Half (8) of the playoff spots must be reserved for at-large bids, and with the new Great West Conf. and the CAA, somebody's going to be left out, most likely a league with fewer than the maximum number of scholarships. A 40-ride league wouldn't have a shot unless the NCAA expands the number of teams in the playoffs, unlikely because that would require another round of games. These six would be the kind of league I'd like Albany to be in if the schollies were at least 50, and you'd probably need one or two more teams to really be viable.

Without NU the AEast would still have been 25th in men's hoops last year, although the CAA would have dropped with them included. I can see the possiblity of the conf. moving up to 21st or 20th this year.

Yes, I remember that those games were followed by a $iena game, so we drew about 12,000 for four games in a two-week period. But in the following years came cable TV, easier transport home on weekends (I think more students have cars now) and attendance went in the crapper and hasn't recovered since, except for brief periods for NCAA runs.

Monmouth HC Kevin Callahan was a Dane assistant in 1977-78. Biography Ford's bio on the UA web site says 'recently' there were over 100 at over 60 high school, college, or pro teams, so maybe Brian DePasquale has the list.

Apparently the Street & Smith story was written by Gazette $iena Hoopscribe Steve Amedio, who saw Delaware State University vs. Albany State University (two HBCUs), and thought it was University of Delaware vs. University at Albany

This isn't "news", it's more like a feature, one of four stories in the Record re: Texas and Florida beginning to test high school students for 'roids, and NY not following suit. http://www.troyrecord.com/site/news.cfm?br...0&nr=1&nostat=1

Box Score for Brown game says Attendance = 3680

The RACC could be doubled eastward and still extend only as far as the end of the bubble. Traffic patterns for the circle could be reworked. I hope some of the space is used for an entrance to the RACC from the parking lot. The Bubble itself is a temporary structure with a material lifespan of 8-12 years, and could be replaced with a multi-story building In an early interview, Sasaki said that contrary to common opinion, they actually see a lot of usable space available. Let's see how smart they are. A disappointment is the report not being finished until August, now.

Mainejeff reports on the CAA board http://www.caazone.com/boards/viewtopic.php?t=14837 that Street & Smith says Albany will play Delaware in 2005

Pretty sure we open against Sacred Heart.