Michigan_Dane

This website has an artist rendering of a new complex and it clearly says Universityat Albany... but the main article doesn't mention Albany. Is this a new project or a typo? http://athleticbusiness.com/articles/article.aspx?articleid=3867&zoneid=15

The WAC idea is very interesting but the travel costs have to be huge. Can the WAC drop Idaho and New Mexico and rebrand itself as an east coast conference? It has what JMU, GSU, Liberty and others on the east coast want in that it is a FBS league. Drop the 'W' in WAC and add an 'E' to EAC and invite those FCS wannabe FBS colleges. Done.

That stinks because those two represent two of the better candidates. I hope we don't get stuck with a non-science, small college candidate. This should not be on the job training.

It's interesting to see the break down of candidates. Half the candidates have serious science backgrounds and half do not. The Nano College is so huge and we have a growing life sciences field that I think we must have someone with a science background. My fear is if we get a liberal arts candidate for president then eventually we lose CNSE and all that goes with it (our claim to fame). The SVP at CNSE starts lobbying that the CNSE needs to be its own institution. We can't have a science newbie running a $16B nano mega complex. Someone will take it away from UA if we're that silly. My 2 Cents 1) Steve Ballard (athletics choice, number 1 by far... ECU, former college athlete, etc. This is a sports board after all) sports aside, my preference is science... 2) Strong Science candidates (Carlo, Bjong, Robert) 3) I think our own Susan Phillips has been great. I think she is pro-athletics (at least not against it) 4) That leaves non-science candidates like Valerie, smaller schools like David from Morgan State (Carlos, David and Valerie)

I saw this story last night and thought the same thing. Ballard from ECU is our best bet. Once again, this is from an athletics perspective. He stands alone as a LIKELY pro-athletic candidate... of course there are no guarantees. My question is who is LIKELY to be anti-athletic? Again, no guarantees unless the person was very vocal at the last university or shut down programs etc. Since I don't personally know these people or plan to run my own search my mind goes to generalizations... candidates from small liberal arts colleges, D3 or no-football schools, humanities etc.

When I see the official announcement (combined with a stadium) I will be the first to say I misjudged the man.

TU speculation on UA joining the CAA. They even speculate that it may be all sports. They do note that it requires a vote of approval by the presidents so it ain't done till it's done. http://www.timesunion.com/sports/article/Change-in-the-air-at-UAlbany-3732203.php

"Still talking"? So it isn't confirmed yet? It scares me a bit because I don't want to jinx this. Negotiations can fall through. I've been waiting for this jump for almost 20 years.

Can we expect an announcement this week? This is huge news for UA. I certainly believe everyone saying this is a done deal but in my mind it's not 100% until it's in an official press release. I can then rest easy and dream of watching Delaware in our stadium or UA at Michie Stadium (Army). My brother is a West Point graduate so Army would be great.

When can we expect an official announcement?

If the admission into the CAA turns out to be true, what is the earliest season we could schedule a FBS money game? I wouldn't be surprised if every CAA team has at least one FBS opponent this year. I believe the NCAA requires a rolling average of 50 something scholarships over two years for a team to count as a "counter". Would 2014 be too early? I assume it depends on scholarship ramp up speed by the university. I would hope by no later than 2015. SBU has Syracuse and Army this year. That adds a lot of excitement and $$$.

If our admission into the CAA turns out to be true, we'll go from what the Bleacher Report ranked as the worst confernece to what they ranked as the best. a 14 conference spot jump. I think the CAA could also argueably be better than the FBS Sun Belt. This is just amazing and such a great turn of events. I'm so happy with the potential jump. UA is a major state research university and this is where we always belonged... with Delaware, UNH, Maine and hopefully URI and SBU. http://bleacherreport.com/articles/921820-college-football-ranking-all-fifteen-fcs-conferences#/articles/921820-college-football-ranking-all-fifteen-fcs-conferences/page/3

I love it. It's about time.

What sort of exit fee would UA or SBU be looking at if they ever left the NEC or Big South? These are low level football only conferences for the universities so it can't be much, right?

Yes. It's terrible. I must have 4 dozen UAlbany items (shirts, hats, sweat shirts, stickers and even a carpet). 90% came from the book store. I would love to buy directly from UA Athletics but they have crap!

I've been fixated on this college expansion especially in regards to any chance Albany may have. It really looks like the CAA is trying to raid the SoCon. Unless that is a complete failure, we're not getting in. I feel even SBU's chances have diminished a bit. They looked like a lock for full membership but the consensus now seems to be a football only membership. We still have a shot but we need the SoCon to hold together and reject the CAA advances. It wouldn't hurt if SBU, UNH and other northern schools to demand more northern representation. That may be a long shot as the northern schools seem more interested in sabotaging fellow schools than the southern approach of helping their regional travel partners.

I've seen UAlbany mentioned as a possible candidate on a few boards and in a few papers. My guess is that we need App State and some of the other primary candidates to decline for us to get an offer. Is that your sense as well? What's your objective view of us getting a football only offer? I'll guess 1 in 4. So not out of the question but not great either.

Another post I wanted to add but couldn't. Feel free to post it on CAA Zone if you agree. Like I said that site is just not working for me. ---------------- I haven't seen President Obama take the time to stop at Stony Brook but he came to Albany twice and like what he saw. AAU or not, he made the time. “This school and this community represent the future of our economy. I want what’s happening in Albany to happen all across the country,” Obama said. http://www.bizjournals.com/albany/print-edition/2012/05/11/obama-touts-albany-nano-as-a-model-for.html?page=all

I've now setup three accounts on CAA Zone and still no luck. Their admin unlocked me once and it was good for 1 post. He doesn't know what is going on. On the UA/SBU thread can someone post some facts? The CAA crowd knows nothing about UA or SBU and feel UA's accomplishments are being distorted. The CAA crowd deserves to know the truth. SBU had a good year, UA has had a great decade. If you some can/wants here is the post. ---------- Would SBU even be considered for CAA admission if it wasn't for 2011? If SBU didn't win a squeeker in the FCS playoffs against Albany would they even be considered? A 3 point win against Albany with home field advantage and 20+ scholarships and that gives SBU this great street cred? The 10+ year D1 Albany/SBU record is below. These are the FACTS. D1 Conference Champs Football--------Albany 5, SBU 0 Field Hockey----Albany 2, SBU 0 M BB------------Albany 2, SBU 0 M LAX-----------Albany 4, SBU 0 Baseball--------Albany 1, SBU 4 Only baseball did SBU have an advantage. Don't make me get into Track because Albany has one of the best in the country... 8 years straight! Albany http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albany_Great_Danes SBU http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stony_Brook_Seawolves

According to this site, the CAA invited Davidson, College of Charleston and App State! http://www.goblueridge.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=16294 Like Hamlet, "To be, or not to be. That's the question. The answer, well right now, nobody knows. On Friday, the Colonial Athletic Association, which will lose member schools Old Dominion (Conference USA), Virginia Commonwealth (Atlantic 10) and Georgia State (which will join the Football Bowl Subdivision in April) after the 2012-13 season, made a formal invitation to Davidson, College of Charleston and Appalachian State---yes, ASU, to become league members. The CAA is eagarly looking for new membes, and what better place to look, but at one of its biggest rivals----the Southern Conference. The CAA has not been shy about approaching the Southern Conference and its member schools. The CAA initially extended an invitation to Davidson and the College of Charleston to join the league back on May 17. Furman and Elon joined the conversation a short while later. In turn, the Southern Conference is giving its member schools contacted by the CAA until July 4 to make a decision either way. Stay tuned, the drama just keeps growing....and in an era, where teams are jumping from conference to conference, it's become a normal day of life in college athletics. And look at it this way, if nothing happens, it makes for good conversation and gossip.

I'm so annoyed. I've posted several comments over on CAA Zone and apparently they're all awaiting a moderator. I've been waiting forever for approval. Is there moderator in Greece? Is there a way to speed up the process by contacting a moderator?

Any chance of AE football?

We need a new AD. Someone with energy and drive to make UAlbany the best... not just content trying to keep up. Maybe not even keep up. Stony Brook as FBS doesn't sound so crazy but we would have a challenge just upgrading to full scholly. We need leadership and drive.

Notre Dame

I didn't see it as a negative story either. I didn't like the headline but much of the article argues that it is worth the money. I see this as a free advertisement to businesses to remind them of this naming rights opportunity. Maybe it's just me but reading through the article, I got the distinct impression that the naming rights could be more than TUC or SEFCU. The one Smith College sports economics expert said he didn't "think" it would go for more than $500,000 per year. Well, $500k is nearly twice that of SEFCU and still quite a bit more than TUC. Any chance they could plow that naming rights cash back into the stadium and do an immediate change order for an expansion? I found a document that was published listing stadium options and one option was for 10,000 permanent seats and it was only $22M. That's only $4M more than what we're spending now ($18M) and possibly not much we would get for naming rights.