danefan

In an interesting twist, it appears a donor provided $1m to help buyout Keeler. Some people must have really disliked him.

They did just hire a new AD who started with about 3 weeks left in the football season. HIs comments in an article this morning were basically he needed time to evaluate the program and despite the negatives of timing with recruiting he still thought it best to make a definitive decision once his review was completed.

The crazy thing is he had 5 years left on his ~$300k a year contract! I'd like to get paid that much for the next 5 years to not work.

A national championship and two recent title game appearances isn't enough for some CAA schools. Just goes to show you the expectations in this conference. http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20130107/SPORTS07/130107025/UD-fires-KC-Keeler?odyssey=mod%7Cbreaking%7Ctext%7CHome&nclick_check=1

On the outside looking in at the final TSN Poll Team (First-place votes) 2012 Record Points Previous Rank 1. North Dakota State Bison (142) 14-1 3550 1 2. Sam Houston State Bearkats 11-4 3386 5 3. Georgia Southern Eagles 10-4 3183 6 4. Eastern Washington Eagles 11-3 3143 4 5. Montana State Bobcats 11-2 2949 2 6. Old Dominion Monarchs 11-2 2859 3 7. Wofford Terriers 9-4 2673 9 8. Illinois State Redbirds 9-4 2289 16 9. Appalachian State Mountaineers 8-4 2229 7 10. Central Arkansas Bears 9-3 2166 8 11. Stony Brook Seawolves 10-3 2158 10 12. Cal Poly Mustangs 9-3 1930 12 13. New Hampshire Wildcats 8-4 1839 11 14. South Dakota State Jackrabbits 9-4 1537 19 15. Villanova Wildcats 8-4 1354 14 16. Lehigh Mountain Hawks 10-1 1346 13 17. Towson Tigers 7-4 1147 15 18. Richmond Spiders 8-3 938 18 19. James Madison Dukes 7-4 894 17 20. Northern Arizona Lumberjacks 8-3 736 20 21. Wagner Seahawks 9-4 603 NR 22. Bethune-Cookman Wildcats 9-3 523 22 23. Eastern Kentucky Colonels 8-3 515 21 24. Coastal Carolina Chanticleers 8-5 594 NR 25. Colgate Raiders 8-4 383 24 Others receiving votes: Eastern Illinois 349, Indiana State 306, Arkansas-Pine Bluff 138, Albany 120, UT Martin 102, Youngstown State 81, Harvard 56, Tennessee State 44, Samford 29, Montana 22, McNeese State 19, The Citadel 16, Penn 14, Drake 8, Sacramento State 5, Howard 5, South Carolina State 5, Southern Illinois 4, Northern Iowa 1, Maine 1.

Final AGS poll is out. We ended up Tied for 24th. 2012 AnyGivenSaturday Top 25 Poll - Final Poll Results 1 North Dakota State Bison 1200 48 2T Georgia Southern Eagles 1114 2T Sam Houston State Bearkats 1114 4 Eastern Washington Eagles 1021 5 Wofford Terriers 987 6 Old Dominion Monarchs 923 7 Montana State Bobcats 892 8 Illinois State Redbirds 839 9 Cal Poly Mustangs 750 10 Appalachian State Mountaineers 731 11 Central Arkansas Bears 718 12 Stony Brook Seawolves 699 13 South Dakota State Jackrabbits 641 14 New Hampshire Wildcats 500 15 Villanova Wildcats 447 16 Towson Tigers 398 17 Wagner Seahawks 349 18 Richmond Spiders 342 19 Lehigh Mountain Hawks 270 20 Northern Arizona Lumberjacks 240 21 Colgate Raiders 201 22 Coastal Carolina Chanticleers 195 23 James Madison Dukes 192 24T Albany Great Danes 150 24T Bethune-Cookman Wildcats 150

You're usually in the know to some degree... where do you think we'll be going into next year in terms of program funding? Honestly.....no clue. If we get to 63 rides within two yeas the University will have put their money where their mouth is. The next big test comes when one of the two big things happens: (1) Ford retires and thy have to hire a new coach....do they pay or hire someone on the cheap? and (2) when we need to expand the stadium....does the school push harder and smarter than they did for the last 10 years to make it happen? Until then I'll give them the benefit of the doubt.

I could think of a million, but funding the program in the $3-5m per year range has got to be one of them. When we moved to DI the school was very wow to properly fund the football program. We were essentially a DIII team for the first 5 years playing DI teams. I woud want to know that McElroy was really committed to not being an NEC team playing in the CAA. Coaches salaries Facilities Scholarships Scheduling Promotion

I wonder what other assurances he was looking for other than scholarships.

Now is time for the University to capitalize on this with the local busninesses. Sure you'll miss out on those fans, but realistically we could replace a good portion of those 30,000 Giants fans over the course of our home schedule. We averaged 4,000 a game this year. If we average 8,000 a game next year, that's 20,000+ more fans eating at Sutters, etc.... Get all the local businesses on board promoting UAlbany football. They all make out.

Without an indoor facility we had no chance and I don't blame them.

Up close it looks like its temporary. The way it's tacked on as well.

I think that plastic is going under the outer skin of the building. If its like other steel buildings I've seen go up, the exterior walls go up extremely quickly with a foam like materials followed by a skim-coat of concrete.

And let's give these guys a little break this year. There are going to be bumps in the road. As far as I know none of these folks have a whole lot of experience running a large venue. And I'm not necessarily the first one to argue about giving anyone a break in the athletic dept.

They are never going to answer #s 2 and 3 and they shouldn't have to. #2 is a subjective opinion. It's common practice to require new levels of donation for specific things. #3. Why would they answer this? If they say they'll lower the price why would anyone buy them now? They should be able to easily answer #1. I would suggest submitting that question to the ticket office alone. I suspect you'll get an answer.

You definitely stand in the concourse and place your order through the windows. Thats consisten with most other stadiums I've seen designed this way. Hard to see in this picture, but the schematic overhead view of the concourse level shows the the concourse is covered by the upper deck seating. I imagine the upper deck seating needs to be fully enclosed for safety reasons. Water tight is another story.

The bump out is a cantilevered lounge area with windows that face towards the RACC. Pretty cool architectural detail and I think the long will be nice. Flat screen TVs, comfy seats etc. Of course I'll probably never see it! This is the schematic looking down onto that level. You can see the bump out here

50-yard upper deck seats with a bleacher cushion are probably the best seats in the house IMO.

Stability. AEast is at 8 schools right now. With us, SBU, UNH and Maine in the CAA for football and BU leaving, the AEast have to be worried about losing either us or SBU or anyone else for that matter. An 8-team conference is not really sustainable these days unless your conference starts with I and ends with VY.

In addition to Bryant I would think Central Ct.St. but I'm not sure who else.

America East looking at Bryant http://blog.ctnews.c...king-at-bryant/

UNH released there's today. Of note is an 11-game schedule. It will be interesting if we go to 11 or 12 games next year. 2013 UNH FOOTBALL SCHEDULE (all games Saturdays); (caps/bold = home); (* = CAA game) Sept. 7 at Central Michigan (TBA) Sept. 14 COLGATE (12 p.m. | Family Weekend) Sept. 21 OPEN Sept. 28 at Lehigh (TBA) Oct. 5 at Towson* (TBA) Oct. 12 RHODE ISLAND* (12 p.m. | Homecoming) Oct. 19 VILLANOVA* (12 p.m.) Oct. 26 at Stony Brook* (TBA) Nov. 2 at William & Mary* (TBA) Nov. 9 JAMES MADISON* (12 p.m.) Nov. 16 at Albany* (TBA) Nov. 23 MAINE* (12 p.m. | Senior Day)

The architectual plans indicate that the old bleachers will be removed by the University. Those bleachers are not very safe though so I'm not sure they will be able to repurpose them elsewhere.

Old soccer scoreboard is coming down today. About time!

I am trying to plan early for a trip to the first game in the new stadium with some of my buddies. Will 8/31 be the first game in the new stadium? Is that the case or just speculation at this point? Speculation. Nothing confirmed.