University of Hartford drops to Division III

[Smallpotatoes]

After 37 years in Division I, the school finally made the NCAA tournament and now it drops to Division III.

The school produced Jeff Bagwell and Vin Baker, along with golfers Tim Petrovic and Jerry Kelly, plus a certain SJ.comer, me.

Hartford Votes to Drop Athletic Department to Division III

 

[Corky Ramirez up on 94th St.]

The story of how the university's president and a professor were having a conversation on email while the professor was teaching a class - which students saw on Zoom and screenshotted the conversations - is pretty good.

University of Hartford leadership fails its athletes, coaches and alums

I wonder if other universities will follow.

 

[dixiehack]

The Athletic had a story a couple of weeks back about how the boosters looking to stay D-I had brought in the same consultant the UAB football fans did to dispute the numbers used to justify dropping the sport. I’m sure @Neutral Corner has a few dozen dirty words he could share about CarrSports.

 

[Neutral Corner]

There is no love for CarrSports among the UAB faithful and there never will be. We didn't hire those jerkoffs, UAB did (or possibly UAT pushed them onto President Ray Watts. I rule out no kind of dirty dealing in the run-up to that shut down.)

That said, they did exactly what they were hired to do - they delivered a report to the university administration that painted the athletic department in the poorest possible light, choosing the lowest revenue projections and the highest expenses that they could justify. For instance, they went to the head coach in each sport and asked "In a perfect world, if you could get every improvement for your program you asked for, what would you want?", and then they used that Christmas list (and the corresponding expense) as the budget that sport required to succeed. Carr also used the football ticket sales for 2012 and 13 (five wins total and the absolute lowest ebb of UAB football) to project future ticket revenues and left out 2014 (Bill Clark's first year, six wins and increasing attendance as the season went on).

The Hartford boosters should have paid those whores more and made it clear how they wanted the report to read, or perhaps that service is only available to the institution itself.

edit: When UAB football opens the new stadium against Liberty, I intend to get an 8x10 glossy of the sold out stands, write "**** you guys" on it with a sharpie, and mail it to CarrSports.

Probably the biggest voice who came out and disputed the Carr Report was Andy Schwartz, a sports economics guy who we didn't pay. He just read over the Carr Report, saw that it was a steaming heap of BS, and wrote articles saying so and pointing out specific instances where they were cooking the books. Kristi Dosh, who at the time was covering sports economics for ESPN, also piped up in defense of UAB football and called out CarrSports for writing a highly biased spin report that pushed for the shut down.

 

[DanielSimpsonDay]

Damn. Local kid just committed to play baseball there.

 

[Smallpotatoes]

When Hartford first moved up the men's basketball team played its home games in the Civic Center. To boost attendance they had concerts after some games. BeAch Boys, Miami Sound Machine, Kool and the Gang, etc. The arena would be empty for most of the game then people would filter in right before the concert.

 

[Driftwood]

This sort of reminds me of Presbyterian College in South Carolina. They were DII, got the big head and wanted to be DI, have gone 37-105 in football since moving up, and just this past year dropped down to non-scholarship Pioneer League. Their men's basketball team is no better.

 

[micropolitan guy]

Maybe the decision make sense. But as the story clearly pointed out, there is no clear landing place for the school in Division III. If you're gonna do something like this, you better have your next league figured out. No such thing as an independent Division III program.

 

[UPChip]

How did Centenary do dropping from I to III? I only remember that they did it because of their "Gentlemen" nickname.

I'm curious as to the motivation. Is the school broke and looking for an easy way to cut the budget? Is this the rare case of the academic fundamentalists winning a turf war? The funny thing is that I do remember Hartford being a thing, mostly due to Vin Baker, which is probably more than most of the average America East/Northeast schools trying to make a buck in D-I hoops.

 

[Smallpotatoes]

Maybe the decision make sense. But as the story clearly pointed out, there is no clear landing place for the school in Division III. If you're gonna do something like this, you better have your next league figured out. No such thing as an independent Division III program.

Division III programs lose money, too, right?

 

[2muchcoffeeman]

Maybe the decision make sense. But as the story clearly pointed out, there is no clear landing place for the school in Division III. If you're gonna do something like this, you better have your next league figured out. No such thing as an independent Division III program.

What about the New England Collegiate Conference?

 

[Sam Mills 51]

After 37 years in Division I, the school finally made the NCAA tournament and now it drops to Division III.

The school produced Jeff Bagwell and Vin Baker, along with golfers Tim Petrovic and Jerry Kelly, plus a certain SJ.comer, me.

Hartford Votes to Drop Athletic Department to Division III

Hope this isn't Peter Karmanos' next transaction before buying the school and moving it to North Carolina.

 

[Driftwood]

 

[micropolitan guy]

What about the New England Collegiate Conference?

Except for Lesley, those schools are half the size of Hartford. Not sure they would want anything to do with it. The logic that would keep Hartford out of the NESCAC seems to apply here as well.

Again, if you're gonna jump, you better have a ready-made landing place.

 

[Smallpotatoes]

Except for Lesley, those schools are half the size of Hartford. Not sure they would want anything to do with it. The logic that would keep Hartford out of the NESCAC seems to apply here as well.

Again, if you're gonna jump, you better have a ready-made landing place.

Hartford isn't exactly a high-end academic school, like NESCAC institutions are. Heck, I graduated from there.

 

[Michael_ Gee]

I'm surprised the school didn't drop to D-2, where they could be in the same conference as Bentley, Stonehill and such.

 

[Smallpotatoes]

I'm surprised the school didn't drop to D-2, where they could be in the same conference as Bentley, Stonehill and such.[/QUOTE

That's where it was originally. I guess it's because 2 still has scholarships.

 

[tapintoamerica]

This sort of reminds me of Presbyterian College in South Carolina. They were DII, got the big head and wanted to be DI, have gone 37-105 in football since moving up, and just this past year dropped down to non-scholarship Pioneer League. Their men's basketball team is no better.

They just hired the high school coach from Arkansas who never punts.

 

[MTM]

UC Riverside decided to remain in Division I after threats of dropping athletics all together. The department was told it has to find more money to survive. The Inland Empire is quite large, but the program has never gained any traction. There not a connection to the school in the community at large. It's being passed by neighboring Cal Baptist, which is transitioning to DI and has a new arena.

UC Riverside won't cut sports, will remain at Division I level despite pandemic (espn.com)

 

[tapintoamerica]

UC Riverside decided to remain in Division I after threats of dropping athletics all together. The department was told it has to find more money to survive. The Inland Empire is quite large, but the program has never gained any traction. There not a connection to the school in the community at large. It's being passed by Cal Baptist, which is transitioning to DI and has a new arena.

UC Riverside won't cut sports, will remain at Division I level despite pandemic (espn.com)

Pain lies on the Riverside, or so I am told.