leopard88

Small sample size -- my son (19) and I (53) live near Baltimore and always call them the Football Team. That said, there may be a little tongue-in-cheekness involved.

That might work in a smaller scope (e.g., New York Archers). However, it generally sounds like the state/regional plans for the Virginia Squires, Carolina Cougars and The Floridians in the ABA. None of those seemed to work very well.

I agree with the goal of growing the game. However, I think there is a middle ground on this issue. The PLL could easily assign city/state designations to the teams and play a blended schedule. For example, the Boston Cannons could play three games in Boston, three in other teams' home venues and four games as part of barnstorming/neutral site doubleheaders. That would still maintain part of the touring schedule while allowing local interest to develop.

I will second this. In my opinion (and, to a lesser degree, experience), it is much harder for teams to develop devoted fan followings without city/state designations. Obviously, successful teams develop fanbases outside of their region (e.g., Cowboys, Steelers, Patriots, Yankees, Lakers). However, their most loyal fans (and the ones least likely to jump off of the bandwagon) tend to be the locals and the ones with old family ties to the region. One of the great sociological benefits of team sports is their ability to unify a region across economic and political (and, dare I say it, racial) lines in support of the local team. That is one of the things missing in individual sports like golf, tennis and auto racing. Playing as a barnstorming league without city/state designations removes that advantage in this instance too.

That looks good. I like that they're acknowledging/embracing the history.

This is far and away my biggest gripe with the current set. The helmets stripes are terrible . . . normal in the front with weird ,unexplained curves in the back. With regard to the blue helmet, the Florida Tuskers (seen above) offer a great real life test run. Their uniforms were almost straight Panthers knockoffs with blue helmets . . . and blue jersey numbers.

So, now it happened midday, but the "click on a header" trick worked like a champ.

Thanks to both of you. I'll give that a shot if I get booted again. So far, it only happens at the beginning of the day. If I leave and come back during the day, it's fine.

Am I the only one who has had to log in back in every morning for the past week or so? I also get an error message preventing me from accessing the board unless I go to notifications and click into a thread that way.

Excellent choice. I can hear Mel Allen's voice now.

Cincinnati is only about 80 miles from Lexington, KY, so it's not that big of a stretch to cross the Ohio River. That said, I could see Memphis and West Virginia in the SEC before Cincinnati if only because the SEC probably maintains more of a geographic/cultural identity than any other major conference. That would also allow the conference to add two schools with the potential to provide additional strength in both football and basketball while adding another state to the footprint with West Virginia. After Maryland* left the ACC with almost no advance warning, nothing would shock me. However, I suspect the "charter member" concept carries some weight with schools like UNC, N.C. States and Virginia. * -- While Maryland was a charter member of the ACC, most fans (including me) always had the sense that it was treated as an outsider, even in the pre-expansion days. A friend of mine used to joke(?) that it was because Maryland never seceded and joined the Confederacy.

Agreed. It is less of an issue for big schools, particularly with regard to the revenue generating sports. However, it still doesn't make a lot of sense for West Virginia to be sending the women's tennis team (assuming they have one) to Texas Tech. I'm sure the powers-that-be in Morgantown long for the days when their shortest conference trip wasn't to Lawrence, KS or Ames, IA (which is just a guess because I didn't feel like looking this up).

Of the three Maryland schools, I think Morgan State would be the least likely to to the nuclear option route. They seem to have the most alumni support and stable programs in football and basketball. Coppin State has never had a football team and UMES hasn't had one in over 40 years. I could see some combination of Nos. 1 and 2 -- prefer stay in the MEAC while keeping all options open in case the conference implodes. One thing the article notes is that the recent defections will do quite a bit to reduce travel costs. S.C. State and NCA&T are the only schools left that are not located in Maryland, Delaware, DC or Virginia. With those exceptions, the rest of the conference is probably all within a 4-5 hour drive of one another.

The Baltimore Sun happened to chime in on the MEAC situation this morning. It sounds like Coppin and UMES have affirmatively stated their commitment to the MEAC while Morgan has remained silent. After defections, Coppin State and UMES sticking with MEAC, but Morgan State remains quiet

It will be easier for the HBCUs to make an impact in basketball if this opens the door. 2-3 players with a solid supporting cast can make a much bigger impact on a basketball team than on a football team.

It's way too early to see if the Makur Maker decision to attend Howard will have any impact on realignment. However, if he does play at Howard and other top players follow him to Howard or other HBCUs, it would presumably make Howard more attractive to a conference like the CAA. https://theundefeated.com/features/top-hoops-recruit-makur-maker-chooses-howard-in-a-game-changer-for-hbcus/

One of the players should also be required to wear black framed sunglasses at all times, even at night..

They should play the first inning as the Oneders, then change between innings.

Do you mean that the idea of land grant ag schools being away from urban areas mostly falls apart outside the South? It at least holds true in Pennsylvania (State College) and Indiana, which has both its liberal arts and land grants schools in rural areas with IU (Bloomington) and Purdue (West Lafayette). Maryland is another state where one school fills both roles. I don't know that College Park was ever truly rural, but it's very much a DC suburb now (to the point of literally being "Inside the Beltway"). As for the bigger topic, I would also expect Delaware to be pretty resistant to Delaware State joining the CAA. I don't know Delaware state politics, but I also suspect that Delaware State doesn't have the power to force the issue successfully. With regard to the MEAC as a whole, I'm not sure what might come next. I believe Morgan State and UMES would resist a move to D-II. Absent a merger, Coppin State is the most likely of the three Maryland schools to move down since it is a small* commuter school with less overall history that Morgan and UMES (its basketball success notwithstanding). * -- Until I looked it up, I didn't realize how small Coppin is. There are only about 2,400 undergrads enrolled. UMES isn't much bigger with 2,800, but it carries more sports history from its days as Maryland State College.** Per Wiki, "UMES is tied with Florida State for the most alumni appearing in a single Super Bowl game. In the 1968 game (Super Bowl III) between the New York Jets and the Baltimore Colts, UMES was represented by four alumni: Earl Christy (1961–1964), Johnny Sample (1954–1957), Emerson Boozer (1962–1965), and Charlie Stukes (1963–1967)." ** -- I also learned that yesterday was the 50th anniversary of the transition/name change from Maryland State to UMES and that the Maryland State name didn't come about until 1948.

I see Delaware St. and any Maryland schools left heading to the America East before the CAA or NEC. They fit better with the other state schools in the AE than the schools in the NEC. On the other hand, they seem at least a notch below the CAA in terms of competitiveness and competitive aspirations. As for the mergers, the intracity mergers make the most sense, whether UB and Morgan or UB and Coppin. I've never thought a UB-UMBC merger made as much sense because they're actually not that close together (probably a 30 minute drive depending on traffic). They also tend to serve different students and different roles, so there would not be as much ability to eliminate overlap other than at the administration level.

I live just outside Baltimore and I have never heard this discussed. That's not to say that there isn't some logic to it, but I've never heard it talked about. I've heard about merging UMBC and the University of Baltimore and even that has always sounded more like someone's "just tossin' it out there" idea. As for the other parts, I could see UMES dropping down to D-II. They are noncompetitive in pretty much every thing except bowling and are pretty isolated geographically on the lower Eastern Shore. On the other hand, given the "UM" part of the name, I could see a push to try to keep them in D-I if at all possible. EDIT -- Apparently this was a thing in late 2019 . . . dualing op-eds about mergers of either Morgan or Coppin with the University of Baltimore, but not with each other. I have no recollection of seeing or reading this. https://www.baltimoresun.com/opinion/op-ed/bs-ed-op-1115-equitable-mergers-20191114-tlaxypojbna2bkevovi4o6rija-story.html UB dropped its athletic program in the early 1980s, so this would have no effect on sports other than a possible name change. However, UB was once a D-II soccer powerhouse (Final Fours in 1972 and 1973 and a National Championship in 1975).

I was visualizing a moonbounce starting to deflate instead of something melting. Same general idea though.

That reads a bit like a G to me. I think it may be because there is a straight line on the interior right side on the lower half.

That is probably a good description of the conference. Upon further thought, the other reason that RMU seems like less of a fit to me is that it will be the only small private college in the conference other than Detroit Mercy. Every other school is public and only Detroit Mercy and UWGB have fewer than 15,000 students.

NJIT fits well in the America East. On the other hand, RMU feels like an outlier in the Horizon League to me even though it shouldn't. It isn't far at all from Cleveland State and Youngstown State, but the conference just seems more Midwestern to me. I guess it's sort of like when Penn State joined the B1G.