The Quad | The Downside of Switching to a Tougher Conference
The Downside of Switching to a Tougher Conference
By Jack Styczynski
March 12, 2012 3:06 pm March 12, 2012 3:06 pm
Joe Raymond/Associated PressMike Brey, the coach at Notre Dame, once coached at Delaware.
While everyone dissects the 68 men's college basketball teams that will play in the N.C.A.A. tournament this week, it's also worth pondering some that won't be participating.
Won't be yet again, that is.
A handful of once-successful mid-major programs on the East Coast are in the midst of long N.C.A.A. tournament droughts after moving to more competitive conferences. These include Fordham, La Salle, Rider, Delaware and Hofstra, all of which made such moves within three years of reaching the tournament in their previous leagues—and have since gone more than a decade without repeating that achievement.
It's a cautionary tale for all those wanting to climb the ladder.
The seed for this story was planted a few years ago when then-Hofstra Coach Tom Pecora referred to colleges in the region making some questionable decisions regarding conferences. Ironically, Pecora soon left Hofstra for Fordham, which has suffered an even longer tournament drought after a jump to a tougher league. Hofstra last danced in 2001, before moving that year from the America East to the Colonial Athletic Association. Fordham hasn't experienced March Madness since 1992, three years before leaping from the Patriot League to the Atlantic 10.
So what is the motivation to make these moves and stick with them when they're apparently not working? Much of it seems to be a near-obsession with recognition by association, as if the company a college keeps is more important than what any of its teams accomplish.
Before becoming Notre Dame's coach in 2000, Mike Brey led Delaware to consecutive America East championships in 1998 and 1999, when the Blue Hens last reached the N.C.A.A. tournament. Delaware joined the Colonial in 2001 along with Hofstra, and Brey vividly remembers his administration's position leading up to that.
"Being aligned with those universities was really what they wanted to do," he said. "There was no negotiation, and as good as they were to me as a basketball coach, I didn't have a say in that.
"But I kept telling them, the America East is really good for us because I think only four teams can win it—Drexel, Boston U., Hofstra and Delaware.
"The Colonial was going to be a different world. I'm glad I didn't have to deal with that.
"My move was to take another job."
Jay Wright did the same thing after leading Hofstra to consecutive America East titles in 2000 and 2001, leaving for Villanova and being succeeded by Pecora. Like Brey, Wright was uncomfortable with the conference switch, although he eventually came to agree with the way Hofstra's administration viewed it.
"You're on a bigger stage," he said. "Your university is exposed at a higher level."
Wright repeatedly invoked the phrase "long term" when discussing how moves should be judged in terms of basketball success, but after being reminded 11 years have already passed in Hofstra's case, he suggested another time frame.
"I might be talking 20, 25 years," he said.
For Fordham, it has been 20 years since its last N.C.A.A. tournament appearance, and the Rams just finished last in the (14-team) Atlantic 10 for the fourth straight season, the last two under Pecora. Rutgers Coach Mike Rice was a team captain and later an assistant coach at Fordham when it was still in the Patriot League, and while he staunchly defends both the conference move and Pecora's ability to succeed, he's not as keen on the 87-year-old Rose Hill Gym where the team plays.
"They belong in the A-10; it's just now moving up with facilities," he said. "Fordham has a lot to catch up on."
Fordham is a particularly noteworthy case because its Patriot League success followed a step down from the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference in 1990, a time when La Salle was dominating that league with three straight championships, before it too left the MAAC in 1992 after winning a fourth. That was also the last year the Explorers reached the tournament. They've spent the past 17 seasons in the Atlantic 10 alongside Fordham, with three years in the old Midwestern Collegiate Conference preceding.
MAAC Commissioner Rich Ensor may have the most insightful take on conference hopping. "I've heard it all described as like high school and deciding what lunch table you would like to sit at, and which one you belong at in reality," he said in an e-mail.
As one might expect, however, Ensor defends Rider's inclusion in the MAAC, even though the Broncs have not gone to the N.C.A.A. tournament since joining the league in 1997 after capturing back-to-back Northeast Conference titles in 1993 and 1994.
"It has been a very competitive program, basketball and other sports wise," he said.
But after so many years of missing out on the N.C.A.A. tournament, could all these colleges be completely happy with their decisions?
Maybe not. Hofstra Athletic Director Jack Hayes was working elsewhere when Hofstra's move was made and he said he believes conference affiliation has become something that needs constant evaluation.
"These days, you assess it all the time," he said. "I think everybody's always looking at, are they in the right conference, and how do they define what is right?"
Among the criteria Hayes names are a good home for an athletic department's secondary sports and cost factors, but he does not dispute public perception that men's basketball and geographic compatibility should be the top two priorities at the mid-major level.
"That's fair to say, because those are two things that probably impact every school and every conference," he said.
So if Hofstra or anyone else thinking about correcting a previous mistake wanted to start shopping for a new league, would it be as easy as just applying to one? Or does the process work differently?
"It's almost entirely the conference that approaches the school," Hayes said. "For a move to be made, a league needs or wants schools and then goes after schools that fill whatever their void is."
But Ensor says a college could also approach a conference. "Historically it has been my experience that it happens both ways," he said.
Should we now expect a sudden influx of applications to the MAAC?
Probably not. More likely, mid-majors would still prefer a spot in the more competitive Atlantic 10, especially with Temple on the way out.
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