Re: Conference Realignment Thread v. 2017
Posted: Sat Feb 11, 2017 7:16 pm
Before I moved south, I saw a few Union matches at PPL. It was nice; I also saw the police barricades making sure we took the proper route back onto the highway. I used to work at the Boeing plant just up the river, and was back there this summer for work; the area didn't make some magical improvement while I've been gone. I lived in the Philly area for 10 years...that area is ghetto (and I lived in some borderline areas while I was there). Plus, if I remember correctly PPL wasn't up to FBS specs...so someone (Nova) would have to pay to bring it up to spec. All for what, to play big time rivals such as Kent State, Central Michigan, and NIU? You say that it would somehow make us more money...which would probably be wiped by the extra scholarships, greater travel, fees to lease PPL. Nova gets nothing out of a move to FBS, I don't even know why it is being discussed.
"It was nice". Yes, it is nice. The area is not Radnor Township for sure. The surrounding area is gritty. Are you afraid of going to games at Wells Fargo? The Linc?
PPL/Talon is up to FBS specs. That's another misperception. Pitt, WVU, and Rutgers used it as an excuse to withdraw the BCS invitation, but it wasn't a real issue. If Nova had just accepted the invite without fiddling with it for 6 months before responding it would not have been an issue. PPL/Talon seats 18,500 as is and expansion is planned, with or without Nova. The FBS requirment is 15,000 average.
For competition, yes I'd rather play teams like UConn, Temple, Cincy, Marshall, ODU over teams like Albany, Stony Brook, and Elon. Temple has brought in Notre Dame and Penn State to play in the Linc. You may be too young to remember when Temple's football program wasn't near the stature of Villanova.
The football program and Nova fans deserve better. This isn't swimming. This is football.