by DeltaV » Fri Apr 05, 2013 11:13 am
What, someone actually cares what us chlorine addicts think?
From a swimming perspective, the Big East 7 had 4 mens and 4 womens programs (although I could have sworn we swam St. Johns as well when I was there, but they may have dropped the program). Our 3 new partners add 2 womens programs and 1 mens; Creighton doesn't have either, and Butler lacks a mens's team. Of the other options, Richmond has a women's team and Saint Louis has both (Dayton has neither).
6 and 5 teams is a bit small for a championship meet, but not too bad. Most teams do non-conference competition anyway (we always swam LaSalle, did invites in Maryland and Princeton when I was there as well), and since rankings are done purely by time it isn't the end of the world if, say, Providence doesn't swim Butler (league championship seeding is just based on best time, not head to head). Swimming is unique as often men and women will practice together with the same coaching staff...at Nova it was equalized since the womens team had a full scholarship load and occasional olympians, while the mens program was non-scholarship; thus we were roughly the same speed. Even if we were at the same level of competition, you just have women in one lane, men in the next, and modify intervals slightly.
As for, say, Butler or Richmond potentially adding a team, it is both easy and difficult: easy because you can use the same coaching staff and facilities (assuming they aren't a complete dump), but difficult because of the Title IX issue (Butler has 1AA football, right?). Equipment isn't too difficult; most of us come with our own training equipment anyway (both due to personal preference in paddles, fins, pull bouys, plus they last; I used the same kick board my entire career), and suits are cheap.
I do feel a little bad for our womens team; they're losing some of the better competition they had (ND, Pitt, UConn), while I don't think any of the other BE7 teams were comparable. I did some quick lookups of results...Xavier Men's team isn't bad; they look like they would be right in the thick of it with the other programs, maybe a little faster than Nova, with their women about the same level. Butler women weren't that good. St. Louis looked a little better than Xavier for both men and women; better than Nova men, but not as fast as Nova women. Richmond women actually looked pretty fast (maybe not as fast as our women, but at least enough to have some good races); too bad they don't have a mens team.
Due to the individual nature of the sport, I doubt we'd really get any 'associate' members from lower schools, as DII and DIII swimming isn't uncompetitive, and there are no major powerhouses which could use a different home. The new AA conference, according to Wiki, has 4 mens and 6 womens programs (not including departing teams). It really would make sense for UConn and Cinci to swim with us, and let the southern schools swim in other leagues (there is such a massive distance between the two), but I don't know what will happen. I haven't been back to campus in a while; I'll chime in if I do go and hear anything interesting from my coach.
'Nova MechE, Swimming