LeMoyne College exploring move to D1

[shandeezy7]

I know why they're doing it, and I understand it. I just don't know where the money is going to come from to do this the right way.

I have fears of this going NJIT instead of Merrimack.

For sure there are facilities upgrades needed (cough baseball cough), and you're right that I'm not totally sure how successful they will be. I do know that there will almost definitely be a fundraising bump from a move to D1 and plans are already in the works on endowing coaching positions.

It's also interesting to me that I believe if Le Moyne does join the NEC, they would instantly be the school with the largest endowment in the conference. Of course, that doesn't mean they will allocate more funding for athletics than any of those schools, but it's worth noting.

 

[690West]

Positive about Lemoyne going D1, we can beat a D1 team in NY.

The funny thing is there are thousands of us that will suddenly have a new favorite D1 team in CNY. Will always love the Cuse, but as an alum, the D1 Dolphins would become de facto Numero Uno. Feels fictional.

 

[UpstateSM]

As a college hoops nerd I’m excited to have a second place to go watch games

 

[LeMoyneCuse]

The funny thing is there are thousands of us that will suddenly have a new favorite D1 team in CNY. Will always love the Cuse, but as an alum, the D1 dolphins would become de facto Numero Uno. Feels fictional.

I was both ecstatic when Le Moyne beat Syracuse in that 2009 exhibition and devastated when Syracuse lost to Butler 4 months later.

 

[LeMoyneCuse]

As a college hoops nerd I’m excited to have a second place to go watch games

I don't have a ton of low D1 campus experience. Curious how Le Moyne's gym compares to its potential peers.

 

[HOFCeluck]

www.LeMoynefan.com

 

[upperdeck]

I don't have a ton of low D1 campus experience. Curious how Le Moyne's gym compares to its potential peers.

last time I was in it it was just a nice sized HS gym,

 

[Fly Rodder]

www.LeMoynefan.com

 

[Jasoncuse]

I don't have a ton of low D1 campus experience. Curious how Le Moyne's gym compares to its potential peers.

Not sure their specific peers but the gym seems to hold up to 2,500, thought it's tough to find actual capacity.

Binghamton's just over 5K
Bryant 2,000
CCSU 2,600
LIU Brooklyn 2,500
Merrimack 1,200
St. Francis PA 3,500
Wagner 2,100
Stonehill 1,500
FDU 1,800
Marist 3,200
NJIT 3,500

It appears comparable and was renovated 6-7 years ago.

 

[two3zone]

As a college hoops nerd I’m excited to have a second place to go watch games

 

[Scooch]

It's also interesting to me that I believe if Le Moyne does join the NEC, they would instantly be the school with the largest endowment in the conference. Of course, that doesn't mean they will allocate more funding for athletics than any of those schools, but it's worth noting.

Second behind Stonehill, according to Wikipedia.

I keep an eye on the NEC because I live a mile away from Sacred Heart. My wife got her Master's from there, and I'm a hockey season ticket holder.

I think Le Moyne would be a good fit, and could compete in terms of facilities. It ain't the SEC.

 

[Eric15]

It's also interesting to me that I believe if Le Moyne does join the NEC, they would instantly be the school with the largest endowment in the conference.

"I just got out of the pool!" -St. Francis University

 

[690West]

www.LeMoynefan.com

I call dibs RIGHT NOW getting to be Bees on the new board!

Wait, maybe I want to be OX. I need to think about this some more

 

[eastcuse]

To give you all an idea of the cost associated with moving DI, here are the average expenses by sport for NEC conference schools compared to Le Moyne (in parenthesis) currently: Men's Basketball - $2.1 mil ($790,000), Women's Basketball - $1.5 mil ($690,000) Baseball - $950,000 ($600,000), Men's Lax - $1.1 mil ($880,000), Women's Lax - $690,000 ($690,000), Track/XC - $1.2 mil ($200,000), Softball - $720,000 ($490,000), Volleyball - $750,000 ($330,000), Men's Soccer - $630,000 ($500,000), Women's Soccer - $790,000 ($490,000), Swimming/Diving - $560,000 (310,000), Golf - $420,000 ($220,000).

Its not an insignificant amount they'll have to invest if they want to be competitive. The team that looks most well positioned to be competitive is not surprisingly Lacrosse, and the team that is most poorly positioned is Track and Field. They'll probably need to upgrade facilities for all sports as well.

 

[Eric15]

I call dibs RIGHT NOW getting to be Bees on the new board!

I call dibs on the handle KaiserUpperEastGeneseeStreet

 

[UpstateSM]

I don't have a ton of low D1 campus experience. Curious how Le Moyne's gym compares to its potential peers.

I’m going to be emailing the DOBO at my alma mater every spring asking to schedule a home and home or 2-1 with the Dolphins.

Love watching games in small gyms and I know Cuse ain’t scheduling an A10 school.

 

[shandeezy7]

Second behind Stonehill, according to Wikipedia.

I keep an eye on the NEC because I live a mile away from Sacred Heart. My wife got her Master's from there, and I'm a hockey season ticket holder.

I think Le Moyne would be a good fit, and could compete in terms of facilities. It ain't the SEC.

I know for a fact that the number on Wiki for Le Moyne is not accurate. If you look at the footnote, it cites a 2016 article. That number is closer to $275M now. There are definitely some facilities that will need upgrading, starting with the baseball field and then a larger weight room and locker rooms. Of course, I also know that there are already discussions with some big time donors about making these investments, and they are far more likely to happen if the move to D1 happens.

I was hoping for a MAAC invite, but I do wonder if there is some bad blood there still from what happened with baseball and women's lax being booted out by them over a decade ago. Also, it would be amazing if Le Moyne were able to add hockey, but I don't foresee that happening.

 

[BigNastyJon]

To give you all an idea of the cost associated with moving DI, here are the average expenses by sport for NEC conference schools compared to Le Moyne (in parenthesis) currently: Men's Basketball - $2.1 mil ($790,000), Women's Basketball - $1.5 mil ($690,000) Baseball - $950,000 ($600,000), Men's Lax - $1.1 mil ($880,000), Women's Lax - $690,000 ($690,000), Track/XC - $1.2 mil ($200,000), Softball - $720,000 ($490,000), Volleyball - $750,000 ($330,000), Men's Soccer - $630,000 ($500,000), Women's Soccer - $790,000 ($490,000), Swimming/Diving - $560,000 (310,000), Golf - $420,000 ($220,000).

Its not an insignificant amount they'll have to invest if they want to be competitive. The team that looks most well positioned to be competitive is not surprisingly Lacrosse, and the team that is most poorly positioned is Track and Field. They'll probably need to upgrade facilities for all sports as well.

I’d imagine some of these sports would be in danger of getting cut? Any chance they’d pull a Hobart and be D1 for some but D3 for others?

 

[LeMoyneCuse]

Also, it would be amazing if Le Moyne were able to add hockey, but I don't foresee that happening.

They wanted to make the men's club team a thing when I was there 15 years ago. I'm assuming the Track and Field program came with much less overhead.

 

[LeMoyneCuse]

I’d imagine some of these sports would be in danger of getting cut? Any chance they’d pull a Hobart and be D1 for some but D3 for others?

Can't do that now. Only colleges that already had that set up were allowed to be grandfathered in.

 

[shandeezy7]

I’d imagine some of these sports would be in danger of getting cut? Any chance they’d pull a Hobart and be D1 for some but D3 for others?

Can't do that now. Only colleges that already had that set up were allowed to be grandfathered in.

Yeah, it's all or nothing.

 

[dan7800]

A certain school in Rochester is planning the move to D1 as well. COID side tracked them a few years, but they're still a go.

 

[LeMoyneCuse]

I’d imagine some of these sports would be in danger of getting cut? Any chance they’d pull a Hobart and be D1 for some but D3 for others?

Also, Le Moyne is well above the threshold for minimum number of sports sponsored. Most of their sports are relatively low-overhead, and I'm sure they want a conference like the NEC that they can mostly bus to. I don't think they'd have to cut anything.

 

[eastcuse]

A certain school in Rochester is planning the move to D1 as well. COID side tracked them a few years, but they're still a go.

What school is that?

 

[EnviroSciGuy]

LETS GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Hopefully Le Moyne thrives and this move helps them continue to grow. Tutoring Le Moyne students has put a lot of stumpies through college, after all.