Troubling Poll on the Holy Cross VoyForums Board

[Go...gate]

Poll
If HC played Div III football, would you still attend games?
Yes 13% [4/31]
No 87% [27/31]

I don't care that 87% of their posters reject D-III. The point is that D-III football should not even be on the radar screen for HC. What the heck is going on up there in Worcester?

[TheValleyRaider]

Reading the thread, it just sounds like some guy is trying to stir up trouble xtwocentsx

[Go...gate]

Probably right, Valley, but this D-III talk smacks of Wandaberryism at Holy Cross.

[colorless raider]

Wanda beryism....I love it. Laugh as we do but one must ever viligent.

[breezy]

Don't be concerned -- it's a pointless poll, and (IMHO) many are voting "no" just to register their disapproval with the entire exercise.

[Wildcat80]

I do not follow Holy Cross too close but my impression is they have excellent fan support. Do they not write checks to football?

[Seawolf97]

They would never go D-3. That would mean dropping all their programs down 2 notches. Sounds like some one wants to crank all the HC fans up a little!

[Franks Tanks]

Poll
If HC played Div III football, would you still attend games?
Yes 13% [4/31]
No 87% [27/31]

I don't care that 87% of their posters reject D-III. The point is that D-III football should not even be on the radar screen for HC. What the heck is going on up there in Worcester?

Dont worry Gate. In a week they will have another thread about how the Patriot League is dragging them down and how they will soon join the Big East.

[DFW HOYA]

They would never go D-3. That would mean dropping all their programs down 2 notches. Sounds like some one wants to crank all the HC fans up a little!

No I-AA program has dropped to D-III. The last Division I program of any kind that did it (and had football) was Catholic University back in 1981.

Birmingham Southerm was briefly in D-I but did not play football at the time.

[LeopardFan04]

I don't put much weight in anything I read on that board, to be honest. It seems many posters there are always just trying to be sensational.

[FCS Go!]

The pollster probably thinks HC is DII now...

[Marcus Garvey]

I'm confused... as near as I can tell, Holy Cross has been playing Division III football since the mid '90s.






:D

[Go...gate]

HC and Colgate aren't like Lafayette/Lehigh but we still go a long way back. Perhaps HC has had its differences with the PL at times, but our two schools are ancient rivals and have been a staple on each other's schedule for at least seven decades. I value that series/rivalry and the general relationship between the two schools very much.

[breezy]

Go ... gate --

I agree 100%.

[Jackman]

They would never go D-3. That would mean dropping all their programs down 2 notches. Sounds like some one wants to crank all the HC fans up a little!
Exactly. Whoever created the poll probably doesn't understand that it's no longer permissible to play football (or basketball) outside your "home" division, and the Cross definitely isn't going to drop to D3 in men's basketball. Worst case scenario, they'd further lower the budget for FCS football or have no football at all. D3 isn't an option.

[DFW HOYA]

Exactly. Whoever created the poll probably doesn't understand that it's no longer permissible to play football (or basketball) outside your "home" division, and the Cross definitely isn't going to drop to D3 in men's basketball. Worst case scenario, they'd further lower the budget for FCS football or have no football at all. D3 isn't an option.

I think they understand that, but there is a segment among the fan base that is sufficiently frustrated that they want to throw up their hands and suggest (perhaps in jest) the NESCAC route if the HC administration continues its ways.

[CrusaderBob]

Forget the poll. Nothing troubling about it at all. It means nothing.

It is one guy who dislikes the Patriot League - primarily for basketball - and comes up with, politely, unusual ways to validate his own opinions.

Here I've extracted several posts by the guy who started the poll. You'll see he changes the reason for the poll until finally getting at it with his most recent post.


HC70 wrote:
I believe Patriot League football drags our attendance down for both football and basketball. I'm trying to learn if a further drop in scheduling would affect not not affect scheduling.



HC70 wrote:
I'm just trying to measure fan interest and the effect of lower level scheduling upon attendance. I believe a Div III football schedule would lower attendance to lax/soccer attendance, basically friends, family and girlfriends.

I believe a better league, hence schedule, would lead to better attendance. Scheduling like Navy mid-week leads to poor attendance.

And never say never. If someone in 1970 told me HC would give up bball scholarships I would have said he was nuts.



HC70 wrote:
My point was to show that fan interest has reached its low point with us playing non-scholarship football in the pL. Only Div III, or losing seasons, would lower interest even farther. We could enhance fan interest by playing 1AA football with scholarships. This could be one way to bring football back to a 10k-20k level. No chance of playing ECAC, aka Big East football. We would need to get out of the pL to give scholarshhips so its probably not happening during the Father McF regime. So its "Be Happy" with the pL.


HC70 wrote:
And you guys know where I'm going with this. In our two major sports we are in a one and done league. This probably can't be fixed in fball, but it can be in basketball. We just need a change in our administration to do it.



HC70 wrote:
My question above was not for the opinions of our posters which are known. We know that based on the poll results we don't want Div III football. But if we were put in the same academic league as Amherst/Williams/Wesleyan would Fr McF switch?



But this reply by another poster was far and away my favorite post in the whole string and pretty much sums up the the entire poll.


HC92 wrote:
So, let's bring this to conclusion. If we join the SEC and Florida and Georgia and Tennessee come to an expanded Fitton every other year, attendance will go up. If we stay where we are and play Colgate and Bucknell and Lehigh, attendance will stay the same. And, finally, if we play Bates and Bowdoin and Wesleyan and Trinity, attendance will go down. Have I got it?

[Franks Tanks]

Forget the poll. Nothing troubling about it at all. It means nothing.

It is one guy who dislikes the Patriot League - primarily for basketball - and comes up with, politely, unusual ways to validate his own opinions.

Here I've extracted several posts by the guy who started the poll. You'll see he changes the reason for the poll until finally getting at it with his most recent post.












But this reply by another poster was far and away my favorite post in the whole string and pretty much sums up the the entire poll.


Nice!! I can understand older Saders longing for the good old days, but Eastern Football by in large is much less significant then 50 years ago. Really only Penn State and Boston College have improved on a national scale since 1959. It those days Ivy league players were winning Heisman trophy's and Syracuse and Pitt were in National Title contention many years. Those days are long gone. Even Lafayette cracked the Poll in 1940 with other current Patriot League and Ivy teams. Face it we all were larger players nationally back in the day, but we are now a collection of small schools with high academic standards and the days of national FB prominence are gone forever.

1940
1. Minnesota
2. Stanford
3. Michigan
4. Tennessee
5. Boston College
6. Texas A&M
7. Nebraska
8. Northwestern
9. Mississippi State
10. Washington
11. Santa Clara
12. Fordham
13. Georgetown
14. Pennsylvania
15. Cornell
16. SMU
17. Hardin-Simmons
18. Duke
19. Lafayette
Only 19 teams ranked.

[bluehenbillk]

Is the Patriot League now D-III??

[Go...gate]

No, still Division I.

[crusader11]

No, still Division I.

I think he was being sarcastic.