Hofstra Adding Track and Field

[HofstraPride1]

So help me understand this increase in the number of sports at HU. The athletic department adds four sports where the facilities are NOT on campus. Where do the runners train in winter? I am aware that the Mitchell Field outdoor track is a short distance away, but the pool IS right on campus. Why not add Swimming and Diving, or just Swimming with no Diving. Isn't that somewhat like Track without the Field? How is this a benefit for HU in the CAA? Does anyone think this is an addition to the total number of sports available so HU looks more attractive to a different conference? Why do I feel there is more to this upgrade? Is it even possible one of the current sports might be phased out?

My guess is reason they don't add swimming & diving despite the pool on campus is because they make good money renting pool to outside groups. I would also have to imagine that insurance costs for swimming program are higher than normal.

[ProudofPride]

The fitness center track isn’t regulation. It encompasses the inside of the building on the upper level, and only has 2 lanes, 1 intended for walkers and 1 for runners. That may not even be suitable for practice as a team, if they’re trying to compete against each other. Hard to pass others when you have to be single file, or only 2 wide.

[stuball888]

Does Nassau CC have an indoor track

[EvanJ]

Does anyone think this is an addition to the total number of sports available so HU looks more attractive to a different conference?

Do conferences count how many sports possible additions have? I could see other conference preferring us with Football added to us with Track and Field and Swimming and Diving added for both genders. I've said before that we don't have a good place to go. The only way I would want to leave is if the northern CAA schools and other schools formed a conference. Here are some possible teams and why they might want to join a new conference:

No Football:
Hartford (only private school in the AE)
Maryland-Baltimore County (UMBC) (way south of the geographic center of the AE)
Quinnipiac (one of three non-Catholic in the MAAC)
Rider (one of three non-Catholic in the MAAC)
Vermont (might want a better Men's Basketball conference)

Football:
Monmouth (one of three non-Catholic in the MAAC)
Bryant (way east of the geographic center of the NEC)
Stony Brook (might want a better Men's Basketball conference, not near another AE team without a ferry to New Haven)

Ignoring what teams play Football, look at these pairs that could be travel partners:

Northeastern and Bryant (in northeastern RI)
Hofstra and Stony Brook
Monmouth and Rider (61 minutes apart according to Google Maps)
Drexel and Delaware
Towson and UMBC

[HofstraHockey]

Other women's sports they can add that are relatively inexpensive and have easy travel are
Rugby: Brown, Dartmouth, Harvard, Quinnipiac, Sacred Heart, United States Military Academy, Mount Saint Mary’s
Water polo:
Brown, Bucknell, George Washington, Hartwick, Harvard, Iona, Marist, Maryland, Princeton, Siena, St. Francis, Villanova, Wagner

[HofstraPride1]

Does Nassau CC have an indoor track

They do not. NCC really has no connection to this new Hofstra track program since Mitchel Athletic Complex is a municipal facility owned by Nassau County and is not NCC's property even though some of their athletic teams compete there.

[Polito]

I mean...ok, I guess.

Not really sure I understand the point of this at all. Seems odd and out of place and pretty unnecessary. I don't see any need whatsoever for HU to expand it's number of sports, regardless of how many HU has compared to anyone else...

I can however make a great case to minimize a couple and put max effort to a select few.

Nothing against Track, great olympic sport. Hope it does well.

And count me in for a future Hofstra Hockey program! And I'm not even that big into hockey. But makes perfect sense to me, and I think it's a sport HU could excel in and develop a pretty strong fan support base. Costs a ton, but if we're dream building, outside of football, that's the other I would want.

[HofstraHockey]

The cost is high, but considering where they would potentially play (Eisenhower, which the Islanders now own) and their radio affiliation, I feel like you could minimize that expense. Beyond that, coaching, equipment, travel, is all probably on par with lacrosse. And I'm sure there's some NHL alums living in the area that could put a name on it and get it off the ground as a figurehead coach. Or who knows, maybe the next great hockey coach is currently playing on the lax team!

The one benefit of hockey over football is the fact that they can realistically win a national championship- Union College has done it recently, and take a look at the top teams in the country- not exactly power conferences. https://www.uscho.com/rankings/pairwise ... s/d-i-men/

They of course could compete for the FCS, but that's not putting you against the big names.

[Mikey77]

Hockey would be a great fit for HU in my view. Not sure travel would be that expensive. There are enough quality teams in the NE which are a bus ride away to fill a top schedule and sprinkling in a Michigan, Colorado, Minnesota run for 20 guys doesn't seem off the wall. Won't happen under Rabinowitz but its got to much cheaper than football which we had for about 50 plus years I think.

[HofstraHockey]

I feel like if it could break even (or at least come close), it would be possible. Hockey, Inc. and the NHL are putting a lot into it. If LIU gets involved on the men's DI level, would make it even easier.

Atlantic Hockey, which has a lot of Hofstra's contemporaries (Sacred Heart, Canisius, Robert Morris, Army) would be an excellent fit. And yes, plenty of local teams with easy travel.

[stuball888]

AJ doesn’t Delaware and Hofstra already have club hockey teams

[HofstraPride1]

AJ doesn’t Delaware and Hofstra already have club hockey teams

Tons of colleges have club hockey team so that has no bearing on making move to a D1 program since would be almost entirely new players anyway. As much as I would love yo see hockey, likely isn't happening because of high insurance costs and Title XI.

As far as track goes, would love to see us add a track at some point on campus, perhaps where intramural fields are since plenty of space there. It could be use by entire student body when athletics isn't using it and would be nice drawing card to prospective students in addition to providing boost to athletics.

[EvanJ]

AJ doesn’t Delaware and Hofstra already have club hockey teams

Tons of colleges have club hockey team so that has no bearing on making move to a D1 program since would be almost entirely new players anyway. As much as I would love yo see hockey, likely isn't happening because of high insurance costs and Title XI.

I'm assuming you mean Title IX. We have one more Women's Sport than Men's Sport, so hypothetically adding Men's Hockey but not Women's Hockey would make it equal. Our one gender sports are Baseball, Wrestling, Softball, Field Hockey, and Volleyball.

[stuball888]

Actually field hockey is technically an inter gender sport. Especially at the international level

[HofstraHockey]

The only mixed sports the NCAA recognizes are fencing, skiing, and rifle.

https://www.ncaa.org/sites/default/files/NCAA-WSI.pdf

[EvanJ]

Actually field hockey is technically an inter gender sport. Especially at the international level

International level doesn't matter. If international level mattered, soccer games wouldn't go overtime unless they were in tournaments. I was going by how Hofstra groups the sports, and they don't have an inter-gender category.

I wonder how the NCAA calculates the breakdown by race. People cannot be forced to state their race because it is not relevant to anybody's qualifications for a job, school, team, or anything else.

[HofstraPride1]

https://www.thehofstrachronicle.com/cat ... -one-track

Hofstra Chronicle story on addition of track, which says that for now team will focus mainly on distance events. Nothing in story about where team will train and if eventually school will add field events.

[The Shadow]

To HofstraPride1, Thanks for posting the link. After reading the track article from the Chronicle, it clarifies, as you mentioned, the only events that the HU Track team will compete in are the distance events that are lined up with the skill set of the cross country runners. It seems that all the shorter distance sprint races and the field events will not be participated by the HU team. I wonder if the HU track team will now enter some runners in the more famous meets like the Penn Relays and Milrose Games. Maybe they can also compete in some events at the CAA meets. This has now favorably altered my opinion on the addition of these four sports to the HU Athletic Program.

[HU76]

At the last home basketball game when they announced Masai as the CAA champ I said to my wife that I didn’t understand how you can recruit and maintain a cross country program without track. Here’s your answer. This is track on the cheap to support cross country.

[HofstraHockey]

I mean honestly, what's the expense? Give the coach a few more bucks and a few van rentals? Some sweatsuits that say Track instead of Cross Country?