Editor's note: This story has been updated with the reported numbers of NJIT's incurred fees for switching conferences.
New Jersey Institute of Technology's academics and its location played large roles in making the move to America East, raved officials during Monday's news conference to introduce the Newark school.
NJIT, formerly of the Atlantic Sun Conference, will officially join America East on July 1.
The addition of NJIT gives America East, home to the University of Vermont, 10 member institutions for the first time since 2004-05, when Northeastern left for the Colonial Athletic Association. America East last brought on a new school in 2013 when UMass-Lowell transitioned from D-II.
"When you think about conference movement and conference alignment at this level, it really is about institutional fit — and that is something that absolutely resonated and was a priority for our Board of Presidents," America East Commissioner Amy Huchthausen said. "We think there is no better home than the America East Conference."
NJIT to pay $400,000 to change leagues
During Monday's online news conference on Zoom, Sean Tainsh, America East's associate commissioner of content strategy, relayed reporters' questions for Huchthausen and NJIT athletic director Lenny Kaplan.
When asked about fees associated with leaving Atlantic Sun, Kaplan didn't reveal the cost, but said the school would see a chunk of savings because it wouldn't be reliant on air travel for student-athletes and teams.
“All conferences have fees when you leave. There are penalties based on timing. I can’t get into the specific numbers right now but, yeah, there was a fee to leave but it was something that made sense and a lot of reasons to do,” Kaplan said. "Our airline travel, especially, just gets converted into ways we can look to be more competitive — everything from potentially making our nutrition stations that much bigger, maybe adding a scholarship someplace."
More: NJIT: What to know about America East Conference's newest member
Late Monday night, Kaplan responded to the Free Press' public-records request on the exit and entry fees. Kaplan said the fee to leave Atlantic Sun and the fee to enter America East were the same: $200,000.
Earlier, America East and Atlantic Sun both said it was their policy not to provide specifics on those fees.
"We have no objection to NJIT revealing the terms, but our protocol is that we do not release financial information," Atlantic Sun Commissioner Ted Gumbart wrote in an email to the Free Press.
When Belmont joined the Ohio Valley Conference, it paid Atlantic Sun $200,000 to do so, according to a 2011 ESPN.com story.
How talks began between NJIT, AE
While a potential union was an ongoing discussion for several years, talks intensified over the last month, officials said Monday.
“It really started as a scheduling conversation as they were looking for more geographic nonconference teams to play in a number of sports,” Huchthausen said. “We were looking for potential scheduling alliance partners for some of our schools but also potential associate members in a couple of our sports.”
Over the last 15-plus years, NJIT's rise from the Division II ranks and the last D-I independent school in the country to its success in Atlantic Sun did not go unnoticed by America East.
NJIT also vastly improved its athletic facilities in recent years. NJIT built a $110 million multipurpose events center in 2017 and opened a new outdoor stadium for the its soccer and men's lacrosse programs last fall.
“Once you have all the decision points it’s just a matter of making the decision,” Huchthausen said.
NJIT a 'perfect fit' in America East
America East touted NJIT's location in the New York City metropolitan area — the heart of the league's geographic footprint — and its academic prowess as natural additions to the conference.
U.S. News and World Report has ranked NJIT as a top-100 national university. And the school, which spends roughly $170 million each year on research activity, is one of 131 institutions to achieve the Carnegie Classification's highest rating in that endeavor.
"Those aren't things that necessarily lead off sports stories and sports highlights but those are data points that are clearly connected to our values as a conference," Huchthausen said.
NJIT became a full-fledged D-I program in 2009. Most of their teams competed without a conference affiliation from 2013 to 2015 before the Highlanders landed in the Atlantic Sun.
All along they wanted to end up in a conference that meshed on the map and shared a foundational emphasis on education.
"The America East is an absolute perfect, perfect fit," Kaplan said.
"Yes we play sports and we like that, we love the competition, but to be amongst your academic peers ... there's no better feeling," Kaplan said. "Our student athletes, what they've gone through over the last 15 years, with all the travel and the many, many long road trips, I'm very happy for them to be able to sleep in their own bed after every game."
Atlantic Sun teams reside mostly in the southeastern part of the country.
How will '20-'21 schedules be affected?
Although fall schedules had been set for sports such as men's and women's soccer, Huchthausen said squeezing NJIT teams into the league slate shouldn't be an issue.
“I don’t foresee any challenge in inserting them into our conference schedule ...,” Huchthausen said. "We should be able to insert them pretty seamlessly into our fall schedules and I think everyone’s optimistic at this point that we will have full, complete fall conference competition and championships."
Some schools already had NJIT on their schedules.
“I think everyone is starting to accept that this year is just going to have to look a little bit different than past years in pretty much every way conceivable,” Huchthausen said.
Huchthausen also said she doesn't anticipate any modifications to the playoff formats for basketball, the conference's premier sport. However, the push from 16 to 18 league basketball games will eliminate "bye weeks" in teams' schedules.
It also guarantees two more games at a time when other conferences' consolidation efforts have made good non-league matchups harder to find.
“The inventory of nonconference games available for us has always continued to be more difficult because those leagues are getting more full,” Huchthausen said. “This helps alleviate that for us as well.”
Fate of NJIT's sports not AE-sponsored
America East sponsors 14 of NJIT's 19 varsity sports. Kaplan said men's volleyball and men's and women's fencing have established conferences, but the school will begin searching this week for new homes for the men's and women's tennis programs.
"There are no plans to drop (tennis)," Kaplan said.
Kaplan also said NJIT is not currently looking into adding sports to its offerings.
Contact Alex Abrami at 660-1848 or aabrami@freepressmedia.com. Follow him on Twitter: @aabrami5.
Contact Austin Danforth at 651-4851 or edanforth@freepressmedia.com. Follow him on Twitter: @eadanforth.
This coverage is only possible with support from our readers. Sign up today for a subscription to the Burlington Free Press.
"Exit" - Google News
June 16, 2020 at 09:27AM
https://ift.tt/37yrp4m
NJIT's exit, entry fees to join America East Conference total $400,000 - Burlington Free Press
"Exit" - Google News
https://ift.tt/2zNkU0N
https://ift.tt/2YrnuUx
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "NJIT's exit, entry fees to join America East Conference total $400,000 - Burlington Free Press"
Post a Comment