HAYES: It’s never the right time to say goodbye

Dear America East,

We need to talk.

We like you, and we want to be up-front about this. For our 32-year bond – which began back when you were just the North division of the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference – you’ve done nothing but good things for us. The athletic competition has been fantastic and the academic standards superb.

But lately, our relationship feels like it’s been lacking a bit. It seems as if it’s been a bit one-sided, and maybe it’s time for us to move on.

It all started a few weeks ago, when you announced we were in the lead for the Stuart P. Haskell, Jr. Commissioner’s Cup, given to the most successful AE athletic program every year. Eight of the last nine belong to us, and we have a 63-point lead going into the spring. If, for whatever reason, we fail to win it again this year, we’ll probably be able to at least claim second place.

Sure, we don’t have the most championships so far this year (a title that currently belongs to the University of Albany), putting only three trophies in the case to this point. But, we’ve been runners-up in four other sports, bringing our total AE championship games to seven this academic year. University of Maryland- Baltimore County is next in line for that honor, and they’ve only been in four.

When we saw those numbers, we remembered the University of Delaware 10 years ago. They were members of the AE then, and they won 10-straight Commissioner’s Cups before they left for the Colonial Athletic Association. Delaware ruled over the conference before they left, and it doesn’t seem like too much of a stretch to say we’re in the same position today.

All of this got us thinking maybe it’s time for the two of us to take a break. You know, see some other people. We’ve helped and watched you grow, and we’re really proud of how far you have come. However, it’s time for both of us to take on some new challenges.

Look, we’ve always been the odd man out here. The other eight schools in the conference are mostly moderately-sized and in rural areas. We are a relatively-large school located in a major urban center. With the exception of the University of Hartford, every other member of the conference is a public school focused on undergraduates. We’re a private school focused not just on undergrads, but also graduate students.

The difference can be explained in where we play basketball. We play our largest games in a five-year-old, multi-million dollar multi-sport arena. It is a plush palace compared to most other facilities in the conference, small gyms where the game of basketball is all that is played. We enjoy those gyms, sure, but our’s is much nicer.

So, we think it’s time for us to break up. We need to find a new conference, one with membership that presents bigger opportunities for us, and offers us more exposure and entices more recruits. No offense, but that isn’t something you can offer right now.

Where are we going from here, you ask? Well, we aren’t sure yet; no one has formally offered us anything. Like we said, we started thinking about this a few weeks ago, when you announced that lead for the Commissioner’s Cup, and we were focused on Tulsa, Okla.

We were in the NCAA Tournament then – thanks to the automatic bid we received from you – and we saw a few teams that really stood out from the crowd. One was Virginia Commonwealth University, from the CAA.

They were really good – exceptional, actually.

They made us think back to Delaware, and the jump they made to the CAA. The Fightin’ Blue Hens were in nearly the same position ten years ago as we’re in now. Five years ago, Northeastern University also made the move from the AE to the CAA. Restoring that natural rivalry, which currently only exists in hockey, would be a nice bonus for us.

We also saw a few teams from the Atlantic-10 (Or 12. Or 14.) in March Madness: University of Richmond, Xavier University and Temple University. Richmond actually lost in the Sweet 16 same team we lost to in the second round – the University of Kansas. Temple made it to the third round, but that’s still better than any AE team.

The A-10 would be heaven for us. The reputation and record of their 14 schools practically guarantees them multiple berths in the Big Dance, considering they’ve gotten three NCAA bids in each of the past four seasons. There is more parity in other sports as well, not one member who plays in nearly half of the championships.

Plus, the A-10 counts merely four public schools amongst its 14 members, five of which are in major urban areas. There are two natural rivals for us in the University of Rhode Island and the University of Massachusetts. What’s more, six are in the northeast corridor so this won’t be too large of a geographic shift.

There are still some problems.

As we said, no conference has extended us an invitation – yet. Before that happens, the student body has to prove they would actually be willing to back a true mid-major program, something they’ve only exhibited on special occasions. Also, we don’t have a football team, something every conference looks for.

Still, it’s time for us to separate.

Like we said, it’s not you, it’s us, America East. We’ve been together for a long time, but all good things must come to an end. It’s time for us both to move on to bigger and better things.

Peace, America East,

Boston University