Do we now have a true CAA rival?

[stuball888]

In four sports we have played JMU for CAA championships in 2018. Softball, womens soccer mens soccer and volleyball. We are 3-1 against them. So what do you all think?

[HUSID74]

They don't think we are a rival...they think their program is far superior to ours, which clearly is not the case.

[stuball888]

Maybe if we beat them a little more we can change their minds. This year was a down year in field hockey but we beat them too. The winter has both basketball teams I see a 1-1 split. Spring will be tough. Womens lax and softball can go 0-2 or 1-1 if we play well in womens lax. Softball has too much to overcome. We play 11 freshmen and they get back their AA pitcher Megan Good.

[Flying Dutchmen]

They don't think we are a rival...they think their program is far superior to ours, which clearly is not the case.

We're currently on a perpetual winning streak against their vaunted football team, so we got that going for us!

I'm curious to find out who the students think our main rival is right now. The school should find out and play it up a little, why not JMU? They don't really have any rivals in the CAA, maybe W&M to a certain extent, but all the schools in the CAA seem to lack true in-conference rivals, maybe UD/Drexel is a rivalry, but everyone else is starving for one.

[HUSID74]

It used to be Delaware when we had football...Stony Brook makes sense from a local standpoint. JMU seems to think they are better than the CAA...just read their boards so they don't consider anyone in the League a rival as they have ambitions to enter the vast wasteland non-power five D One football.

[stuball888]

JMU has had one foot out the door for the last 5 years. What’s stopping them is the 1 million dollar exit fee that Rabinowitz and the other university presidents put in place

[HUSID74]

JMU has had one foot out the door for the last 5 years. What’s stopping them is the 1 million dollar exit fee that Rabinowitz and the other university presidents put in place

More of an issue of what conference will take them.

[stuball888]

Conference USA or the MAC

[EvanJ]

JMU isn't near William & Mary, but they're public schools in the same state. It's the same as Stony Brook, Albany, and Binghamton in the America East. JMU might consider themselves rivals with George Mason in some sports, but George Mason doesn't play Football.

Conference USA would make travel a lot more expensive for JMU. 9 out of 14 Conference USA teams are in Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, or Texas (which has 4). According to Google Maps, Old Dominion is the only Conference USA team within 4 hours of JMU. The Mid-American would have shorter travel distances but still require flights or 7+ hour bus trips. If you could make any hypothetical conference with Group of 5 teams, JMU could fit with Cincinnati, Temple, East Carolina, Marshall, Western Kentucky, Middle Tennessee, Old Dominion, Charlotte, and some of the Mid-American teams in Ohio.

Men's Basketball attendance went way down without any of the northern teams leaving the CAA.

[Hofstra]

I would like it to be Northeastern. It goes with the Yanks/Sox, and Jets/Pats narrative.

[stuball888]

Northeastern doesn't have lax teams mens or womens. No softball.

[HofstraPride1]

Northeastern doesn't have lax teams mens or womens. No softball.

If you go across sports could argue Drexel, especially given geographic proximity.

[Polito]

Easy answer IMO:

No.

True rivalries are born from long historical and/or close geographical links. The closest thing HU had there is with UD, but it didn't really carry over to the CAA. Just wasn't deep enough I guess.

SBU makes great sense, and that is really the best/closest thing HU has to a true rival - but in the CAA? Nope, and it likely isn't happening anytime soon.

That said, HU has and will continue to have some great battles with certain programs like the little Napoleons, the W, UD when both are good, etc.

But those are not, and will not be, true rivalries.

As for JMU, they have had the itch to move up for a long long time... watching the Marshalls, ODUs, App Sts do it first. Hey, they have an excellent athletic dept and tremendous fan support and financial backing - their football success has obviously been the catalyst, good for them. Saw recently they are set to build a massive facility that will house a new hoops arena, hoops practice facility, and some other things. Looks like it should be very nice.

I remember when UD's Bob Carpenter Center was the class of the AE! HU and the Hens really did have some great battles, with HU coming out on top when it mattered most - good times.

Curious, who were HU's rivalries way way back in the day, like WAY back??

[Flying Dutchmen]

Curious, who were HU's rivalries way way back in the day, like WAY back??

Great question, did we ever have a true rival? Post, Adelphi? Hofstra being a smaller, unoffending private school, no religious affiliation, don't win frequently... it doesn't seem like a good way to make enemies.

What about Northeastern, they're kind of in the same boat in Boston that we are in the NYC Market, kind of off-brand, but we may need hockey to get them to bite.

Personally, I think our core rivals are UD, Towson, and Drexel, and to a certain extent, Northeastern. Those are the teams it stings losing to under any circumstance.

Maybe it's the nature of the age, or just Hofstra's circumstance, but I just feel the students don't seem to care either way, I'd like them to weigh in on it though.

[HUSID74]

Easy answer IMO:

No.

True rivalries are born from long historical and/or close geographical links. The closest thing HU had there is with UD, but it didn't really carry over to the CAA. Just wasn't deep enough I guess.

SBU makes great sense, and that is really the best/closest thing HU has to a true rival - but in the CAA? Nope, and it likely isn't happening anytime soon.

That said, HU has and will continue to have some great battles with certain programs like the little Napoleons, the W, UD when both are good, etc.

But those are not, and will not be, true rivalries.

As for JMU, they have had the itch to move up for a long long time... watching the Marshalls, ODUs, App Sts do it first. Hey, they have an excellent athletic dept and tremendous fan support and financial backing - their football success has obviously been the catalyst, good for them. Saw recently they are set to build a massive facility that will house a new hoops arena, hoops practice facility, and some other things. Looks like it should be very nice.

I remember when UD's Bob Carpenter Center was the class of the AE! HU and the Hens really did have some great battles, with HU coming out on top when it mattered most - good times.

Curious, who were HU's rivalries way way back in the day, like WAY back??

Biggest rivalry was CW Post way back. We played them in football on Thanksgiving every year...Used to draw close to 8,000 for those games well into the early nineties when we went "Big Time."

In my opinion, not having football killed many budding rivalries including Delaware, Fordham, JMU and yes, even the little Napoleons.

[stuball888]

The reason for this question was to try and e3stablish if any two teams in the CAA competed in 4 championships against each other in one year. Even when we were in the AE I don't think we played Delaware in 4 championships in a calendar year. We have a chance to do this year in and year out with JMU.

[HofstraPride1]

in lacrosse the Hofstra-UMass rivalry has been longstanding and incredibly intense over the years with added intensity since Minutemen joined the CAA for mlax in 2010. That doesn't translate to other sports unfortunately because of conference affiliations, but for just men's lacrosse this rivalry is as good as it gets.

[EvanJ]

If you want to know about historical rivals, the Men's Basketball Media Guide has the score of every game. I noted every team we have played at least 20 times without knowing how many teams it would be, and it is 36. If we haven't played a team since we joined the CAA, I typed the season of the last game. A * means that it is the most played opponent from that state.

1. Delaware: 88*
2. Drexel: 87*
3. Towson: 67*
4. Manhattan: 64* (the most by a school not in the CAA and the most by a Christian school)
5. Wagner: 53
6. Northeastern: 43* (the most by a school north of New York City)
7-8. Iona: 40
7-8. UNC Wilmington: 40* (the most by a CAA school not from the America East and the most by a school south of Towson)
9-10. Rider: 37*
9-10. St. Francis (NY): 37
11. United States Merchant Marine Academy: 35 (last game in 1975-1976)
12. William & Mary: 32*
13-14. Lehigh: 31
13-14. Queens: 31 (last game in 1965-1966)
15-16. James Madison: 30
15-16. Long Island University-Brooklyn: 30
17-18. Adelphi: 29 (last game in 1977-1978)
17-18. Bucknell: 29
19-20. St. John's: 27
19-20. St. Joseph's (PA): 27 (we played St. Joseph's on Long Island once)
21-22. Lafayette: 26 (last game in 1989-1990)
21-22. Stony Brook: 26
23-24. American: 25 (our most played opponent in D.C.) (last game in 1983-1984)
23-24. West Chester: 25 (last game in 1981-1982)
25. Old Dominion: 24
26. George Mason: 23
27-29. Boston University: 22
27-29. Fairleigh Dickinson: 22
27-29. Long Island University-Post: 22 (last game in 1976-1997)
30-32. Fordham: 21
30-32. La Salle: 21
30-32. Vermont: 21*
33-36. Maine: 20* (last game in 2000-2001)
33-36. New Hampshire: 20*
33-36. St. Peter's: 20
33-36. Virginia Commonwealth: 20

We've played 5 teams at least 53 times, 6 teams 35 to 43 times, and 25 teams 20 to 32 times. Georgia State wasn't in the CAA long enough to reach 20. This season UNC Wilmington will break a tie with Iona, James Madison will pass Lehigh and Queens and break a tie with Long Island University-Brooklyn, Stony Brook will tie St. John's and St. Joseph's and break a tie with Lafayette, and Virginia Commonwealth will tie 3 teams and move ahead of 3 teams they are tied with. Of the 6 teams in the America East who didn't leave with Hofstra, the only one not listed above is Hartford, who we played 17 times, including on November 23, 2013 at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, CT. Maine is the only one of those 6 who we have not played since we left the America East.

Among opponents we play this season, it will be our first games against Cal State Fullerton and Rosemont, and we played our first game against North Carolina A&T. We played our ninth game against Mount St. Mary's, which was our first game since 1962-1963. We will make our first trip to Kennesaw State after hosting them last season, which was the first game between us.

[HofstraPride1]

Would love to revive Fordham rivalry. Pecora didn't want to play us but he is long gone now so would love to see effort make to schedule them again.

[RIP_HOFUSA]

Well I mostly talk basketball with my friends at school and as far as I’ve heard none of them have gotten over UNCW’s win over us in the CAA title game FWIW