MAAC Council of Presidents Announce Support for Current July Men's Basketball Recruiting Period
MAAC Sports
Edison, N.J. - The MAAC Council of Presidents at its annual December meeting at The Lotos Club in New York City unanimously voted to support the position that the July recruiting period in men's basketball should not be eliminated.
The MAAC has noted its position in correspondence with the Chair of the NCAA Division I Leadership Council, Missouri Athletic Director Mike Alden, stating that the current system is cost effective and allows member schools an efficient means of evaluating a large number of potential players. If the NCAA were to adopt a restriction to July recruiting, the MAAC would propose alternate considerations to the full elimination of the recruiting period. For instance, the league could support a model that provides for 15 days of recruiting in July and five additional recruiting days in April. The NCAA had requested member conferences respond to the recruiting proposal before the Leadership Council meets again in January at the NCAA Convention in San Antonio, Texas.
In addition, the MAAC Council of Presidents discussed the contract with the MassMutual Center to host the 2012-14 MAAC Basketball Championships. As part of the bid with the MassMutual Center and the Basketball Hall of Fame, the MAAC will utilize space in the Hall of Fame for a MAAC exhibit. Preliminary concepts of the exhibit include tournament backlit displays, memorabilia and related MAAC historical objects and history. A formal announcement of the display is expected in January.
The Council of Presidents reaffirmed the continued development of the MAAC strategic plan with the creation of four subcommittees to explore the areas of broadcasting, championships, marketing and branding, and membership. The broadcasting subcommittee will focus on the MAAC television package and the use of ESPN3.com as part of ESPN exercising its two-year option. The championships subcommittee will look at developing marketing plans which will used by the MAAC, member schools and the host institution to uniformly promote and brand the championships. The marketing and branding subcommittee will be developing and implementing a basketball marketing and ticket sales program that will be focused year round. Membership issues to be explored include reviewing the facility audit completed by Rich Oriolo from Stafford Sports LLC. As with past MAAC strategic plans, the membership committee will continue to monitor the conference realignments that are taking place nationwide and possible MAAC membership expansion, including non-traditional markets outside of the league's current geographic footprint.
The Council also authorized the funding of a conference-wide basketball replay monitoring system for the 2011-12 basketball season. The replay system is designed to provide consistency throughout the league in the type of monitors the officials will need to interact with when required to by NCAA playing regulations.
The Council received and approved the audit for the 2009-10 fiscal year as prepared by Rosemarie Palmeri, the MAAC's certified public accountant, who is based in LaGrangeville, N.Y. Also approved were new MAAC policies on expense reimbursement and asset investment.
About the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference
The MAAC, headquartered in Edison, N.J., consists of 10 member institutions: Canisius College, Fairfield University, Iona College, Loyola University Maryland, Manhattan College, Marist College, Niagara University, Rider University, Saint Peter's College and Siena College. Pattison Sports Group is the league's marketing consultant. For more on the conference please visit, www.maacsports.com.