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MLS changed their roster rules a few years ago. A player can be drafted and return to college for 1 additional season. If the player were to remain in college for a 2nd season after being drafted, then the player would re-enter the draft is my understanding. Remi has the collegiate eligibility, but I don't expect he would return for a second season after being drafted by San Diego. As I recall, Dyson Clapier and Malik Henry returned for the Fall 2024 season after being drafted by Sporting KC and CF Montreal, respectively, in December 2023 (MLS 2024 Superdraft). Malik ended up at Toronto FC through a trade, not by re-entering the draft, https://en.cfmontreal.com/news/cf-montreal-acquires-up-to-75-000-in-general-allocation-money-and-third-round-pick-from-toronto-fc)

Interesting, thank you. For some reason - probably because both ended up with different teams - I thought Dyson and Malik had both been drafted a second time. But turns out both had their rights traded between being drafted and beginning their pro careers.

I would say the one restricting item is it's in NCAAs basketball interest to keep March Madness in the calendar spot that it is currently. They fill a clear void in the sports calendar. Pushing it later would start making it interfere with other sports, like the Masters, start of MLB season, NHL/NBA playoffs. That would hurt ratings and diminish their cash cow. I do think there is room to add another 7-10 games though. Usually 1-2 times a year there are stretches where the Zips don't play for 7-10 days. They can also play in a 3rd game a few weeks.

How many games are played now vs 10 years ago? Since the players are professionals now, shouldn't we expect them to play many more games? Class AA baseball plays roughly 20% fewer games than MLB and many minor league baseball players at that level are the same age as CBB players. I don't think asking a low paid professional basketball player to play 50-55 games a year is out of the question. Start the season earlier and end it later. Want more money flowing into your program? Load up on big conference teams on the road. 10-15 games sounds about right. The MAC is a one bid league regardless of the regular season results. All the Zips need to do is win the Championship.

I just pop in here every few weeks in the offseason, and when I saw how big this thread is, I was like, "Wow! The schedule must be coming together early, and/or there are some really interesting opponents!" But no, just Tulane and Bucknell so far, the rest is people arguing whether we should schedule Cleveland State and Youngstown State or not. I personally don't really care, with a slight lean towards "yeah, let's do it" for the following reasons, particularly with respect to Cleveland State: 1) Easy road game, and if Cleveland State's fan support is as bad as it apparently is, we can perhaps outnumber them in their own home, which is always great. 1a) As little interest as a CSU/Akron game or series might engender right now, I guarantee we play 3-4 OOC games each year that is even less interesting to both markets. At least. 2) Things change. 10 or 20 years from now, we might suck and CSU might be great. Especially with the fluidity you see in mid-major conferences. If you're not nice to people on the way up, they won't be nice to you on the way down. 2a) Cleveland State of course made an elite 8 appearance in the 80s, and wasn't it around that time that games against them and Mouse McFadden were breaking JAR attendance records for Zips MBK that still stand? (Fact check me on that). Maybe we can build that magic again, and it'd be helpful to lay the foundation for it now. 3) Some of you seem to be saying we should tell high majors to go to hell, while also espousing us to behave like mini high majors with respect to other mid and low majors. 3) Observations like "We can't give that CSU a home-and-home because that'd legitimize them" is way overthinking it IMO. It's highly unlikely our fates are gonna hinge on whether we scheduled the 2nd- or 5th-best Horizon League to a home-and-home, and it ain't all up to us anyway; these would all need to be two-party agreements, to state the obvious.

"Voluntary" workouts started today.... I was told over half the team was there this morning which is very exciting to me, considering last year I was told were this week of "Voluntary" workouts they had something like 12 players there... Next Monday is the first day of mandatory conditioning for the returning and transfer players... I hope they build a lot of momentum. Right now the Zips are tied for first in the MAC so things are looking GREAT !!!!!!