2017 Baseball Program

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2017 MAAC BASEBALL
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Academics and Athletics
The MAAC prides itself on the accomplishments of its student-athletes in
the classroom, as well as on the field. Mary Beth Riley, a 1991 graduate of
Canisius, was the first recipient of the NCAAWoman of theYearAward. In
the fall of 1998, ErinWhalen, amember of the Ionawomen’s rowing team,
was awarded one of the nation’s 32 Rhodes Scholarships for academic
achievement and civic leadership.
In 2015, all eleven MetroAtlanticAthletic Conference schools had at least
one team that posted multi-year APR’s in the top 10% of all squads in
each sport, with Fairfield, Siena, Canisius and Niagara having 6, 6, 5, and
4 teams respectively in the top 10% in each sport. Monmouth’s women’s
tennis team is one of 129 teams that have earned Public Recognition
Awards each of the 10 years they have been awarded.
First-class facilities are the rule with MAAC schools, as teams regularly
play in top-notch arenas, such as Madison Square Garden, the Barclays
Center, the MassMutual Center, the IZOD Center, First Niagara Center,
Times Union Center, the Webster BankArena, Mohegan SunArena, and
the Sun National Bank Center. This year, the MAAC will take the men’s
andwomen’s cross country championship toOrlando, Floridaat theESPN
Wide World of Sports Complex. The 2017 MAAC Men’s and Women’s
Golf Championships will be held at Disney’s Magnolia Golf Course.
In the past several years, a number of the MAAC schools have also
enjoyed success in NCAA Basketball Championships. MAAC schools
have played in a total of 85 NIT games and 83 NCAA games. In 2015,
Siena College’s women’s basketball team became the first MAAC
women’s basketball program to make it to a postseason championship
game. The Saints advanced all the way to the title contest of theWomen’s
Basketball Invitational (WBI) where Siena fell to Louisiana-Lafayette. In
2014, Siena men’s basketball team claimed the league’s first basketball
postseason title in its history by winning the College Basketball Invitational
(CBI) title. In 2013, theMAAC had a record sixmen’s basketball programs
participate in postseason play- Iona (NCAA Championship), Niagara
(NIT), Canisius, Fairfield, Loyola, and Rider (CIT). Canisius and Loyola
both advanced to the Quarterfinal round, while Rider reached the second
round. In 2012, the MAAC had two teams advance to the NCAADivision
I Men’s Basketball Championship for the first time in 16 years, with Loyola
earning the league’s automatic bid and Iona garnering an at-large bid.
In 2007, the Marist women’s basketball team advanced to the Sweet
16 before falling to the eventual National Champion, the University of
Tennessee. The Red Foxes have recorded an additional five NCAAwins
since their run in 2007.
TheMAAChasalsobeena leader in the forefront of technology, expanding
the notoriety of the league into cyberspace. In 2007, the league reached
an agreement with JumpTV, Inc., now NeuLion, Inc., to design and host
the MAAC web page. has been a great success,
providing fans with up-to-date contest results, live and on-demand video
andanonlinemerchandisestore. TheMAAC, inconjunctionwithNeuLion,
launched an iPhone app in February 2011, followed by Android and iPad
apps that were released during the 2011-12 academic year.
In September 2011, the conference announced the launch of ,
the league’s first broadband network. Eight schools - Canisius, Fairfield,
Iona,Manhattan,Marist,Monmouth,Rider, andSaintPeter’s -arecurrently
part of the network, which broadcast over 400 live events in 2014-15.
In May 2014, the MAAC continued to grow its partnership with ESPN3
announcing the launch of theMAACBranded ESPN3 Channel.All MAAC
and school produced ESPN3 broadcasts are viewable as live or archived
contents for all MAAC sports. During the 2014-15 season, the MAAC
schools of Fairfield, Monmouth, Rider, and Siena broadcasted a total 49
combined school produced broadcasts. Canisius and Iona began school
producing broadcasts along with the other four schools in 2015-16. The
initiative increases the MAAC’s long-term partnership with ESPN and is
concurrent with the development of school based production facilities on
many of the conference’s member campuses.
The MAAC President for the 2016-2017 academic year is Dr. Brennan
O’Donnell, the President of Manhattan College. The Vice-President is
Gregory G. Dell’Omo, the President of Rider University. Commissioner
Rich Ensor serves as the league’s Secretary/Treasurer. , Eugene Doris
Director of Athletics at Fairfield University, will chair the Committee on
AthleticAdministration, and Traci Murphy, Senior WomanAdministrator at
Canisius College will serve as Vice Chair.
THE METRO ATLANTIC ATHLETIC CONFERENCE