Bryant University has announced that they will join the America East conference beginning in the next academic year. The conference moved quickly after losing both Hartford and Stony Brook this year. I think that Bryant is a strong addition to the conference. Specifically for men's basketball, it gives the conference another title contender. Bryant made their first ever NCAA tournament this year and could potentially bring back their entire team, including the NCAA's leading scorer Peter Kiss. Jared Grasso has the program on the rise and he has built a program there from scratch. A school with that type of programmatic momentum is exactly the type of team the league needed to add. As I mentioned in my last post one of the most important things was to get a school with an energized fan base. If anyone out there has watched a Bryant game over the past few years, their home atmosphere is electric (a little too electric during the NEC championship game this year). They averaged roughly 1,400 fans at home games last season which puts them in the top half of the America East for attendance. It gives the America East a member in every New England state and puts them in good position to emerge out of conference realignment as the top Northeast mid major conference. Particularly if they manage to add a new team from Connecticut as well. There could quickly be a strong Vermont/Bryant rivalry.
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