Talk:Yankee Conference

Accuracy of the "Later history" section

The UMass baseball record book states that the program competed in the Yankee Conference through the end of the 1979-1980 academic year. If true, this would mean this article's later history section (which states the league sponsored only football after 1975) would be inaccurate. Anyone have sources that might shed light on the situation? Kithira (talk) 05:52, 4 November 2013 (UTC)

Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Maine all showed affiliation in baseball through 1980 as well. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 50.143.227.11 (talk) 06:38, 9 December 2015 (UTC)

Vermont shows affiliation trough 1979. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 50.143.227.11 (talk) 07:02, 9 December 2015 (UTC)

Boston University and Holy Cross as members but not competitors, 1971-72

How has WP:CFB dealt with this sort of situation in the past? In May 1971, the Yankee Conference admitted Boston University and Holy Cross as its seventh and eighth members [1], making a public announcement. Late in the 1972 football season, Holy Cross changed its mind and withdrew from the conference [2] (Nov. 14, "effective immediately"). BU remained as the conference's seventh member for several years.

However, both teams were committed to independent schedules and were not able to start league play immediately. HC was not going to be able to play a full Yankee Conference schedule and compete for the conference championship until 1975, and it was reported in 1972 that BU would not be eligible until 1974 [3]. In league standings compiled by the Associated Press in 1971, Holy Cross is listed under "major independents", with only the traditional six public institutions listed as "Yankee Conference" [4]. Boston University is presumably a "minor" independent (BU was a College Division team while HC was a University Division team). Note that these are the Nov. 22 standings and if you compare the W-L-T figures to the schedules on our Wikipedia articles for UMass and UConn, it's clear that AP is not counting games against BU or HC as conference games. Here's the 1972 standings, which show the same six-team Yankee Conference: [5].

Currently, our 1971 Holy Cross Crusaders football team page displays the Yankee Conference standings infobox and says HC was a Yankee Conference member, but does not show asterisks for non-conference games in the schedule table. There is no article on 1971's BU team. Among the remaining Yankee Conference teams, our 1971 UMass Redmen football team article treats HC and BU both as non-conference games. Our 1971 Connecticut Huskies football team article treats HC as a conference game but BU as a non-conference game. Our 1971 Rhode Island Rams football team article does not differentiate between conference and non-conference games (they did play BU that year, but not HC). We don't have Wikipedia articles for the 1971 UMaine, UNH and UVM teams.

Our 1972 Holy Cross Crusaders football team page doesn't mention that the team started the year as a Yankee Conference member, nor do 1972 UMass Minutemen football team or 1972 Connecticut Huskies football team list their BU or HC dates as conference games. UMass played its HC game just days before the withdrawal announcement; UConn played its HC game two weeks later.

While there are no Wikipedia season articles for BU for the years in question, and Boston University Terriers football does not give any definite start date for BU's membership in the Yankee Conference, our Yankee Conference page lists them as joining in 1973, and they first show up in the AP standings that year: [6]. We should be consistent; if HC joined in 1971, so did BU.

If there were no precedent, my preference would be to treat the 1971 (and 1972) Yankee Conference, for the purposes of the infobox and schedule asterisks, as consisting only of its traditional six members (UConn, UMaine, UMass, UNH, URI, UVM), and deal with the status of HC and BU in the prose of their articles, in the prose of articles on 1971 and 1972 Yankee Conference teams that played games against them in those years, and perhaps in a footnote in the standings infobox. And of course to address all this history in the prose of the Yankee Conference article. In the absence of a Yankee Conference record book -- does anyone have access to one? -- I'd be inclined to go with the Associated Press' contemporary reporting, which treated BU and HC as non-competitors in Yankee Conference football non-members of the conference in 1971 and 1972, and BU as a member in 1973 (and presumably thereafter).

I'm willing to go through all the affected pages making changes, but I'd like to be certain that I'm making the right changes. I'm sure this is not a unique circumstance in the annals of college football history. How has the project dealt with this before -- an independent team announcing it has joined a conference, but not yet really competing as a conference member? _``` t b w i l l i e _{`</sub> $1.25 <sub>`} 14:52, 23 September 2020 (UTC)

Edit: My preference is to treat BU and HC as conference members in 1971-72 for the purposes of this article and in a general sense when discussing Terrier and Crusader athletics as a whole, but as non-competitors in football, with the effect of treating them as independents in WP articles about football teams. _``` t b w i l l i e _{`</sub> $1.25 <sub>`} 15:18, 23 September 2020 (UTC)

This listing of college football standings from November 22, 1971 by the AP omits both BU and Holy Cross from the Yankee Conference: https://www.newspapers.com/clip/59855533/the-herald-news/. Same for this from November 23, 1971 in The Philadelphia Inquirer: https://www.newspapers.com/clip/59855703/the-philadelphia-inquirer/. Jweiss11 (talk) 22:34, 23 September 2020 (UTC)

It's been a couple weeks and no additional comments, so I'll go ahead and make the edits sometime this week. Following the Michigan State precedent mentioned at WT:CFB, it seems to me it makes sense to treat Holy Cross and Boston University as football independents in 1971 and '72, but note in prose that the colleges as a whole were Yankee Conference members those years. Thanks, as always, Cbl62 and Jweiss11, for your help. _``` t b w i l l i e _{`</sub> $1.25 <sub>`} 16:34, 6 October 2020 (UTC)

That sounds like a sensible resolution. Cbl62 (talk) 16:58, 6 October 2020 (UTC)