MAAC announces new tournament home in Atlantic City at Boardwalk Hall

The MAAC held a press conference on Friday morning at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City.

The league was not there to announce the MAAC Tournament is staying in Albany, New York.

The MAAC was in town on Friday to announce what was long-assumed. Its crown-jewel event, the MAAC Tournament, will be contested at 90-year-old, 10,000-seat Boardwalk Hall in 2020, 2021, 2022. Two of the MAAC's three New Jersey schools, Monmouth and Rider universities, will act as co-hosts.

The league's current deal with Albany and Times Union Center ends in 2019.

When the MAAC announced a two-year extension at Times Union on June 3, 2017, the announcement included the fact that the Council of Presidents directed MAAC Commisioner Rich Ensor to "develop a strategic plan for MAAC basketball that will entail looking at alternate arena sites that can service the great number of MAAC alumni in the tri-state N.Y. Metropolitan region."

In layman's terms, the presidents told Ensor they want a review of MAAC basketball, which will include the future of the MAAC Tournament and potentially moving it closer to the metropolitan area.

On Dec. 14, USA TODAY NETWORK New Jersey was first to report that Atlantic City, Albany, Nassau Coliseum on Long Island and Webster Bank Arena in Bridgeport, Connecticut, had all submitted bids after Ensor sent documents to 10 arenas around the region. Atlantic City had long been considered the prohibitive favorite. When the MAAC presidents voted on the matter on Wednesday, there were no surprises.

Regardless where the event wound up, there has been significant traction to get it out of Albany, which has been perceived as too much of a home-court advantage. Times Union Center is the home of Siena College. Monmouth and its athletic director, Marilyn McNeil, had been among those working to steer the event out of the Capital Region, at least for this next bidding cycle.

Atlantic City and Boardwalk Hall have experience with this sort of thing, having hosted the Atlantic 10 Tournament from 2007-12. Like the MAAC Tournament, the A-10 Tournament has lived a nomadic existence since its inception.

For this tournament cycle in Atlantic City, the championship game will move from Monday night to the Saturday before Selection Sunday, the reasoning being the NJSIAA annually holds its Individual Wrestling Championships at Boardwalk Hall on the MAAC Tournament dates.

Schedule going back to 18 games in 2019-20

Aside from the MAAC presidents voting on the future of the tournament on Wednesday, there were scheduling matters at hand.

Ensor told USA TODAY NETWORK New Jersey on Thursday morning that the league will play an 18-game schedule next season, but will revert back to 20 games for 2019-20. The MAAC played 20 games from 2014-17.

Per Ensor, the league's athletic directors made that scheduling recommendations based on "unintended consequences."

Staff Writer Josh Newman: jnewman@app.com; @Joshua_Newman