[SuperJon]

Home:
JMU
Coastal
VMI
Presby
Robert Morris

Away:
NC State
G-W
CSU
SBU
St. Francis (I think, might be wrong on that)

[BJWilliams]

Thanks Jon...so that leaves us with one game (when is the next 12 game season anyway?) to fill in possibly two.

[jcmanson]

Also, since we haven't made the playoffs yet, we don't have much ground to stand on. It would make sense to play cup-cake teams before conference, since we haven't made the playoff yet.

Worst. Argument. Ever.

How?
You can't expect us to schedule like a powerhouse if we aren't a proven powerhouse yet. Sure we win the conference, but like I said, we haven't made it yet. If we had gotten in 2 years ago, or last year, then maybe there would be more of an argument for a stronger schedule. Until we make the playoffs, we have to be content with what we got.

I'm not saying schedule like a powerhouse. Just don't schedule 3 of 5 OOC games against teams in the bottom 20 of all FCS football. And saying we should schedule "cupcakes" before conference play since we haven't made the playoffs? I don't even see where that correlates.

[jcmanson]

I understand your point, but it’s not a valid argument. Coastal is playing a schedule full of these types of teams. So, it can be done.

Well - Liberty and Coastal are in different situations. The idea that teams are hesitant to play us is correct.

I understand teams are hesitant to play us. I still refuse to believe none of the teams we're talking about would be willing to play us though. And no, Coastal and Liberty are not in different situations when it comes the amount of openings the teams their scheduling have.

[jcmanson]

Away:
St. Francis (I think, might be wrong on that)

R u serious? Wow

[SuperJon]

Away:
St. Francis (I think, might be wrong on that)

R u serious? Wow

There was talk of that at one point but it was actually for this year as a "worst-case there's a 99.9% this won't happen but if the stadium isn't finished" type of deal. We're not going to St. Francis next year. In fact, there's talk we may open the season with them again.

[SuperJon]

I tried to go without writing a big long rant and getting too into this debate but I can't do it. This is long but whatever.

All of those games Manson cited on Coastal’s 07 schedule were the tail end of home-and-home series that Coastal scheduled following the 04 season when they were playing schedules full of D2 and Pioneer teams (Jacksonville, etc). JMU would never in a million years have travelled to Conway, especially on the front end of the home-and-home, if they thought Coastal was going to be as good as they turned out to be and the same can be said about Furman and GSU. To add to that, in 2004, Delaware State was coming off a 4-7 season with a brand new head coach and hadn’t won the MEAC in like 15 years. Plus, they'd never even been to the playoffs. In that case, both schools thought they were scheduling a winnable game and their opponent turned out to be better than anticipated.

Oh, another little fun fact, Coastal also played WSSU and Chowan in 2007.

Manson, the problem with your theory on scheduling is three-fold:

A) First, it’s not that we’re too good for the big boys to want to play us, it’s that they don’t want to play us in Lynchburg. They especially don't want to come here after what happened to Elon with our students gone. The word is out that Williams is a tough place to play and it’s even tougher to convince a top notch team to come here as the front end of a home-and-home and risk screwing up their playoff chances with an OOC loss. Remember, the only reason JMU agreed to start their series with us here was because they wanted to play a money game in 08 and needed to push the series back a year.

II). Second, you need OOC wins both for recruiting purposes and to build the program. Our staff knows this. Those top teams know this. For instance, we are playing Robert Morris for the purpose of getting a win, obviously, but also for increasing our recruiting presence in western PA, an area which produces guys like Manny Rojas, Nick Hursky, and Colin Dugan.

3). Third, and possibly most importantly, there is zero point in playing an OOC playoff schedule in September if you truly plan to play one in November/December. Coastal can play a tough schedule because they don't have big playoff hopes this year. For comparison, let’s look at the OOC schedules from last year’s playoff teams:

1. App – East Carolina, NC Central and McNeese – that’s a money game, a blowout in-state game & a game against what was thought to be a down team that came together very late (which happens a lot for App) when neither they nor McNeese had many OOC options
2. Elon – Davidson, Presby & Wake – a non-schollie Pioneer, transitioning program & money
3. E. Illinois – Illinois St., Indiana St. & Penn St. – a mediocre in-state rival, a team that hadn’t won a game in 3 years & money
4. E. Washington – D2 Western Oregon & Oregon – a decent D2 & money
5. Holy Cross – Sacred Heart, Harvard, Brown & Dartmouth – a bad NEC, a bad Ivy, a mediocre Ivy & a pretty good Ivy
6. McNeese – App, D2 Henderson St., Tulane & Savannah St. – this is pretty much comparable to the schedule we played last year except that WVU was significantly better than Tulane
7. Montana – D2 Western St. & UC-Davis – a mediocre D2 & what had been a mediocre Great West team
8. UNH – St. Francis, Ball St. (sounds familiar) & Dartmouth – that’s a winnable money game and two of the worst teams in America
9. Richmond – Duke, VMI & Georgetown – that’s a money game and two poorly-rated in-state schools
10. SC State – Grambing & South Carolina – an HBC “classic” game and a money game
11. S. Dakota St. – Georgia Southern, Cal Poly & Minnesota – those first two look like a risk until you realize that those two games are the back ends of H-&-H series that SDSU started when they started re-classifying from D2…and also a money game
12. S. Illinois – Marshall, D2 Southwest Baptist & SE Missouri – that’s money, a mediocre D2 & a mediocre OVC team
13. Stephen F. Austin – SMU, NAIA Texas College, W. Illinois & N. Dakota – money, one horrible matchup (by the way, SFA won 92-0), the 2nd-weakest MVFC and a mediocre Great West team
14. Villanova – Temple, Lehigh & Penn –a winnable money game, a weak in-state Patriot and a neighborhood rivalry that’s been played for 6 years straight and will be played again this year (by the way, Villanova keeps this exact same OOC schedule for ’10)
15. Weber St. – Wyoming, Colorado St. & Cal Poly – two money games and the 3rd of a 4-game series that began in 2005
16. William & Mary – Virginia, C. Connecticut St. & Norfolk St. – money, a mediocre NEC and a neighboring mediocre MEAC team

Clearly, these guys know something about scheduling and that something is this: if you want to win late, you schedule for winning early and you pay more attention to the long-term needs of your team and less attention to who your fans think you should schedule.

[flameshaw]

I tried to go without writing a big long rant and getting too into this debate but I can't do it. This is long but whatever.

All of those games Manson cited on Coastal’s 07 schedule were the tail end of home-and-home series that Coastal scheduled following the 04 season when they were playing schedules full of D2 and Pioneer teams (Jacksonville, etc). JMU would never in a million years have travelled to Conway, especially on the front end of the home-and-home, if they thought Coastal was going to be as good as they turned out to be and the same can be said about Furman and GSU. To add to that, in 2004, Delaware State was coming off a 4-7 season with a brand new head coach and hadn’t won the MEAC in like 15 years. Plus, they'd never even been to the playoffs. In that case, both schools thought they were scheduling a winnable game and their opponent turned out to be better than anticipated.

Oh, another little fun fact, Coastal also played WSSU and Chowan in 2007.

Manson, the problem with your theory on scheduling is three-fold:

A) First, it’s not that we’re too good for the big boys to want to play us, it’s that they don’t want to play us in Lynchburg. They especially don't want to come here after what happened to Elon with our students gone. The word is out that Williams is a tough place to play and it’s even tougher to convince a top notch team to come here as the front end of a home-and-home and risk screwing up their playoff chances with an OOC loss. Remember, the only reason JMU agreed to start their series with us here was because they wanted to play a money game in 08 and needed to push the series back a year.

II). Second, you need OOC wins both for recruiting purposes and to build the program. Our staff knows this. Those top teams know this. For instance, we are playing Robert Morris for the purpose of getting a win, obviously, but also for increasing our recruiting presence in western PA, an area which produces guys like Manny Rojas, Nick Hursky, and Colin Dugan.

3). Third, and possibly most importantly, there is zero point in playing an OOC playoff schedule in September if you truly plan to play one in November/December. Coastal can play a tough schedule because they don't have big playoff hopes this year. For comparison, let’s look at the OOC schedules from last year’s playoff teams:

1. App – East Carolina, NC Central and McNeese – that’s a money game, a blowout in-state game & a game against what was thought to be a down team that came together very late (which happens a lot for App) when neither they nor McNeese had many OOC options
2. Elon – Davidson, Presby & Wake – a non-schollie Pioneer, transitioning program & money
3. E. Illinois – Illinois St., Indiana St. & Penn St. – a mediocre in-state rival, a team that hadn’t won a game in 3 years & money
4. E. Washington – D2 Western Oregon & Oregon – a decent D2 & money
5. Holy Cross – Sacred Heart, Harvard, Brown & Dartmouth – a bad NEC, a bad Ivy, a mediocre Ivy & a pretty good Ivy
6. McNeese – App, D2 Henderson St., Tulane & Savannah St. – this is pretty much comparable to the schedule we played last year except that WVU was significantly better than Tulane
7. Montana – D2 Western St. & UC-Davis – a mediocre D2 & what had been a mediocre Great West team
8. UNH – St. Francis, Ball St. (sounds familiar) & Dartmouth – that’s a winnable money game and two of the worst teams in America
9. Richmond – Duke, VMI & Georgetown – that’s a money game and two poorly-rated in-state schools
10. SC State – Grambing & South Carolina – an HBC “classic” game and a money game
11. S. Dakota St. – Georgia Southern, Cal Poly & Minnesota – those first two look like a risk until you realize that those two games are the back ends of H-&-H series that SDSU started when they started re-classifying from D2…and also a money game
12. S. Illinois – Marshall, D2 Southwest Baptist & SE Missouri – that’s money, a mediocre D2 & a mediocre OVC team
13. Stephen F. Austin – SMU, NAIA Texas College, W. Illinois & N. Dakota – money, one horrible matchup (by the way, SFA won 92-0), the 2nd-weakest MVFC and a mediocre Great West team
14. Villanova – Temple, Lehigh & Penn –a winnable money game, a weak in-state Patriot and a neighborhood rivalry that’s been played for 6 years straight and will be played again this year (by the way, Villanova keeps this exact same OOC schedule for ’10)
15. Weber St. – Wyoming, Colorado St. & Cal Poly – two money games and the 3rd of a 4-game series that began in 2005
16. William & Mary – Virginia, C. Connecticut St. & Norfolk St. – money, a mediocre NEC and a neighboring mediocre MEAC team

Clearly, these guys know something about scheduling and that something is this: if you want to win late, you schedule for winning early and you pay more attention to the long-term needs of your team and less attention to who your fans think you should schedule.

+1

[BJWilliams]

I tried to go without writing a big long rant and getting too into this debate but I can't do it. This is long but whatever.

All of those games Manson cited on Coastal’s 07 schedule were the tail end of home-and-home series that Coastal scheduled following the 04 season when they were playing schedules full of D2 and Pioneer teams (Jacksonville, etc). JMU would never in a million years have travelled to Conway, especially on the front end of the home-and-home, if they thought Coastal was going to be as good as they turned out to be and the same can be said about Furman and GSU. To add to that, in 2004, Delaware State was coming off a 4-7 season with a brand new head coach and hadn’t won the MEAC in like 15 years. Plus, they'd never even been to the playoffs. In that case, both schools thought they were scheduling a winnable game and their opponent turned out to be better than anticipated.

Oh, another little fun fact, Coastal also played WSSU and Chowan in 2007.

Manson, the problem with your theory on scheduling is three-fold:

A) First, it’s not that we’re too good for the big boys to want to play us, it’s that they don’t want to play us in Lynchburg. They especially don't want to come here after what happened to Elon with our students gone. The word is out that Williams is a tough place to play and it’s even tougher to convince a top notch team to come here as the front end of a home-and-home and risk screwing up their playoff chances with an OOC loss. Remember, the only reason JMU agreed to start their series with us here was because they wanted to play a money game in 08 and needed to push the series back a year.

II). Second, you need OOC wins both for recruiting purposes and to build the program. Our staff knows this. Those top teams know this. For instance, we are playing Robert Morris for the purpose of getting a win, obviously, but also for increasing our recruiting presence in western PA, an area which produces guys like Manny Rojas, Nick Hursky, and Colin Dugan.

3). Third, and possibly most importantly, there is zero point in playing an OOC playoff schedule in September if you truly plan to play one in November/December. Coastal can play a tough schedule because they don't have big playoff hopes this year. For comparison, let’s look at the OOC schedules from last year’s playoff teams:

1. App – East Carolina, NC Central and McNeese – that’s a money game, a blowout in-state game & a game against what was thought to be a down team that came together very late (which happens a lot for App) when neither they nor McNeese had many OOC options
2. Elon – Davidson, Presby & Wake – a non-schollie Pioneer, transitioning program & money
3. E. Illinois – Illinois St., Indiana St. & Penn St. – a mediocre in-state rival, a team that hadn’t won a game in 3 years & money
4. E. Washington – D2 Western Oregon & Oregon – a decent D2 & money
5. Holy Cross – Sacred Heart, Harvard, Brown & Dartmouth – a bad NEC, a bad Ivy, a mediocre Ivy & a pretty good Ivy
6. McNeese – App, D2 Henderson St., Tulane & Savannah St. – this is pretty much comparable to the schedule we played last year except that WVU was significantly better than Tulane
7. Montana – D2 Western St. & UC-Davis – a mediocre D2 & what had been a mediocre Great West team
8. UNH – St. Francis, Ball St. (sounds familiar) & Dartmouth – that’s a winnable money game and two of the worst teams in America
9. Richmond – Duke, VMI & Georgetown – that’s a money game and two poorly-rated in-state schools
10. SC State – Grambing & South Carolina – an HBC “classic” game and a money game
11. S. Dakota St. – Georgia Southern, Cal Poly & Minnesota – those first two look like a risk until you realize that those two games are the back ends of H-&-H series that SDSU started when they started re-classifying from D2…and also a money game
12. S. Illinois – Marshall, D2 Southwest Baptist & SE Missouri – that’s money, a mediocre D2 & a mediocre OVC team
13. Stephen F. Austin – SMU, NAIA Texas College, W. Illinois & N. Dakota – money, one horrible matchup (by the way, SFA won 92-0), the 2nd-weakest MVFC and a mediocre Great West team
14. Villanova – Temple, Lehigh & Penn –a winnable money game, a weak in-state Patriot and a neighborhood rivalry that’s been played for 6 years straight and will be played again this year (by the way, Villanova keeps this exact same OOC schedule for ’10)
15. Weber St. – Wyoming, Colorado St. & Cal Poly – two money games and the 3rd of a 4-game series that began in 2005
16. William & Mary – Virginia, C. Connecticut St. & Norfolk St. – money, a mediocre NEC and a neighboring mediocre MEAC team

Clearly, these guys know something about scheduling and that something is this: if you want to win late, you schedule for winning early and you pay more attention to the long-term needs of your team and less attention to who your fans think you should schedule.

and this my friends explains why they are the ones scheduling games and people like us arent... +1

[Th3rd]

I tried to go without writing a big long rant and getting too into this debate but I can't do it. This is long but whatever.

All of those games Manson cited on Coastal’s 07 schedule were the tail end of home-and-home series that Coastal scheduled following the 04 season when they were playing schedules full of D2 and Pioneer teams (Jacksonville, etc). JMU would never in a million years have travelled to Conway, especially on the front end of the home-and-home, if they thought Coastal was going to be as good as they turned out to be and the same can be said about Furman and GSU. To add to that, in 2004, Delaware State was coming off a 4-7 season with a brand new head coach and hadn’t won the MEAC in like 15 years. Plus, they'd never even been to the playoffs. In that case, both schools thought they were scheduling a winnable game and their opponent turned out to be better than anticipated.

Oh, another little fun fact, Coastal also played WSSU and Chowan in 2007.

Manson, the problem with your theory on scheduling is three-fold:

A) First, it’s not that we’re too good for the big boys to want to play us, it’s that they don’t want to play us in Lynchburg. They especially don't want to come here after what happened to Elon with our students gone. The word is out that Williams is a tough place to play and it’s even tougher to convince a top notch team to come here as the front end of a home-and-home and risk screwing up their playoff chances with an OOC loss. Remember, the only reason JMU agreed to start their series with us here was because they wanted to play a money game in 08 and needed to push the series back a year.

II). Second, you need OOC wins both for recruiting purposes and to build the program. Our staff knows this. Those top teams know this. For instance, we are playing Robert Morris for the purpose of getting a win, obviously, but also for increasing our recruiting presence in western PA, an area which produces guys like Manny Rojas, Nick Hursky, and Colin Dugan.

3). Third, and possibly most importantly, there is zero point in playing an OOC playoff schedule in September if you truly plan to play one in November/December. Coastal can play a tough schedule because they don't have big playoff hopes this year. For comparison, let’s look at the OOC schedules from last year’s playoff teams:

1. App – East Carolina, NC Central and McNeese – that’s a money game, a blowout in-state game & a game against what was thought to be a down team that came together very late (which happens a lot for App) when neither they nor McNeese had many OOC options
2. Elon – Davidson, Presby & Wake – a non-schollie Pioneer, transitioning program & money
3. E. Illinois – Illinois St., Indiana St. & Penn St. – a mediocre in-state rival, a team that hadn’t won a game in 3 years & money
4. E. Washington – D2 Western Oregon & Oregon – a decent D2 & money
5. Holy Cross – Sacred Heart, Harvard, Brown & Dartmouth – a bad NEC, a bad Ivy, a mediocre Ivy & a pretty good Ivy
6. McNeese – App, D2 Henderson St., Tulane & Savannah St. – this is pretty much comparable to the schedule we played last year except that WVU was significantly better than Tulane
7. Montana – D2 Western St. & UC-Davis – a mediocre D2 & what had been a mediocre Great West team
8. UNH – St. Francis, Ball St. (sounds familiar) & Dartmouth – that’s a winnable money game and two of the worst teams in America
9. Richmond – Duke, VMI & Georgetown – that’s a money game and two poorly-rated in-state schools
10. SC State – Grambing & South Carolina – an HBC “classic” game and a money game
11. S. Dakota St. – Georgia Southern, Cal Poly & Minnesota – those first two look like a risk until you realize that those two games are the back ends of H-&-H series that SDSU started when they started re-classifying from D2…and also a money game
12. S. Illinois – Marshall, D2 Southwest Baptist & SE Missouri – that’s money, a mediocre D2 & a mediocre OVC team
13. Stephen F. Austin – SMU, NAIA Texas College, W. Illinois & N. Dakota – money, one horrible matchup (by the way, SFA won 92-0), the 2nd-weakest MVFC and a mediocre Great West team
14. Villanova – Temple, Lehigh & Penn –a winnable money game, a weak in-state Patriot and a neighborhood rivalry that’s been played for 6 years straight and will be played again this year (by the way, Villanova keeps this exact same OOC schedule for ’10)
15. Weber St. – Wyoming, Colorado St. & Cal Poly – two money games and the 3rd of a 4-game series that began in 2005
16. William & Mary – Virginia, C. Connecticut St. & Norfolk St. – money, a mediocre NEC and a neighboring mediocre MEAC team

Clearly, these guys know something about scheduling and that something is this: if you want to win late, you schedule for winning early and you pay more attention to the long-term needs of your team and less attention to who your fans think you should schedule.

and this my friends explains why they are the ones scheduling games and people like us arent... +1

i was talking with SJ after he wrote the rant and this is my take on it (taken directly from the conversation we had)

as a fan you just look to what you would like to see and what you think is 'good'... you have to realize that yes the staff looks at that as well, but its also business and if business is about winning in november you cant set yourself up to get knocked out by october

[jcmanson]

I appreciate you taking the time to go through all that. I’m sure those responsible for our scheduling are doing the best they can. I started this debate mainly playing devil’s advocate and will continue to do so. Everybody has used the excuse that teams don’t want to play us, and I refuse to believe that every single top 50 team would turn us down.

A) First, it’s not that we’re too good for the big boys to want to play us, it’s that they don’t want to play us in Lynchburg. They especially don't want to come here after what happened to Elon with our students gone. The word is out that Williams is a tough place to play and it’s even tougher to convince a top notch team to come here as the front end of a home-and-home and risk screwing up their playoff chances with an OOC loss. Remember, the only reason JMU agreed to start their series with us here was because they wanted to play a money game in 08 and needed to push the series back a year.

Fine and perfectly understandable. But I’d say go to their place. We’re at a point in our program, especially these next 2 years, where we need to earn other teams respect. We need to go from being the team they are scared to play to being a legit top 15 team where a loss is “respectable.” How do you do that? By beating top 15 teams consistently. You can’t beat them if you don’t play them.

II). Second, you need OOC wins both for recruiting purposes and to build the program. Our staff knows this. Those top teams know this. For instance, we are playing Robert Morris for the purpose of getting a win, obviously, but also for increasing our recruiting presence in western PA, an area which produces guys like Manny Rojas, Nick Hursky, and Colin Dugan.

I’ve understood that since that explanation was given, and I’m fine with this game. It’s this game added to St Francis and Savannah State that makes it too weak.

3). Third, and possibly most importantly, there is zero point in playing an OOC playoff schedule in September if you truly plan to play one in November/December. Coastal can play a tough schedule because they don't have big playoff hopes this year. For comparison, let’s look at the OOC schedules from last year’s playoff teams:

App- they play in the SOCON where they played 6 top 50 teams (and that being a down year for the conference)
Elon – see App
E. Illinois – and that schedule got them a nice 48-7 pounding by Southern Illinois (who got pounded on their home field by W&M the next week) in the first round of the playoffs – exactly the team we should be modeling after
E. Washington – play in the Big Sky where they had 5 teams in the top 50 on their conference schedule
Holy Cross – their OOC schedule coupled with their conference schedule had them playing 3 top 50 teams, similar to our schedule this year, but do we want a first round exit in the playoffs?
McNeese- other than the D2, I like their schedule, plus they play in the Southland that had 3 teams in the top 30.
Montana – see E. Washington
UNH, Richmond, ‘Nova, W&M – CAA where they are playing playoff caliber teams nearly every week
SC State- they’re pretty much locked into their schedule
SDSU – Very tough schedule
S. Illinois – Solid schedule, and they’re also in a traditionally strong conference
Stephen F. Austin – Other than their conference had 3 teams in the top 30, I’ll give you this one
Weber St – Very tough schedule

Almost all of these teams who make the playoffs play in solid conferences which prepare them for the playoffs. So, they don’t need strong OOC schedules. We’re not in that category. With the exception of SBU and CSU (this year) we don’t play teams in conference that even sniff the top 50. I hope I’m wrong, but I think our schedule will lead to us not being prepared to face that level of competition at the beginning of the game in the opening round of the playoffs.

[SuperJon]

I refuse to believe that every single top 50 team would turn us down.

You can believe what you want but I can tell you that your beliefs are simply wrong. Once you take out western schools where economic costs outweigh benefits, your top 50 is actually only a top 28. Take out Liberty because playing with ourselves is against the Liberty Way and that's 27. Take out JMU and Stony Brook since we're already playing them and you're down to 25. Take out the Ivies who are too stuck up to play outside their little corner of the globe and it's 23. Now take out the schools that we've recently wrapped up series with like Lafayette, Elon and Youngstown and you're down to 20 teams. We now have twenty teams to try to fill 2-3 spots. Good luck with finding someone in that group who has a matching open date, doesn’t mind coming here and also meets the other needs of the program.

We’re at a point in our program, especially these next 2 years, where we need to earn other teams respect. We need to go from being the team they are scared to play to being a legit top 15 team where a loss is “respectable.”

We already have those teams' respect from a coaching standpoint. Who cares if their fans respect us? There's no such thing as a "respectable" loss. The only ones who can take comfort in a respectable loss are those who lost to someone they didn't belong on the same field with in the first place. What you're really looking for here is respect from Mr. C and the guys on AGS which, of course, isn't the football program's problem.

It’s this [RMU] game added to St Francis and Savannah State that makes it too weak.

Compared to what? We've already been down the list.

Almost all of these teams who make the playoffs play in solid conferences which prepare them for the playoffs....I think our schedule will lead to us not being prepared to face that level of competition at the beginning of the game in the opening round of the playoffs.

You aren't the only fan to subscribe to "video game theory" in terms of schedule making (i.e. gradually increasing the level of competition until you face the big boss level at the end and get to save the princess only for her to run off to screw Luigi), however, it just doesn't work that way. I used to think it did but then I talked to people who knew much more about this stuff than I did. With this line of thinking, VMI and Presby should have been far and away more prepared to win in November than most teams in the country. Their record? A combined 0-8 in the last four weeks of the season. Using this logic, Karcher's teams should have been world beaters but they could barely beat Concord. You don't play games to prepare yourself for other games. That's what practice, film study, weight training and all the other things that go along with it are for.

[jcmanson]

For one, I care if other teams fans’ respect us. I’m sure it wouldn’t hurt in recruiting battles either. And if teams won’t come here and play us since a loss would look bad, how do you get to the point where they would be willing to play you? Where the (in our potential opponent’s view) potential success would outweigh the likely failure.

Home and homes between top 20 teams happen all the time look at McNeese/App, Richmond/Elon, CalPoly/Weber, etc. These games bring increased attendance and increased regional and national media attention both of which can only have positive affects on the athletic department.

I like this year’s schedule better than any we’ve had under Rocco, but I still think it can be better. Maybe it never will be though.

[SuperJon]

And if teams won’t come here and play us since a loss would look bad, how do you get to the point where they would be willing to play you?

Join their conference and unfortunately, no one's knocking at our door.

Home and homes between top 20 teams happen all the time look at McNeese/App, Richmond/Elon, CalPoly/Weber, etc.

No, they don't at all. Those examples are the exception.

McNeese/App happened because McNeese had someone back out late and App couldn't fill the date on their own. They lucked into this game. You might remember that App and NAU were in this exact position two years ago. App won both games but hasn't played either team since nor will they this year.

Richmond/Elon is the back end of a H-H series that started in '07 when Elon was coming off of a 5-6 record and Richmond was 6-5. This is another case of two mediocre teams scheduling each other just as they got to be pretty good.

Cal Poly/Weber is, as I said before, the 3rd in a 4-game series that was scheduled in 2005 and actually proves what I'm talking about. Weber's record in '05 was 6-4. This is a case where a good team (Cal Poly) scheduled a bad team (Weber St.) and, five years later, it's a good matchup. This is the same as us playing Robert Morris.

I like this year’s schedule better than any we’ve had under Rocco, but I still think it can be better. Maybe it never will be though.

Probably never enough to suit your expectations.

[Cider Jim]

I just heard from KK today that Coastal will be hosting the BSC Quiz Bowl tournament next year!

[jcmanson]

And if teams won’t come here and play us since a loss would look bad, how do you get to the point where they would be willing to play you?

Join their conference and unfortunately, no one's knocking at our door.

Yeah, which sucks

I like this year’s schedule better than any we’ve had under Rocco, but I still think it can be better. Maybe it never will be though.

Probably never enough to suit your expectations.[/quote]

Haha, if we win in the playoffs then I won't have a problem with this schedule. And it's not as big of a deal anymore since we are playing for the auto bid. I do applaud the admin for getting an all D1 schedule which I'm sure is not easy to do.

I just want us competing for national championships, and I think we are on the right path to get there. And don't want us to stumble in the playoffs because of a weak schedule. If Rocco & company believe a schedule like this can get us there, then I will trust them until they have proven otherwise.