Lately I have seen many Pirates on here and even on Pirate Radio saying they would still accept a football only invitation to the Big East.
Why?
If we were going to put out our other sports and stick them in CAA... why would the Big East be where you would want our football team? If we're going that route wouldn't it require something a little better for our football team. If we're willing to go that route... and become a football only school why not go full on independent?
Is scheduling really that difficult? We're talking about 12 games.
Is foresaking the 'National Championship' that giant of a loss?
Are losing bowl-tie ins really that detrimental? - you mean to tell me we couldn't sell our fanbase to atleast the nearby bowl games?
Scheduling
Go ahead and consider it 10 games because you know we can line up games with ODU, Richmond, JMU etc. to fill up 2. Im not opposed to scheduling games at these schools even but under 3 for 1 circumstances. It's better terms than other schools are offering. We could ignore ever playing them away by offering larger ticket allotments where they keep the revenue. They'll all bring more fans than any CUSA school has EVER brought to Dowdy. I'm all for bringing in lodging/restaurant money from SC and VA residents for Greenville.
If you want to get politicians involved for actual results then UNC-CH and NCState (not to mention Duke and Wake [yes i know they are private]) need to be on board. Lets say we play 1 to 2 games a year against in state opponents all under 1 for 1 terms. You would likely have to include App State here too.
1 game against a florida school every year (UCF/USF/FIU/FAU)
1 game against a texas school every year (no shortage there toss in Big 12 teams here)
An annual game against USM (they shouldn't feel betrayed by us going indy)
There's 6.5 games
1 game against (VaTech/UVA/Navy/Maryland/WVU)
1 game against old conference mates (Memphis/UAB/Tulane/Marshall/Louisville/Cincy)
2 games against the SEC (*with Charlotte in play)
1 game against the Big 10 (*with DC in play)
1 game against the rest MAC/Sunbelt (Ohio, Toledo, NIU, WKU, MTSU, Troy, La Tech)
Thats 12.5 games for a start and once the SEC and Big Ten teams start appearing we would have multiple contracts working and fade out some of the lesser opponents i listed above.
*SEC games 1/2/1 (1 home, 2 away, 1 Charlotte)
(~74,000 capacity) Already scheduled with South Carolina in 2014
*Big 10 1/2/1 (1 home, 2 away, 1 DC)
Every other year we alternate between a DC game and a Charlotte Game.
I think DC would be receptive to the idea and i also think some Big Ten teams would be receptive to the idea. (~82,000 capacity)
September 6, 2010 - Boise State defeated Virginia Tech 33-30, before a crowd of 86,587. November 20, 2010 - Penn State defeated Indiana 41-24, before a crowd of 78,790
2014 Charlotte (USC)
2016 DC (Michigan State~)
2018 Charlotte (Tennessee~)
personally I like this rotation better annually but that might be over
ambitious
1/2/1 deals do put us on the road for these big games BUT its better exposure and these are the types of venues kids want to play away games at am i right... not empty stadiums.
We can get 6 home games people (so what if two are against 'lower' regional opponents). I personally think we can get 7 out of this which is where we need to be. 6 with a neutral site game year and 7 in the other years.
Opponents for the later part of the season: because that's when teams like to be in conference games...
USM could be set up near the end of the schedule (like a thanksgiving game)
Bye Week has to come somewhere
The in state matchup could be forced in as a later game too
And the Big Ten game could be later... sell them on no snow
and why wouldn't we be able to schedule the regional UDUs and Richmonds later in the year?
I call BS on us not being able to garner a television contract that could pay us what our share of CUSA was. We wouldn't get Big East Money... but we keep our dignity.
