It looks like UALR may be participating in an exempt tournament in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico over Thanksgiving weekend along with Missouri State, SMU, and South Carolina. It also looks like in addition to two games in Mexico against two of the above, UALR will be a host for two games at home before they head to Mexico against a field of Alcorn State, Jacksonville, and two more to be determined. This sounds like a really good deal for our team!

Here are a couple of links to info on this tournament:

http://blogs.news-leader.com/msu/2012/06...ummer-day/

http://www.bloggingthebracket.com/pages/...and-events

Why doesn't the NCAA just add two weeks to the begining of the season? It looks like most every team in the country is playing in one of the exempt tournaments. I'm glad to see that we are playing. That's two more games to see the Trojans at home, and I suppose we get to start practices a couple of weeks earlier.

If our football team is not still alive in the playoffs, I plan to have a Mexican Fiesta instead of Thanksgiving dinner!

(06-28-2012 12:32 PM)LRTrojan Wrote:  Why doesn't the NCAA just add two weeks to the begining of the season? It looks like most every team in the country is playing in one of the exempt tournaments. I'm glad to see that we are playing. That's two more games to see the Trojans at home, and I suppose we get to start practices a couple of weeks earlier.

Why would you start practice sooner? Early practice is only for those taking foreign exhibition trips. The Thanksgiving/Christmas MTEs are just normal early season tournaments.

(06-28-2012 01:55 PM)SubGod22 Wrote:  Why would you start practice sooner? Early practice is only for those taking foreign exhibition trips. The Thanksgiving/Christmas MTEs are just normal early season tournaments. It

Sorry, evidently I didn't read it closely enough I guess. I thought it was a pre-season tournament. It plainly read Thanksgiving.

(06-28-2012 12:32 PM)LRTrojan Wrote:  Why doesn't the NCAA just add two weeks to the begining of the season? It looks like most every team in the country is playing in one of the exempt tournaments. I'm glad to see that we are playing. That's two more games to see the Trojans at home, and I suppose we get to start practices a couple of weeks earlier.

No extra practice for these tournaments since they occur within the time frame of the regular schedule. All games will be after the first day of play on Friday, November 9th. The only situation that I know of where a team gets extra practice is where they go on a foreign trip during the summer (allowed once every four years). Then they get 10 days of practice before they go.

Very nice trip for our guys.

God PLEASE don't make us play Missouri State again! If we're going to get our ass whipped every year can't we just schedule a bigger-named opponent that actually HELPS our RPI?????

(06-28-2012 08:33 PM)eh9198 Wrote:  God PLEASE don't make us play Missouri State again! If we're going to get our ass whipped every year can't we just schedule a bigger-named opponent that actually HELPS our RPI?????

My guess is that we will either get South Carolina or SMU in the semis in Mexico. Then winners play winners and losers play losers.

Well at least it's a real tournament. That I can live with.

Imagine our recruits calling home and telling their folks, "Guess what - I am going to Mexico in my first year here!"

I am excited to go play.

(06-28-2012 10:17 PM)eh9198 Wrote:  Well at least it's a real tournament. That I can live with.

My guess is that this tournament is set up like the Cancun Challenge that Richmond participated in last year. The four hosts teams will be in one bracket in Mexico and the four visiting teams in the States will be in another bracket in Mexico. And that is regardless of results in the States. So it's not really a true tournament, but it does have true bracket play in Mexico.