(07-29-2013 05:57 PM)Volkmar Wrote:  

Quote: 1)Coach Bobby Wilder
2)Wood Selig
3) Bigger athletic department budget
4) ODU alumni (im sure alumni is what you meant by San Antonio)
5) Hampton Roads recruiting hot bed
See what I did there?
I hear what you're saying but that isn't really that different from ODU. Coach Wilder is a great leader and has done a tremendous job with starting the ODU program. Last Year our team had the #1 offense in the FCS! Pretty impressive for only 4 years old. You say you have a great fan base but the Alamodome seats 65,000 and you averaged 29,000 last year. If you had such a dedicated fan base why didn't you fill up your home stadium more? ODU soldout every home last 4 years. Our stadium only fits 20,000 right now but we are expanding and we have alot more people from this area that would pay for tickets. And you said you had unprecedented success the first 2 years for a program. While I agree you did pretty good for only a 2nd year program in the WAC, ODU's start up was just as impressive. Our athletic budget is alot bigger than yours too. ODU's budget is 66th in Division 1 at $35,000,000. UTSA is 102nd at $22,000,000 and we had that budget at the FCS level. And you do have the Texas recruiting bed I understand that but we have the Hampton Roads in our backyard. Here are just some players that went to the PROs in football from this area:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_peo...a#Football
We even have a top 3 recruiting class so far in CUSA. I do understand its still a long way to go but you Road Runners have only 3 commits right now

Why does it matter how many the Alamodome seats? While I'm impressed that you sold out all your home games in the last 4 years, I doubt that you'd draw another 9-10k even if your stadium had the capacity for it. That's not meant as an insult. I just don't see a 50% increase happening overnight. We set two all-time attendance records for a startup program in our first season btw, and 29K in season two is better than what many long-established programs can vouch for. Must say I'm impressed by your recruiting class though, and by what you've done in the four years since you guys restarted your football program. And yeah, we are running slow in that department at the current time. Not sure why we are, but I trust in our coaches, so I'm not too concerned about that at the moment.

Your athletic budget (and probably nearly every other budget) is bound to be bigger than ours though because your school has been in existence for nearly twice as long. So no surprises there. Bigger budgets certainly help with recruiting btw, and across the board with a range of other things as well. Sorry, but never heard of the Hampton Roads, and it's a stretch to compare that to Texas.

Based upon what you shared though, I'll take back what I said. I now think it'll be a tossup between us and you guys 5-7 years down the road, though it appears you might have us at a slight disadvantage at the present time. Seems you guys are legit and I look forward to hopefully playing you next year since you're not on our schedule this season. Interesting that we had one common opponent last year and had very similar results against them. You beat Georgia State 53-27 and we beat 'em 38-14. Should be quite a ride!

Hampton Roads is the area surrounding our school with a population of 1.7 million. I dont think its too far fetched to fill up another 10k in our stadium. And all I ask for is for everyone to keep an open mind. Best of luck to your team and see you next year hopefully.

I think all three have an extremely high ceiling and were great additions.

Texas has 12 FBS schools to compete for recruits. Virginia has 3. ODU is 3 hours from the closest Virginia FBS school. UTSA is like an hour from Austin. If a high profile recruit wants to stay close to home, ODU will theoretically be more likely to get him than a UTSA local recruit. All in all I think the recruiting point is moot. Our biggest steal from last recruiting class was a quarterback from the Houston area.

I voted UTSA based on what I have seen out of UTSA, but truth be told, I think it's basically 50/50 between UTSA and ODU. Both have big time potential. We haven't seen enough out of Charlotte yet to make an honest assesment. BTW, UTSA averaged 35K and 29K past 2 years and will probably average close to 35K again this year with the home slate they have.

(07-29-2013 08:01 PM)Fatmonarch Wrote:  Texas has 12 FBS schools to compete for recruits. Virginia has 3. ODU is 3 hours from the closest Virginia FBS school. UTSA is like an hour from Austin. If a high profile recruit wants to stay close to home, ODU will theoretically be more likely to get him than a UTSA local recruit. All in all I think the recruiting point is moot. Our biggest steal from last recruiting class was a quarterback from the Houston area.

You make good points, but remember the state of Texas produces more D-1 recruits than any other state. We will get our share. And yes, you did get a QB out of Houston. Non of the D-1 schools in Texas offered that kid did they?

(07-29-2013 08:36 PM)SATXBOSSMAN Wrote:  

(07-29-2013 08:01 PM)Fatmonarch Wrote:  Texas has 12 FBS schools to compete for recruits. Virginia has 3. ODU is 3 hours from the closest Virginia FBS school. UTSA is like an hour from Austin. If a high profile recruit wants to stay close to home, ODU will theoretically be more likely to get him than a UTSA local recruit. All in all I think the recruiting point is moot. Our biggest steal from last recruiting class was a quarterback from the Houston area.

You make good points, but remember the state of Texas produces more D-1 recruits than any other state. We will get our share. And yes, you did get a QB out of Houston. Non of the D-1 schools in Texas offered that kid did they?

UH did. Shane McCarley -- Houston Touchdown Club 2012 player of the year. 247sports 3-star rating. Check him out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPQ6vV5gTNE

It's really annoying that there's not like a thing we could do, maybe on Saturdays in the Fall, to see which is the better team.

(07-29-2013 08:01 PM)Fatmonarch Wrote:  Texas has 12 FBS schools to compete for recruits. Virginia has 3. ODU is 3 hours from the closest Virginia FBS school. UTSA is like an hour from Austin. If a high profile recruit wants to stay close to home, ODU will theoretically be more likely to get him than a UTSA local recruit. All in all I think the recruiting point is moot. Our biggest steal from last recruiting class was a quarterback from the Houston area.

Texas has a population of 26 million whereas Virginia has 8 million residents. Texas has the population as well as the HS recruit infrastructure to sustain 12 FBS schools.
Theres a reason conferences want Texas schools - because we produce more division one football players than anyone, and because we have lots of eyeballs to watch their local FBS team.

But to your point recruiting is moot. Hampton Roads has produced alot of notworthy players. Theres a reason Virginia Tech is a top 20 program; and Richmond as well as William&Mary have won recent FCS titles. However stealing QBs from Texas is nothing new to us. Drew Brees, Matthew Stafford, GJ Kinney, Nick Foles, and Andrew Luck were all successful Texas high scool players that played at out of state institutions.

I think ODU & UTSA will have their chance on the field in 2014. Just a gut feeling. Wasn't sure about that QB, that's why I asked. But ODU has been doing a great job of recruiting for 2014 class.

I actually want to watch Charlotte's first game. Someone will have to record it somewhere.

(07-29-2013 09:19 PM)slow-runner Wrote:  I actually want to watch Charlotte's first game. Someone will have to record it somewhere.

Don't know if it will be on the Live Stream but here it is:

http://www.wccbcharlotte.com/news/streaming

(07-29-2013 09:35 PM)49RFootballNow Wrote:  

(07-29-2013 09:19 PM)slow-runner Wrote:  I actually want to watch Charlotte's first game. Someone will have to record it somewhere.

Don't know if it will be on the Live Stream but here it is:

http://www.wccbcharlotte.com/news/streaming

Excellent! Thanks! Good luck!

It is just off-season banter to discuss who is going to be better. As an ODU fan, I am proud of our progress and success to date, but understand that this step up will require greater talent and greater depth.

All three programs appear to be doing things the right way, starting with terrific fan support (I offer Ga State as the opposing path). With ravenous fans, solid coaching, and facilities plans to meet growing demand, all three programs can be a force in years to come.

UnC-c and ODU already have some bad blood with the cancellation of games. In the long term, such stuff is important. RIVALRIES drive great conferences and great games, and the faster we all get to respectfully hating one another, the better!

(07-29-2013 09:47 PM)ODUsmitty Wrote:  It is just off-season banter to discuss who is going to be better. As an ODU fan, I am proud of our progress and success to date, but understand that this step up will require greater talent and greater depth.

All three programs appear to be doing things the right way, starting with terrific fan support (I offer Ga State as the opposing path). With ravenous fans, solid coaching, and facilities plans to meet growing demand, all three programs can be a force in years to come.

UnC-c and ODU already have some bad blood with the cancellation of games. In the long term, such stuff is important. RIVALRIES drive great conferences and great games, and the faster we all get to respectfully hating one another, the better!

Cute little emoticon. What is the 3 game series score between ODU and the lesser GSU? With 2/3 of those games in Atlanta. We are 3-0 with lopsided victories. I was at the game last year, had 50 yard line seats in the lower level, and was bored to tears. Liked the unlimited gametime beer, but yawn.

Your students fricking taligate at the CNN center food court. "Wow, there is a football game. Do you want to tailgate at Sbarro or Chick-Fil-A"? Your atmosphere sucks, as has your team. Let;s hope that your SBC experience improves over what you have shown the past three years.

How many FBS games had ODU won?

(07-29-2013 05:37 PM)ODU14 Wrote:  

(07-29-2013 05:25 PM)919R Wrote:  I would love to re-visit this a few years from now because I have a feeling a lot of you UTSA and ODU guys are going to be shocked at the success of the Charlotte program. I readily admit I don't know as much about your programs as you do----but most of you clearly don't know ANYTHING about Charlotte's program, situation or coaching staffs. For example:

Head Coach Brad Lambert - Coached many NFL players as the longtime Def. Coordinator at Wake Forest and maintains very close relationships with many of them, including guys like Aaron Curry who flew himself to Lamberts initial press conference and has volunteered as an assistant for us during the off-season for the last year or more.

Offensive Coordinator - Jeff Mullen was the Off. Coordinator most recently at WVU and is credited with most of Pat White's success (among others). Left during all the coaching turmoil/change at WVU.

Defensive Coordinator - Bruce Tall was d-line coach for many years at Michigan.

We have successful coaches with a TON of BCS and Bowl Game experience. You will learn.

We aren't saying that you will never be good at football. Its just hard to project just how much success you are going to have before you even play a game. Know who else who hired "experienced" coach for their startup program, who got fired from their last job? Georgia State. I'm not saying you will do bad but you literally have nothing to base your assumptions off of. Best of luck to your team tho.

Well, actually ODU and UTSA have very little to just assume you are going to be great in FBS 5-7 years from now or ever. Having a very solid start in FCS does not equate to success in FBS. Things change.

As for your attendance and "waiting lists" for season tickets, while very nice----is actually overblown/hyped by many, IMO. You have sold 20,000 seats, with I think ~14,000 being season tickets IIRC and apparently have a waiting list of ~4500 (which MIGHT equate to 10,000 more seats). Very nice numbers, no doubt. However, I think our numbers may be just as impressive when you factor in our costs. We have sold nearly 7,000 season tickets, but ~5,000 of ours include a $1,000 -$2,500 seat license PER SEAT (ie; everyone of ODU's season tickets cost ~$200-250 each, while the vast majority of ours cost in excess of $1,300 each. If you base success of ticket sales on the amount of investment for each, our numbers are more impressive. Also, I can guarantee that if the FSLs weren't required with most of our seats (all the best ones) we would have sold well in excess of 10,000 already. For example, I have 2 FSLs. I have over $2,500 invested in those 2 seats. If I could have just bought the same seats without the FSL cost (ie; $2,000 less) I would have bought atleast 4 season tickets, maybe 6. I could have bought 6 (at ODU's rates) for less than I have invested in the 2 FSLs that I have. I guarantee I am not the only one either. Not trying to downplay ODU's success, just reminding people that they are not the only "success story" around.

Is your license a one-time thing, or do you have to pay it every year? What you do not seem to know about ODU season tickets is that seating priority is based on a number of factors, primary of which is the current year annual donation to the Old Dominiion Athletic Foundation (ODAF). "Donations" run from insane amounts down to several hundred dollars, but if you want decent tickets, the annual donation is $1,000 or more. Over the past four years I have paid $2,600 for the privelege of tickets, which until this year were on the next to highest row on the visitors side of the stadium. If you do not donate, you do not get season tickets.

And, btw, we are not knocking Charlotte's program. I think all any of us are saying is we just don't know because the product has not yet been on the field.

Good luck to you guys this year.

(07-30-2013 06:01 AM)12thmonarch Wrote:  

(07-30-2013 02:22 AM)SApuro Wrote:  How many FBS games had ODU won?

How many Div 1 football records does UTSA Football hold? To give you the actual number it is equal to number of people who think you guys have an awesome FBS team outside UTSA

(07-30-2013 07:49 AM)919R Wrote:  As for your attendance and "waiting lists" for season tickets, while very nice----is actually overblown/hyped by many, IMO. You have sold 20,000 seats, with I think ~14,000 being season tickets IIRC and apparently have a waiting list of ~4500 (which MIGHT equate to 10,000 more seats). Very nice numbers, no doubt.

We've sold out every home game for four years.
Our stadium over that time has held 20000 more or less.
Put those things together and we have had 20000 people attend our FCS level home games, every single one of them.
We have a waiting list that equates to about 13000 more seats.
Put those things together and we could have sold out a 33000 stadium at the FCS level.

Not many FBS teams outside of the P5 can do that, we could do it as an FCS startup.

That's not the making of a team but those are damn fine numbers, not as you say overblown or overhyped.

Charlotte will have a great team with a full 4-5 years of FBS recruitment and one suspects a bigger stadium by that time, but ODU is the most successful FCS startup ever, we (and UTSA) are a few more years down the line, but no-one doubts that all three teams will be excellent additions.