That's a good point. It's not like NMSU was going to pack HRS. All we need is someone relatively nearby and we'll do better on attendance. Worst case is someone more distant and that's a wash.

Perhaps find somebody close (Texas State, Lamar, ULaLa?) for next year and shift NMSU into a future year when we need a cupcake after jumping to the Big12?

(12-19-2013 04:52 PM)RiceDoc Wrote:  Perhaps find somebody close (Texas State, Lamar, ULaLa?) for next year and shift NMSU into a future year when we need a cupcake after jumping to the Big12?

How shall I put this...

We help out NMSU by travelling to Las Cruces in a year where they weren't going to have any conference to provide home games, and they try to eliminate the return game with less than a year's notice?

I say we take their money and let them desiccate in the desert wind (meaning another reason to not have them in CUSA).

Stanford has an open date on 9/6 and currently only has 2 OOC games on their schedule (9/13 vs. Army and 10/4 @ Notre Dame). Just sayin'.

Of course, I don't know how updated fbschedules.com is, because they show UH having an opening on 9/6 and only 2 scheduled OOC opponents, and I thought their schedule was full (which was why the Bayou Bucket is on hiatus).

Speaking of the AAC, in 2014 there will be 11 teams in the conference (prior to Navy joining in 2015). How many conference games are they playing? I can't imagine them playing all 10 conference opponents. This year they played 8 of 9 (each skipping an opponent). If they go with 9 AAC games, that would require lots of schedule shuffling, as Cincinnati, SMU, UConn, UCF, USF, Tulane, Tulsa, and Memphis have 4 OOC opponents on next year's schedule (ECU and Temple have 3, while UH only has 2).

Seems like a possible win-win to let NMSU drop Rice and re-schedule the Bayou Bucket with UH (WIowl beats me by a minute after my excessive edits!).

(12-19-2013 05:08 PM)mrbig Wrote:  Stanford has an open date on 9/6 and currently only has 2 OOC games on their schedule (9/13 vs. Army and 10/4 @ Notre Dame). Just sayin'.

Of course, I don't know how updated fbschedules.com is, because they show UH having an opening on 9/6 and only 2 scheduled OOC opponents, and I thought their schedule was full (which was why the Bayou Bucket is on hiatus).

Pac12 teams only have 3 OOC games due to the 9-game conference schedule. They are likely looking for a home game since they're traveling to Notre Dame.

UH also needs home games for their brand new stadium. And if NMSU falls through, Rice needs a home game as well.

Rice/UH could be a pretty complling Bayou Bucket with both teams coming off wins over SEC opponents (or so we hope).

Hell,if it wasn't Rice's opening home game, I'd rather play UH @Reliant or @UH than NMSU (unless the NMSU game determines Rice's bowl eligiblity, which in CUSA, would be a bad sign). Of course, with it being Rice's 1st home game, its guaranteed to have at least decent attendance. And coming off the CUSA championship and Liberty Bowl appearance, getting a presumed creampuff for the 1st home game might be nice for attendance later in 2014.

(12-19-2013 10:55 AM)WIowl Wrote:  

(12-19-2013 10:47 AM)d1owls4life Wrote:  Tough spot for NMSU. Hopefully they find us a decent replacement or the NCAA allows their appeal because of the extraordinary circumstances with the dissolution of WAC football. NMSU probably can't afford to just hand us $200k.

If NMSU forks over the $200k at this late in the scheduling game, Rice will end up with an FCS-level team for our only home OOC game.

Possible 2014 home schedule:
SE Louisiana
UTSA
UNT
Southern Miss
Middle Tennessee

YUCK.

And NMSU would make that better how?

Houston Baptist?

Is HBU still on track to begin Div I play in 2014? If so, then scheduling them is not a bad idea if they've got that date open. I say that not knowing how large their fan base is, though. What fans they have would probably be interested, especially if that's their first FBS opponent.

(12-19-2013 05:25 PM)WIowl Wrote:  

(12-19-2013 05:08 PM)mrbig Wrote:  Stanford has an open date on 9/6 and currently only has 2 OOC games on their schedule (9/13 vs. Army and 10/4 @ Notre Dame). Just sayin'.

Of course, I don't know how updated fbschedules.com is, because they show UH having an opening on 9/6 and only 2 scheduled OOC opponents, and I thought their schedule was full (which was why the Bayou Bucket is on hiatus).

Pac12 teams only have 3 OOC games due to the 9-game conference schedule. They are likely looking for a home game since they're traveling to Notre Dame.

UH also needs home games for their brand new stadium. And if NMSU falls through, Rice needs a home game as well.

Meet them "halfway"? Battle of the Brains at JerryWorld?

(12-19-2013 10:47 AM)d1owls4life Wrote:  

(12-19-2013 10:44 AM)WIowl Wrote:  Looks like NMSU is trying to get out of the @Rice game:

http://crucessports.blogspot.com/2013/12...-game.html

That would leave Rice with @Notre Dame, @A&M, @Army.

Not a good situation, and UH needs home games, so we can't go there unless Notre Dame drops us.

Tough spot for NMSU. Hopefully they find us a decent replacement or the NCAA allows their appeal because of the extraordinary circumstances with the dissolution of WAC football. NMSU probably can't afford to just hand us $200k.

We had to go to BFE, so if they can't work it out that's just a bad day in BFE!! Don't feel sorry,for them a bit.

Remind me why we are worried about losing NMSU off our home schedule...

(12-20-2013 02:07 AM)Buho00 Wrote:  Remind me why we are worried about losing NMSU off our home schedule...

Basically because no replacement plan has been advertised (and Ranger Rick has trained us to associate silence with the worst case scenario).

With Dr. Karlgaard at the helm, concern may be premature.

Sent from my GT-P3113 using Tapatalk 4

(12-19-2013 04:25 PM)Tiki Owl Wrote:  As posted in another thread Mello said that they have repeatedly talked with ND and were assured that they wanted to play us in the first game. Buyout became much larger after Aug 31 of this year.

Looks like @Notre Dame will remain on the schedule:

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2013-...il-stadium

"One game that will not take place in 2014? A Notre Dame-Wake Forest matchup.

To solve the problem of having 13 teams for 12 slots next fall, all parties — the Irish, the Demon Deacons and the ACC — agreed to shift that game from 2014 to the 2015 schedule, sources confirmed to the Tribune. That means the five-games-per-year agreement Notre Dame has with the ACC is, for the first couple of iterations anyway, four games in 2014 and six in 2015."

(12-20-2013 02:07 AM)Buho00 Wrote:  Remind me why we are worried about losing NMSU off our home schedule...

Because it was our only home OOC game, and it was very likely a D1 FBS win that would help us be bowl eligibile at the end of the year.

Since a replacement is unlikely to be all three of (1) willing to travel to Houston, (2) be as bad as NMSU, and (3) be D1 FBS team, it means we are likely to be in worse shape than we were with the game.

(12-20-2013 09:22 AM)NicevilleWRC Wrote:  

(12-20-2013 02:07 AM)Buho00 Wrote:  Remind me why we are worried about losing NMSU off our home schedule...

Because it was our only home OOC game, and it was very likely a D1 FBS win that would help us be bowl eligibile at the end of the year.

Since a replacement is unlikely to be all three of (1) willing to travel to Houston, (2) be as bad as NMSU, and (3) be D1 FBS team, it means we are likely to be in worse shape than we were with the game.

One FCS win per year is allowed to count toward your bowl eligibility total as long as the FCS team maintains the appropriate level of scholarship support:

"The NCAA allows one victory per season over a Division I FCS (formerly I-AA) team to count toward an FBS team's bowl eligibility, so long as the FCS team has supplied financial aid for football averaging out to at least 56.7 full scholarships (90% of the limit of 63 allowed to FCS schools) over "a rolling two-year period" that can include the current season.[2]"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowl_eligibility

Notre Dame publicly announced its 2014-16 schedules today.

We're still on for August 30. 2014 in South Bend.

http://www.und.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-...13aaa.html

Notre Dame delayed Wake Forest to 2015 so the Demon Deacons might have an opening now next year. But in looking at their schedule, they're already playing at UL-Monroe and Utah State so I doubt they'd agree to a home game at Rice too. Didn't they owe us a home game from a few years back though? I vaguely recall them getting out of a HRS game after we played out there one year.

(12-20-2013 11:25 AM)Orange County Owl Wrote:  Notre Dame publicly announced its 2014-16 schedules today.

We're still on for August 30. 2014 in South Bend.

http://www.und.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-...13aaa.html

Heard that good news on the radio driving into South Bend today. I am happy that we'll get to see the Owls play in my hometown.