(01-29-2015 11:52 PM)Afflicted Wrote:  Fan Appreciation Day. All general admission tickets are$5. Get people inside the gates to storm concessions. Invite some high school bands to play with the MOB. Fireworks are a must. Flyover? Topless strippers? Whatever it takes. Good luck Marketing Dept.

Monkeys riding dogs is always popular.
Seriously, we have to but our best efforts forward with marketing for this game. Plenty of time to work up a big plan

(01-30-2015 07:47 AM)MemOwl Wrote:  Wagner??

Makes me long for New Mexico State.

Remind me again what happened to bring us to this unfortunate circumstance. Does it somehow tie back to a piece of Greenspan incompetence?

I don't want to believe this is a deliberate action by Karlgaard.

And not as if we need any fuel, but if we win by less than 21 the Bailiff discussions will get off to an early start next year.

We needed a home game. A full slate is important for building embarrassing season ticket numbers. Despite some of ths disjointed speculation of how we could just bring any X or Y team to want to open their season at Rice, this was the likely only feasible option at this point.

And it's a far better course than the idiotic NMSU series. Both are terrible no-name opponents, but at least with FCS schools here is no return game (and of course with NMSU we never got the home game).

(01-30-2015 11:29 AM)At Ease Wrote:  

(01-30-2015 07:47 AM)MemOwl Wrote:  Wagner??

Makes me long for New Mexico State.

Remind me again what happened to bring us to this unfortunate circumstance. Does it somehow tie back to a piece of Greenspan incompetence?

I don't want to believe this is a deliberate action by Karlgaard.

And not as if we need any fuel, but if we win by less than 21 the Bailiff discussions will get off to an early start next year.

We needed a home game. A full slate is important for building embarrassing season ticket numbers. Despite some of ths disjointed speculation of how we could just bring any X or Y team to want to open their season at Rice, this was the likely only feasible option at this point.

And it's a far better course than the idiotic NMSU series. Both are terrible no-name opponents, but at least with FCS schools here is no return game (and of course with NMSU we never got the home game).

Yet we were able to string together a home and home with Hawaii at the last second in 2014. I would like to know why Rice was forced/settled to settle with Wagner, rather than the other available FBS teams listed by FBSchedules.com.

Wagner is not going to build season tickets sales, and will not be impressive to fans/media whether Rice blows them out or not. BYU/P5 can play Wagner because they have other significant/high interest home games, Rice's home schedule will have UNT, LaTech....

(01-30-2015 11:29 AM)At Ease Wrote:  

(01-30-2015 07:47 AM)MemOwl Wrote:  Wagner??

Makes me long for New Mexico State.

Remind me again what happened to bring us to this unfortunate circumstance. Does it somehow tie back to a piece of Greenspan incompetence?

I don't want to believe this is a deliberate action by Karlgaard.

And not as if we need any fuel, but if we win by less than 21 the Bailiff discussions will get off to an early start next year.

We needed a home game. A full slate is important for building embarrassing season ticket numbers. Despite some of ths disjointed speculation of how we could just bring any X or Y team to want to open their season at Rice, this was the likely only feasible option at this point.

And it's a far better course than the idiotic NMSU series. Both are terrible no-name opponents, but at least with FCS schools here is no return game (and of course with NMSU we never got the home game).

But we did get $300k from NMSU's cancellation fee that could be used by the program.

(01-30-2015 11:52 AM)WIowl Wrote:  

(01-30-2015 11:29 AM)At Ease Wrote:  

(01-30-2015 07:47 AM)MemOwl Wrote:  Wagner??

Makes me long for New Mexico State.

Remind me again what happened to bring us to this unfortunate circumstance. Does it somehow tie back to a piece of Greenspan incompetence?

I don't want to believe this is a deliberate action by Karlgaard.

And not as if we need any fuel, but if we win by less than 21 the Bailiff discussions will get off to an early start next year.

We needed a home game. A full slate is important for building embarrassing season ticket numbers. Despite some of ths disjointed speculation of how we could just bring any X or Y team to want to open their season at Rice, this was the likely only feasible option at this point.

And it's a far better course than the idiotic NMSU series. Both are terrible no-name opponents, but at least with FCS schools here is no return game (and of course with NMSU we never got the home game).

Yet we were able to string together a home and home with Hawaii at the last second in 2014. I would like to know why Rice was forced/settled to settle with Wagner, rather than the other available FBS teams listed by FBSchedules.com.

Wagner is not going to build season tickets sales, and will not be impressive to fans/media whether Rice blows them out or not. BYU/P5 can play Wagner because they have other significant/high interest home games, Rice's home schedule will have UNT, LaTech....

We have Stanford, Baylor, and Army coming in 2016/17 to HRS, so that's pretty good IMHO. Hopefully we won't need to go the FCS route for the final home OOC game next year. Maybe UH? Really, if doing a one-off with Wagner is part of keeping our options open to restart the Bayou Bucket, I 100% support it.

Is the pool of options larger if we give up the home game?

In a season with only one bye week(as 2015 is), it is CRITICAL to have six home games. IMO, seven away games this year, with four of them requiring significant travel, was way too tough on the team.

(01-30-2015 12:11 PM)Caelligh Wrote:  Is the pool of options larger if we give up the home game?

Based on mrbig's posts, possibly AF or SDSU. I like the idea of an AF series, but don't like losing a home game, especially in a season where we are @UT and @Baylor.

And, while it's purely speculation, I do wonder if reviving the Bayou Bucket is related to this decision. (And lack of official announcement...)

Every time we agree to play a P5 team on the road without a return home visit (A&M, Notre Dame, Baylor), we need to find another team that will play us at home without a return game. Otherwise, we play 3 OOC games on the road (like last year). So we really were limited to teams that would play us at home without a return game. Not many teams to choose from.

Even if you start now with a new policy of not scheduling P5 road $$$ games, we had (before Wagner) two more road OOC games scheduled than home OOC games from 2015 to 2018 (with four OOC slots open). If we filled those four slots with home & home commitments, we would have 3 OOC road games in one of those years.

In theory, I guess, we could keep things balanced in the short term by scheduling teams that will give us a home game now in exchange for a return game several years later. But that type of home & home is hard to find, too, and just pushes the problem off into the future.

(01-30-2015 11:52 AM)WIowl Wrote:  ñ

Yet we were able to string together a home and home with Hawaii at the last second in 2014. I would like to know why Rice was forced/settled to settle with Wagner, rather than the other available FBS teams listed by FBSchedules.com.

Wagner is not going to build season tickets sales, and will not be impressive to fans/media whether Rice blows them out or not. BYU/P5 can play Wagner because they have other significant/high interest home games, Rice's home schedule will have UNT, LaTech....

We have 3 opponents already committed through 2018. And we are, I assume, holding a spot each of these years for a renewed Bayou Bucket.

So filling our schedule with an FBS home opponent would require a team that a) has matching open dates; b) wants to play us; c) is willing to play at Rice first and on short notice; d) is willing to wait for a return game until 2019 or later. ((Personally, I would add e) makes sense for us to play at 1;1 (a la why I thought USA and NMSU made little sense for us), but I don't know if that was a factor or not.))

It's not hard to see how difficult/impossible that scenario is.

$300K for NMSU? So we took home a fraction of an FCS school's going rate. Par for Greenspan.

(01-30-2015 12:28 PM)temchugh Wrote:  Every time we agree to play a P5 team on the road without a return home visit (A&M, Notre Dame, Baylor), we need to find another team that will play us at home without a return game. Otherwise, we play 3 OOC games on the road (like last year). So we really were limited to teams that would play us at home without a return game. Not many teams to choose from.

Even if you start now with a new policy of not scheduling P5 road $$$ games, we had (before Wagner) two more road OOC games scheduled than home OOC games from 2015 to 2018 (with four OOC slots open). If we filled those four slots with home & home commitments, we would have 3 OOC road games in one of those years.

In theory, I guess, we could keep things balanced in the short term by scheduling teams that will give us a home game now in exchange for a return game several years later. But that type of home & home is hard to find, too, and just pushes the problem off into the future.

Just a clarification,:

The A&M series is a home and home: @A&M 2014, @Rice 2019.

The Baylor series is a 6 game, home and home series: @Baylor 2007, @Rice 2010, @Baylor 2011, @Baylor 2015; @Rice 2016, @Rice 2019.

(01-30-2015 12:44 PM)At Ease Wrote:  $300K for NMSU? So we took home a fraction of an FCS school's going rate. Par for Greenspan.

NMSU was a home and home, but set up with a $300k cacnellation fee by either school. This is typical, but unfortunately NMSU canceled.

(01-30-2015 12:44 PM)At Ease Wrote:  

(01-30-2015 11:52 AM)WIowl Wrote:  ñ

Yet we were able to string together a home and home with Hawaii at the last second in 2014. I would like to know why Rice was forced/settled to settle with Wagner, rather than the other available FBS teams listed by FBSchedules.com.

Wagner is not going to build season tickets sales, and will not be impressive to fans/media whether Rice blows them out or not. BYU/P5 can play Wagner because they have other significant/high interest home games, Rice's home schedule will have UNT, LaTech....

We have 3 opponents already committed through 2018. And we are, I assume, holding a spot each of these years for a renewed Bayou Bucket.

So filling our schedule with an FBS home opponent would require a team that a) has matching open dates; b) wants to play us; c) is willing to play at Rice first and on short notice; d) is willing to wait for a return game until 2019 or later. ((Personally, I would add e) makes sense for us to play at 1;1 (a la why I thought USA and NMSU made little sense for us), but I don't know if that was a factor or not.))

If that is the case, that makes sense. But it would nice to hear an explanation from the AD that stipulates this is a one time thing, UH is being added back on the schedule, etc.

More importantly, how is the AD going to increase season tickets with this type of schedule?

"This type of schedule" is common in D1, including schools that have no difficulty with season ticket sales.

There are a bunch of people posting here who don't understand how things work. We are playing Wagner because we couldn't get a better deal with anyone else. All the talk about how this or that would be better ignores one thing--Wagner was on the table, this or that wasn't.

Another thing that people fail to appreciate is that Karlgaard's bargaining position is weak. He can't offer large payouts, so even amongst FCS schools he was limited to those that are scrambling last-minute to fill a hole in their schedule.

(01-30-2015 01:20 PM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  There are a bunch of people posting here who don't understand how things work.

You could probably add that to your signature.

(01-30-2015 07:47 AM)MemOwl Wrote:  Wagner??

Makes me long for New Mexico State.

Remind me again what happened to bring us to this unfortunate circumstance. Does it somehow tie back to a piece of Greenspan incompetence?

I don't want to believe this is a deliberate action by Karlgaard.

And not as if we need any fuel, but if we win by less than 21 the Bailiff discussions will get off to an early start next year.

Wagner Seahawks. Seriously. Not a great way to become relevant. To top it off, watching Sportscenter last night Cris Carter referred to Luke Willson as the 5 round TE from Villanova. What a freaking insult.

Our AD has to step up and start trying to make this program relevant. Playing Wagner is not the route unless our goal is to once again win 6 or 7 games and play another average team in a bowl.

Will be sending Cris a tweet to let him know Luke graduated from Rice.

(01-30-2015 07:56 PM)SaintsOwl Wrote:  Will be sending Cris a tweet to let him know Luke graduated from Rice.

Quote:RiceFootball @RiceFootball1 · 13h 13 hours ago
Thanks for the words about @LWillson_82, @criscarter80, but he's a proud Rice Owl!

Cris Carter @criscarter80 · 11h 11 hours ago
@RiceFootball1 @LWillson_82 I know, but I made a mistake !!!! #Rice

(01-30-2015 07:56 PM)SaintsOwl Wrote:  

(01-30-2015 07:47 AM)MemOwl Wrote:  Wagner??

Makes me long for New Mexico State.

Remind me again what happened to bring us to this unfortunate circumstance. Does it somehow tie back to a piece of Greenspan incompetence?

I don't want to believe this is a deliberate action by Karlgaard.

And not as if we need any fuel, but if we win by less than 21 the Bailiff discussions will get off to an early start next year.

Wagner Seahawks. Seriously. Not a great way to become relevant. To top it off, watching Sportscenter last night Cris Carter referred to Luke Willson as the 5 round TE from Villanova. What a freaking insult.

Our AD has to step up and start trying to make this program relevant. Playing Wagner is not the route unless our goal is to once again win 6 or 7 games and play another average team in a bowl.

Will be sending Cris a tweet to let him know Luke graduated from Rice.

Plenty of help with that already.

https://twitter.com/criscarter80/status/...7403206656