(12-11-2016 02:43 PM)OldOwl Wrote:  The entire conference is in the same boat as us. We should propose it.

(12-10-2016 10:59 PM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  OK, we make that demand. Conference says no. Then what?

(12-10-2016 10:31 PM)OldOwl Wrote:  Why we have eight conference games? We should demand from the conference to reduce to seven conferences games because of poor attendance and play an additional non-conference game

(12-10-2016 03:38 PM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  Here's the way I see our schedule. We have 8 CUSA games. We're not going to make a nickel off them. The one chance we might have there is some sort of a CUSA/Sunbelt reshuffle, where the west teams go to one and the east teams go to the other. That would be something like:

CUSA -- West - Rice, New Mexico State, UTEP, UTSA, Texas State, UNT, UT-Arlington, East - Arkansas State, Arkansas-Little Rock, La Tech, Louisiana-Monroe, Louisiana-Lafayette, Southern Miss, UAB (UTA and UALR do not play football).
Sunbelt -- South - Troy, South Alabama, FAU, FIU, Georgia Southern, Georgia State, North - Appalachian State, Charlotte, Middle Tennessee, Western Kentucky, Marshall, ODU.

That would at least give us some regional rivalries to build off.

But even with that, we'll have 8 games that we won't make much money off (but at least with that configuration we won't have to travel so far not to make money). That leaves 4 games to make our money. In the old SWC days, we counted on making our money off 3 games--LSU, aTm, and TU. So I'd try to play two of that three plus UH for 3 of my 4 games, and a peer institution (Stanford, NW, Vandy, Duke, service academy) for the fourth.

Then maybe can start making some money.

What I'd like for Conference USA to offer members is to request a custom number of conference games, between 6-9.
With two divisions of 7 each, we are NCAA-mandated to play a round robin (6 games) within the division.
Change the rules so that the conference title is based first on division record. Factor in the optional crossover games as one of the tiebreakers.
Not everybody wants to come up with 7 OOC on their own, but I'd sure like for Rice to move in that direction.

We should ask Dr K at one of his podcast this question.

(12-11-2016 06:03 PM)owl at the moon Wrote:  

(12-11-2016 02:43 PM)OldOwl Wrote:  The entire conference is in the same boat as us. We should propose it.

(12-10-2016 10:59 PM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  OK, we make that demand. Conference says no. Then what?

(12-10-2016 10:31 PM)OldOwl Wrote:  Why we have eight conference games? We should demand from the conference to reduce to seven conferences games because of poor attendance and play an additional non-conference game

(12-10-2016 03:38 PM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  Here's the way I see our schedule. We have 8 CUSA games. We're not going to make a nickel off them. The one chance we might have there is some sort of a CUSA/Sunbelt reshuffle, where the west teams go to one and the east teams go to the other. That would be something like:

CUSA -- West - Rice, New Mexico State, UTEP, UTSA, Texas State, UNT, UT-Arlington, East - Arkansas State, Arkansas-Little Rock, La Tech, Louisiana-Monroe, Louisiana-Lafayette, Southern Miss, UAB (UTA and UALR do not play football).
Sunbelt -- South - Troy, South Alabama, FAU, FIU, Georgia Southern, Georgia State, North - Appalachian State, Charlotte, Middle Tennessee, Western Kentucky, Marshall, ODU.

That would at least give us some regional rivalries to build off.

But even with that, we'll have 8 games that we won't make much money off (but at least with that configuration we won't have to travel so far not to make money). That leaves 4 games to make our money. In the old SWC days, we counted on making our money off 3 games--LSU, aTm, and TU. So I'd try to play two of that three plus UH for 3 of my 4 games, and a peer institution (Stanford, NW, Vandy, Duke, service academy) for the fourth.

Then maybe can start making some money.

What I'd like for Conference USA to offer members is to request a custom number of conference games, between 6-9.
With two divisions of 7 each, we are NCAA-mandated to play a round robin (6 games) within the division.
Change the rules so that the conference title is based first on division record. Factor in the optional crossover games as one of the tiebreakers.
Not everybody wants to come up with 7 OOC on their own, but I'd sure like for Rice to move in that direction.

(12-10-2016 10:31 PM)OldOwl Wrote:  Why we have eight conference games? We should demand from the conference to reduce to seven conferences games because of poor attendance and play an additional non-conference game
[quote='Owl 69/70/75' pid='13893503' dateline='1481402298']
...The one chance we might have there is some sort of a CUSA/Sunbelt reshuffle, where the west teams go to one and the east teams go to the other. That would be something like:

CUSA -- West - Rice, New Mexico State, UTEP, UTSA, Texas State, UNT, UT-Arlington, East - Arkansas State, Arkansas-Little Rock, La Tech, Louisiana-Monroe, Louisiana-Lafayette, Southern Miss, UAB (UTA and UALR do not play football).

Sunbelt -- South - Troy, South Alabama, FAU, FIU, Georgia Southern, Georgia State, North - Appalachian State, Charlotte, Middle Tennessee, Western Kentucky, Marshall, ODU.

That SunBelt North would be a very strong division, arguably close to AAC-level. Meanwhile, we'd be left even further behind in an even weaker CUSA 4.1 with even less-prestigious no-names than now. I understand the travel would be a bit better, but uggh, we might as well go FCS and see if we can keep up with NDSU (who would probably blow us out as well under present staff).
The truth about this is that the better teams seem to be in the East of both conferences. I wouldn;t mind that if Rice were placed in the reconfigured SunBelt North as above, a la Dallas Cowboys playiing in an Eastern-based division. Actually I think it would actually help Rice more to have that scenario:

Sunbelt -- North - Appalachian State, Charlotte, Middle Tennessee, Western Kentucky, Marshall, ODU, Rice.

Those above would then be better games and better regular conference competition than what we have now (as we are in the worse CUSA West.)

(12-10-2016 10:31 PM)OldOwl Wrote:  Why we have eight conference games? We should demand from the conference to reduce to seven conferences games because of poor attendance and play an additional non-conference game

I wouldn't mind playing one less CUSA game and have one more body-bag non-conference game as long as we could make it against a top team, preferably from SEC or ACC each year (I know that's a tall order.)

The fact that a CUSA/Subelt merger/reshuffle actually makes some sense is why I don't think it's even debatable that we should jump at an MWC invite if we get the chance....

(12-12-2016 09:48 AM)JustAnotherAustinOwl Wrote:  The fact that a CUSA/Subelt merger/reshuffle actually makes some sense is why I don't think it's even debatable that we should jump at an MWC invite if we get the chance....

I haven't wanted us to go MWC in the past because I think we'd largely disappear. But since people apparently aren't going to show up for football under the status quo anyway, What Difference Does It Make ?

Or we could go independent and let everybody in the SEC schedule us for homecoming.

(12-12-2016 11:30 AM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  Or we could go independent and let everybody in the SEC schedule us for homecoming.

If it was somehow actually offered/negotiated, I'd make that deal in a heartbeat. We'd have a lot more money and a lot better exposure. Sure, we'd lose, but we've been doing that anyway. Since we have issues playing name teams at HRS, we could just have one or two games there a year and rent it out again for a few years until we could build up like Baylor did in their early years in the BigXII. It would work much the same way. But, of course, the key would be actually to have agreements with all the SEC schools to play us for their HC game every year for a while.

Good idea . We should until we grow up to be a letgimate program.

(12-12-2016 11:30 AM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  Or we could go independent and let everybody in the SEC schedule us for homecoming.

(12-12-2016 11:40 AM)OldOwl Wrote:  Good idea . We should until we grow up to be a letgimate program.

(12-12-2016 11:30 AM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  Or we could go independent and let everybody in the SEC schedule us for homecoming.

I don't know if "they" will let us do that. We might have to remain a 'gimate program.

(12-12-2016 11:30 AM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  Or we could go independent and let everybody in the SEC schedule us for homecoming.

We wouldn't have to be completely independent.
Find 6 other programs in about the same boat and form the "Homecoming Date Conference".
Go undefeated in conference and be bowl-eligible.

Now, someone smack me for having such a thought...

(12-12-2016 11:37 AM)GoodOwl Wrote:  

(12-12-2016 11:30 AM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  Or we could go independent and let everybody in the SEC schedule us for homecoming.

If it was somehow actually offered/negotiated, I'd make that deal in a heartbeat. We'd have a lot more money and a lot better exposure. Sure, we'd lose, but we've been doing that anyway. Since we have issues playing name teams at HRS, we could just have one or two games there a year and rent it out again for a few years until we could build up like Baylor did in their early years in the BigXII. It would work much the same way. But, of course, the key would be actually to have agreements with all the SEC schools to play us for their HC game every year for a while.

Being the homecoming opponent for every SEC team would imply that we would never have a home game...

(12-12-2016 01:35 PM)westsidewolf1989 Wrote:  

(12-12-2016 11:37 AM)GoodOwl Wrote:  

(12-12-2016 11:30 AM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  Or we could go independent and let everybody in the SEC schedule us for homecoming.

If it was somehow actually offered/negotiated, I'd make that deal in a heartbeat. We'd have a lot more money and a lot better exposure. Sure, we'd lose, but we've been doing that anyway. Since we have issues playing name teams at HRS, we could just have one or two games there a year and rent it out again for a few years until we could build up like Baylor did in their early years in the BigXII. It would work much the same way. But, of course, the key would be actually to have agreements with all the SEC schools to play us for their HC game every year for a while.

Being the homecoming opponent for every SEC team would imply that we would never have a home game...

...so more people would be watching Rice football than now.

(12-12-2016 11:30 AM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  Or we could go independent and let everybody in the SEC schedule us for homecoming.

It seemed to me that most of our SWC road games in the last 60s/early '70s were Homecoming games.

The challenge is that not many of them would want Homecoming games in September, for a similar reason that home games in September suck in Houston - heat and humidity. So it couldn't be a 12 game schedule. But 4 to 6 could work.

Heck, take 4 Homecoming games between mid-October and mid-November, and CUSA would still work for conference games.

(12-12-2016 11:30 AM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  Or we could go independent and let everybody in the SEC schedule us for homecoming.

Over under on the number of opponents drives that do not end in a touchdown? My guess is 4 (edit: that's for a 12 game season).

(12-13-2016 12:39 PM)I45owl Wrote:  

(12-12-2016 11:30 AM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  Or we could go independent and let everybody in the SEC schedule us for homecoming.

Over under on the number of opponents drives that do not end in a touchdown? My guess is 4 (edit: that's for a 12 game season).

If we announced an upcoming schedule of all P5 teams, our recruiting would upgrade significantly and instantly. Not saying we'd start right out of the gate beating Alabama, just that we'd eventually have a talent cohort similar to Northwestern, Vanderbilt, Duke, etc. And those teams are competitive in P5.

(12-13-2016 06:10 PM)illiniowl Wrote:  

(12-13-2016 12:39 PM)I45owl Wrote:  

(12-12-2016 11:30 AM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  Or we could go independent and let everybody in the SEC schedule us for homecoming.

Over under on the number of opponents drives that do not end in a touchdown? My guess is 4 (edit: that's for a 12 game season).

If we announced an upcoming schedule of all P5 teams, our recruiting would upgrade significantly and instantly. Not saying we'd start right out of the gate beating Alabama, just that we'd eventually have a talent cohort similar to Northwestern, Vanderbilt, Duke, etc. And those teams are competitive in P5.

Plus with the money we would make, we could upgrade recruiting, staff, facilities, the whole nine yards. We'd have to find a home for other sports. Since the Missouri Valley doesn't really have football, I think that might work. I really kind of like the Valley. I know a bunch of folks who worked there from the era when UH was in the Valley or later, and they all loved the Valley. The likes of Bradley and Drake aren't exactly UT and our other old SWC mates, but they are at least schools that we have heard of. And that would be basketball and baseball with them, football would be elsewhere. Downside would be not many home games. But as the money enabled us to turn things around, we could change that. Maybe do 4 games with UH and a couple of Southland schools and maybe TSU or PV, then 8 games as the whipping boy for SEC and ACC and XII schools. We'd lose conference TV money, but we'd more than make that up at the current CUSA level.

It's actually an idea that I think we should explore.

(12-13-2016 06:10 PM)illiniowl Wrote:  

(12-13-2016 12:39 PM)I45owl Wrote:  

(12-12-2016 11:30 AM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  Or we could go independent and let everybody in the SEC schedule us for homecoming.

Over under on the number of opponents drives that do not end in a touchdown? My guess is 4 (edit: that's for a 12 game season).

If we announced an upcoming schedule of all P5 teams, our recruiting would upgrade significantly and instantly. Not saying we'd start right out of the gate beating Alabama, just that we'd eventually have a talent cohort similar to Northwestern, Vanderbilt, Duke, etc. And those teams are competitive in P5.

Granting there are advantages. But, going from a ten-year span where Rice hasn't looked competitive against teams on the plus-side of mediocre to scheduling a full slate of games against top-30/top-40 teams would make for a pretty bleak span over a few years, to put it mildly. Whether the destination is ultimately SEC or D3, it does seem to be a path that would lead to where we want to go.