In today’s ADG, UCA’s football coach and AD were quoted as saying they will try to put together an 11 game fall football schedule for the Bears. So far, they have 4 scheduled. Austin Peay in Montgomery, AL, @ASU, and a home and home against Missouri State.

The gamble is that if they are able to add another seven games (unlikely), they will have almost certainly precluded themselves from competing in any spring Southland games and/or any spring FCS playoffs, if either of those happen.

Possibly, but I would guess right now that they are ahead of the game.

(08-16-2020 01:05 PM)PTJR Wrote:  In today’s ADG, UCA’s football coach and AD were quoted as saying they will try to put together an 11 game fall football schedule for the Bears. So far, they have 4 scheduled. Austin Peay in Montgomery, AL, @ASU, and a home and home against Missouri State.

The gamble is that if they are able to add another seven games (unlikely), they will have almost certainly precluded themselves from competing in any spring Southland games and/or any spring FCS playoffs, if either of those happen.

I think UCA Is playing the odds that a Spring season won't happen.

Part of the reason the SBC hasn't considered moving to the Spring is the AD's don't believe its doable to hold a Spring season. It has little to do with the Virus situation and more to do with trying to play 2 football seasons in one calendar year.

(08-16-2020 03:43 PM)MICHAELSPAPPY Wrote:  Possibly, but I would guess right now that they are ahead of the game.

Or will end up way behind it!

Their conference is okay with this.

(08-16-2020 07:37 PM)mjs Wrote:  Their conference is okay with this.

I can’t imagine they would embark on this course without Southland ok.

(08-16-2020 04:34 PM)PTJR Wrote:  

(08-16-2020 03:43 PM)MICHAELSPAPPY Wrote:  Possibly, but I would guess right now that they are ahead of the game.

Or will end up way behind it!

Like you say, it is a gamble, but right now I would assume that they assume regular fall college football is not going to happen, and they are scrambling to make $en$e out of a confused situation. But I've been wrong before.

One side or the other (teams that say they will play in the Fall vs. teams not playing) is going to look really stupid in few months. I don't have a clue which side it will be. I have my doubts that Spring football will happen, since without a fully distributed vaccine things are unlikely to be better in the Spring. With regards to the Fall, most experts believe that things will only get worse with the opening of schools and colleges. That prediction seems to make sense to me, but who really knows what will happen.

(08-16-2020 07:37 PM)mjs Wrote:  Their conference is okay with this.

They withdrew fall sports from the Southland for the year according to their AD. The reasoning was that the postseason tournaments for Fall Sports will be significantly reduced in the Spring to squeeze everything in. Puts them in a situation where playing in the Spring likely means conference games only with no real chance at a postseason regardless. If that's the case, they are better off playing an independent schedule in the fall, providing fun matchups for their seniors.

UCA's in a unique spot where they can get guaranteed games from both LR and AState in OOC play, and have close relationships with several MVC and Sun Belt Schools thanks to affiliate memberships. They also have covid testing provided for by Conway Regional, which most Southland schools don't have such an arrangement.

It's not really a question of will the virus situation be better in the Spring (Even without a vaccine, their's no question we won't be seeing large numbers of daily cases like now.) Its a question of is it really feasible to play a Spring season and a fall season in the same calendar year. If there's any question, its better to play in the fall and take your chances with the Pandemic.

(08-17-2020 07:12 AM)MICHAELSPAPPY Wrote:  

(08-16-2020 04:34 PM)PTJR Wrote:  

(08-16-2020 03:43 PM)MICHAELSPAPPY Wrote:  Possibly, but I would guess right now that they are ahead of the game.

Or will end up way behind it!

Like you say, it is a gamble, but right now I would assume that they assume regular fall college football is not going to happen, and they are scrambling to make $en$e out of a confused situation. But I've been wrong before.

”Making $en$e” out of this seems to be where UCA is headed as they just added a games at UAB on September 3rd, and at Louisiana on November 21. That would make their fall game count six. It is looking more and more likely that the FCS will have spring football of 6-8 games. UCA playing six games this fall would almost certainly mean exclusion in the spring as they would be in excess of allowed games.

(08-20-2020 10:12 AM)PTJR Wrote:  

(08-17-2020 07:12 AM)MICHAELSPAPPY Wrote:  

(08-16-2020 04:34 PM)PTJR Wrote:  

(08-16-2020 03:43 PM)MICHAELSPAPPY Wrote:  Possibly, but I would guess right now that they are ahead of the game.

Or will end up way behind it!

Like you say, it is a gamble, but right now I would assume that they assume regular fall college football is not going to happen, and they are scrambling to make $en$e out of a confused situation. But I've been wrong before.

”Making $en$e” out of this seems to be where UCA is headed as they just added a game at UAB on September 3rd. That would make their fall game count five. It is looking more and more likely that the FCS will have spring football of 6-8 games. UCA adding games this fall is getting them close to exclusion in the spring as they are soon going to be in excess of allowed games.

I don't know what the "right" decision is at this point. Kind of hate the "hodge-podge" that is happening now. Would rather everyone agreed to play either in the Fall or Spring. I guess the thing is, the teams that plan to play in the Fall can always move to the Spring if things don't work out. The teams that already cancelled will have to wait for a Spring season that may or may not happen. The top players in the Pac10 and Big10 will opt out of the Spring season regardless to get ready for the NFL.

(08-20-2020 10:26 AM)mjs Wrote:  

(08-20-2020 10:12 AM)PTJR Wrote:  

(08-17-2020 07:12 AM)MICHAELSPAPPY Wrote:  

(08-16-2020 04:34 PM)PTJR Wrote:  

(08-16-2020 03:43 PM)MICHAELSPAPPY Wrote:  Possibly, but I would guess right now that they are ahead of the game.

Or will end up way behind it!

Like you say, it is a gamble, but right now I would assume that they assume regular fall college football is not going to happen, and they are scrambling to make $en$e out of a confused situation. But I've been wrong before.

”Making $en$e” out of this seems to be where UCA is headed as they just added a game at UAB on September 3rd. That would make their fall game count five. It is looking more and more likely that the FCS will have spring football of 6-8 games. UCA adding games this fall is getting them close to exclusion in the spring as they are soon going to be in excess of allowed games.

I don't know what the "right" decision is at this point. Kind of hate the "hodge-podge" that is happening now. Would rather everyone agreed to play either in the Fall or Spring. I guess the thing is, the teams that plan to play in the Fall can always move to the Spring if things don't work out. The teams that already cancelled will have to wait for a Spring season that may or may not happen. The top players in the Pac10 and Big10 will opt out of the Spring season regardless to get ready for the NFL.

Not sure what FBS is going to do, but there has been close to uniformity in FCS with cancellation of fall football. UCA is the outlier there. Maybe they have designs on trying to become FBS.

(08-20-2020 10:30 AM)PTJR Wrote:  

(08-20-2020 10:26 AM)mjs Wrote:  

(08-20-2020 10:12 AM)PTJR Wrote:  

(08-17-2020 07:12 AM)MICHAELSPAPPY Wrote:  

(08-16-2020 04:34 PM)PTJR Wrote:  Or will end up way behind it!

Like you say, it is a gamble, but right now I would assume that they assume regular fall college football is not going to happen, and they are scrambling to make $en$e out of a confused situation. But I've been wrong before.

”Making $en$e” out of this seems to be where UCA is headed as they just added a game at UAB on September 3rd. That would make their fall game count five. It is looking more and more likely that the FCS will have spring football of 6-8 games. UCA adding games this fall is getting them close to exclusion in the spring as they are soon going to be in excess of allowed games.

I don't know what the "right" decision is at this point. Kind of hate the "hodge-podge" that is happening now. Would rather everyone agreed to play either in the Fall or Spring. I guess the thing is, the teams that plan to play in the Fall can always move to the Spring if things don't work out. The teams that already cancelled will have to wait for a Spring season that may or may not happen. The top players in the Pac10 and Big10 will opt out of the Spring season regardless to get ready for the NFL.

Not sure what FBS is going to do, but there has been close to uniformity in FCS with cancellation of fall football. UCA is the outlier there. Maybe they have designs on trying to become FBS.

I'm not sure whether they plan to go FBS eventually. They are woefully short on facilties now, what I can say is that UCA is the one of the few FCS teams that is capable of affording the massive amounts of Covid Testing needed to play this fall. They had a long developed partnership with Conway Regional to help pay for the cost of the tests.

Then you have a situation where UCA wants to be able to compete with the other D1 schools in Arkansas, all of which minus a non competitive UAPB team are playing this fall. I think the feeling is that if they had played Spring, they would be establishing themselves as inferior to AState and LR, and would rather show they can be competitive with both in any enviornment. Within 24 hours of the Southland announcement, UCA had already informed the league they did not intend to play in the Spring, and would play as an independent this season.