(09-30-2020 04:30 PM)Tribal Wrote:  ...
Who's to say an FBS school won't play a spring game vs a FCS school in place of a team spring game. That could happen.

I think this would be unlikely. It would be the only spring game for the FBS, who might have graduated a bunch of starters, and the FCS team might have already played 2 or 3 or more games. Why would any FBS coach risk a loss on his record or, worse, an injury to a starter?

(09-30-2020 07:25 PM)Tribe32 Wrote:  Nobody is going to hire London based on a spring football season that means nothing.

Don't tell him that please.

(09-30-2020 08:17 PM)Blow Gym rat Wrote:  

(09-30-2020 07:28 PM)ScottyB757 Wrote:  

(09-30-2020 09:48 AM)Blow Gym rat Wrote:  I'll be interested to see how they do six games "with all six league games coming against teams within the (six-team) division." I assume W&M will play four of the other Southern teams once, and one twice? If so, my guess is that for the two-game pairings they'll put Towson with Delaware, JMU with Richmond, and W&M with Elon.

Am I the only one thinking the “how do you play six division games with only five opponents in your division” question was not considered by the CAA? I’m betting this is news to Joey D.

I did wonder. Not everyone remembers their basic math.

Today’s Times-Dispatch quotes JMU HC Cignetti saying the CAA schedule requires playing one division opponent twice. It will be interesting to see how they pair JMU, UR, Elon, and W&M (assuming UD and Towson are paired) to play twice. Travel distances between stadiums (per Google Maps):

JMU to Elon = 207 mi
UR to Elon = 196 mi
W&M to Elon = 214 mi

JMU to UR = 123 mi
JMU to W&M = 179 mi

UR to W&M = 60 mi

If they go strictly by fewest total travel miles, it should be JMU/Elon (Cignetti faces his old team twice) and W&M/UR (the oldest rivalry in the south).

I guess it makes some sense, the only northern/southern matchup that is important to both teams is basically Villanova/Delaware, and I guess they'll just play it OOC.

For the sake of awarding a more legitimate champion I would've liked 1 cross division game, it might as well be 2 distinct conferences at this point

Yeah guys, JMU gets the shaft here facing our HUGE ARCHRIVAL Elon twice I’m sure. The league surely isn’t stupid enough to not pair WM/UR for the home/away.

(10-01-2020 09:35 AM)HyperDuke Wrote:  Yeah guys, JMU gets the shaft here facing our HUGE ARCHRIVAL Elon twice I’m sure. The league surely isn’t stupid enough to not pair WM/UR for the home/away.

To be honest, I’m not sure Elon is anyone’s arch rival. With decades of history between JMU, Richmond, and W&M (and Delaware AND Villanova) any real rivalry with Elon is unlikely.

(10-01-2020 09:35 AM)HyperDuke Wrote:  The league surely isn’t stupid enough to not pair WM/UR for the home/away.

This is the CAA we're talking about, isn't it?

UR is closest to Elon, but I just don't see them sending UR to Elon and matching up W&M and JMU twice.

JMU/W&M are basically equidistant to Elon in terms of both miles and travel time. Between those two, I'm working from the assumption that W&M will get dissed by the CAA at any opportunity. Then I can be happily surprised if it miraculously doesn't happen.

(Let me add that I mean "dissed" in terms of losing an additional game with a natural, traditional rival -- I certainly have great respect for Elon as an opponent).

(10-01-2020 08:48 AM)TDenverFan Wrote:  I guess it makes some sense, the only northern/southern matchup that is important to both teams is basically Villanova/Delaware, and I guess they'll just play it OOC.

For the sake of awarding a more legitimate champion I would've liked 1 cross division game, it might as well be 2 distinct conferences at this point

Playing a cross-division team is more aesthetically pleasing but isn't really any more legitimate. One team plays ranked Villanova, another plays tough New Hampshire, while another gets Little Rhody. It's never fair. (Of course, that's true even if it was an eigtht game schedule with three out-of-division games. The only "true" way to do it is to have a nine-team league where you play all eight of the other teams (four at home and four on the road, and then you reverse that the next season)).

(10-01-2020 09:50 AM)Blow Gym rat Wrote:  

(10-01-2020 09:35 AM)HyperDuke Wrote:  The league surely isn’t stupid enough to not pair WM/UR for the home/away.

This is the CAA we're talking about, isn't it?

... I'm working from the assumption that W&M will get dissed by the CAA at any opportunity. Then I can be happily surprised if it miraculously doesn't happen.

You beat me to it on the first sentence. Re the second sentence, that is how I always look at it too. Tom Yeager used to always love to shaft the Tribe. I always assumed it was because perhaps his daughters applied to W&M but weren't accepted (just supposing); meanwhile, they both did attend JMU.

Yeager was better than what we have had since.

I expect JMU and the Spiders to face each other twice. It doesn't really matter to me. It will just be great if they get to play 8 games(at least).

I have heard from some of the younger generation that they don't consider the Spiders our biggest rival anymore. But, I think they still are. For basketball, it is Hofstra for me(given all of the classic games including 2 tournament games). But, JMU is likely the answer for most of them. For JMU, I expect their hatred of the Spiders exceeds any other conference team.

(10-01-2020 10:05 AM)TribePride91 Wrote:  I have heard from some of the younger generation that they don't consider the Spiders our biggest rival anymore.

That's really really disheartening.

(10-01-2020 09:50 AM)Blow Gym rat Wrote:  (Let me add that I mean "dissed" in terms of losing an additional game with a natural, traditional rival -- I certainly have great respect for Elon as an opponent).

Lol that's ok. Nobody has to respect Elon.

We could always schedule UR OOC as well (Or JMU), if they're not our second matchup.

But I think JMU has grown as a rivalry at least partly because most students today know at least a few kids at JMU, especially if they went to a Nova high school.

It's no wonder the under-30 crowd doesn't see UR as our biggest rival. They aren't full members of the CAA so students hear about them once a year. Football players certainly view them as our biggest rival because of the Capital Cup (what mature folks still recognize as the I-64 trophy) and the fact that we close out the regular season against them.



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(10-01-2020 10:44 AM)Tribal Wrote:  It's no wonder the under-30 crowd doesn't see UR as our biggest rival. They aren't full members of the CAA so students hear about them once a year. Football players certainly view them as our biggest rival because of the Capital Cup (what mature folks still recognize as the I-64 trophy) and the fact that we close out the regular season against them.

...and since student interest in football has petered out long before the last game of the season, plus that regular season finale is only at home every two years, I'm somewhat surprised any under-30s are aware that we play UR at all.

I would love if JMU got to play WM home/home. If UR fell off the face of the earth, I’d feel great.

If W&M were to play UR home and home then it would add to our currently fourth most-played count. (It is not the fourth "oldest" rivalry, it is the fourth "most played" rivalry).

Not directly CAA related, but Sacramento State is opting out of a spring season.

https://hornetsports.com/sports/fball/20...1015i09uoy

I'll be interested to follow to see if/how many other schools do the same

(10-15-2020 02:42 PM)TDenverFan Wrote:  Not directly CAA related, but Sacramento State is opting out of a spring season.

https://hornetsports.com/sports/fball/20...1015i09uoy

I'll be interested to follow to see if/how many other schools do the same

I wonder if Sacramento State's decisionmakers thought to ask the players their opinion re: canceling the spring season....

Towson opts out of the spring season.

https://towsontigers.com/news/2020/10/19...etics.aspx

(10-19-2020 11:47 AM)TribePride52 Wrote:  Towson opts out of the spring season.

https://towsontigers.com/news/2020/10/19...etics.aspx

Maybe I'm overreacting, but this feels like an important domino to me. It also makes me wonder about basketball for them. Ambrose appears to be leading the handling of this decision, but it's not a far fetch to say if you can't do Football, why do the other sports?

There are things that make football uniquely high for exposure (namely the size of the teams), but I'd argue, for instance, that the basketball COURT is a lot more likely place for transmission than the football FIELD.

That being said, a factor does appear to be the truncated, odd timing of the season.

Time will tell, but the windmill seems to be starting to tilt towards the spring season being in danger.