The unofficial online home for fans of the Old Dominion University Monarchs. Part of Collegiate Sports Nation (CSN).

(12-16-2019 09:48 AM)monarx Wrote:  

(12-16-2019 09:15 AM)Retroview1955 Wrote:  According to this guy, Rahne can't help us either and thinks our football program will go nowhere, while completely nullifying the success other programs have since they move up and upgraded it's coaches.

You can read it here, but I'll still quote:
https://www.pilotonline.com/opinion/lett...story.html

Is he a pessimist or does he have a point?

Costly move for ODU

"I graduated from Old Dominion in 1973. I don’t know ODU football coach Bobby Wilder personally, but was amazed at how quickly he was able to start with nothing and build a team capable of winning the Colonial Athletic Association championship in only three years.

What I don’t understand is after waiting 69 years to bring back football, why wasn’t a winning program, and a packed stadium, enough? Why the rush to play teams so far out of ODU’s league? Why schedule games against three Atlantic Coast Conference teams in 2020? And who was responsible for the decision to move up to the Football Bowl Subdivision so quickly? Was it due to the overzealous and spoiled fan base who thought Wilder could bring in a Taylor Heinicke whenever needed? That might be possible at Alabama and Clemson, but not ODU.

Moving to Conference USA has left ODU with no natural rivalries and instead of busing teams to Williamsburg, Richmond and Harrisonburg, must instead pay a considerable expense to fly its football, basketball and baseball teams to Alabama, Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi.

With a new stadium to pay for, and increased travel cost, ODU has been reduced to selling games to Liberty University — $1 million last year and $800,000 next year.

Wilder has been forced to be the scapegoat for the bad decisions of others."

Joe Simons, Chesapeake



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He's probably both. I think when our admin made the decision, based on the information available at the time, it was the right move. The CAA was crumbling (but has since re-stablized), We were offered a spot in a multi-bid conference that was as well-regarded at the time as the A-10/AAC. We were offered a spot in a conference with ECU as a natural rival, plus "names" like Tulsa and Tulane. We were offered a spot in a conference that paid $1.2 million dollars a year. We were offered a spot in a conference with every football game on actual television. We were thrown what looked to be a lifeline when VCU and GMU abandoned the CAA. With all of that, I would have made the decision to move too. The problem is, within one year, ALL of that disappeared. No well-regarded conference, no ECU rivalry, no $1.2 million, no TV. So in retrospect, it was a bad move for ODU. Maybe one Wood should have seen coming. But I don't really blame the admin for the decision as it looked good at the time and hind sight is 20/20.