Sorry if this was already discussed, I'm just now getting back into the swing of things, but what is the reasoning for moving the Rice v Stanford game to Australia? I've never heard of this, and didn't know Australia enjoyed American Football. Can anybody enlighten me? Thanks!

Hawaii and Cal played there to open last season. That at least kind of made sense. Stanford I get, but Rice? It would be one thing if Rice had a good chance to beat Stanford because then they'd get a lot of exposure being one of the only games on. But Rice is going to get curb stomped. So at least play it at home. Now you'll get more exposure, but that exposure will come in the form of you getting destroyed.

clt says no bloomin onions in rice.

Considering they love Australian Rules Football and Rugby over there, perhaps they occasionally watch our brand of safety-first football as a novelty, with the mild amusement of a carnival side show.

(08-01-2017 04:27 PM)TopsonTop Wrote:  Sorry if this was already discussed, I'm just now getting back into the swing of things, but what is the reasoning for moving the Rice v Stanford game to Australia? I've never heard of this, and didn't know Australia enjoyed American Football. Can anybody enlighten me? Thanks!

When I was on a tour of AT&T Stadium, they said the Cowboys were kinda big there. Of course that could be them just talking up their reach. But I also think there were some Australians in my tour group and thats why it was brought up.

(08-01-2017 04:27 PM)TopsonTop Wrote:  Sorry if this was already discussed, I'm just now getting back into the swing of things, but what is the reasoning for moving the Rice v Stanford game to Australia? I've never heard of this, and didn't know Australia enjoyed American Football. Can anybody enlighten me? Thanks!

A few years back, Middle Tennessee had a punter from Australia...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_f..._Australia

We have a punter coming from Australia this year, I think.

Hey we have a punter from Australia too lol

We had one, but he only stayed a year and went home.

Money plain and simple. We'll make more playing the game in Australia than we would playing it at Rice Stadium.

(08-01-2017 06:35 PM)Volkmar Wrote:  Considering they love Australian Rules Football and Rugby over there, perhaps they occasionally watch our brand of safety-first football as a novelty, with the mild amusement of a carnival side show.

Yanks had gone soft!

The Rice AD should have been fired when he set up this 2017 schedule. After traveling half way around the world to receive an arse whipping from Stanford, Rice comes back to the states to play the following schedule:

Sept 9th - @ UTEP
Sept 16th - @ Houston
Sept 23rd - FIU
Sept 30th - @ Pittsburg
Oct 7th - Army

Wow. 4 of Rice's first 5 games are on the road (although UH is nearby). No FCS schools, no easy OOC G5 schools and only 1 home game in that 5-game stretch. That's just brutal.

With evidence like this, maybe the Rice folks aren't as smart as we think they are. LOL!

(08-01-2017 11:02 PM)HogDawg Wrote:  The Rice AD should have been fired when he set up this 2017 schedule. After traveling half way around the world to receive an arse whipping from Stanford, Rice comes back to the states to play the following schedule:

Sept 9th - @ UTEP
Sept 16th - @ Houston
Sept 23rd - FIU
Sept 30th - @ Pittsburg
Oct 7th - Army

Wow. 4 of Rice's first 5 games are on the road (although UH is nearby). No FCS schools, no easy OOC G5 schools and only 1 home game in that 5-game stretch. That's just brutal.

With evidence like this, maybe the Rice folks aren't as smart as we think they are. LOL!

Our AD is a Stanford grad.

(08-01-2017 11:02 PM)HogDawg Wrote:  The Rice AD should have been fired when he set up this 2017 schedule. After traveling half way around the world to receive an arse whipping from Stanford, Rice comes back to the states to play the following schedule:

Sept 9th - @ UTEP
Sept 16th - @ Houston
Sept 23rd - FIU
Sept 30th - @ Pittsburg
Oct 7th - Army

Wow. 4 of Rice's first 5 games are on the road (although UH is nearby). No FCS schools, no easy OOC G5 schools and only 1 home game in that 5-game stretch. That's just brutal.

With evidence like this, maybe the Rice folks aren't as smart as we think they are. LOL!

I can only imagine the jet-lag they are going to have to overcome from all the traveling... maybe it pays more, but that's just one more obstacle the players are going to have to overcome to prep for their next game.

What are Rice's chances to make a decent showing? I know they had some flashes last fall of being a decent team. I have seem some optimism from some fans that expect a dramatic improvement.
I wonder how often a team opens the season against the team that they lost to in their last game last season?

(08-01-2017 11:02 PM)HogDawg Wrote:  The Rice AD should have been fired when he set up this 2017 schedule. After traveling half way around the world to receive an arse whipping from Stanford, Rice comes back to the states to play the following schedule:

Sept 9th - @ UTEP
Sept 16th - @ Houston
Sept 23rd - FIU
Sept 30th - @ Pittsburg
Oct 7th - Army

Wow. 4 of Rice's first 5 games are on the road (although UH is nearby). No FCS schools, no easy OOC G5 schools and only 1 home game in that 5-game stretch. That's just brutal.

With evidence like this, maybe the Rice folks aren't as smart as we think they are. LOL!

Unconventional wisdom. But Rice fans (and players) prefer this "throwback to the '60s glory days" scheduling to FCS, Sunbelt, etc. path to a 6-6 bowl game that will be in Albuquerque or worse.

(08-02-2017 05:04 AM)Franko Wrote:  What are Rice's chances to make a decent showing? I know they had some flashes last fall of being a decent team. I have seem some optimism from some fans that expect a dramatic improvement.
I wonder how often a team opens the season against the team that they lost to in their last game last season?

It's a win-win. Maybe Brian Stewart's defensive schemes, a new quarterback coach (and quarterback), and the solid o-line will make a difference and Rice will be improved.

Or, we are 0-4 out of conference, no better in conference, and the David Bailiff era is over.

No one wants Bailiff to have a cupcake schedule that clouds the decision on his contract at the end of the 2017 season. He has lost a large part of the fan base, but not the big fish donors - yet.

(08-02-2017 03:24 AM)TopsonTop Wrote:  

(08-01-2017 11:02 PM)HogDawg Wrote:  The Rice AD should have been fired when he set up this 2017 schedule. After traveling half way around the world to receive an arse whipping from Stanford, Rice comes back to the states to play the following schedule:

Sept 9th - @ UTEP
Sept 16th - @ Houston
Sept 23rd - FIU
Sept 30th - @ Pittsburg
Oct 7th - Army

Wow. 4 of Rice's first 5 games are on the road (although UH is nearby). No FCS schools, no easy OOC G5 schools and only 1 home game in that 5-game stretch. That's just brutal.

With evidence like this, maybe the Rice folks aren't as smart as we think they are. LOL!

I can only imagine the jet-lag they are going to have to overcome from all the traveling... maybe it pays more, but that's just one more obstacle the players are going to have to overcome to prep for their next game.

At least they have 2 weeks to get over the jet-lag before traveling to El Paso. The distance from Houston to Australia is actually a little bit more than the distance from Houston to El Paso. Most of you probably assumed it to be about the same, am I right?

The youngsters on the team will rebound quickly but the coaches, maybe not so much.

(08-01-2017 04:27 PM)TopsonTop Wrote:  Sorry if this was already discussed, I'm just now getting back into the swing of things, but what is the reasoning for moving the Rice v Stanford game to Australia? I've never heard of this, and didn't know Australia enjoyed American Football. Can anybody enlighten me? Thanks!

PAC really wanted this to happen. Maybe our ultimate goal is to tag along with Bevo if the PAC expands into the State of Texas?

(08-02-2017 07:24 AM)ESE84 Wrote:  

(08-01-2017 11:02 PM)HogDawg Wrote:  The Rice AD should have been fired when he set up this 2017 schedule. After traveling half way around the world to receive an arse whipping from Stanford, Rice comes back to the states to play the following schedule:

Sept 9th - @ UTEP
Sept 16th - @ Houston
Sept 23rd - FIU
Sept 30th - @ Pittsburg
Oct 7th - Army

Wow. 4 of Rice's first 5 games are on the road (although UH is nearby). No FCS schools, no easy OOC G5 schools and only 1 home game in that 5-game stretch. That's just brutal.

With evidence like this, maybe the Rice folks aren't as smart as we think they are. LOL!

Unconventional wisdom. But Rice fans (and players) prefer this "throwback to the '60s glory days" scheduling to FCS, Sunbelt, etc. path to a 6-6 bowl game that will be in Albuquerque or worse.

As a divisional opponent that has outscored Rice 179-64 over the last 3 years, I would argue that this philosophy is not working for 'ya.