(08-19-2018 06:37 PM)franklyconfused Wrote: I like that we're playing LSU, but that specific weekend is insulting. It says that they have so little respect for us that they intend to use us as an unofficial off week to rest their first string to prepare for Thanksgiving weekend. The other P5 OOC games that weekend:
- Citadel @ Alabama
- Tenn - Chattanooga @ South Carolina
- Idaho @ Florida
- Western Carolina @ UNC
- Liberty @ Auburn
- Middle Tenn @ Kentucky
- UAB @ TAMU
- UMass @ Georgia
- Syracuse @ Notre Dame (essentially an ACC game)
That's not a slate of games I'm proud to be associated with. The first four are FCS, and the next four are the bottom of the FBS. At least 2020's September game lets us look more like a peer by association than a whipping boy by design, and hopefully we'll improve enough by then that the scoreline will do so as well.
I understand how you feel, but I can't be insulted:
1. previously, LSU flat out refused to play us at all
2. the list of schools above is more or less Rices' current peer group, whether we like it or not
3. we did this to ourselves by our institutional indifference to the changing state of athletics
4. playing a "name' school late in the season can help us if we do well, or even win, and give us some momentum into the following year
5. Playing a name school almost any time can help us out if we don't mail it in and look competitive/steal a game once in a while or more
6. No matter how well we do against Prairie View or Wagner or Nicholls, almost no one's perception (except for some Parliament posters) will be reasonably changed
7. If we don't do well against Prairie View or Wagner or Nicholls it hurts the program immensely in multiple ways we've discussed over the years.
Bottom line: Kick the $#!+ out of the Prairie Views, Wagners and Nicholls' every time and then try to improve, steal a few against the Big Boys and keep trying to schedule them whenever until we can change the status of our program.