Seems to me that this topic should be on Huge's agenda. She's a mover and shaker and on a bunch of committes. Maybe she can coordinate the creation of a new conference that aligns with the long term objectives for her big three sports. IMO, we're going to continue to struggle with interest in football given that several basketball teams in the conference don't play football. If the P5 continues to dominate the landscape in football, it really does call out for a third tier of division 1 football between BCS and FCS or just merge everyone else in with FCS. That would be the opportunity to shake it up.

As others have said in these and different threads, we need to play our local/regional enemies in football who will actually bring some fans. ODU, Hampton, Norfolk State. Play more teams in the MEAC (maybe Howard?)

(11-23-2019 05:51 PM)Tribe32 Wrote:  Seems to me that this topic should be on Huge's agenda. She's a mover and shaker and on a bunch of committes. Maybe she can coordinate the creation of a new conference that aligns with the long term objectives for her big three sports. IMO, we're going to continue to struggle with interest in football given that several basketball teams in the conference don't play football. If the P5 continues to dominate the landscape in football, it really does call out for a third tier of division 1 football between BCS and FCS or just merge everyone else in with FCS. That would be the opportunity to shake it up.

As others have said in these and different threads, we need to play our local/regional enemies in football who will actually bring some fans. ODU, Hampton, Norfolk State. Play more teams in the MEAC (maybe Howard?)

This is exactly what I think. She wants to shake up the status quo? This is the exact area where we stand to benefit most (I just want to keep playing UR each year).

Sent from my LM-V405 using Tapatalk

(11-23-2019 05:51 PM)Tribe32 Wrote:  Seems to me that this topic should be on Huge's agenda. She's a mover and shaker and on a bunch of committes. Maybe she can coordinate the creation of a new conference that aligns with the long term objectives for her big three sports. IMO, we're going to continue to struggle with interest in football given that several basketball teams in the conference don't play football. If the P5 continues to dominate the landscape in football, it really does call out for a third tier of division 1 football between BCS and FCS or just merge everyone else in with FCS. That would be the opportunity to shake it up.

As others have said in these and different threads, we need to play our local/regional enemies in football who will actually bring some fans. ODU, Hampton, Norfolk State. Play more teams in the MEAC (maybe Howard?)

This is exactly what I think. She wants to shake up the status quo? This is the exact area where we stand to benefit most (I just want to keep playing UR each year).

Sent from my LM-V405 using Tapatalk

I knew I'd spent some time thinking about this not too long ago...this is from the "2019 Football Schedule" thread. At the time, billymac suggested I send this to the CAA Commissioner, which I did with no response. If anyone has any pull with the CAA office, feel free to send this their way.

(From last year:)


Thinking out loud...an option might be a three-division CAA:

South: W&M, JMU, Richmond, Elon
Central: Delaware, Nova, Towson, Stony Brook
North: Albany, Maine, UNH, URI

Play against your division every year (3 games/year).
Play three of four teams from the other two divisions (6 games/year).
Two (or three) open dates for OOC/FBS games. (11 or 12 games total).
"Rotate" opponents from the other two divisions every two years (after a home/away cycle) and you'd play every non-division CAA opponent six out of every eight years.

Everyone gets to play their natural rivals (well, most of them) every year. For our "preferred" opponents (such as Delaware and Villanova) we'd only miss playing them two years out of every eight, and we'd always have at least one of them on the schedule every year.

(11-23-2019 04:44 PM)TDenverFan Wrote:  

(11-23-2019 12:10 PM)nj alum Wrote:  I’m not analyzing schedules in the years where we are at Richmond.

This whole thing started when I voiced the opinion that next year’s home schedule (excepting the Richmond home game) is not attractive, and voiced a secondary opinion that same appears to be trending in that direction.

We need to play four schools every year, and split the home games evenly every year. That’s in our best interests. If the CAA can’t do that ...

I guess my point was that Richmond/JMU are our most attractive home games. We had the advantage of getting them both in the same year back in the 90s, so obviously those schedules will look great, but I don't think that's something we should want now. I don't really think there's any other matchup, save maybe Delaware, that is that attractive. I'm not even sure how much your average fan cares about playing an Ivy league school, is Brown really more of a draw than Lehigh?

Remember, too, that on the off years we had neither one at home. I remember a few years back the CAA adjusted the schedule such that UR/JMU/WM all had one home and one away game between them every year.

(11-27-2019 10:30 AM)ScottyB757 Wrote:  I knew I'd spent some time thinking about this not too long ago...this is from the "2019 Football Schedule" thread. At the time, billymac suggested I send this to the CAA Commissioner, which I did with no response. If anyone has any pull with the CAA office, feel free to send this their way.

(From last year:)


Thinking out loud...an option might be a three-division CAA:

South: W&M, JMU, Richmond, Elon
Central: Delaware, Nova, Towson, Stony Brook
North: Albany, Maine, UNH, URI

Play against your division every year (3 games/year).
Play three of four teams from the other two divisions (6 games/year).
Two (or three) open dates for OOC/FBS games. (11 or 12 games total).
"Rotate" opponents from the other two divisions every two years (after a home/away cycle) and you'd play every non-division CAA opponent six out of every eight years.

Everyone gets to play their natural rivals (well, most of them) every year. For our "preferred" opponents (such as Delaware and Villanova) we'd only miss playing them two years out of every eight, and we'd always have at least one of them on the schedule every year.

Not sure it makes sense for the CAA to do 9 conference games, that probably hurts the league in terms of bids. If you figure most of the top CAA teams currently go 2-1 OOC, and if you assume CAA teams keep playing FBS opponents, you basically take away an OOC win for a conference game.

I can understand the complaints against the Patriot League given the recent declines of the play there (I like Lafayette and Lehigh in part because they are nice road trips and facilities) - though if that's an issue, why do people keep pounding we play MEAC teams? They are historically one of the worst conferences at our level and there is so litte in common. Just not seeing any interest outside Hampton.

If we want to add some OOC interest, bring in Princeton or Harvard. It's good football and they are national academic rivals as well. Would also like to bring back VMI. Other than JMU, no Virginia school brings more fans to Williamsburg than VMI.

Credit to Huge for signing a home/home with Furman. They will bring some fans, have a solid program and it's another nice road trip within FCS.

Just for fun, would love a home/home with Montana or Montana State.

(11-27-2019 11:41 AM)Sitting bull Wrote:  I can understand the complaints against the Patriot League given the recent declines of the play there (I like Lafayette and Lehigh in part because they are nice road trips and facilities) - though if that's an issue, why do people keep pounding we play MEAC teams? They are historically one of the worst conferences at our level and there is so litte in common. Just not seeing any interest outside Hampton.

Hampton left the MEAC in 2017-18. They're in the Big South now.