I didn't see a thread on this already. If I somehow missed it, feel free to delete.

CAA conference matchups have been released.

Drexel
Home: Campbell, Delaware*, Hampton, Hofstra, Monmouth*, North Carolina A&T, UNCW, Northeastern, Stony Brook
Away: Charleston, Delaware*, Elon, Hofstra, Monmouth*, North Carolina A&T, UNCW, Towson, William & Mary
(Monmouth and Delaware are our "permanent" repeat opponents.)

EDIT: Way more of our schedule is known than I first realized.

We also have:
@ La Salle
Temple
Fairfield
Queens
@ ODU
@ Lafayette
Big 5 tripleheader
@ Princeton
@ West Virginia
Albany
@ Bryant

I don't really understand this. What was the point of the expansion choices if the plan wasn't to go to two seven-team divisions? Why are we playing NCA&T and UNCW twice, but not Northeastern or Hofstra? By forcing every team to play every other team at least once, you force yourself to provide an inferior schedule. Pretty disappointing.

You're right...it makes no sense. We discuss logical ideas all of the time on these boards, but the CAA has always lacked creativity.

Uhh, we have Hofstra twice.

You're right, I missed them in the Away list. But my overall point stands, the fact that they are not considered a "permanent" repeat opponent means that we will not always play them twice.

We were discussing this on the slack channel too. It appears that there are no permanent travel partners and the teams you play twice rotates each year or 2. Guessing that is how everyone will eventually play everyone twice in a season. But yes it sure seems like the 7 and 7 idea is not truly real and is more a coincidence than intentional at this point. On the womens side we do not play TU, NU or HU twice this season

I plan to attend that WVU game since its somewhat close, or at least close enough to go see them. That could be a big opportunity for this team and their season (with everything going on in Morgantown)

At first blush, it does seem odd to have this goofy not-north-south division schedule. But then I was thinking about it and I am not sure divisions would actually save Drexel all that much travel.

This season, we have 4-5 away opponents where the team will need to stay overnight: 4 in the Carolinas and (I assume) William & Mary.

If we had divisions, we'd have 3 away games in the South, plus an overnight trip to Northeastern. If Hofstra and Stony Brook were scheduled back-to-back, they'd probably stay over for that too.

That said, empirically I would prefer to play Northeastern, Hofstra, Delaware and Towson twice each every season. Maybe even W&M too. But it doesn't look like that's in the cards.

I presume that a lot of schools, especially those in the South, like coming to Philadelphia to play us. Certainly helps them engage with their alumni in the area.

(08-09-2023 09:03 AM)JonP Wrote:  At first blush, it does seem odd to have this goofy not-north-south division schedule. But then I was thinking about it and I am not sure divisions would actually save Drexel all that much travel.

...

I presume that a lot of schools, especially those in the South, like coming to Philadelphia to play us. Certainly helps them engage with their alumni in the area.

Travel really isn't my main concern here. Hofstra and Northeastern are our northeastern non-football rivals. Northeastern is arguably our closest peer in the conference. As long as we share a conference, we should be playing them twice every year, period.

My guess is that your last point is the root of this. W&M and Elon especially want to be playing games in the North. I guess this is the conference's way of maintaining that. Not a fan, but that's probably why.

So by my math we have what 2 more open slots? I assume the 3rd game of the Big 5 tournament thing count for one of those 2 slots. 4 home and 6 away is a decent split. Also it is not a very difficult schedule. Really Princeton and West Virginia are it for the OOC. Yes Temple (and La Salle) will always be challenging, but they are not going to be good this year. So that means we should be trying to get a decent home game or I think another buy road game would make sense for this squad. If we have enough games available we should still be trying to get into an exempt tournament of quality

I forgot to include the Big 5 tripleheader, so I just added that.

Agree with you that it would be nice to get another home game or a fat check for traveling somewhere. Overall, it's a decent looking out-of-conference schedule. Nice that Spiker gets to play in W.Va.

I know its a long shot, but if we have any hopes of sniffing consideration with this squad a buy game makes the most sense to strengthen the schedule, if we dont think we can challenge for a potential at large then get a decent home game (DI only please). The stronger collectively we all make our schedules the better it looks for everyone and helps their numbers. But yes, for the locals this schedule will appease most, even if it has very little meat on it

(08-10-2023 10:26 AM)dan10 Wrote:  I know its a long shot, but if we have any hopes of sniffing consideration with this squad a buy game makes the most sense to strengthen the schedule, if we dont think we can challenge for a potential at large then get a decent home game (DI only please). The stronger collectively we all make our schedules the better it looks for everyone and helps their numbers. But yes, for the locals this schedule will appease most, even if it has very little meat on it

Isn't West Virginia our buy game? I figure there's no room in the schedule for another one.

By the basic count we still have an opening to get us to 30 games. Why can't we take 2 buy game? Bru used to do it almost yearly.

(08-09-2023 06:52 AM)dan10 Wrote:  I plan to attend that WVU game since its somewhat close, or at least close enough to go see them. That could be a big opportunity for this team and their season (with everything going on in Morgantown)

i'm already planning to be there too. always wanted an excuse to go back to morgantown. i drove through briefly on my way back from our game in kentucky a number of years ago.

i haven't been able to find any interesting places to eat so far. let me know if you have any.

(08-15-2023 08:13 AM)hiroshimacarp Wrote:  

(08-09-2023 06:52 AM)dan10 Wrote:  I plan to attend that WVU game since its somewhat close, or at least close enough to go see them. That could be a big opportunity for this team and their season (with everything going on in Morgantown)

i'm already planning to be there too. always wanted an excuse to go back to morgantown. i drove through briefly on my way back from our game in kentucky a number of years ago.

i haven't been able to find any interesting places to eat so far. let me know if you have any.

I havent gotten that far to start looking yet. Only time ive stopped in Morgantown was for gas so never really scouted the area either and the days I toured their campus are long forgotten (beyond their cool sky tram thing that takes you from one side of campus to the other). Will definitely let you know though

11/10- Penn State Greater Allegheny (ugh)

(08-30-2023 01:33 PM)dan10 Wrote:  11/10- Penn State Greater Allegheny (ugh)

I hate these fake games! Drexel could find a bad D1 team if they really wanted to atleast it would matter.

still waiting for the home and home with messiah. their women's team might be able to stay within 40.

(08-30-2023 01:33 PM)dan10 Wrote:  11/10- Penn State Greater Allegheny (ugh)

I’ll see your Penn State Greater Allegheny and raise you Regent.