(01-10-2024 11:06 AM)zablenoise Wrote:  My goodness that's an awful schedule. Looks like I'll forego season tickets again this year and go to games if I get a free weekend. At this point I imagine it has to be a decision supported by the athletic department to continue to give us no Villanova and no Delaware (even in their final year which is just ridiculous). Just super disappointing.

CAA controls scheduling and it is my understanding that they do not consult the schools


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(01-10-2024 06:52 PM)Tribal Wrote:  10-2 or 9-3 regular season with that schedule will make it very difficult to climb to a respectable ranking.


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If we beat Furman, then a top 10 ranking is likely with 10-2


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OOC schedule appears to be more appealing than conference schedule.


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Before we get ahead of ourselves remember that we lost to 3 teams on that schedule in 2023. Richmond, Elon and Towson won 17 conference games between them. Bryant was competitive in all their games and managed to beat Campbell. Who saw Albany as the best team in the league last Summer and top 5 in the nation?

(01-10-2024 07:22 PM)wmmii Wrote:  

(01-10-2024 11:06 AM)zablenoise Wrote:  My goodness that's an awful schedule. Looks like I'll forego season tickets again this year and go to games if I get a free weekend. At this point I imagine it has to be a decision supported by the athletic department to continue to give us no Villanova and no Delaware (even in their final year which is just ridiculous). Just super disappointing.

CAA controls scheduling and it is my understanding that they do not consult the schools


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I think they do in some respects. We have parents weekend booked out 5 years. Pretty sure W&M would notify we need a home game for that weekend which we have Hampton plugged.

Someone on the Richmond board mentioned that one of the goals this year was to restrict each member with only one game requiring air travel, in our case @ Stony Brook.

I'll take heat for this one:

No way that's a better schedule than if we jumped to Pat with UR and Villanova and scheduled two Ivys for OOC.

Sorry ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

*update UR gets Delaware but no Nova. Can't imagine their coach is thrilled with traveling to Bryant and having NC A&T and Campbell in place of the stronger years of JMU and Nova. SOS is weak for them and us. I don't see how WM, UR, and Nova didn't band together and demand matchups along with Delaware in the final year.

(01-11-2024 09:43 AM)W+M4TW Wrote:  I'll take heat for this one:

No way that's a better schedule than if we jumped to Pat with UR and Villanova and scheduled two Ivys for OOC.

Sorry ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

*update UR gets Delaware but no Nova. Can't imagine their coach is thrilled with traveling to Bryant and having NC A&T and Campbell in place of the stronger years of JMU and Nova. SOS is weak for them and us. I don't see how WM, UR, and Nova didn't band together and demand matchups along with Delaware in the final year.

That's correct. Like I don't particularly want to play Bucknell and Colgate but I don't want to play Campbell or Bryant either. At least in your hypothetical we get someone on the schedule that we'd actually want to play. I think the PL has a deal with Army and Navy too to schedule them as the FBS game, which I think most of us would prefer to Coastal and Charlotte.

(01-11-2024 10:03 AM)zablenoise Wrote:  

(01-11-2024 09:43 AM)W+M4TW Wrote:  I'll take heat for this one:

No way that's a better schedule than if we jumped to Pat with UR and Villanova and scheduled two Ivys for OOC.

Sorry ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

*update UR gets Delaware but no Nova. Can't imagine their coach is thrilled with traveling to Bryant and having NC A&T and Campbell in place of the stronger years of JMU and Nova. SOS is weak for them and us. I don't see how WM, UR, and Nova didn't band together and demand matchups along with Delaware in the final year.

That's correct. Like I don't particularly want to play Bucknell and Colgate but I don't want to play Campbell or Bryant either. At least in your hypothetical we get someone on the schedule that we'd actually want to play. I think the PL has a deal with Army and Navy too to schedule them as the FBS game, which I think most of us would prefer to Coastal and Charlotte.

The conference whose name shall not be spoken emerges as an abbreviation.

To me all of this talk about good games, opponents, etc. is somewhat nonsense other than in the immediate term. 50 years ago our rivals were Virginia Tech VMI, Richmond and maybe ECU. Delaware, Hampton and others were D2, ODU didn't have football and so on. In the 80s to about 2015 we got comfortable with playing the likes of Delaware, Villanova after they restarted their program, Maine, ODU for a minute, etc. Things change, conferences change, rivals change, but hopefully the Tribe keeps winning and the program improves.

Yes, the abbreviation leaves plausible deniability.

Just saying....

HC '23: Merrimack, BC, Yale, Colgate, Harvard, Bucknell, Lafayette, Fordham, Lehigh, Army, G'town
'24: URI, UNH, Bryant, Yale, 'Cuse, Colgate, Fordham, Harvard, Lafayette, Lehigh, Bucknell, Georgetown

....WM '25: UVA, Harvard, Elon, Yale, Navy, G'town, Lehigh, Villanova, Lafayette, Bucknell, Richmond....who says no?

(01-11-2024 11:13 AM)Tribe32 Wrote:  To me all of this talk about good games, opponents, etc. is somewhat nonsense other than in the immediate term. 50 years ago our rivals were Virginia Tech VMI, Richmond and maybe ECU. Delaware, Hampton and others were D2, ODU didn't have football and so on. In the 80s to about 2015 we got comfortable with playing the likes of Delaware, Villanova after they restarted their program, Maine, ODU for a minute, etc. Things change, conferences change, rivals change, but hopefully the Tribe keeps winning and the program improves.

The problem with your analogy is that all those former rivals have maintained high status (Tech, UVa) or moved up to it (JMU, ODU, Delaware, etc, etc), vastly improving their brands, while W&M has done nothing to keep pace. If all you truly want are good rivalries then W&M should absolutely drop down to the ODAC. At least those schools are comparably sized and are based in Virginia.

(01-11-2024 11:18 AM)W+M4TW Wrote:  Yes, the abbreviation leaves plausible deniability.

Just saying....

HC '23: Merrimack, BC, Yale, Colgate, Harvard, Bucknell, Lafayette, Fordham, Lehigh, Army, G'town
'24: URI, UNH, Bryant, Yale, 'Cuse, Colgate, Fordham, Harvard, Lafayette, Lehigh, Bucknell, Georgetown

....WM '25: UVA, Harvard, Elon, Yale, Navy, G'town, Lehigh, Villanova, Lafayette, Bucknell, Richmond....who says no?

Interesting, in a bad way, that a Patriot League team plays New Hampshire more often than we do as conference mates.

(01-11-2024 11:31 AM)Zorch Wrote:  

(01-11-2024 11:13 AM)Tribe32 Wrote:  To me all of this talk about good games, opponents, etc. is somewhat nonsense other than in the immediate term. 50 years ago our rivals were Virginia Tech VMI, Richmond and maybe ECU. Delaware, Hampton and others were D2, ODU didn't have football and so on. In the 80s to about 2015 we got comfortable with playing the likes of Delaware, Villanova after they restarted their program, Maine, ODU for a minute, etc. Things change, conferences change, rivals change, but hopefully the Tribe keeps winning and the program improves.

The problem with your analogy is that all those former rivals have maintained high status (Tech, UVa) or moved up to it (JMU, ODU, Delaware, etc, etc), vastly improving their brands, while W&M has done nothing to keep pace. If all you truly want are good rivalries then W&M should absolutely drop down to the ODAC. At least those schools are comparably sized and are based in Virginia.

That wasn't my point. My point was that things change over time. What I didn't say, but I'll say now is: "and we as fans really don't have any way to impact what the changes will be"

(01-11-2024 09:16 AM)Sitting bull Wrote:  

(01-10-2024 07:22 PM)wmmii Wrote:  

(01-10-2024 11:06 AM)zablenoise Wrote:  My goodness that's an awful schedule. Looks like I'll forego season tickets again this year and go to games if I get a free weekend. At this point I imagine it has to be a decision supported by the athletic department to continue to give us no Villanova and no Delaware (even in their final year which is just ridiculous). Just super disappointing.

CAA controls scheduling and it is my understanding that they do not consult the schools


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I think they do in some respects. We have parents weekend booked out 5 years. Pretty sure W&M would notify we need a home game for that weekend which we have Hampton plugged.

Someone on the Richmond board mentioned that one of the goals this year was to restrict each member with only one game requiring air travel, in our case @ Stony Brook.

Like on one hand I get the desire to reduce travel, but like also why did the CAA spread itself out so much if it's not going to have those teams play each other?

Don't get me wrong, I'd be fine never playing Bryant, but like why bother inviting them in the first place then?

If the goal of the conference was to reduce travel, they should've stuck to schools from NC to NYC. If the goal was to create a top flight east coast FCS league, then they should do that. Instead, we wind up with a weird mishmash, where you have a CAA football league, then a defacto CAA north and CAA south for some sports.

(01-11-2024 11:13 AM)Tribe32 Wrote:  To me all of this talk about good games, opponents, etc. is somewhat nonsense other than in the immediate term. 50 years ago our rivals were Virginia Tech VMI, Richmond and maybe ECU. Delaware, Hampton and others were D2, ODU didn't have football and so on. In the 80s to about 2015 we got comfortable with playing the likes of Delaware, Villanova after they restarted their program, Maine, ODU for a minute, etc. Things change, conferences change, rivals change, but hopefully the Tribe keeps winning and the program improves.

When I was attending in the 70s, our So Con members were:
VMI
Richmond
The Citadel
East Carolina
Furman
Davidson
App State

Most frequent OOC: Colgate, Villanova, Rutgers, Virginia Tech, Navy

Agree, some come and go but it seems like those that remain in our current sphere / like W&M / have been pretty static on enrollment growth.

Here's a "fun" fact about our schedule history, each of the 7 most played teams (UR, VMI, Tech, JMU, UD, RMC, and Navy) are or will soon be in their own conference. Just a real hodgepodge.

I was curious what a 12 game season against our most played opponents would look like:
Richmond
VMI
Virginia Tech
JMU
Delaware
Randolph-Macon
Navy
UVA
Hampden-Sydney
Villanova
The Citadel
George Washington - no longer has football
NC State

This obsession about the Patriot League totally misses they are even worse than the CAA in MBB

This is DOA for many reasons plus most of our other sports do not benefit


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I'm not disagreeing, Pat is a worse bball league than CAA.

But I'm not really sure I see why that matters anymore. CAA is an AQ league. Pat is an AQ league. We're really bad at basketball. Chances of making the tournament in Pat>>>CAA. At this point bball should be focusing on 1) hiring a new coach 2) making the NCAA tournament and 3) putting together an interesting OOC schedule. 1) for what we're paying Pat would make more sense 2) not happening anytime soon in the CAA and 3) probably a wash, but the Pat scheduling alliance with the Ivy sure as heck makes it likely we bring in more fun matchups than UMBC and Virginia-Lynchburg.

But, back to football, if there's anything to the UR, Villanova, WM move to Patriot I don't know what about the 2024 schedule is making that less likely. I also didn't understand Mann's comment in the RTD: "“As these changes continue to happen, what I get excited about is that William & Mary’s place in the CAA continues to grow stronger.”

How? How has our place grown stronger? Despite disagreement on whether we should leave, I don't think any fan believes our place has grown stronger. Maybe the new adds have guaranteed that we're always in the middle of the league, but that is certainly an interesting take on "stronger."

(01-11-2024 11:13 AM)Tribe32 Wrote:  Things change, conferences change, rivals change, but hopefully the Tribe keeps winning and the program improves.

A rotating door of "rivals" is not a good thing. It hurts brand loyalty, attendance and revenue IMO.

(01-11-2024 11:43 AM)TDenverFan Wrote:  Like on one hand I get the desire to reduce travel, but like also why did the CAA spread itself out so much if it's not going to have those teams play each other?

Don't get me wrong, I'd be fine never playing Bryant, but like why bother inviting them in the first place then?

If the goal of the conference was to reduce travel, they should've stuck to schools from NC to NYC. If the goal was to create a top flight east coast FCS league, then they should do that. Instead, we wind up with a weird mishmash, where you have a CAA football league, then a defacto CAA north and CAA south for some sports.

Or to turn this around.....why did W&M join the Yankee Conference in 1993? Because Richmond did earlier?

You can poo-poo the Northern teams all you want but URI, UNH and Maine were founding members of this football conference in 1946.....true story....look it up!

Bryant was added to give Northern teams another Northern team to play instead to traveling to no names in the boondocks of the South. Yup....see how that works? Perception depends on what region you are in. I'm rooting for you guys to go Southern or Patriot.....pretty please with sugar on top!