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If We Go Independent In Football... Scheduling

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CL82 said:
Agree with our second sentence but not the rest. If another decent FBS level team emerged as a rival it would help both programs. So I wouldn't mind seeing UMass get their sheet together. (Of course I wouldn't mind UConn getting its sheet together either.)
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UMass is already FBS....same with Buffalo and Army, so I dont really have an issue there per se as it is what it is.
Instead, my issue is with this the silly notion that it would be good for northeast football (and UConn) if other programs jumped from FCS to FBS. Temple has played better the past 6 years and how has that helped us? And we play them twice a year. Making more mouths to feed (and by feed, they need to be fed with players and revenue) will not help us. I'm totally against elevating Nova, Albany, Stony Brook, Towson or any other FCS program. Enough is enough. No more dilution. There are what, 129 other FBS programs out there?...play them instead.
 
Pudge said:
Each school is a totally different story.

(i.) Villanova we know. Thought about. Studied & spent money. Can’t & wont do it. Neighborhood won’t let the Stadium expand. Happy as is

(ii.) Delaware is a weird case. Most years through any era / decade, they’ve drawn well. They like where they are. They want to win ...but not effort too much. Can draw 24,000 easily. But no interest in anything more.

(iii.) James Madison will advance. Need the right circumstances. Their 20,000+ seat stadium can be 40,000 easily. I think they are looking for something special (read: not CUSA or SunBelt)
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(1) Nova studied the issue internally and recommended the move up. By the time they dithered an acceptance, the invite was stale. A slow-to-move program, no doubt. But the planning did force them to seek a stadium use at Talen Energy Stadium, 18 miles south down I-476 (20-30 minutes on a Saturday). 18,500 capacity and engineered to grow to 30,000, but I don't think expansion is necessary. The Linc is also a possibility (NFL Eagles 70,000 seats) for a game or 2 per year. The Temple-Nova series could become annual. Temple has brought both ND and Penn State to Philly, so it's possible. No investment in Stadiums needed.

(2) Nobody really likes where hey are in FCS. In the past there weren't many good options for a FCS school to move up. With the Liberty precedent, a move can happen to independent. While it might not make sense for any of these individual programs to do it alone, moving together provides some stability. An Alliance, with other independents already ripe for a partnership (Army, UMass, UConn). Many Delaware fans have interest to do more!

(3) JMU is most ready to advance, but they will never have the perfect invite. Maybe this Alliance is good enough. Yes, their stadium is built to expand.
 
Interesting: William & Mary to open 2020 football season at Stanford. UConn should try to schedule Stanford, too. W&M may want to consider FBS division.
 
freescooter said:
Not so sure B12 or P12 would be that tough to schedule. Colorado I think is on UMass and I suspect we could get deals with Iowa State KState Kansas West Virginia. Probably not Texas but you never know. But I see UMass as a regular opponent. I’d also expect to see Army Navy, would love a Home-Home with Air Force and it won’t be long before there is a Space Force Academy too :p. Then 3-4 P5 games. A 1aa game I keep hearing that BYU is interested in a long term series with us which would be good too. We likely fill in some MAC and Sunbelt games along with Cincy and Temple type AAC games. The really tricky part seems to be mid-October on when teams are largely in Conference schedules.
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Hey that new Mormon Temple adjacent to Rt 4 in Farmington has to count for something right. Schedule them in November.
 
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Exit 4 said:
Thanks, but my analysis is much shallower. FBS football simply cannot support more new mouths to feed w/o diluting talent. The more talent we dilute here in the northeast the further we fall behind the top P5 programs. Adding more programs will simply pull us down rather than lift us up.
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As Calhoun said, nothings better than neighborhood fights. If we Play a solid Long Island Public University or a Temple or a Buffalo or UMASS or UAlbany ... it’s far better than Memphis or ECU. We actually would care. I think we care more about playing Holy Cross or Fordham than Tulsa.

Upgrade the Program. Talent & Depth. Play opponents that mean something.

I don’t buy this dilution of talent theory ... same reason we always disagree.
 
Pudge, Div 2 and Div 3 football is loaded to the brim with local fights and that “local hidden talent” you love. Seems like you should be watching Hobart or SUNY Geneseo.

I want to watch FBS football with regular schedule against kids that get drafted and a program that once in a while might garner votes in the Top 25 poll.
 
This was a very poor move. Now the biggest game of the year will be a non conference match with.... UMass? Sad, very sad. Hope it's televised.
 
Exit 4 said:
Pudge, Div 2 and Div 3 football is loaded to the brim with local fights and that “local hidden talent” you love. Seems like you should be watching Hobart or SUNY Geneseo.

I want to watch FBS football with regular schedule against kids that get drafted and a program that once in a while might garner votes in the Top 25 poll.
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Seems like you kinda missed UConn Football 2003-2009. You can find athletic talent - like the phenom Byron Jones - and the raw talent. Coach them up. Beat Pitt & Syracuse. Ain’t Hobart or Wesleyan.
 
Exit 4 said:
Pudge, Div 2 and Div 3 football is loaded to the brim with local fights and that “local hidden talent” you love. Seems like you should be watching Hobart or SUNY Geneseo.
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“It’s Ithaca Bombers football on WICB!”
 
You can think Army, BYU, Liberty, UMass every year. The fact is - the nature of being independent - they have full schedules out 4 years. We will Be Lucky to find a slot at Army & we’re already on UMass.
 
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Pudge said:
Seems like you kinda missed UConn Football 2003-2009. You can find athletic talent - like the phenom Byron Jones - and the raw talent. Coach them up. Beat Pitt & Syracuse. Ain’t Hobart or Wesleyan.
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So by your logic the northeast is loaded with future Byron Jones - so many that we can afford to spread them around to FCS programs to boost their profiles along with elevating our program. Um, okay. Does this mean Edsall needs to recruit for five schools simultaneously to help unearth this hidden talent? If the northeast has this much latent talent, why the hell don’t more local programs stumble into rampant success and buckets of draft worthy players?

Meanwhile you know who actually has buckets of talent- FL, TX, GA etc and it’s evident in the way southern schools keep their programs loaded. It’s why Randy has pulled in so many FL and TX kids in his 2.0 era.
 
Disingenuous

What’s the structure of UConn recruitment 1999-2019? Why do we go to Florida & Georgia? The success formula hasn’t changed. I don’t believe WE made this move because we thought we’d never get back to 8-4 & Bowls. Frankly, I’m a big believer that Rutgers could be a dominant program - with the right coach (like a Joe Moorhead) with a similar case strategy. You can find plenty of talent.

Look. I’m not going to agree with you nor 2 dozen others who track Rivals or 247 or whatever. Jackson Mitchell stud 6 ft 212 can be the equal to a Georgia kid with 15 FBS offers in about 18 months. We are a Development program & we’re always going to be that.
 
Pudge said:
I’m not going to agree with you nor 2 dozen others who track Rivals or 247 or whatever. Jackson Mitchell stud 6 ft 212 can be the equal to a Georgia kid with 15 FBS offers in about 18 months. We are a Development program & we’re always going to be that.
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You are certainly hardwired in certain subjects.

Where you are getting stupid is advocating that somehow UConn should help build up northeast football to create more regional rivals and that this can be done because we are sleeping on a bunch Byron Jones type talent... so much of it, we can share it and lift all our boats simultaneously. Incredible!

On the local talent front, if there is so much latent talent why is Randy making about the fewest offers ever to New England kids? As we previously established, Randy extends over 150 offers per class and the vast majority go to kids outside of New England who already have P5 offers (gasp!). It just happens to be that in the end Randy ends up with more kids where we were their best offer because that’s the nature of recruiting these days... not because Randy out foxed anyone.
 
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Zissou said:
East Coast Football Alliance

View attachment 44612
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1B8761F1-ACFC-4ADA-8EBB-84D889352678.png
 
Exit 4 said:
You are certainly hardwired in certain subjects.

Where you are getting stupid is advocating that somehow UConn should help build up northeast football to create more regional rivals and that this can be done because we are sleeping on a bunch Byron Jones type talent... so much of it, we can share it and lift all our boats simultaneously. Incredible!

On the local talent front, if there is so much latent talent why is Randy making about the fewest offers ever to New England kids? As we previously established, Randy extends over 150 offers per class and the vast majority go to kids outside of New England who already have P5 offers (gasp!). It just happens to be that in the end Randy ends up with more kids where we were their best offer because that’s the nature of recruiting these days... not because Randy out foxed anyone.
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You are mixing about 4 topics here … to get to some point.

Seriously: we have been whining about "directional State schools" for 20 years. We are better off playing real nearby University Football programs than the FIU (which frankly, I could care less between USF & UCF & FAU … except it exposes a slice of our roster to their Moms). We - the UCONN fanbase - cared more when we could relate to the Opponents because we knew the territory; and we could drive to away games. It is a fact that 10-15 FCS schools cropped up around southern FBS to get into the lesser G5 conferences. Don't like our schedule … tough. We were drawing 33,000 for Lehigh once. Don't go playing South Alabama or Middle Tennessee unless absolutely necessary.

I don't really care where Buffalo or UMASS gets players. Or Stony Brook. I don't think it dilutes the talent base one bit. And the serious infusion of Prep schools in New England, NY & NJ is increasing. Etc. You don't want me to talk about Quebec or Ontario; but, that is an amazing football story since I lived in Montreal in 2004.

As for data about offers. We have 3 commitments unknown; God knows how many offers are unknown.
 
Pudge said:
I don't really care where Buffalo or UMASS gets players. Or Stony Brook. I don't think it dilutes the talent base one bit. And the serious infusion of Prep schools in New England, NY & NJ is increasing. Etc. You don't want me to talk about Quebec or Ontario; but, that is an amazing football story since I lived in Montreal in 2004.
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I never once said I have a problem with Buffalo, UMass, Army or any other existing FBS program. So dont pretend I did.

I do have a problem with the idea we should be advocating any other programs in the northeast to go FBS. There aren't enough fish unless you just want to flat out never be nationally relevant again.

Below is the Colonial football conference. I think this should be your home.

I want to play Middle Tennessee, App St, Buffalo, Rutgers, BYU, Maryland and Syracuse. I want to play FIU, Coastal Carolina, Colorado St and Bowling Green. I dont want to play anyone in the Colonial more than once a year. If I wanted Colonial football I would be a fan of one these programs already. That product exists. Don't drag this school to that place...instead you should go there and find your own joy....the Great Danes of Albany surely have a great season ticket package.


Albany0-00.0000-00.000---
Delaware0-00.0000-00.000---
Elon0-00.0000-00.000---
James Madison0-00.0000-00.000---
Maine0-00.0000-00.000---
New Hampshire0-00.0000-00.000---
Rhode Island0-00.0000-00.000---
Richmond0-00.0000-00.000---
Stony Brook0-00.0000-00.000---
Towson0-00.0000-00.000---
Villanova0-00.0000-00.000---
William & Mary
 
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freescooter said:
Not so sure B12 or P12 would be that tough to schedule. Colorado I think is on UMass and I suspect we could get deals with Iowa State KState Kansas West Virginia. Probably not Texas but you never know. But I see UMass as a regular opponent. I’d also expect to see Army Navy, would love a Home-Home with Air Force and it won’t be long before there is a Space Force Academy too :p. Then 3-4 P5 games. A 1aa game I keep hearing that BYU is interested in a long term series with us which would be good too. We likely fill in some MAC and Sunbelt games along with Cincy and Temple type AAC games. The really tricky part seems to be mid-October on when teams are largely in Conference schedules.
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One way we might schedule a payday game with Texas is to offer them men's & women's H&H BB series. They seem to like playing us in BB.
 
UConnNick said:
One way we might schedule a payday game with Texas is to offer them men's & women's H&H BB series. They seem to like playing us in BB.
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UMass did this with UGA.

I feel like if UMass can do it with UGA, our brand equity in both MBB and WBB might be able to garner us some 2 for 1’s with a Texas or a UGA type especially if we play our “home” game in New York or Boston.
 
Guapo said:
UMass did this with UGA.

I feel like if UMass can do it with UGA, our brand equity in both MBB and WBB might be able to garner us some 2 for 1’s with a Texas or a UGA type especially if we play our “home” game in New York or Boston.
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Georgia Tech did a 2-1 deal with us back when we were an Independent the first time. They even agreed to play us in Memorial Stadium. Edsall still had some pull there back then...probably not so much anymore, but it's still worth a shot. I'm sure they'd like a BB series, M&W.
 
UConnNick said:
Georgia Tech did a 2-1 deal with us back when we were an Independent the first time. They even agreed to play us in Memorial Stadium. Edsall still had some pull there back then...probably not so much anymore, but it's still worth a shot. I'm sure they'd like a BB series, M&W.
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I brought this up one time and someone on here told me the back story - I think we kinda tricked them into playing at Memorial, or there was some sort of bizarre circumstances that led to that happening
 
Pudge said:
As Calhoun said, nothings better than neighborhood fights. If we Play a solid Long Island Public University or a Temple or a Buffalo or UMASS or UAlbany ... it’s far better than Memphis or ECU. We actually would care. I think we care more about playing Holy Cross or Fordham than Tulsa.

Upgrade the Program. Talent & Depth. Play opponents that mean something.

I don’t buy this dilution of talent theory ... same reason we always disagree.
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I'm not sure playing HC or Fordham is that much of an inprovement over Tulsa. We played HC two years ago. What kind of a crowd did we draw?

Even if they're in your backyard, FCS opponents still are what they are...lower level. Even Fiasco managed to beat all the FCS opponents he faced, and so has Edsall 2.0, even with last season's disaster of a team.

We almost always play FCS opponents that are close to home, but it never seems to draw big crowds. I know we're going to probably have to fill in the schedule with a few FCS teams in the first couple of indie seasons, but beyond that it should be one per year. There just isn't much interest in playing these teams. Wagner? Nobody really cares.
 
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Kolumbo said:
The B1G considers UConn a P5 opponent
UConn is an easy W, for now
UConn is in fairly close proximity to half a dozen NFL teams and scouts
Casinos
Who wouldn't want to schedule UConn right now?
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And a lot of schools in the South and Midwest want visibility with perspective students in the northeast.

I think there’s a quote from the Mizzou AD to that affect when asked why they played here.
 
Yale. That was our traditional rival - and we often got our tail kicked - but it drew 40,000 (with 10-15,000 seemingly never buying tickets just staying in the parking lots). UMASS. Army Navy were games we would love to have had.

We weren't dominant over URI or Maine or UNH … but we thought we were much better.
 
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