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Post by tenNesseeCat on Aug 28, 2018 8:36:26 GMT -5
As we all are excited about the start of the '18 slate, it got me thinking about future schedules. I don't mind helping out the smaller schools, just as the big boys help us out too. I, like most catamounts, want the playoffs. Newberry just doesn't help that at all. So...I've made a list of FCS teams within a reasonable drive from Cullowhee. I'll kinda sort the list into distance and add reasoning for some of the possible good ones. Ya'll let me know if I missed any, or you have other/additional thoughts. I'm leaving off regulars like GW and Presby, as well as the whole Pioneer. my personal rating - green = big fat yes to a home and home, yellow = maybe, red = no
Close to Close-ish:
Campbell - could be a good replacement for the newberry warm up kinda game
Charleston Southern - recently competitive
Kennesaw St. - good team, not far away
North Alabama NC A&T - good team, not far
NC Central - recently competitive
Savannah St. SC St. Austin Peay - Seems to be on an upward trend
Eastern Kentucky Jacksonville St. - nearly always a ranked team
Tennessee St. Tennessee Tech. - another warm up that's not too far
Alabama A&M James Madison - nuff said
Longer Distance:
UT Martin - another possible upward trending team
Alabama St. William & Mary Richmond - strong program
Norfolk St. Murry St. Hampton
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Post by wcugrad95 on Aug 28, 2018 8:53:48 GMT -5
Good list, but I am not sure I would overlook the Pioneer - especially the ones that are relatively close. Non-scholarship football or not, those "count" more than any D-II game. The biggest obstacle is for us to get to 6 SoCon wins. If we can get over that hump, I think even with our existing type of schedules we would be OK (mainly because that would have meant 8 total wins in 3 of the last 4 seasons).
But I certainly agree that if we want to be more highly thought of, we need to replace the Newberry's with teams like you have in green. The scheduling problem we have is that we already run tight on home games, so we will probably always keep one school like that on the schedule to ensure at least 5 home contests every year (and 6 every other year). And nearly every FCS school has this problem - at least all the ones that still have to play at least one P5 team a year for the money.
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Post by tenNesseeCat on Aug 28, 2018 9:20:20 GMT -5
The only team from the Pioneer that would be a good game would be San Diego, and we surely ain't going that far. The rest are too far away, or just horrible. Davidson counted as a D-1 win, but it was laughed at by most as a game that counts. Better than newberry though. Most of why I started this, is to illustrate the fact that we have a number of good teams that would greatly help our SOS over the Presby's and Newberry's of past schedules. I'd love for our future schedules to have Tenn Tech (I could go) in place of newberry, and NC A&T replacing GW. Or Campbell as an opener and NC Central. Or CSU and Richmond. Any of those combos would jump our SOS big time, also giving us 11 opportunities to prove ourselves for the playoffs.
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Post by wcugrad95 on Aug 30, 2018 10:41:12 GMT -5
Here are the games that are scheduled. You can bookmark this and check-back occasionally to see what the future schedules look like, and it is a good sight to go look at your other favorite teams, too. fbschedules.com/ncaa/western-carolina/While I am sure the school will benefit from the paydays next season ($525k to play 'Bama), I like the 2020 OOC games better. We will most likely have to pick-up another smaller school to guarantee a 5th home game.
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Post by WCU1 on Aug 30, 2018 11:07:22 GMT -5
Accurate list for sure. If we were stretching it maybe Villanova, Elon (ha!)
I would say never ever to A&T though. Mid 90's they trashed the place, plus I prefer them to beat App or let ECU have them.
JMU would be incredible. But they are too iffy on where they want to be, in the future, Sunbelt, etc.
Still that Liberty $$ in 2020, my eyes light up like Christmas morning.
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Post by The Cats on Aug 30, 2018 14:22:07 GMT -5
We've got a home & home series with Eastern Kentucky (2020 & 2021)
We played them 5 times, last time was back in 2009 - Cats are 2-3 against the Colonels.
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Post by wcatradio75 on Aug 30, 2018 14:43:40 GMT -5
Here are the games that are scheduled. You can bookmark this and check-back occasionally to see what the future schedules look like, and it is a good sight to go look at your other favorite teams, too. fbschedules.com/ncaa/western-carolina/While I am sure the school will benefit from the paydays next season ($525k to play 'Bama), I like the 2020 OOC games better. We will most likely have to pick-up another smaller school to guarantee a 5th home game. Interesting factoid: Next year is a 12 game year for all FCS schools since there are 13 weekends between Labor Day and Thanksgiving. So I guess that's why we have 2 FBS schools on the schedule. Still gives us 10 FCS games so look for one more OOC game.
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Post by wcugrad95 on Aug 30, 2018 15:46:47 GMT -5
True on next season. But with State and Alabama on the schedule, my guess is they will look for an opponent that will come to Cullowhee (I'd like to see 6 home games at least every other year). With 8 conference games, we know how hard it is to get to 6-2. I would expect the desire to target another winning record, so to give the team a little rope we need a very winnable game. With GW already on the schedule, it probably wouldn't be another Big South team. But as we saw with this year's schedule, finding that 5th or 6th home contest last minute is not an easy thing to do.
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Post by wcugrad95 on Aug 30, 2018 21:38:14 GMT -5
Based on what I saw through 3 quarters tonight (not waiting to catch the rest of the game after the lightning delay), I think we need to look at scheduling Tennessee Tech. UTC had a pretty slow start, but were up 34-10 at the end of the 3rd quarter. If we need to find another home-and-home type series similar to GWU, why not a Tennessee school that "counts" as an FCS game and that would be a very manageable opponent? Eventually I want it to be measuring-stick games against teams in green from the list that started the thread, but for the near-term I think we need one "green" team and one "yellow" team and we will most likely keep at least 1 FBS game, too. TTU is on the list, but I think we need 1 from each of those categories.
The Big South and OVC should become our "partner" conferences. Something like KSU and TTU one year, JSU and GWU the next, etc. Given we have a home-and-home coming up with EKU and a history of games with the Big South, maybe we are already leaning that way?
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Post by tenNesseeCat on Aug 31, 2018 6:58:33 GMT -5
Accurate list for sure. If we were stretching it maybe Villanova, Elon (ha!) I would say never ever to A&T though. Mid 90's they trashed the place, plus I prefer them to beat App or let ECU have them. JMU would be incredible. But they are too iffy on where they want to be, in the future, Sunbelt, etc. Still that Liberty $$ in 2020, my eyes light up like Christmas morning. So A&T came to Cullowhee and trashed the place? I had no idea...are there others that we may have "bad blood" with that I'm unaware of?
I left Elon off the list. I thought maybe it was a little too soon. Villanova would be a pretty good ride, but a good opponent might be worth the trip. I wouldn't want to do it for an easier game. We have a pretty good list of schools that are a decent drive. Good mix of high - mid - low level programs on the fcs totem pole.
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