FB: Old Dominion Athletic Conference

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jknezek

#19455
I am a very happy man today! W&L "sort of" released next year's schedule, and the OOC travesty of this year will NOT be repeated. W&L opens at Johns Hopkins... yeah, going to be tough to have a second undefeated season, but with what W&L brings back I think this could be a good game if everyone is healthy! Then the traditional game at Sewanee, which my wife has once again agreed to take the family to.

Finally a home game against Claremont-Mudd-Scripps. I know C-M-S is not exactly a long-term powerhouse, but I hope this is the front half of a home and home that will give the football team a marquee trip. I think the last time W&L flew to a game was the '93 contest against Georgetown that was played in Bermuda for some reason, but I don't think it has happened since which includes all 20 seasons since I first went to Lexington. Either way, C-M-S is coming off 3 seasons of rapid improvement, from 0-9 in 2012 to 7-2 last season, and looks like a solid opponent. So even if the game is simply a placeholder, it will hopefully give W&L at least 2 quality OOC opponents.

I still lament the lack of traditional opponent Centre on the schedule, but as an alumni and fan of the program I am extremely pleased to see a full slate of DIII opponents, and the addition of two truly challenging opponents.Anyway, this has been something to be excited about in the offseason and a possible home and home against a SCIAC opponent, another 7 team league, could be a very expensive, but exciting, solution to our upcoming 7 team conference.

Go Generals and congratulations (and thank you!) for scheduling some marquee competition. I'm excited for 2016 already.

Ralph Turner

Quote from: jknezek on February 01, 2016, 10:54:18 AM
I am a very happy man today! W&L "sort of" released next year's schedule, and the OOC travesty of this year will NOT be repeated. W&L opens at Johns Hopkins... yeah, going to be tough to have a second undefeated season, but with what W&L brings back I think this could be a good game if everyone is healthy! Then the traditional game at Sewanee, which my wife has once again agreed to take the family to.

Finally a home game against Claremont-Mudd-Scripps. I know C-M-S is not exactly a long-term powerhouse, but I hope this is the front half of a home and home that will give the football team a marquee trip. I think the last time W&L flew to a game was the '93 contest against Georgetown that was played in Bermuda for some reason, but I don't think it has happened since which includes all 20 seasons since I first went to Lexington. Either way, C-M-S is coming off 3 seasons of rapid improvement, from 0-9 in 2012 to 7-2 last season, and looks like a solid opponent. So even if the game is simply a placeholder, it will hopefully give W&L at least 2 quality OOC opponents.

I still lament the lack of traditional opponent Centre on the schedule, but as an alumni and fan of the program I am extremely pleased to see a full slate of DIII opponents, and the addition of two truly challenging opponents.Anyway, this has been something to be excited about in the offseason and a possible home and home against a SCIAC opponent, another 7 team league, could be a very expensive, but exciting, solution to our upcoming 7 team conference.

Go Generals and congratulations (and thank you!) for scheduling some marquee competition. I'm excited for 2016 already.
The JHU gives you a "Result"..
A win gives you a very good chance at hosting a first round playoff game.

jknezek

Quote from: Ralph Turner on February 01, 2016, 01:36:32 PM
The JHU gives you a "Result"..
A win gives you a very good chance at hosting a first round playoff game.

Very true, and I think at JHU will be a very big hill to climb. But W&L should bring back enough to make me optimistic. It's a long way away but it's nice to have 3 OOC games I'm excited about. Last year it was 0 OOC games I found compelling. Sewanee of course is more interesting to me this year because when W&L plays On the Mountain I get to go...

tigerFanAlso2

Congrats, JK. I'm happy thAt you are happy. HSC is back to a very disappointing OOC schedule. With Wabash gone, we now have Averett, CNU and Ferrum. CNU will be a challenge, I might have to miss the other two and I don't miss many.
Sounds like JHU and RMC will not play going forward. Probably a good thing for RMC as JHU usually runs up the score on those guys. W&L will have their hands full. I would imagine the balance of the odac will play it's usually poor ooc schedule. I would love to see HSC continue to play Wabash but the expense of doing so makes that game a tough one to play every year.

jknezek

Quote from: tigerFanAlso2 on February 01, 2016, 02:08:00 PM
Sounds like JHU and RMC will not play going forward. Probably a good thing for RMC as JHU usually runs up the score on those guys. W&L will have their hands full.

To be fair JHU has beaten us 6 of the 7 times we've played them since the mid 90s. One or two of them were pretty good thumpings as well...

hasanova

To add to jknezek's remarks about OOC scheduling for the ODAC, I think the weak (in 2015) OOC threesome of Greensboro, Methodist and Averett contributed to an excellent 9-1 Guilford team being left out of the playoffs in 2015.  Not sure about the 2016 season, but I heard some rumblings about Guilford starting a home and home with a prominent NC-based non-DIII school after Catholic is out of the ODAC and a potential match-up with a prominent midwestern school.  I know the names of the schools, but I don't want to undermine or overstep my bounds by saying until I hear something more concrete.  To me, a more diverse schedule will be welcomed!

jknezek

I don't think a non D3 would help much. But if it is Brevard I suppose that would make sense given they are in some state of exploring a move. I'd rather play weak D3 teams rather than non D3 personally. A non D3 is pretty much worthless to your SOS and so far down the criteria to be almost useless for any at large consideration.

HSCTiger74

Quote from: tigerFanAlso2 on February 01, 2016, 02:08:00 PM
Congrats, JK. I'm happy thAt you are happy. HSC is back to a very disappointing OOC schedule. With Wabash gone, we now have Averett, CNU and Ferrum. CNU will be a challenge, I might have to miss the other two and I don't miss many.
Sounds like JHU and RMC will not play going forward. Probably a good thing for RMC as JHU usually runs up the score on those guys. W&L will have their hands full. I would imagine the balance of the odac will play it's usually poor ooc schedule. I would love to see HSC continue to play Wabash but the expense of doing so makes that game a tough one to play every year.

   I mentioned this a couple of years ago in a schedule discussion, but I would still like to see HSC play a home and home with a team from the E8, Liberty League or NJAC. They have already shown that they're willing to travel with the Coast Guard and Wabash games (and Huntingdon, for that matter) so I don't think that it would be that much harder to make a NY/NJ trip. The sticking point might be finding someone willing to schedule the games, but I believe it would be worth a try.
TANSTAAFL

tigerFanAlso2

ooc schedule at hsc is going to be interesting going forward, in 2017 we need 4 ooc games, which is going to be difficult, plus cnu is off our schedule either this year or next and they do not want to renew the contract. hoping we don't have four bad ooc games. 

jknezek

I'm going to keep shaking my head about this, but needing that 4th OOC is going to be bad. I really hope the ODAC has a plan for adding another member.

tigerFanAlso2

i know which school you think should join but s.va. would really bring down the level of play. they make CUA look good. not sure we need a conference foe getting pounded by 75% of the league and I'm not sure they have the resources to improve their program from facilities on down. i still say odac should change by-laws to allow public insitutions and bring cnu into the league; would help odac in every sport. maybe i'm dreaming but that makes the most sense to me. i've heard talk of bringing averett or ferrum in, i'd be opposed but i suppose odac really does not care what i think.

HSCTiger74

#19466
   I absolutely agree with the idea of adding another member for football, but even with that scheduling will be tough. In my previous post I didn't take into account that most of the closest leagues have only one OOC game available. Unfortunately, I continue to see a lot of USA South teams in our future.

                                      Number of Teams in "Nearby" Leagues

    PAC - 11
    CC - 10
    USASAC - 8
    SAA - 9
    NJAC - 10
    Liberty - 8
    E8 - 9
    MAC - 10 (missed these guys first time)
TANSTAAFL

jknezek

#19467
Quote from: tigerFanAlso2 on February 02, 2016, 04:46:30 PM
i know which school you think should join but s.va. would really bring down the level of play. they make CUA look good. not sure we need a conference foe getting pounded by 75% of the league and I'm not sure they have the resources to improve their program from facilities on down. i still say odac should change by-laws to allow public insitutions and bring cnu into the league; would help odac in every sport. maybe i'm dreaming but that makes the most sense to me. i've heard talk of bringing averett or ferrum in, i'd be opposed but i suppose odac really does not care what i think.

TFA2 I don't want CNU. The ODAC is a true peer group, and while SVa stretches that a little, CNU stretches it a lot. I'm not fixated on SVa if there are other options. But I simply don't see a realistic option unless raiding the USASAC again is possible. I don't mind Averett or Ferrum, I'd bring M'Ville back in a heartbeat if they wanted. But one nice thing about SVa, associate football only membership is possible. To be honest, the ODAC doesn't need more full-time members. Other sports are busting at the seams. So SVa does have that slight advantage.

Overall, I'd prefer to raid a USASAC school over SVa, in the name of peer institutions. I will also say that the more conference games you have, the less SOS matters if a conference school is awful. For example, regardless of what a 10 team conference does, their SOS is almost always going to be .500 because that is how 9 of 10 games for every team must shake out. Half wins and half losses. It's why I prefer 8 conference teams with 3 solid OOC games. It gives you a chance to be well above (or in the case of W&L's OOC this year, sadly below) .500 in SOS.

Regardless, the conference has to go .500. So if you bring in SVa, and they play two games against the weakest teams they can find OOC and go 2-10, that actually isn't that important for your SOS.

tigerFanAlso2

we just disagree, I want CNU. I think they are good fit, a solid liberal arts school that just happens to be a public institution. Academics are better than most odac schools outside of W&L. So, I think they do fit and I think they would make they odac a better athletic conference.

As far as SOS go, I don't care. the odac champ is not going to make any noise in the playoffs, at least not in my lifetime. 9 out of 10 times, its one a done and for different reasons. mostly the odac schools are not willing to/do not know how to/don't want to build a program that competes on a regional and/or national level and I don't think that is a bad thing.

Cheers

jknezek

Well, I'd certainly go this far... I'd rather CNU than a 7 team conference going forward! I really, really dislike the idea of a 7 team conference and all the headaches that will come with it.