That can't be that surprising. I'm sure the UWW fans are all pulling for Bullis since he's an insider. The casual fan of a successful program usually votes for continuity unless there is a home run candidate. The casual fan of a sliding program will lean toward a fresh break.

I don't think playing UMU or UWW or the power teams are wasted games. If your ambition is to compete at that level of D3, then playing those games shows you what you need to do. You are never competing at any level of FCS in D3, so playing at that level is only good for the money.

Money is it's own purpose, of course, and I understand that. As for recruiting, beating a team of freshman is a small recruiting benefit for a short time. But in a year or two or three, the recruiting advantage is silly. "We beat them as freshman, we are competitive with them! Come here, don't waste your time in FCS..." wouldn't work when that matured FCS team would essentially splat you all over the field.

As for Wesley playing Charlotte, Wesley had a different set of problems. Very few teams in D3 would play them and they needed to fill a schedule. Especially mid to end of season when the vast majority of D3 is playing conference games. Maryville isn't that intimidating, nor do they need mid/end of season non-conf slots filled. They might have scheduling problems, but not like pre-NJAC Wesley had.

Finally, being on TV is nice for recruiting, but you better hope MC is competitive. If they aren't, everyone in that area that cares, admittedly probably not that many people, is going to see a team go splat against essentially freshman. Not going to help your recruiting... If you do win, or are pretty competitive, then I agree it is a marginally useful recruiting tool for a year.

And yes, I will be pulling for MC. But I still think, outside of the money, it's a wasted game.

MC will be playing FCS re-boot East Tennessee State September 9th in a Thursday night game.

Blah.  What is the point of that match up?  Plenty of D3 options for Maryville. Hope they are getting paid good money to waste a game.

Poor memory and attribution on my part- it was jknezek that gave the lean toward the PAC from about the hypothetical #3 on down.

Lean is a good description of my thoughts. A fairly shallow lean...

Quote from: ExTartanPlayer on December 31, 2014, 01:54:22 pm

Wow.  Big news.  And it makes me feel kind of old...I played (indirectly; we both played offense) against DiDonato.

I am somewhat surprised that they're willing to turn it over to DiDonato straight out of HS coaching (with just one transition year as OC) but perhaps the unique nature of Grove City lends itself to hiring an alumnus as HC, and DiDonato certainly has the look of someone who could be a lifer in this position if he does well.

At the risk of being an idiot can I ask what the unique nature of GC is?

GC has a fairly strong Christian focus. While they aren't the only college that does so, it is a pretty small minority of schools that require students to attend a certain number of chapel services per semester. I'm sure there is more to it, but that's the thing I remember most from an acquaintance who attended there a while ago.

Unhappy bump time...

It's the University of Buffalo.  Buffalo State is a different college.  Yes, there are two - a bit confusing.

Actually, for reasons surpassing my knowledge, it is The University AT Buffalo.

anyone have any insight into how many full time coaches are on staff at most competitive D3 programs and what the recruiting budget might look like ? Does recruiting budget run through the admissions office or through the athletic office, or combination of both ?

Someone send up the Pat Signal. I'd be interested in those answers myself but if I had to guess I'd say it varies wildly, especially the recruiting budget.