I was thinking about this topic before the ECU game, so it's not reactionary.
But how would you prefer to schedule the OOC games?
I actually like the idea of FCS, group of 5, and power 5.
Since there's no college preseason, that's what we can use the FCS game for. So of course, it needs to be in the first two weeks. Plus, if we stick with either Virginia FCS schools, or those within a certain radius, we can pull in a decent fanbase. I know I'm looking forward to the Richmond game in 2021 since my wife went there.
With the group of 5 school, it shouldn't be a long term deal. Let's rotate it around.
I'm not sure what I'd do with the fourth OOC game. Ideally, I'd like to see two power 5 teams...one upper level (i.e. Alabama, Ohio State), and one lower level (i.e. Illinois, Vanderbilt). But of course, the cyclical nature of college football would completely screw that up, since the "weak" team would be good by the time we play them...and probably only for those two years.
Comments
Anything that doesn't involve ECU
I have a feeling we'll probably be saying the same about ODU somewhere in the early 2020s.
We'll say that about anyone who is an annual matchup where we're their biggest game of the year and they are viewed upon as a weak warmup opponent. NEVER a good thing to have an annual matchup where one side is continually pulling out all the stops against you, and you're saving things in your playbook for the meat of your schedule.
I wish this ECU series would be canceled and I hope we cancel the ODU series. We should ONLY be scheduling home and homes with Group of 5 teams from now on.
I'm assuming you mean "Power 5," because both ECU and ODU are in Group of 5 conferences.
I meant Group of 5. I'm saying, if we're going to schedule anyone in that group, it should ONLY be for a home and home. Enough with these long series against teams in the lower division, ESPECIALLY with an opponent of the quality of an ECU. You're playing Russian Roulette with a half-loaded gun by doing that. Not the wisest thing in the world for a program with National Championship aspirations.
I wouldn't be opposed to a 2-and-1. And not always in consecutive years.
And while we're at it another good idea for programs with national championship aspirations - get an o-line.
People are underestimating how good ODU could in be in 5-10 years. They are recruiting very well in are located in one of the most talent rich areas in the country.
If they beat us once, then many will indeed say that.
An SEC conference schedule with an annual OOC game vs. UVA.
I would give you one million legs if I could.
Any team besides ECU or JMU... Then Tennessee, Ohio State, , and the other regular conference games.
one big game (OSU, Alabama type game) one FCS (W&M or similar) one historically weak P5 team (Illinois, Northwestern, Kansas, Kentucky etc) and one G5 team (preferably rotate Marshall, ODU, maybe even a team like Houston or USF) .. preferably scheduled where you don't have 2 long OOC trips , on a year where you play at Houston you'd wanna play your big P5 team at home and play ODU or Marshall when you play your big P5 away
Is there a reason you want a cupcake schedule? I for one do not mind our schedule. I would hate for us to be looked down upon similar to how the big 10 has become with their cupcake schedules. Even if we face a yearly tough opponent like ECU and though coaches around the country may not give them respect for our strength of schedule, they will find out sooner or later.
How can you deride his idea as cupcake, but then not mind our current schedule? We routinely have two group of 5 teams with one power 5, and that's in a good year.
Actually the schedule I propose is tougher than the one VT plays this year... 1 FCS, 2 G5, 1 P5 this year... in the media and public opinion eyes playing a P5 seems to be all that matters, so I am proposing adding a 2nd P5 team over this years schedule and removing a G5 team, theoretically we would be seen as playing a harder schedule, and we would always have a P5 team at home each year OOC, which we would think would help sell season tickets.. seems like a win/win to me, perception of a tougher schedule and more tickets sold. Playing the G5 team for recruiting purposes ODU for eastern VA, Houston gets us in Texas, USF adds another FL game.... not sure what I'm missing
1 FCS.
At least 1 P5 team. 2 if we don't play a G5 team.
Also, nine conference games.
Ten ACC games and two top ten teams. Play games that matter (ACC) or games that are interesting.
I don't care how many games we win, I care about being relevant. There is no positive in playing ECU.
How can you reliably schedule a top ten team? When we scheduled Ohio State, we were routinely top ten (or at least 15).
you could just try to schedule traditional power schools. if we had lost to a penn state or Texas it wouldn't look so bad nationally I think (well the current Texas might). even though they are average or just not good it's teams that people expect to be good.
You can't, obviously, but you can try to schedule the best.
We traditionally have an undersized defense, not sure how they would hold up to the beating of that schedule
Aug 30Tennessee
Sep 6Indiana
Sep 13NC State
Sep 20 Georgia Tech
Sep 27 West Virginia
Oct 4 @North Carolina
Oct 16 @Pittsburgh
Oct 23 Miami (Fla.)
Nov 1 Boston College
Nov 15 @Duke
Nov 22 @Wake Forest
Nov 28 Virginia
I think we should Start every year with Tennessee, Finish with UVA, Play 1 game aginst the SEC, B1G, and Big 12 every year. play 9 conference games. It would be tough but then if we lose 1 game we would still be in the hunt for a championship like SEC teams instead of watching a purple pirate run off with our pride/championship hopes. In fact. I think every team should HAVE to have a team from at least 3 different P5 conferences. no more Towsen or South Georgia high school teams for Alabama.
I love this.
1 high Power 5 team (OSU, OK, UGA, etc)
1 mid to low power 5 team (Indiana/Purdue, Washington, Kansas, etc)
1 local mid major (ECU, ODU, not these directional Michigans we play every year)
8 ACC Games. Or 9, whatever
1 floater
Unfortunately, I feel like VT falls into your second category at the present time. Mid to low power 5 team. We had the chance to change that after OSU and we flushed that opportunity down the toilet.
Kinda. I would think we're above the Kansases of the world, but we aren't a big power team like the ones I listed. We're a solid USCe, Texas, UCLA.
What happened the last time we played Kansas? You think were on par with UCLA? I disagree.
Kansas had a couple good years in there.. they fired their coach and have done exactly nothing since
Yea, but you guys are trying to make it sound like we should just stroll on down to Jay-Hawk land and score 50 on em. When is the last time we scored 50 points on a P5 team that was .500+ ?. I think Michael Vick was 19 years old. My point being is that we haven't blown anybody out. And until you prove dominance you cant claim dominance. You claim "We are on another level than Kansas". Nobody in the country but US feels that way. Well, maybe LOLUVA fans cause they get curb stomped annually.
First, nobody said anything about scoring 50 points.
Second, I never said anything about being on another level than Kansas, so I'm not sure where the quote came from
but this is a team that is 9-39 the last 4 years and just lost to Duke by 38 yesterday, so I'd like our chances
Last time we played Kansas, they were having a once-in-a-generation season with a whole lot of good players, but at the moment they're pure dumpster fire, basement of the Big 12. I think we're better than they are right now.
Yes, I think we're on par with UCLA. This isn't last year, and I think much of the UCLA Sun Bowl had to do with Logan getting targeted by Zumwalt and sitting. But UCLA, this year, has won by 8 against LOLUVA (which is starting to look better, I'll say it again I think LOLUVA is better than normal this year), won by 7 against Memphis, which doesn't bode well for them, and won by three against Texas yesterday (who has been down for a few years, despite a talented roster and the hiring of Charlie Strong, a really good coach who will need a few years to turn it around there).
Thus far, I think UCLA is a little overrated. They were 12 last week, based mainly on preseason expectations. I think they should be a few spots lower, but the PAC12 is getting a lot of dap this year and they're benefitting by association. Stanford doesn't look the same this year and USCw just had 450 rushing yards and an L rung up by Boston College. I don't see UCLA as a top ten team...yet.
So yes, I think we are in the same ballpark as UCLA. They might beat us if we played, but we're in the same ballpark. Oklahoma State may fall into this same category, Clemson too. This year's Florida. A few others...
UCLA could be in real trouble now, if Hundley is really hurt: http://espn.go.com/los-angeles/college-football/story/_/id/11521630/bret...
Georgia Tech, Miami, UVA. Play each 4 times, go 12-0.
My ideal schedule looks like my VT Dynasty in NCAA where we win every game in All-American or Heisman difficulty. Also, I kicked out BC, and replaced them with UF. Notre Dame is a full-time ACC football school.
I think our current strength of schedule looks pretty good after last nights games.
The question we should ask before answering is "how does OOC scheduling matter?" And there are three ways of looking at OOC:
1) How does the OOC game affect the AP ranking in a win? in a loss?
2) How does the playoff committee view wins over FCS, group 5, low-tier Power 5, and ranked teams?
3) How does the ACC Bowl committees view OOC?
For 1), I think we know the trend. Play a high-ranking team, you're rewarded win or loss. Play a low-ranked, or unranked team, no reward for win. Huge drop off for loss.
For 2), we have no idea. Will they simply use the AP poll? If so, then 1) is important.
For 3), Bowl committees must follow ACC wins and losses. After ACC standings, we have seen the committee choose teams based on fan base. So OOC scheduling is irrelevant.
In summary, I suggest only scheduling OOC that has a very high probability of being ranked. Unless the Playoff committee uses some weird way to make selections, there is only reward for playing high-ranked teams. Losses to high-ranked teams are minimal. Rewards of beating unranked OOC are minimal. Losses to unranked are large.
Agree to a point, but not "only" highly ranked teams. We play 8 ACC games so we know we have 4 OOC. We also know we have to win the ACC title and we may need a couple of marquee OOC wins to go with it to assure ourselves of a playoff bid. And we know any loss probably puts us out again. So schedule 2 marquee teams and win them, and play whoever else we want that we don't trip up. And remember that if we can't field a team whose o-line can whip ECU we aren't going to have a playoff caliber team anyway.
Exactly my point. ECU took South Carolina to the wire. ECU is probably better than 8 or 9 ACC teams, and maybe better than 1/2 of the SEC teams. However, you, like most people in the country, consider them in the "bad" category, and thus a loss is a "bad" loss. What's the point of playing a team that is the caliber of a ranked team, but they are unranked, mostly due to prejudices and preconceived notions?
rant
Right! Love these points. I hate the way strength of schedule is considered.
For example, is OSU lost 6 games this year, it wouldn't help our strength of schedule at all. But the schedules are made so far in advance, all you can do it try to schedule team that, as you said, have a high probability of being ranked. There is nothing we can do about it after that.
Remember the year Notre Dame went to the national championship? This was their schedule:
09/01/12vs. Navy Dublin, Ireland W, 50-10
09/08/12vs. Purdue Notre Dame, Ind.W, 20-17
09/15/12at Michigan State East Lansing, Mich.W, 20-3
09/22/12vs. Michigan Notre Dame, Ind.W, 13-6
10/06/12vs. Miami Chicago, Ill. W, 41-3
10/13/12vs. Stanford Notre Dame, Ind.W, 20-13 (OT)
10/20/12vs. BYU Notre Dame, Ind.W, 17-14
10/27/12at Oklahoma Norman, Okla. W, 30-13
11/03/12vs. Pittsburgh Notre Dame, Ind.W, 29-26 (3OT)
11/10/12at Boston College Chestnut Hill, Mass.W, 21-6
11/17/12vs. Wake Forest Notre Dame, Ind.W, 38-0
11/24/12at USC Los Angeles, Calif.W, 22-13
At the end of the season, people were CRITICISING THIS SCHEDULE. Some of these teams didn't have good years so they were getting flak for not having a great schedule. THIS IS THE GREATEST SCHEDULE I HAVE EVER SEEN. What on earth are you supposed to do to get a great strength of schedule if your big opponents just don't have good years? Ridiculous...
/rant
I can't agree more. The playoff will never see a "cinderella" like team. Too many prejudices on what is considered good (anybody in the SEC + FSU) and what is considered bad (anybody outside the SEC).
Honestly, I'm kind of thinking playing Tennessee and ECU regularly as regional rivalries would be quite interesting. Credit to ECU for making it one and shame on Weaver for creating one with them and not someone more high profile, but I love old college football hate based rivalries. ECU is forever going to be on my hate list from now on. Of course, we probably don't need to play them EVERY DAMN year, but I could see it turning into a thing that I could be down with.
I like a little more variety. I only want one main rival to really loathe all year and UVA barely qualifies anymore. I liked the WVU series for that but I would much rather trade them for Tenn in terms of quality of opponent and fan base.
1. I would scratch these 5 and 7 year series against lose-lose teams, seriously ODU? Play an in state scrub every year (other than UVA) to help out the small schools and the connection people have to their local areas.
2. Make sure there is a home and home against a power 5 top team in the top half of their conference each year. We all could pick these teams out. Also would prefer these to be on this side of the Mississippi for travel reasons. Maybe an exception for Texas, Oklahoma, or Wisconsin.
3. The last game should be a mid teir conf team (cincy, ECU,etc.) or I would like to see us schedule the armed forces for the corps connection, although that dang triple option seems to take a toll on the players.
Keeps some variety on the OOC games for sure.