Thoughts on conference games starting your season

[wcugrad95]

There is probably a thread on this already (sorry - I didn't do an exhaustive search), but in the SoCon for the second year in a row Wofford started their year off with 2 conference games. And with Flo, The Citadel will now find itself playing it's 3rd conference game to start the season. If the Bellhops lose to Mercer this weekend, they could find their post-season thoughts gone after only the 3rd game of the year.

I know scheduling is tough, but typically the league office should be in charge of the conference slate. It hasn't impacted WCU (yet), but I don't think I would want to have such a meaningful game to start the year like the SoCon had with Wofford/Furman (didn't end up hurting either) in 2017 and Wofford/Citadel in 2018. But now The Citadel will face Wofford, UTC, and Mercer to start. Is this widespread in other leagues? Do you guys like it, hate it, or not really care since you have to play all your conference foes anyway?

[Lehigh Football Nation]

It should never happen. It's completely unfair for the teams involved. Lehigh hasn't really had to deal with that but whenever I see it in any other league I think of it as a travesty. Just to take one of many examples, McNeese State last year lost on a last-second FG to Nicholls and essentially saw their title chances and at-large chances disappear before the temperature dipped below 85.

[FUBeAR]

There is probably a thread on this already (sorry - I didn't do an exhaustive search), but in the SoCon for the second year in a row Wofford started their year off with 2 conference games. And with Flo, The Citadel will now find itself playing it's 3rd conference game to start the season. If the Bellhops lose to Mercer this weekend, they could find their post-season thoughts gone after only the 3rd game of the year.

I know scheduling is tough, but typically the league office should be in charge of the conference slate. It hasn't impacted WCU (yet), but I don't think I would want to have such a meaningful game to start the year like the SoCon had with Wofford/Furman (didn't end up hurting either) in 2017 and Wofford/Citadel in 2018. But now The Citadel will face Wofford, UTC, and Mercer to start. Is this widespread in other leagues? Do you guys like it, hate it, or not really care since you have to play all your conference foes anyway?You know I loathe giving any quarter to the loathesome bellhops, but their schedule (unlike Furman) SUX. All the things you mentioned are enough, but I would add that Wofford, Chatt, and Mercer could be Top of the SoCon Teams and 2 of those 3 are road games. THEN, next week, CIT travels to Towson, who just knocked off Top 10 Villanova. So, to sum up, they could open the season with 4 games against 4 Top 20 Teams, including 3 Conference games, and 3 Road games. I sure don’t feel sorry for them, but, um, that SUX.

[Go Green]

The Ivy used to open against a conference opponent, reasoning that it was an even field with both teams being 0-0 because we always started the season so late and didn't want to open against OOC teams that already had a few games under their belts.

At some point, the Ivy junked it, thinking that we'd rather take our lumps against an experienced OOC team rather than work out the kinks against a league opponent. One year, Dartmouth opened against Colgate and it was game #4 for them.

[BEAR]

The Southland is at a critical point when it comes to getting those 8 division I wins necessary to be considered for the playoffs.
McNeese should make 8 division I wins.
UCA and Nicholls both have early season matchups against SHSU that could sway them to that borderline of 8 wins one way or the other. Nicholls has SHSU this week. UCA has SHSU in two weeks. BIG time in SLC playoff hopes for those 3 teams.
SFA, ACU, and NWST are pushing below 8 division I wins due to what's left on each of their schedules.
SLU has to win out to go 8-3. They have McNeese, SHSU, and Nicholls left with a hot NWST team as their next game. Tough road to go down to get that 8 wins.
Lamar has two losses but has SLU next. I don't see them winning against SLU. They also have SHSU, SFA, UCA, and McNeese left. I don't see them making it.
HBU and IUW should be out.

Bottom line: EARLY SEASON conference matchups may cause SLC teams to cannabalize the conference OUT of the playoffs for the most part IMO.

[walliver]

I am not a big fan of current SoCon scheduling. Some of it is due to trying to shake up the schedule order. At one time, much of the SoCon would play GSU, ASU, and Wofford in consecutive weeks (and weren't happy about it). Every team should have at least one tune-up game before starting conference play.

[woffordgrad94]

I do not like it. Ideally, I want to play all my non-conference games at the beginning of the season...use them as tune-ups for the conference games.

[Go...gate]

I do not care for it. Ideally, the season should begin with a non-conference game.

[Reign of Terrier]

For what it's worth, the Socon does this because they want to prioritize the OOC schedule.

Put another way, if your AD schedules your OOC games to be early in the year, the conference schedule won't be this brutal to start out with.

Having said that, Socon scheduling is in general weak compared to conferences like the MVFC, Big Sky, Southland and even OVC. I don't really mind the scheduling as it is because of that. We have to make up for the gap somehow

Having a tough initial schedule isn't always bad, because if you play well, you'll be rewarded down the line. A good example of this is Wofford in 2016 and Furman last year. If you end your season on a run and your only losses are competitive and at the beginning of the year, you look more impressive to the playoff committee. It gives the impression that your team is improving.

[wcugrad95]

Flip that around and several SoCon schools are the ones ending up taking the $$$$s to play Alabama (or the like) in the tune-up games the big boys are scheduling at the end. If memory serves me correctly, Alabama has scheduled a SoCon team the week before the Iron Bowl 5 out of the last 6 years (WCU twice, Chatty twice, and Mercer last year). The other season - it was Charleston Southern. WCU has also had several other end-of-season games (South Carolina a few years ago, UNC last year and this year). Citadel and Wofford have several recent late-season games against South Carolina. And so on.

When the SoCon teams take those games on, it means the beginning of the season has to be filled with some conference games. So I am blaming the big schools who want these games late for it more than I am blaming the conferences themselves. I liked it much better when all those games were at the start - use them to get experience, get ready, who cares if you win, and then you are prepared for what should be the more important games.

[ASU33]

I'm kinda meh on it. I can see how it can put teams at a disadvantage though. How many times have we seen a team drop game one but becomes a significantly better team as the season goes on. Traditionally in the SWAC Grambling used to open up with Alcorn State. It was a huge rivalry game and conference game. Up until recently Prairie View and Texas Southern would do the same.

[MR. CHICKEN]

.....WHAA HAPPENED...TA DUH IDEAR.......CAA WANTED ALL NON-CONS.....( ACTUALLAH DID IT FO' UH FEW SEASONS ).....OUTTAH DUH WAY......B/4........CONFERENCE PLAY....xconfusedx...........BROCCO!

[walliver]

Flip that around and several SoCon schools are the ones ending up taking the $$$$s to play Alabama (or the like) in the tune-up games the big boys are scheduling at the end. If memory serves me correctly, Alabama has scheduled a SoCon team the week before the Iron Bowl 5 out of the last 6 years (WCU twice, Chatty twice, and Mercer last year). The other season - it was Charleston Southern. WCU has also had several other end-of-season games (South Carolina a few years ago, UNC last year and this year). Citadel and Wofford have several recent late-season games against South Carolina. And so on.

When the SoCon teams take those games on, it means the beginning of the season has to be filled with some conference games. So I am blaming the big schools who want these games late for it more than I am blaming the conferences themselves. I liked it much better when all those games were at the start - use them to get experience, get ready, who cares if you win, and then you are prepared for what should be the more important games.

But those conference games should be moved to week 3 not week 1.
I wonder if the real problem is the Big South. Although the only Big South team considered for membership when ASU and GSU left was VMI, SoCon schools in the Carolinas routinely schedule OOC games with them. Since the Big South doesn't start conference play until week 5 or 6, it seems that some of these OOC games are played during what would normally be SoCon conference time.

[Thumper 76]

The MVFC doesn’t have much for early season conference games, it’s pretty much 3 OOC then the conference slate. I’m not thrilled that the Marker Game is this early though, it’s more fun at the end of the year IMO.

As to how the conference slate is set up, several schools have a bone to pick with that. SDSU has to alternate having NDSU, UNI, and ISUr all at home then all on the road. Really makes every other year a lot tougher. But if you thought the bitching from MVFC fans about regionalization is bad, just wait until UND gets added and how the conference is handling that. It’s going to be the most unbalanced circus you’ve ever seen. I’m sure the Redbirds and Penguins will be pretty happy about it though.


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