New Game: Pick the new I-A vs. I-AA matchups!

[Lehigh Football Nation]

With I-A now having 12 games and new flexibility to schedule I-AA games, this gives I-As more flexibility to schedule "guarantee" home games that now don't count against their bowl eligibility. In my mind, I could see a lot more games scheduled between I-As and I-AAs.

This game involves listing the I-A schools, and finding all the eligible I-AA schools within a 2-hour drive of the campus. (I am assuming that Ivy, NEC, Pioneer and MAAC schools do not apply since they don't have the right number of equivalencies - please cotrrect me if I'm wrong.)

MAC and Sun Belt teams already schedule I-AAs with some regularity, so the idea would be to take teams from conferences that haven't made a habit of scheduling I-AAs, like the Big 12, SEC, Pac 10, Big 10, etc.

I'll start by taking the Big East.

Boston College - Northeastern, Holy Cross, Maine, UNH, Hofstra, URI, UMass

UConn - Northeastern, Holy Cross, Fordham, Lafayette, Lehigh, Colgate, Hofstra, URI, UMass, Villanova

Pitt - Bucknell

Syracuse - Colgate

Rutgers - Lehigh, Lafayette, Hofstra, Villanova, Delaware, Delaware St., Towson, Fordham (fixed)

Louisville - WKU, EKU (sure I'm missing some here)

West Virginia - JMU, Richmond, W&M, Liberty, VMI

Best matchups: UConn/UMass, Louisville/WKU, Syracuse/Colgate, BC/Northeastern

[89Hen]

Unfortunately, you can remove several I-AA's from your list as they already have 11 games. I know Delaware and Colgate do.

Just realized you may be talking in general terms, not just 2006. Nevermind.

[arkstfan]

The Sun Belt didn't have many true I-AA games last year, partly from helping FIU and FAU transition and partly from shifting game to comply with the new rules. Arkansas State shifted SEMO from 2004 to 2003 in expectation that 2004 would require having 5 I-A home games, which didn't happen.

Arkansas State has attempted to schedule Arkansas-Pine Bluff repeatedly but can't get them to talk seriously (two years ago they demanded $300,000, before that they demanded the game be in Little Rock with the gate split evenly but ASU paying the rent and the marketing costs).

I anticipate we will be playing Central Arkansas fairly regularly soon as they get up the scholarship limit, assuming they do go forward with I-AA membership.

If that doesn't work out I'd hope we'd pursue games with SEMO or Missouri State.

[OL FU]

I can tell you one that will not happen in the near future.

Pitt vs. Furman.

I heard FU called for a 2005 re-match and after ten minutes of "you have got to be kidding" laughter from the Pitt AD, they graciously declined.

Furman has traditionally played the ACC schools Georgia Tech, Clemson, UNC and NC State. Clemson is only 25 miles from FU.

[colgate13]

If the I-A schools wanted to, this would be a great way to revive the SU/Colgate, BC/HC games... We've also played Rutgers a few times in our past. I think they even came up here as recently as the 70s... could be wrong though.

I think we'll see the Army/Navy group schedule a I-AA game out of this deal, most likely with PL teams.

[Fordham]

FYI, and no big deal, but Fordham should also be on the Rutgers list.

[blueballs]

I think I speak for every GSU fan when I say that we would love to get some of Georgia Tech, but they don't even bother to return our calls, instead scheduling out of state 1-AA's who don't bring the fans, support, buzz or competition GSU does.

[DaGriz]

If you make this game include 3 hour drives, teams west of the Mississippi can be included too.

[Lehigh Football Nation]

If you make this game include 3 hour drives, teams west of the Mississippi can be included too.

Sounds good! If you're south of Virginia/Tenessee and/or west of the Mississippi river, make that 3 hours! :)

[TexasTerror]

The Sun Belt, Big 12 and C-USA ussually play some SLC schools...

We're seeing Sam Houston State vs Univ of Houston this year. That's great. I'd love to see SHSU vs Rice. UH wanted to play TxSouthern or PV A&M.

North Texas running all over TxState - San Marcos would be lovely. McNeese State vs Lousiana Tech. Arkansas State vs SHSU or SFA would be great. Central Arkansas may become an SLC school and that'd be great if they could face off with Arkansas State.

Northwestern State is playing ULM and ULL this year. ULL and ULM have had problems facing SLC schools in recent years. We'll see what happens this year.

[Hansel]

Look for NDSU versus the University of Minnesota Golden Chokers in 07 (3hr drive)

[Tribe4SF]

W&M already plays a I-A every year. Last Year UNC, this year Marshall. I've heard Maryland is being worked on for next year.

For South A-10 teams, there are plenty of candidates. Rutgers, Temple, Penn State, Pitt, WVU, Marshall, Maryland, Navy, UVA, Va. Tech, UNC, N.C. State, Duke, ECU, Wake Forest.

I hope the 12 games make all these willing to consider. In 2002 and 2003 we played Western Mich. and Indiana. Not very convenient for fans.

[ngineer]

As noted in the lead post, equivalencies may effect whether a I-A will want to take on a I-AA that doesn't have 63 if it counts against their bowl eligibity. My information is that Lehigh only has 53-55 equivalencies, so that could hurt. I agree that renewing some old rivalries like Rutgers, Army and Navy would be great. Our game two years ago at UConn was a very good game for us.
Maybe we could even get an early game in Happy Valley and try to beat our old record that still stands: Worst Penn State Loss in History--106-0 in 1889 :D

[Cap'n Cat]

I think I speak for every GSU fan when I say that we would love to get some of Georgia Tech, but they don't even bother to return our calls, instead scheduling out of state 1-AA's who don't bring the fans, support, buzz or competition GSU does.


I hear ya, Blue. That's a sad thing.

:( :( :( :( :(

[mainejeff]

Maine is playing at Boston College in 2006.

[Hansel]

U football: Maturi sees good use for extra game (http://www.startribune.com/stories/503/5377928.html)


The likelihood is that starting next season, the Gophers will be playing a home game each season against a Division I-AA program. Gophers athletic director Joel Maturi said his preference is to bring in regional I-AA schools, and he classifies four in that category: North Dakota State, South Dakota State, Northern Iowa and Montana State.

[Tod]

U football: Maturi sees good use for extra game (http://www.startribune.com/stories/503/5377928.html)


The likelihood is that starting next season, the Gophers will be playing a home game each season against a Division I-AA program. Gophers athletic director Joel Maturi said his preference is to bring in regional I-AA schools, and he classifies four in that category: North Dakota State, South Dakota State, Northern Iowa and Montana State.

Notice how he's afraid of the Griz? ;)

[catamount man]

I'm certain WCU will be on NC State, Duke, and Clemson's schedule in the upcoming seasons. GO CATAMOUNTS!!!

[smarterray]

UC Davis vs UC Berkeley (Cal) - 1.5 hour drive from Davis to Berkeley
UC Davis vs Stanford - 2 hour drive from Davis to Palo Alto
UC Davis vs San Jose State - 2 hour drive from Davis to San Jose
UC Davis vs Nevada, Reno - 2.5 hour drive from Davis to Reno
UC Davis vs Fresno State - 3.5 hour drive from Davis to Fresno
UC Davis vs UCLA - 7 hour drive from Davis to Los Angeles
UC Davis vs San Diego State - 8 hour drive from Davis to San Diego

(I know some of those go against the "2 hour drive" rule)

[Husky Alum]

I'd love to see NU play UConn or BC, but the last time we played UConn we won (granted it was their first or second season in D-1), and when we played BC, it was a LITTLE too close for them to handle.

BC needed two phantom pass interference calls against NU (one on a long NU pass completion they called offensive and one on a BC pass that wasn't catchable by anyone but Tim Duncan they called defensive) to seal the 33-22 win. 14 BC points were on special teams - int return and punt block.

NU was rumored to have been playing Pitt in the future, and in 2003 we were supposed to play at LSU but URI couldn't move an OOC game and we had to play Stonehill instead.