Duke has extended football coach Mike Elko's contract through 2029 after he led the Blue Devils to nine wins and was named Atlantic Coast Conference Coach of the Year in his first season. Guess they didn't get the memo that they were supposed to wait five seasons to have that kind of success.

Quote:Of the approximately 1,570 games on tap for the 133 programs competing at the FBS level in 2023, a mere 20 feature a Power 5 member visiting a Group of 5 venue.

While that’s only 1.5 percent of the total games on offer this season, it’s a scheduling practice that is becoming more and more normalized in the upper echelon of college football. Not only is it up two full contests from the 18 such games played last year, but it’s also a common component of many P5 clubs’ future schedules.

link: Power 5 programs playing at Group of 5 venues in 2023

(07-27-2023 06:15 PM)GoodOwl Wrote:  

Quote:Of the approximately 1,570 games on tap for the 133 programs competing at the FBS level in 2023, a mere 20 feature a Power 5 member visiting a Group of 5 venue.

While that’s only 1.5 percent of the total games on offer this season, it’s a scheduling practice that is becoming more and more normalized in the upper echelon of college football. Not only is it up two full contests from the 18 such games played last year, but it’s also a common component of many P5 clubs’ future schedules.

link: Power 5 programs playing at Group of 5 venues in 2023

This is really interesting and, frankly, I’m surprised that there’s even 20 games like that this year. Despite the obvious differences in seating, I wonder if some of the G5 members might use the needed “warm ups” and “W”s by the P5’s to drive some financial benefits. Some mid-level SEC team might see the need for an easy win to assure bowl eligibility… and approach say… Rice … for a non-conference game. It might be an opportunity for us in the future. A question for our new AD.

(07-27-2023 06:38 PM)greyowl72 Wrote:  

(07-27-2023 06:15 PM)GoodOwl Wrote:  

Quote:Of the approximately 1,570 games on tap for the 133 programs competing at the FBS level in 2023, a mere 20 feature a Power 5 member visiting a Group of 5 venue.

While that’s only 1.5 percent of the total games on offer this season, it’s a scheduling practice that is becoming more and more normalized in the upper echelon of college football. Not only is it up two full contests from the 18 such games played last year, but it’s also a common component of many P5 clubs’ future schedules.

link: Power 5 programs playing at Group of 5 venues in 2023

This is really interesting and, frankly, I’m surprised that there’s even 20 games like that this year. Despite the obvious differences in seating, I wonder if some of the G5 members might use the needed “warm ups” and “W”s by the P5’s to drive some financial benefits. Some mid-level SEC team might see the need for an easy win to assure bowl eligibility… and approach say… Rice … for a non-conference game. It might be an opportunity for us in the future. A question for our new AD.

when's the last time we asked Miss State or Ole Missed to play?

(07-27-2023 06:56 PM)GoodOwl Wrote:  

(07-27-2023 06:38 PM)greyowl72 Wrote:  

(07-27-2023 06:15 PM)GoodOwl Wrote:  

Quote:Of the approximately 1,570 games on tap for the 133 programs competing at the FBS level in 2023, a mere 20 feature a Power 5 member visiting a Group of 5 venue.

While that’s only 1.5 percent of the total games on offer this season, it’s a scheduling practice that is becoming more and more normalized in the upper echelon of college football. Not only is it up two full contests from the 18 such games played last year, but it’s also a common component of many P5 clubs’ future schedules.

link: Power 5 programs playing at Group of 5 venues in 2023

This is really interesting and, frankly, I’m surprised that there’s even 20 games like that this year. Despite the obvious differences in seating, I wonder if some of the G5 members might use the needed “warm ups” and “W”s by the P5’s to drive some financial benefits. Some mid-level SEC team might see the need for an easy win to assure bowl eligibility… and approach say… Rice … for a non-conference game. It might be an opportunity for us in the future. A question for our new AD.

when's the last time we asked Miss State or Ole Missed to play?

SEC...

@Arkansas as the season opener in 2021
@A&M in 2014

(07-27-2023 07:14 PM)Grungy Wrote:  

(07-27-2023 06:56 PM)GoodOwl Wrote:  

(07-27-2023 06:38 PM)greyowl72 Wrote:  

(07-27-2023 06:15 PM)GoodOwl Wrote:  

Quote:Of the approximately 1,570 games on tap for the 133 programs competing at the FBS level in 2023, a mere 20 feature a Power 5 member visiting a Group of 5 venue.

While that’s only 1.5 percent of the total games on offer this season, it’s a scheduling practice that is becoming more and more normalized in the upper echelon of college football. Not only is it up two full contests from the 18 such games played last year, but it’s also a common component of many P5 clubs’ future schedules.

link: Power 5 programs playing at Group of 5 venues in 2023

This is really interesting and, frankly, I’m surprised that there’s even 20 games like that this year. Despite the obvious differences in seating, I wonder if some of the G5 members might use the needed “warm ups” and “W”s by the P5’s to drive some financial benefits. Some mid-level SEC team might see the need for an easy win to assure bowl eligibility… and approach say… Rice … for a non-conference game. It might be an opportunity for us in the future. A question for our new AD.

when's the last time we asked Miss State or Ole Missed to play?

SEC...

@Arkansas as the season opener in 2021
@A&M in 2014

We'd need to address the core reason why P5s don't go to G5s: the stadium capacity and experience. Rice is one of only a handful of G5 teams that have anything approximating a chance to host a P5 team with the size of Rice Stadium and the conveniences of a major metro. Given the woeful recent state of Rice Stadium, we more often take the chance to get a lot of money on the road rather than pay a lot to a visiting P5 team. We had Wake Forest and Baylor in 2019, and if I recall, that Baylor game was scheduled when we were still in the WAC. If we ever want to see a Mississippi come to Rice, we have to be able to promise at least as many butts in seats as they would have in Oxford, and that said butts in seats would have as pleasant of an experience getting into, being at, and leaving the stadium as they would anywhere else. Pre-made Papa John's and what comparatively little parking is left around the stadium aren't going to cut it.

(07-27-2023 08:59 PM)franklyconfused Wrote:  

(07-27-2023 07:14 PM)Grungy Wrote:  

(07-27-2023 06:56 PM)GoodOwl Wrote:  

(07-27-2023 06:38 PM)greyowl72 Wrote:  

(07-27-2023 06:15 PM)GoodOwl Wrote:  link: Power 5 programs playing at Group of 5 venues in 2023

This is really interesting and, frankly, I’m surprised that there’s even 20 games like that this year. Despite the obvious differences in seating, I wonder if some of the G5 members might use the needed “warm ups” and “W”s by the P5’s to drive some financial benefits. Some mid-level SEC team might see the need for an easy win to assure bowl eligibility… and approach say… Rice … for a non-conference game. It might be an opportunity for us in the future. A question for our new AD.

when's the last time we asked Miss State or Ole Missed to play?

SEC...

@Arkansas as the season opener in 2021
@A&M in 2014

We'd need to address the core reason why P5s don't go to G5s: the stadium capacity and experience. Rice is one of only a handful of G5 teams that have anything approximating a chance to host a P5 team with the size of Rice Stadium and the conveniences of a major metro. Given the woeful recent state of Rice Stadium, we more often take the chance to get a lot of money on the road rather than pay a lot to a visiting P5 team. We had Wake Forest and Baylor in 2019, and if I recall, that Baylor game was scheduled when we were still in the WAC. If we ever want to see a Mississippi come to Rice, we have to be able to promise at least as many butts in seats as they would have in Oxford, and that said butts in seats would have as pleasant of an experience getting into, being at, and leaving the stadium as they would anywhere else. Pre-made Papa John's and what comparatively little parking is left around the stadium aren't going to cut it.

That we can't accommodate 20,000 cars immediately next to the stadium is not something that our opponents who would bring that many bodies will take issue with, IMHO.
The best example of this is UT - where most fans are going to hike quite a distance from wherever they parked.
My daughter was in West Jester her first semester there, and she was forced to find parking somewhere other than the attached garage (and we'd paid for her parking permit) on game days.
There is a vast amount of parking available for $12/day just across the street in the Texas Medical Center.
That's cheaper and closer than I've seen at the ESUs (and cheaper than Rice; I'm tripping over a "Rice event parking - $15" sign every day in the south end of the stadium).
If Rice would run their fleet of shuttle buses to haul game-day visitors from the TMC to and from the stadium, it would work.

Correct. Parking is irrelevant.

My last visit to Kyle Field, I had to walk a mile from where I was parked.

In Fayetteville, people in the residential area around Razorback Stadium allow people to pay to park in their yards.

Not a mile, but at Baylor it's a long walk from any parking besides the small lots near the stadium for those who pay for the privilege.

I really don't know where Parliament posters get their idea that P5 schools have vast parking spaces next to the stadium. Enough to make me wonder if they've ever even been to a football game anywhere besides Rice Stadium. Parking is inconvenient and expensive everywhere.

One aspect of the game day experience will be significantly better this year - all of the concourse level restrooms will be modern and air conditioned.
This is both incremental and transformational - and necessary.

Started with this...



Improved to this... (the epoxy floor was new to this last year)



And they will now be... (sorry, I don't have a shot handy of the finished product)



This has been a complicated and expensive undertaking, and it's not really something that can be added to promotional material.



Revamped AC in all...



The second level west restrooms are still 1950-blueprint-original.
If they decide to keep the upper stands, they'll have to be updated some day, but at least the drain plumbing won't require sawing out concrete and digging up ancient cast iron pipes.

The second live east restrooms are officially closed, but that's only an issue for the Schaffer family, who have the longest-running season tickets.
Period.
Randy's father was given a golf cart tour of the new stadium in 1950, to select the seats that he wanted.
The family has purchased those same seats since the stadium opened.



We should treat them better.
They could be a PR plus, if we added a paragraph to the media guide about them. (Randy's okay with this - I asked.)
If you have to show 20,000 empty seats on TV, at least tell the story of the family that is still loyally sitting where they have since the stadium opened.
They have the best view in the house.

(07-28-2023 09:33 AM)Grungy Wrote:  The second live east restrooms are officially closed, but that's only an issue for the Schaffer family, who have the longest-running season tickets.
Period.
Randy's father was given a golf cart tour of the new stadium in 1950, to select the seats that he wanted.
The family has purchased those same seats since the stadium opened.
We should treat them better.

Since when has Rice treated its supporters well?

(07-28-2023 08:22 AM)Frizzy Owl Wrote:  Parking is inconvenient and expensive everywhere.

Yes.


At the Armed Forces Bowl at TCU, I parked in the Handicapped parking, then went up a zillion steps just to get get to Stadium level. And that at a P5 stadium.

(07-28-2023 09:33 AM)Grungy Wrote:  This has been a complicated and expensive undertaking, and it's not really something that can be added to promotional material.

Well...their promo materials could read something like: "Come see RICE football at HRS...no more pee walls in our newly improved Air-conditioned bathrooms! But to maintain our history, the team will likely piss away leads or piss you off with their boneheaded coaching, just like the good ol' days! (Reheated Pizza Special: 2 slices for $25--thanks, Joe!)

ETA: Thanks for the continued diligence with the updated pics, Grungy!

Any time Rice does anything in regards to its athletic administration, you have to be skeptical at best, distraught at worst. And yet, this seems like a small step in the right direction: We were in Nashville earlier this Spring for the Vegas game and saw all the cranes at Vandy across from the Parthenon park. His carer progression so far (let's face it, if he has any success as Rice AD, he'll be long gone--see CDC at Tejas) is far better than the track-running, seemingly planless white squirrel we got rid of who decimated our history by alienating our most successful coach in school history (the legendary Wayne Graham) and hiring his buddy Bloomgren to run our football program further into the ground after Doughnutman finally had milked us for enough. And SEC background, with solid roots in the South from La Tech and McNeese, plus fundraising for facilities at Vandy looks to be a good start. Rice Stadium is in desperate need of a lot more work, and all Rice facilities need better maintenance both short and long-term, something Rice (formerly known as an engineering school) has been terrible at for decades.

In the end, the results that McClelland achieves at Rice will speak to his abilities:
•Will he stand up to the tenured faculty that seems to have hated sports for decades?
•Will he not only publicly and forcefully come up with a cohesive plan for major sport athletic success at Rice (FB, MBB and Baseball) but how well will he ensure it happens?
•Will he clean up the facilities and add significantly to them?
•Will he find a way to mine Rice's superior financial resources and fully fund its NIL to get better players?
•Will he partner with the World's largest Medical Center literally across the street to coordinate with parking/shuttle busses and most importantly get a bunch of their butts in seats for a change to supplement Rice's smallish fan/alumni base?
•Will he hire a real Football Coach and staff that actually has a clue and knows how to scout, recruit, coach X's and Os and win by doing something different?
•Will he find a way to convince the school's Admin to consider recruiting many more regular students who have a more normal interest in regular American sports, reaching out with dollars and time to make regular, daily and weekly Athletics support a normal part of student experience again for the first time since the 1960s and call out those who don't as hurting the school's national reputation and their own degrees?
•IF so, how long will he stick around before leaving?
•If not successful, how long will we be burdened with him in a placeholder role, twisting in the wind like many in the past history?
Time will tell.
Now, keep those flippin' pansy white squirrel-types far away.

Here’s an idea: Med Center Special. Buy a pair of premium season tickets and get Stadium Lot parking on Game Day AND a weekday stadium lot parking pass, too!

(07-30-2023 12:20 PM)GoodOwl Wrote:  ... We were in Nashville earlier this Spring for the Vegas game ...

GoodOwl... What is "the Vegas game" in Nashville?

(07-30-2023 08:24 PM)Almadenmike Wrote:  

(07-30-2023 12:20 PM)GoodOwl Wrote:  ... We were in Nashville earlier this Spring for the Vegas game ...

GoodOwl... What is "the Vegas game" in Nashville?

Aha you stumped the Internet master himself!

Here’s the boxscore, Mike.

https://www.espn.com/nfl/game/_/gameId/401437741

It does sound like a good movie, though

Of course, 63 years prior…

Quote:In fact, the first regular season game they ever played was against each other, when future Raiders Hall of Famer George Blanda passed for 279 yards and four touchdowns while leading the Oilers to a 37-22 victory over the Silver and Black at Kezar Stadium in San Francisco on Sept. 11, 1960.

https://www.si.com/nfl/raiders/the-black...2C%201960.

(07-30-2023 08:41 PM)owl at the moon Wrote:  

(07-30-2023 08:24 PM)Almadenmike Wrote:  

(07-30-2023 12:20 PM)GoodOwl Wrote:  ... We were in Nashville earlier this Spring for the Vegas game ...

GoodOwl... What is "the Vegas game" in Nashville?

Aha you stumped the Internet master himself!

Here’s the boxscore, Mike.

https://www.espn.com/nfl/game/_/gameId/401437741

It does sound like a good movie, though

Thanks! I'm traveling, with not much time for devining the ambiguous posts of others.

I didn't think football, since GoodOwl said it was in the Spring (not Fall/Autumn/September 25) ... so I was thinking maybe a UNLV @Vandy basketball game.

(07-31-2023 09:47 AM)Almadenmike Wrote:  

(07-30-2023 08:41 PM)owl at the moon Wrote:  

(07-30-2023 08:24 PM)Almadenmike Wrote:  

(07-30-2023 12:20 PM)GoodOwl Wrote:  ... We were in Nashville earlier this Spring for the Vegas game ...

GoodOwl... What is "the Vegas game" in Nashville?

Aha you stumped the Internet master himself!

Here’s the boxscore, Mike.

https://www.espn.com/nfl/game/_/gameId/401437741

It does sound like a good movie, though

Thanks! I'm traveling, with not much time for devining the ambiguous posts of others.

I didn't think football, since GoodOwl said it was in the Spring (not Fall/Autumn/September 25) ... so I was thinking maybe a UNLV @Vandy basketball game.

What are y'all talking about? The Champs were in town to beat up on the local team. Ran into hundreds of Vegas fans in their sweaters during the day all around Music City. Was pretty cool to hang with some of them before the game. Saw the giant cranes building around Vandy Stadium while we sat on the side of the Parthenon eating sandwiches and grapes...

here's the boxscore...Hill even had an assist on the last one...played a helluva game!
https://www.espn.com/nhl/boxscore/_/gameId/401459405

(07-28-2023 09:36 AM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  

(07-28-2023 09:33 AM)Grungy Wrote:  The second live east restrooms are officially closed, but that's only an issue for the Schaffer family, who have the longest-running season tickets.
Period.
Randy's father was given a golf cart tour of the new stadium in 1950, to select the seats that he wanted.
The family has purchased those same seats since the stadium opened.
We should treat them better.

Since when has Rice treated its supporters well?

At least a patio umbrella would be nice. Make it part of the ticket package up there. Open a small bar in the stands. Cool zone with plenty of fans.