9/5 @ Stanford
9/12 Colgate
9/19 @ Lafayette
9/26 Elon (Family Weekend)
10/3 @ JMU
10/10 BYE
10/17 Albany (Homecoming)
10/24 @ Delaware
10/31 Stony Brook
11/7 @ New Hampshire
11/14 @ Rhode Island
11/21 Richmond

Midseason off week is perfect.

JMU loses a lot of 4th year/5th year starters, so, imagine Villanova may be the preseason favorite, who we are lucky to avoid. We are Delaware's homecoming.

Nice to have Delaware back on the schedule

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Have to say I miss having Villanova, New Hampshire and Delaware every year. Just can't warm up to Albany, Stony Brook and Rhode Island.

Solid schedule with a great bye week. Albany is a manageable homecoming opponent, and I like that we have some very winnable early season home games. I think those early home wins are the best way to win over the student body.

No Maine and Nova.

No Towson. That’s a first!

Albany and SB in the same year ... another first... and both at home.

The home games are Colgate, Elon, Albany, Stony Brook, and Richmond. From a marketing standpoint, no one is coming to those games to watch those opponents (aside from Richmond).

And that is the problem faced by football and hoops ... name recognition of the home opponents and whether folks want to come and watch those opponents.

It’s a problem; I don’t have an answer.

(11-21-2019 01:59 PM)nj alum Wrote:  No Maine and Nova.

No Towson. That’s a first!

Albany and SB in the same year ... another first... and both at home.

The home games are Colgate, Elon, Albany, Stony Brook, and Richmond. From a marketing standpoint, no one is coming to those games to watch those opponents (aside from Richmond).

And that is the problem faced by football and hoops ... name recognition of the home opponents and whether folks want to come and watch those opponents.

It’s a problem; I don’t have an answer.

People will come to the first home game. Maybe even the conference opener. Albany crowd will stink. But, if we are 5-2 when Stonybrook comes to town, which is very doable, we will have a good crowd. Then again when we finish with Richmond. Pretty good schedule make up to overcome a less than appealing slate.

Only 11 games next year? Kind of like the 12 game schedule

(11-21-2019 04:16 PM)jsk928 Wrote:  Only 11 games next year? Kind of like the 12 game schedule

In FCS, a 11 game schedule is normal. 12 games only happen on a special occasion (an extra Saturday before labor day I believe.) Next time it happens will be in 2024 and 2025 I believe.

(11-21-2019 03:02 PM)Tribe3455 Wrote:  People will come to the first home game. Maybe even the conference opener. Albany crowd will stink. But, if we are 5-2 when Stonybrook comes to town, which is very doable, we will have a good crowd. Then again when we finish with Richmond. Pretty good schedule make up to overcome a less than appealing slate.

No reason why the Albany crowd should stink. That is homecoming.

(11-21-2019 04:46 PM)Zorch Wrote:  

(11-21-2019 03:02 PM)Tribe3455 Wrote:  People will come to the first home game. Maybe even the conference opener. Albany crowd will stink. But, if we are 5-2 when Stonybrook comes to town, which is very doable, we will have a good crowd. Then again when we finish with Richmond. Pretty good schedule make up to overcome a less than appealing slate.

No reason why the Albany crowd should stink. That is homecoming.

Oops. Very correct. So good chance we can have 5 good crowds next year...assuming we are winning pre-Stonybrook.

(11-21-2019 01:59 PM)nj alum Wrote:  No Maine and Nova.

No Towson. That’s a first!

Albany and SB in the same year ... another first... and both at home.

The home games are Colgate, Elon, Albany, Stony Brook, and Richmond. From a marketing standpoint, no one is coming to those games to watch those opponents (aside from Richmond).

And that is the problem faced by football and hoops ... name recognition of the home opponents and whether folks want to come and watch those opponents.

It’s a problem; I don’t have an answer.

I'm not seeing the home schedule particularly problematic. It's actually quite the norm.

You will have three dependably attended games:
Colgate, home opener and a night game
Elon, family weekend and another night game
UAlbany, homecoming.

That leaves Stony Brook - which will be the weakest - and the finale with Richmond, which will bring in a decent showing.

If the team is good and wins the attendance will take care of itself.

I don't think that the attendance drop this year was because of the team and how they played. I was very entertained by every game except the last one. Even JMU was okay because it was homecoming, Tomlin was there, etc. We need to get the fans back who left due to Huge and Laycock leaving. Time for our vaunted marketing and PR folks to hit the pavement locally and stop putting signs on buses in DC. Maybe a personal call to every season ticket holder who dropped their seats. Gotta get them back or get new butts in seats. We're done with the days where opponents travel well other than JMU, Delaware, and Norfolk State.

I generally like the lay-out of the schedule. I miss 'nova, but otherwise solid.

Y’all missed the point I tried to make.

The average Tidewater football fan may buy a ticket to see Richmond play football at Cary/Zable.

The average Tidewater football fan is not buying a ticket to see Colgate, Albany, and Stony Brook play football at Cary/Zable (probably applies to Elon too).

Attractiveness of home schedule is an issue.

The average Tidewater football fan buying a ticket for W&M’s first home game after they crush Stanford, or buying a ticket for an undefeated Tribe team competing at Homecoming, or buying a ticket to watch the Go Go offense steamroll Stony Brook ... those are separate issues.

But since our recruiting has been so terrible the last four years, and since London has so much ground to make up (tic), and since the AD has alienated a portion of the fan base, the attractiveness of the opponent becomes a factor in ticket sales ... and whether students show up.

Is that better?

The 2020 home schedule is not attractive. I’m going to renew season tickets to watch all those northern schools who aren’t even a part of the other CAA conference that we’re in?

This is an entertainment business. The identity of the act being brought to town does matter. That’s all I’m saying.

I agree with you NJ. But I complain about this every year and I'm sure other posters are tired of me making the same post. At a minimum we should be playing JMU, Richmond, Delaware, and Villanova every year. And two of those should be home games.

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(11-22-2019 09:29 AM)nj alum Wrote:  ....Attractiveness of home schedule is an issue. ......

The 2020 home schedule is not attractive. ........

I agree with NJ Alum and Zablenoise on many of their points -- but the two lines above can NOT be rectified as long as we are in the CAA. Four of the five home games consist of CAA brethren and if it just so happens that some/many of those teams are from the north and without historical rivalries with the Tribe then that is the situation that we have to live with.

I actually like playing New Hampshire. Stony Brook has been a good team the last few years (better than us) and Albany look like they are on the upswing. Nova and Delaware (and JMU and Richmond) should be "automatics". Which leaves Rhode Island, Maine, Elon, and Towson as the teams that I could take or leave (but, even so, I wouldn't necessarily kick them out of the league; who would we replace them with? Furman and Wofford are the only ones to spring to mind immediately).

Anyway, conference affiliation is a topic for another thread. As long as we are in the CAA then these are the teams that will be coming to Zable.

I'd like it to go back to two-6 team divisions where you play the other 5 in your division every year and 3 of the other 6 on a rotational basis. Slight challenge with Elon being in the conference bumps Villanova to the "other division" but really no other way around it that I see. I'm sure they'd (understandably) fight against it. Doubt it ever happens but would like it.