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(11-25-2020 10:45 AM)BcatMatt13 Wrote:  Thinking more about this I don’t think it really matters all that much. A win over Temple wouldn’t mean much at all even if it was a complete blowout. UC needs the things to happen in front of them to make it. If those things happen and they beat Tulsa twice they should be in, a win over Temple won’t matter.

Northwestern may jump them this week, but they’ll fall back down when they get blown out by Ohio State.

Bolded, I agree. Selfishly, I wanted a Bearcat game Thanksgiving weekend, especially a predicted blowout that would be easy to watch at my normal blood pressure.

In terms of our team and the CFP, this may prove beneficial. Will Ponder be healthy enough to play after what will now be a 3 week layoff? Will SOS benefit from not playing UCONN.v.2020 (Temple)?

Our worst fears would have been fully realized if in a meaningless blowout in Philly we lost key players to injury prior to having to play Tulsa twice for the AAC championship and NY6 bid. Let's hope our team can stay healthy and focused the next two weekends. Winning twice against Tulsa is still the necessary condition for all we want to have happen.

All the talk of 8 straight games (had we had a game scheduled on Dec 5) and four straight away games is now gone so I hope we can get something scheduled next weekend, preferably at home.

11/28: Idle
12/5: Home
12/12 @Tulsa
12/19 AAC Championship

Then stretch to the bowl season would be a great way to end the season.

I'm more concerned about what happens if one of the Tulsa games gets cancelled.

(11-25-2020 10:40 AM)BearcatMan Wrote:  

(11-25-2020 10:37 AM)nachoman91 Wrote:  

(11-25-2020 10:19 AM)mptnstr@44 Wrote:  It is what it is.
Looking for the bright side it provides lots of time to game prep for Tulsa.

This most definitely hurts. 11-0 looks better than 6-0 or 7-0 (or whatever teams like USC or Oregon may end up).

UC needs to find a new opponent even if its someone as awful as Temple. There's time to make this happen. Just find an easy win and play with whatever UC players don't have covid.

Hate to even suggest it, but Tulane is open this week...so are BYU, Marshall, Arizona State, Wake Forest, Virginia Tech, and Washington State. I don't think there are any other teams that are allowed to play OOC games who have openings right now.

More interestingly...Louisville and Pitt both don't have games next week...

Louisville or Pitt would be great. Let's get another acc scalp

(11-25-2020 11:09 AM)eroc Wrote:  

(11-25-2020 10:40 AM)BearcatMan Wrote:  

(11-25-2020 10:37 AM)nachoman91 Wrote:  

(11-25-2020 10:19 AM)mptnstr@44 Wrote:  It is what it is.
Looking for the bright side it provides lots of time to game prep for Tulsa.

This most definitely hurts. 11-0 looks better than 6-0 or 7-0 (or whatever teams like USC or Oregon may end up).

UC needs to find a new opponent even if its someone as awful as Temple. There's time to make this happen. Just find an easy win and play with whatever UC players don't have covid.

Hate to even suggest it, but Tulane is open this week...so are BYU, Marshall, Arizona State, Wake Forest, Virginia Tech, and Washington State. I don't think there are any other teams that are allowed to play OOC games who have openings right now.

More interestingly...Louisville and Pitt both don't have games next week...

Louisville or Pitt would be great. Let's get another acc scalp

According to the article at gobearcats.com I don't think we'll be scheduling anything for next weekend:

"The American Athletic Conference has announced that the scheduled football game between Cincinnati and Temple will not be played due to positive COVID-19 cases and the ensuing contact tracing of student-athletes at both institutions, the league announced Wednesday.

The game was scheduled to be played this Saturday, Nov. 28. Though the schools share a common open date Dec. 5, The American's return-to-play protocols would not allow for a sufficient number of student-athletes to be available for competition on that date."

Any chance to play at Tulsa regular season this Saturday, AAC championship moves to 12/12 when UC is scheduled to play at Tulsa regular season, then play A&M on the 19th while the SEC title game is going on without A&M participating?

That gives either UC or A&M the quality win both need, so mutually beneficial to schedule it. Requires an "about face" on the whole COVID issues at both UC and Temple.

(11-25-2020 11:13 AM)Saint Martin Wrote:  Any chance to play at Tulsa regular season this Saturday, AAC championship moves to 12/12 when UC is scheduled to play at Tulsa regular season, then play A&M on the 19th while the SEC title game is going on without A&M participating?

That gives either UC or A&M the quality win both need, so mutually beneficial to schedule it. Requires an "about face" on the whole COVID issues at both UC and Temple.

No...both teams are affected by Covid, not just one apparently.

(11-25-2020 11:13 AM)Saint Martin Wrote:  Any chance to play at Tulsa regular season this Saturday, AAC championship moves to 12/12 when UC is scheduled to play at Tulsa regular season, then play A&M on the 19th while the SEC title game is going on without A&M participating?

That gives either UC or A&M the quality win both need, so mutually beneficial to schedule it. Requires an "about face" on the whole COVID issues at both UC and Temple.

Wont' happen, but I love your thinking!

I’d love to see us play Louisville on 12/5.

No way they’d accept the game, however.

(11-25-2020 11:23 AM)BearcatMan Wrote:  

(11-25-2020 11:13 AM)Saint Martin Wrote:  Any chance to play at Tulsa regular season this Saturday, AAC championship moves to 12/12 when UC is scheduled to play at Tulsa regular season, then play A&M on the 19th while the SEC title game is going on without A&M participating?

That gives either UC or A&M the quality win both need, so mutually beneficial to schedule it. Requires an "about face" on the whole COVID issues at both UC and Temple.

No...both teams are affected by Covid, not just one apparently.

I'm curious - because it sounds like we also have some positive cases - can they do contract tracing, isolate those involved, and then determine if they can field a quality team for a game on 12/5?

I mean, this has to be one of those games that would actually hurt our SOS by playing it, right?

Sent from my SM-G973U using Tapatalk

This should help our SOS, so not end of the world.

Also, Temple has been a hot mess the past few weeks with Covid. I tend to the think the both sides statement is more so just to call it a no contest, considering this game really isn't massively important for UC.

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Bummer but it helps our SOS. Playing Tulsa 2 times helps.

I don’t think adding anyone but a Top 10 team is really going to matter for UC. As much as I would love to see UC beat Pitt or Louisville a win over either isn’t going to move UC ahead of A&M if the committee already deems their resume more worthy

Sounds like it doesn't matter with COVID protocols. UC is getting a second 2 week bye. Hopefully they came back as strong as they were after their last 2 week bye.

(11-25-2020 11:35 AM)dubcat14 Wrote:  

(11-25-2020 11:23 AM)BearcatMan Wrote:  

(11-25-2020 11:13 AM)Saint Martin Wrote:  Any chance to play at Tulsa regular season this Saturday, AAC championship moves to 12/12 when UC is scheduled to play at Tulsa regular season, then play A&M on the 19th while the SEC title game is going on without A&M participating?

That gives either UC or A&M the quality win both need, so mutually beneficial to schedule it. Requires an "about face" on the whole COVID issues at both UC and Temple.

No...both teams are affected by Covid, not just one apparently.

I'm curious - because it sounds like we also have some positive cases - can they do contract tracing, isolate those involved, and then determine if they can field a quality team for a game on 12/5?

Giving it further thought, what benefit is the regular season UC-Tulsa game to either team anyway? Maybe cancel that one and play the championship game in its place. Make the game at Tulsa as a concession.

UC:
11/28: Bye week, due to COVID
12/4: Bye week
12/12: AAC Championship @ Tulsa
12/19: A&M, neutral site

Tulsa:
11/28: Bye Week
12/5: at Navy
12/12: AAC Championship

If Tulsa wins at Navy, their conference record is 6-0, enough to qualify for the Championship game. It does leave them with 2 less conference games than the other contenders, which is not fair to SMU, Houston, Memphis, and Navy. If the Tulsa-UC regular season game were to be played with a UC victory, 6-1 still beats those other contenders' hypothetical 6-2, so the UC-Tulsa regular season game does not matter. Would require a change to the AAC rules since the participant in the title game needs to be within one conference game, but logic states that extra game with a loss still places Tulsa in the title game anyway.

Now if Navy beats Tulsa, suddenly there are a whole lot of issues. The other contenders need Tulsa to pick up that second loss in the regular season game against UC, making their 6-2 better than Tulsa's 5-2. Tulsa wins the head-to-head against SMU and loses the head-to-head against Navy, for what that's worth. It matters what Memphis and Houston do in any further games they play.

Which leads to a wait-and-see flexible situation. First scenario, go with the 12/12 AAC Championship. Second scenario, play the regular season game against Tulsa if it is going to matter, and AAC Championship on 12/19. Either way, a game at Tulsa is planned for the 12/12 date; it just changes what you call it. So scheduling is easy. A&M game only happens if AAC Championship can be played on 12/12. If Navy, Houston, Memphis, or SMU win the tiebreaker as a participant, it's at Nippert on 12/19.

I'd call Indiana and WI and let them both know that we will come to their place on 12/5 if either of them has to cancel their game against each other that date. I may make several of those kinds of calls. Worst they can say is no.

Yeah...all the TAMU stuff is stupid. They would look at a game with us essentially the exact same way we were looking at a game with BYU. Everything to lose, nothing to gain.

(11-25-2020 12:17 PM)rath v2.0 Wrote:  I'd call Indiana and WI and let them both know that we will come to their place on 12/5 if either of them has to cancel their game against each other that date. I may make several of those kinds of calls. Worst they can say is no.

I would love it if we could set something up with Indiana. Were we to win that game, it would essentially level us out with OSU by nature of common opponent, and we'd have the better resume after that. Now all of this is moot because I don't think we'd be able to play on the 5th based on conference regulations.