2024-25 Opponent Tracking

It's not like we aren't trying. Odom said we tried to schedule a game at Duke last season and it just didn't work out.
See... and we heard this same stuff when MR was here that we tried to schedule all these different games.....

A game at Duke
A game vs Baylor in Dallas.....

And whatever other games there were out there supposedly..... but none of them panned out.

But the question that never seems to get answered fully or honestly.... is Why didn't it work out? Yet.... every time you turn around another A10 school is scheduling at the very worst a road game at a P5 school. Some have even been fortunate enough to get H&H's out of the P5's.

Is it because Ryan Odom.... and before that Mike Rhoades & before that Will Wade.... don't have the connections with P5 coaches (outside of Tony Bennett) enough to get big OOC games against others?

Is it because we are asking for too much money for a "buy game" for the P5?

Is it because we are asking for a home game in return & the P5's refuse to come play here (other than occasionally UVA)?

Or could it be the greed of the AD to load up with as many home games as possible, to milk all the money they can out of the donors & season ticket holders?


If I had to guess... it's somewhere between the last 2 reasons I listed...... but all we ever hear is "it just didn't work out".... or "it was a scheduling issue".
 
How in the world do you consider Chattanooga a "bad loss". They went 27-7 and won their conference tournament and lost to 4th seeded Illinois by one in the first round of the tournament. Two of the wins were non D1. They finished #63 in the NET. Thats a Quad 2 loss. Lumping Chattanooga in with Norfolk St, Jax and Wagner is ludicrous.

You still get my main point. Take out Chattanooga and my point still stands.
 
See... and we heard this same stuff when MR was here that we tried to schedule all these different games.....

A game at Duke
A game vs Baylor in Dallas.....

And whatever other games there were out there supposedly..... but none of them panned out.

But the question that never seems to get answered fully or honestly.... is Why didn't it work out? Yet.... every time you turn around another A10 school is scheduling at the very worst a road game at a P5 school. Some have even been fortunate enough to get H&H's out of the P5's.

Is it because Ryan Odom.... and before that Mike Rhoades & before that Will Wade.... don't have the connections with P5 coaches (outside of Tony Bennett) enough to get big OOC games against others?

Is it because we are asking for too much money for a "buy game" for the P5?

Is it because we are asking for a home game in return & the P5's refuse to come play here (other than occasionally UVA)?

Or could it be the greed of the AD to load up with as many home games as possible, to milk all the money they can out of the donors & season ticket holders?


If I had to guess... it's somewhere between the last 2 reasons I listed...... but all we ever hear is "it just didn't work out".... or "it was a scheduling issue".

I'm not so sure it's greed by loading up on buy games. VCU probably pays $80,000 - $90,000 for each of those buy games. That comes off of the revenue generated for each of those home games, and then you have to subtract all of the expenses associated with that game.

My question is how many P4 schools would even consider bringing VCU in for a "buy" game? And as far as P5 schools coming to VCU, I just don't see any school with a better NET ranking than VCU willing to come to VCU to play a true road game. How many true road games has VCU had in recent years against teams with worse NET Rankings than VCU. It works both ways.

Regarding scheduling a Duke or Baylor and saying it did not work out, I consider that VCU shooting for the moon regarding scheduling and will very rarely happen.
 
See... and we heard this same stuff when MR was here that we tried to schedule all these different games.....

A game at Duke
A game vs Baylor in Dallas.....

And whatever other games there were out there supposedly..... but none of them panned out.

But the question that never seems to get answered fully or honestly.... is Why didn't it work out? Yet.... every time you turn around another A10 school is scheduling at the very worst a road game at a P5 school. Some have even been fortunate enough to get H&H's out of the P5's.

Is it because Ryan Odom.... and before that Mike Rhoades & before that Will Wade.... don't have the connections with P5 coaches (outside of Tony Bennett) enough to get big OOC games against others?

Is it because we are asking for too much money for a "buy game" for the P5?

Is it because we are asking for a home game in return & the P5's refuse to come play here (other than occasionally UVA)?

Or could it be the greed of the AD to load up with as many home games as possible, to milk all the money they can out of the donors & season ticket holders?


If I had to guess... it's somewhere between the last 2 reasons I listed...... but all we ever hear is "it just didn't work out".... or "it was a scheduling issue".
Here is my honest uniformed take. VCU is just dangerous enough to beat anyone at home and just lazy enough to lose to a team in the three hundreds at home. VCU also has a fanbase that travels well so history doesn’t make the risk worth the reward. With the exception of Dayton, most A10 schools that get these games on the road, the home team has an extremely high expectation to win those games.
 
Scheduling for non power conference teams may be getting even tougher. It was already bad enough with power conferences increasing their league schedules and reducing OOC games with non power league schools. The best chance for teams such as those from the A-10 to meet these teams in recent years was in MTE Tournaments. That however may now be changing for the worse as well. The 2024 ESPN Events Invitational in Orlando is planning to split the field into two pods with the power teams separate from the others. This will negatively impact A-10 member St Bonaventure.

 
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The annual HOF Tournament at Mohegan Sun in CT has had a two separate pod format for several years. A-10 schools such as URI were however included in the top pod. I got to see a 2016 four team pod of Duke, URI, Cincinnati, and Penn State with all of the teams except the Nittany Lions being then nationally ranked (and later going to the 2017 NCAA). The Saturday and Sunday doubleheaders were near sellouts (10k) with an electric atmosphere. UConn for some reason does not play at Mohegan Sun (it may be because the XL Center, its secondary home, is a direct competitor) so the local Providence and URI programs are in the tournament field as often as the rules allow. The 2024 HOF field had agreements from Providence, Boston College, UMass, and Temple for its top pod. PC however later dropped out when it got an unexpected opportunity to play in the Battle 4 Atlantis with a far superior opponent field. This was a big blow for the tournament as the Friars were to be the main attendance draw. In exchange for being let out of their contract, they agreed to play a one off game there. BC apparently was then not happy being in a field with UMass and Temple and followed suit exiting the tournament as well. Would appear the Eagles would much rather play A-10 member VCU at a neutral site in Annapolis than A-10 member UMass at much closer neutral site in CT. The HOF Tournament has now scrapped its four team pod for a three team pod that will have UMass, Temple, and Florida State play one another in three games over three days. It would seem that good opportunties in MTE events may also now sadly be less frequent for A-10 level schools going forward.
 
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Scheduling for non power conference teams may be getting even tougher. It was already bad enough with power conferences increasing their league schedules and reducing OOC games with non power league schools. The best chance for teams such as those from the A-10 to meet these teams in recent years was in MTE Tournaments. That however may now be changing for the worse as well. The 2024 ESPN Events Invitational in Orlando is planning to split the field into two pods with the power teams separate from the others. This will negatively impact A-10 member St Bonaventure.


Then I don't think this tournament is worth it for any mid-major. Just another open path to separate the P4 from all the rest....just like NIL, just like the transfer rule, just like allowing schools to pay for NIL out of their budgets. All designed to separate the P4/5/6 (might include the BE too) from all the other mid-majors. Just as we have seen in football.
 
St Bonaventure picks up a neutral site game at Mohegan Sun Arena versus Big East member Providence College. Should partially offset the Bonnies getting shafted in the ESPN Events Invitational. Given Mohegan Sun is under an hour away, Friar fans will descend en masse to make it anything but neutral. A game st the casino was in exchange for PC being allowed to exit the HOF Tournament held there.



What does this say about UMass? Both Providence and Boston College bolted from the Mohegan HOF Tournament where they very likely would have played UMass to instead play neutral site games against other A-10 schools - PC vs SBU at Mohegan and BC vs VCU at Annapolis.
 
St Bonaventure picks up a neutral site game at Mohegan Sun Arena versus Big East member Providence College. Should partially offset the Bonnies getting shafted in the ESPN Events Invitational. Given Mohegan Sun is under an hour away, Friar fans will descend en masse to make it anything but neutral. A game st the casino was in exchange for PC being allowed to exit the HOF Tournament held there.



What does this say about UMass? Both Providence and Boston College bolted from the Mohegan HOF Tournament where they very likely would have played UMass to instead play neutral site games against other A-10 schools - PC vs SBU at Mohegan and BC vs VCU at Annapolis.


PC leaving had little to do with UMass and more to do with Creighton leaving the B4A for the NIL tournament. BFA had a Big East spot to fill and that's a step up over the HOF tournament. I'm guessing Boston College didn't want to stick around once the only team with a chance at the NCAA tournament bailed.

UMass was just wrong place wrong time.
 
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