What in blue blazes do we gain by playing ECU?

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HokieJoe
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What in blue blazes do we gain by playing ECU?

Post by HokieJoe »

Can someone splain' that for me? They bring all risk and no reward IMO.

Strength of Schedule boost? Nyet
Risk of a loss every third or fourth year (when they have JR/SR-laden teams). Da

I'd rather play more teams like OSU and drop-kick ECU off the schedule.
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nolanvt
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Re: What in blue blazes do we gain by playing ECU?

Post by nolanvt »

HokieJoe wrote:Can someone splain' that for me? They bring all risk and no reward IMO.

Strength of Schedule boost? Nyet
Risk of a loss every third or fourth year (when they have JR/SR-laden teams). Da

I'd rather play more teams like OSU and drop-kick ECU off the schedule.
Why not just win the game against the team who has been mostly inferior the last 20 years?
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HokieJoe
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Re: What in blue blazes do we gain by playing ECU?

Post by HokieJoe »

nolanvt wrote:
HokieJoe wrote:Can someone splain' that for me? They bring all risk and no reward IMO.

Strength of Schedule boost? Nyet
Risk of a loss every third or fourth year (when they have JR/SR-laden teams). Da

I'd rather play more teams like OSU and drop-kick ECU off the schedule.
Why not just win the game against the team who has been mostly inferior the last 20 years?

Good plan, but the question remains. What do we gain from playing them? I've never seen any upside to playing that team.
"I predict future happiness for Americans, if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them." - Thomas Jefferson
nolanvt
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Re: What in blue blazes do we gain by playing ECU?

Post by nolanvt »

HokieJoe wrote:
nolanvt wrote:
HokieJoe wrote:Can someone splain' that for me? They bring all risk and no reward IMO.

Strength of Schedule boost? Nyet
Risk of a loss every third or fourth year (when they have JR/SR-laden teams). Da

I'd rather play more teams like OSU and drop-kick ECU off the schedule.
Why not just win the game against the team who has been mostly inferior the last 20 years?

Good plan, but the question remains. What do we gain from playing them? I've never seen any upside to playing that team.
An 80%+ chance of winning a game out of conference.
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HokieJoe
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Re: What in blue blazes do we gain by playing ECU?

Post by HokieJoe »

nolanvt wrote:
HokieJoe wrote:
nolanvt wrote:
HokieJoe wrote:Can someone splain' that for me? They bring all risk and no reward IMO.

Strength of Schedule boost? Nyet
Risk of a loss every third or fourth year (when they have JR/SR-laden teams). Da

I'd rather play more teams like OSU and drop-kick ECU off the schedule.
Why not just win the game against the team who has been mostly inferior the last 20 years?

Good plan, but the question remains. What do we gain from playing them? I've never seen any upside to playing that team.
An 80%+ chance of winning a game out of conference.
WVU, UF, PSU, etc are all OOC as well. We may not stand an 80% chance of winning against them, but playing ECU means nothing to the polls...Except if we lose.
"I predict future happiness for Americans, if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them." - Thomas Jefferson
nolanvt
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Re: What in blue blazes do we gain by playing ECU?

Post by nolanvt »

HokieJoe wrote:
nolanvt wrote:
HokieJoe wrote:
nolanvt wrote:
HokieJoe wrote:Can someone splain' that for me? They bring all risk and no reward IMO.

Strength of Schedule boost? Nyet
Risk of a loss every third or fourth year (when they have JR/SR-laden teams). Da

I'd rather play more teams like OSU and drop-kick ECU off the schedule.
Why not just win the game against the team who has been mostly inferior the last 20 years?

Good plan, but the question remains. What do we gain from playing them? I've never seen any upside to playing that team.
An 80%+ chance of winning a game out of conference.
WVU, UF, PSU, etc are all OOC as well. We may not stand an 80% chance of winning against them, but playing ECU means nothing to the polls...Except if we lose.
I think it's an overreaction as not all four of the non-conference games can be against those type of teams. ECU is a good B-level OOC game.
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BigDave
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Re: What in blue blazes do we gain by playing ECU?

Post by BigDave »

We're not going to replace ECU with another BCS team. It's not ECU or PSU - it's ECU or EMU. I'm content to play ECU because it's a nice road trip.
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Florida Hokie
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Re: What in blue blazes do we gain by playing ECU?

Post by Florida Hokie »

HokieJoe wrote:Can someone splain' that for me? They bring all risk and no reward IMO.

Strength of Schedule boost? Nyet
Risk of a loss every third or fourth year (when they have JR/SR-laden teams). Da

I'd rather play more teams like OSU and drop-kick ECU off the schedule.
Solid regional program. Makes much more sense than a MAC school or any of the other culprits. I like the series.
HokieJoe
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Re: What in blue blazes do we gain by playing ECU?

Post by HokieJoe »

BigDave wrote:We're not going to replace ECU with another BCS team. It's not ECU or PSU - it's ECU or EMU. I'm content to play ECU because it's a nice road trip.

Florida Hokie wrote:Solid regional program. Makes much more sense than a MAC school or any of the other culprits. I like the series.


Well, easy access for the fan base is one argument I suppose. OTOH, my prediction going forward is that we will have no choice but to play consistently better teams because of the playoff system. You get better by playing better competition. You recruit better (more TV time/exposure) by playing better competition. Playing ECU may help us recruit NC in a very marginal way, but playing 'name' programs furthers that end significantly more. The SEC caught on to this long before all of the other conferences did. They've had a conference championship game since 1992. That internal pressure created an arms race in the SEC. It raised the competitive bar and most of the teams that have taken CFB seriously have met that challenge. The fruit of that conference alignment (along with rich recruiting grounds and historically poor graduation rates) is domination of the BCS.
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BigDave
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Re: What in blue blazes do we gain by playing ECU?

Post by BigDave »

HokieJoe wrote:
BigDave wrote:We're not going to replace ECU with another BCS team. It's not ECU or PSU - it's ECU or EMU. I'm content to play ECU because it's a nice road trip.

Florida Hokie wrote:Solid regional program. Makes much more sense than a MAC school or any of the other culprits. I like the series.


Well, easy access for the fan base is one argument I suppose. OTOH, my prediction going forward is that we will have no choice but to play consistently better teams because of the playoff system. You get better by playing better competition. You recruit better (more TV time/exposure) by playing better competition. Playing ECU may help us recruit NC in a very marginal way, but playing 'name' programs furthers that end significantly more. The SEC caught on to this long before all of the other conferences did. They've had a conference championship game since 1992. That internal pressure created an arms race in the SEC. It raised the competitive bar and most of the teams that have taken CFB seriously have met that challenge. The fruit of that conference alignment (along with rich recruiting grounds and historically poor graduation rates) is domination of the BCS.
The SEC plays very few non cupcakes OOC. Yes, their conference schedule has more big name programs than our's does ... but I don't think the SEC is an argument for scheduling better out of conference.

This is a complete list of SEC vs power 5 conference games:

UF @ FSU
USC @ Clemson
Missouri vs Indiana
Tennessee @ Oklahoma
Kentucky @ Loserville
UGA vs Clemson
UGA vs GT
Miss vs Boise St (not power 5, but Boise is traditionally good, so I give them credit for that)
Auburn @ KSU
Alabama vs WVU
LSU @ Wisconsin
Arkansas @ TTU

That's 12 OOC games vs power 6 teams for a 14-team conference. And three of those are annual rivalry games that they play every year, not something they scheduled deliberately.

Our non-conference schedule already compares favorably with anyone in the SEC. Yes, they have better conference games than we do ... but their non-conference games mostly suck.

Here are the ACC's non-conference games vs power 5 teams:

Loserville @ ND
Loserville vs UK
FSU @ OkSU
FSU vs ND
FSU vs UF
SU vs UMD
SU vs ND
Clem @ UGA
CLEM vs SC
BC vs USC-west
Pitt vs Iowa
UVA-C vs UCLA
UVA-C @ BYU (not power 5 but a pretty darned good team if their posterior-whipping of Texas is any indication)
Dook vs Kansas
GT @ UGA
UNC @ ND
VT @ tOSU
scUM @ Nebraska

That's 18 games for a 14-team conference and that's not counting a few games vs the AAC, which was a BCS conference when the games were scheduled.
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cwtcr hokie
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Re: What in blue blazes do we gain by playing ECU?

Post by cwtcr hokie »

ok, so how are you convincing the other top 25 teams to play us???? we just embarrassed OSU so that actually makes it harder to get a commit for an OOC game for one of the other top name schools that has a shot at losing to little ol VT. The issue with scheduling is the dates to play and getting the OK to play, it takes two to make it work

From our past history you can see we don't back down from playing anyone but plenty refuse to play us
HokieJoe wrote:
BigDave wrote:We're not going to replace ECU with another BCS team. It's not ECU or PSU - it's ECU or EMU. I'm content to play ECU because it's a nice road trip.

Florida Hokie wrote:Solid regional program. Makes much more sense than a MAC school or any of the other culprits. I like the series.


Well, easy access for the fan base is one argument I suppose. OTOH, my prediction going forward is that we will have no choice but to play consistently better teams because of the playoff system. You get better by playing better competition. You recruit better (more TV time/exposure) by playing better competition. Playing ECU may help us recruit NC in a very marginal way, but playing 'name' programs furthers that end significantly more. The SEC caught on to this long before all of the other conferences did. They've had a conference championship game since 1992. That internal pressure created an arms race in the SEC. It raised the competitive bar and most of the teams that have taken CFB seriously have met that challenge. The fruit of that conference alignment (along with rich recruiting grounds and historically poor graduation rates) is domination of the BCS.
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