Per Les and Conor our opening game @ODU is now on Friday. So 3 more Friday games.
And just to be clear, this game is AT ODU so their TV deal is in charge.
ODU has a TV deal? Who knew?
Per Les and Conor our opening game @ODU is now on Friday. So 3 more Friday games.
And just to be clear, this game is AT ODU so their TV deal is in charge.
Playing on a Thursday or Friday to start the season makes sense and is a lot different than in-season Thursday or Friday games because:
- It gives WF an extra say to prepare for Week 2 (App), without having a short week as there is no game before the opener;
- The pre-season start day is governed by the date of your first game, so it allows WF to start pre-season practice earlier;
- The first weekend is Labor Day weekend; so, by playing on a Thursday or Friday, it allows a chance for people who are heading out of town for the long weekend, to go to the game and still head to the beach or wherever.
Understand the frustration with the Thursday or Friday games after Labor Day weekend, but for the first game, starting a day or two early is a good thing.
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ODU has a TV deal? Who knew?
ODU's conference, the AAC, had a TV deal with CBS Sports (they televised the WF/Tulane and WF/Rice matchups each of the last two years). The AAC has a new deal with ESPN. Hard to believe, but it's $1 billion for 12 years: https://apnews.com/d01c9d9805f6460bab475f8d93c32ef6 . That's far less average annual value than any of the Power V schools get from their conference TV deals, but each AAC school gets $7 million per year, and its hard to believe the rights to the ODU/Tulsa game are worth that much.
Old Dominion is in Conference USA, not the AAC, and their TV deal is in the neighborhood of $400,000-$500,000 per C-USA school per year.
I'll be on the Outer Banks for Labor Day weekend anyway. ODU is an easy drive up from there. Sweet.
Losing Strnad, Carney, Newman, most of the o-line and Scotty Washington makes us an unknown quantity going into the season. People forget we had several close wins last year that could easily have been losses, and our losses were in games we trailed in and couldn't catch up. Wake Forest is a team that has such a narrow margin of error that makes it really difficult to predict wins and losses. LY Rice and Elon were guaranteed wins. We don't have any this year no matter what anybody thinks in Jan. Villanova is good, and ODU beat VT within the last two years. APP State was ranked at the end of the season and certainly will have no fear playing us in Winston. They'll likely have more fans than we do that day.
I always think it is hard to do wins and losses before a season starts. Maybe you can do the first three games. After that, it depends on when you get a team on their schedule, where they are at mentally, where we are at mentally, injuries on both sides, etc...
There are games early on a schedule (if you are lucky), where you can pencil in wins. I remember one year we played Baylor and they had just hired Briles I think and he had just RG3 to commit but he was a freshman. Even though the game was played in Waco, it seemed like a likely victory because they had a new coach and we didn't and they didn't know what they were doing early. I think we were up 28-0 half way thru the 2nd quarter almost as predicted. Then, they brought in RG3 and the kid almost led a complete come back. But my point is had we played Baylor in Game 4 or Game 6, we surely would have lost and probably by a lot. But we got them game 1 and we won.
For that reason, I sort of like our chances against App State at home. We surely won't take them lightly and they will be (hopefully) figuring out leadership and stuff early in the season.
I have noticed Notre Dame always looks great through about their first 5 or 6 games and we always play them within that great period. I really wish we flipped Clemson and Notre Dame as I think Clemson is likely to be distracted middle of the season way more than 2nd to last when they are refocusing for their national championship run. And Notre Dame is starting to fade.
This past year, for example, if we had played Syracuse early, we win. If we had played Louisville at home in the first few games, I think we win. Virginia Tech early when we were healthy, maybe a win even on the road. That said, if we had played Florida State after they fired Taggert, we might well have lost. If we had played NC State early before all their injuries, maybe we lose that game. It is always like that IMO.
Playing on a Thursday or Friday to start the season makes sense and is a lot different than in-season Thursday or Friday games because:
- It gives WF an extra say to prepare for Week 2 (App), without having a short week as there is no game before the opener;
- The pre-season start day is governed by the date of your first game, so it allows WF to start pre-season practice earlier;
- The first weekend is Labor Day weekend; so, by playing on a Thursday or Friday, it allows a chance for people who are heading out of town for the long weekend, to go to the game and still head to the beach or wherever.
Understand the frustration with the Thursday or Friday games after Labor Day weekend, but for the first game, starting a day or two early is a good thing.
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Losing Strnad, Carney, Newman, most of the o-line and Scotty Washington makes us an unknown quantity going into the season. People forget we had several close wins last year that could easily have been losses, and our losses were in games we trailed in and couldn't catch up. Wake Forest is a team that has such a narrow margin of error that makes it really difficult to predict wins and losses. LY Rice and Elon were guaranteed wins. We don't have any this year no matter what anybody thinks in Jan. Villanova is good, and ODU beat VT within the last two years. APP State was ranked at the end of the season and certainly will have no fear playing us in Winston. They'll likely have more fans than we do that day.
Mark it down: an aerial shot of the stadium for this game will be used in our marketing materials for years to come: sold-out, hill packed, and everyone in black/gold.
Yep, and it is helpful that their colors are also black and gold. You won't be able to tell whose fans they each are. Would not work for NCS or Clemson.
I always think it is hard to do wins and losses before a season starts. Maybe you can do the first three games. After that, it depends on when you get a team on their schedule, where they are at mentally, where we are at mentally, injuries on both sides, etc...
There are games early on a schedule (if you are lucky), where you can pencil in wins. I remember one year we played Baylor and they had just hired Briles I think and he had just RG3 to commit but he was a freshman. Even though the game was played in Waco, it seemed like a likely victory because they had a new coach and we didn't and they didn't know what they were doing early. I think we were up 28-0 half way thru the 2nd quarter almost as predicted. Then, they brought in RG3 and the kid almost led a complete come back. But my point is had we played Baylor in Game 4 or Game 6, we surely would have lost and probably by a lot. But we got them game 1 and we won.
For that reason, I sort of like our chances against App State at home. We surely won't take them lightly and they will be (hopefully) figuring out leadership and stuff early in the season.
I have noticed Notre Dame always looks great through about their first 5 or 6 games and we always play them within that great period. I really wish we flipped Clemson and Notre Dame as I think Clemson is likely to be distracted middle of the season way more than 2nd to last when they are refocusing for their national championship run. And Notre Dame is starting to fade.
This past year, for example, if we had played Syracuse early, we win. If we had played Louisville at home in the first few games, I think we win. Virginia Tech early when we were healthy, maybe a win even on the road. That said, if we had played Florida State after they fired Taggert, we might well have lost. If we had played NC State early before all their injuries, maybe we lose that game. It is always like that IMO.
Most likely, especially if before VPI switched to Hooker at QB. They struggled against ODU in the second game of the season.