Easier Schedule

[CheesePritchard]

I agree this was not a difficult schedule and we should have taken care of business but acknowledge our overall philosophy should be to get at least three wins OOC. I still do not prefer a slate of four non-BCS opponents in a given year even if it means four automatic wins.

 

[TheShot]

That can't be right...no way we finish the year with 2 OOC games.

actually pretty sure that is right. That is the ND date we've been hearing for a year, and i think we close with Vandy.

 

[MagicDeac]

Six wins and a bowl bid feels like progress to me. And getting both without having to pad our schedule NCState-style is even better.

 

[inspectah]

There was nothing too hard about our schedule. We had the talent to win eight+ games but failed to do so due to coaching miscues/injuries (Cuse) and lack of focus and/or ability to close out and/or poor scheming (Vandy, Clemson, ND).

Don't change anything. Keep the FCS game, and fill the remaining OOC slots with mid to lower level FBS league teams like Indiana, Rice, Cuse, etc. No more academies for a while.

Guess we are glad that SMU dropped their series with us.

 

[dcon69]

Syracuse is tied for last in the Big Least. With a win over a 5-6 Pitt team they can climb over USF, unless USF wins next week. Jim Grobe called them a great football team so they must be. He also has continually lamented how impossible our schedule is, the ACC being so strong and all.

Syracuse is not a good football team.

 

[liveanddiedeac]

I think our OOC schedule was a good one. A guy on one of the sports radio shows called it "perfect." We played one very high profile opponent in Notre Dame that we could've easily beaten. We played a decent Syracuse team that we should've beaten and we played Vandy who to their credit came out and just wore us out because they wanted it more. Plus, we got our FCS opponent in Gardner Webb. There wasn't anything too hard about that schedule, Notre Dame proved far from unbeatable for us and it was a huge deal for us to host them. It's like the Nebraska series, we lost both, but I think it was good for us.

Going forward I hope we try to keep our OOC as similar as possible. I wouldn't have a problem with instead of playing 3 BCS teams, playing one higher profile BCS team, playing one mid-to-low tier BCS team, one FBS team from the MAC-Sunbelt-Conf. USA-Service Acamdemy and of course one FCS opponent. I don't like an OOC schedule that looks like Va. Tech's did this year, if they had played at least on high profile OOC game and won, they'd probably have a decent argument regarding the BCS title game, especially if LSU would somehow lose to Georgia.

 

[Buttermaker]

Wake had the third best season attendance in team history this year. I know a number of people who got season tickets because of the strong OOC schedule. Liberty and Army won't sell many tickets.

 

[liveanddiedeac]

Syracuse is tied for last in the Big Least. With a win over a 5-6 Pitt team they can climb over USF, unless USF wins next week. Jim Grobe called them a great football team so they must be. He also has continually lamented how impossible our schedule is, the ACC being so strong and all.

Syracuse is not a good football team.

If you don't realize that Jim Grobe is the type of person who will go out of his way to respect and give credit to our opponents then you haven't been paying much attention. Whether you like it or not, that's what he does.

 

[MagicDeac]

Wake had the third best season attendance in team history this year. I know a number of people who got season tickets because of the strong OOC schedule. Liberty and Army won't sell many tickets.

This.

Exposure equals progress. And scheduling good (read popular) teams is exposure. Winning is also exposure. Seems like we did both this year.

 

[ProbationDeac]

I posted it on another thread, but it fits here too. We signed Syracuse and Vandy when they were in the gutter of their respective conferences and probably saw them as sure, easy wins. While both are better now than when we signed contracts, we should still be able to beat both teams. The only challenge with Syracuse was that it was on the road to start the season.

At the end of the day though, winning those games probably doesn't change our bowl slot. They would however give us a recruiting edge and momentum going forward.

You don't think going 8-4 would have put us in a better bowl then 6-6?

 

[liveanddiedeac]

You don't think going 8-4 would have put us in a better bowl then 6-6?

Depends on how you go 8-4. If that would've meant going 6-2 in the ACC, then yes, because of the rule about finishing 2 games ahead of other conference teams. If it had meant going 8-4 by beating Cuse and Vandy, maybe not, unfortunately. However, isn't there a rule about a 6-6 not being able to be taken over a team with a winning record?

 

[PhDeac]

No. Why do you think it would?

Bowl slots have to do with conference record and perceived fan support. That wouldn't change at 8-4.

 

[Deacon92]

I think one change would make things better, especially as we add in 2 or more teams...


Bowl selection is based upon conference games and you may be skipped if within one game and you either did not play or won the head to head.

As we move to 7 team divisions, it's going to be harder to be "fair" to everyone, the 1 game rule with the head to head adder, gives some flexability to the bowls and still helps reward on the field performance.

 

[ProbationDeac]

No. Why do you think it would?

Bowl slots have to do with conference record and perceived fan support. That wouldn't change at 8-4.

On second thought, I should have joined the team, students, coaching staff and stayed home on Saturday. Next year, put a rule in that if the game "doesn't matter" attendance is free.

 

[ChrisL68]

Bowls look at records also. An 8-4 Wake team is more attractive to Charlotte than a 6-6 Wake team.

 

[liveanddiedeac]

Bowls look at records also. An 8-4 Wake team is more attractive to Charlotte than a 6-6 Wake team.

I think the point is a better record certainly couldn't hurt, but depending on what makes up that record, it might not help a lot either.

 

[PhDeac]

Bowls look at records also. An 8-4 Wake team is more attractive to Charlotte than a 6-6 Wake team.

Depends on the 8-4 record. It probably won't be more attractive if it came against Sisters of the Poor. But if we beat a high profile OOC, it might. The truth of the matter is that a 8-4 (6-2) team will get a better bowl slot than a 8-4 (4-4) team.

As far as schedule strength overall, if you need a crappy OOC just to get in a bowl, it's always going to be the worst bowl because you're looking at a 6-6 (2-6) record.

Question for those who have contact with recruits. Which argument is more attractive to them?

"We've won 7 or 8 games the last few seasons and we've played bowl games in Shreveport and Washington, DC. We've got home and home series coming up against Rice, Tulane, and Army."

or

"We've won 5 or 6 games the last few seasons and we've played in a bowl game in Shreveport or Washington, DC two of the last four years. We've got home and home series coming up against Nebraska and Notre Dame."

I'd think to most college players, playing a game at South Bend in November or Lincoln in September trumps playing in Shreveport on the day after Christmas. Of course, the goal is to play tough teams OOC and make good bowls.

 

[ChrisL68]

Again, playing two sure wins OOC still leaves you room to play the Nebraskas and the Notre Dames.

And I disagree that Bowls are going to really scrutinize your OOC record. Having an 8-4 BCS team looks better than a 6-6 BCS team.

 

[diverdeac]

No doubt an 8-4 team looks more attractive than a 6-6 team. At 8-4 Wellman has a case and I think Swofford would support Wake for a better game. The issue is what do we do in the future because our schedule has to better reflect bowl reality.

The Notre Dame, Nebraska, Stanford and Ole miss games have been great!

We need to play:

- one high level BCS game every year.
- Either Army/Navy
- One of Tulane/Rice/Vandy/NW/Baylor
- One in-state or close 2nd tier team (GW/Liberty/PC)

We should have 2 wins absolutely every year, and 3 wins most every year.

- As I posted in the other thread playing Vandy (a damn good team) every year after Thanksgiving sucks. It is a no win situation.

Grobe's comments abaout scheduling in the Poop Sheet were very interesting.

If we finish 2nd in the Atlantic no way we should not get a decent bowl.

 

[PhDeac]

Again, playing two sure wins OOC still leaves you room to play the Nebraskas and the Notre Dames.

And I disagree that Bowls are going to really scrutinize your OOC record. Having an 8-4 BCS team looks better than a 6-6 BCS team.

I don't think they care about the overall record at all. They care about attendance and TV ratings and they pick the best team for that within the system set up by the conference.

But to the extent they care about the record, they care about who we beat because that would drive TV ratings.

A Wake team that beat Notre Dame in a nationally televised night game is more attractive than a Wake team that beat Tulane on ESPN3. USF's win over Notre Dame gets mentioned every time they play and they suck out loud this season.