Hello Bear Fans!!
Can anyone tell us when will Mercer release the 2015 Football Schedule?
They seem to like to announce it rather late - released on 2/11 last year. The earliest SoCon school to release their schedule (that I can find) last year was VMI on 1/7. Not sure why Mercer likes to wait, but, IMHO, the smart scheduling has been a key to Mercer's success on the field and at the 'gate' in the 1st 2 years of the program, so I'll 'approve' of their decision to delay the release for whatever reason...
Based on internet speculation and other schools releases, I think we can expect the following...only 11 games in 2015, 4 SoCon Home games + 2 OOC Home games - All D1 - FCS Games - so, in the outside chance that Mercer does not win the SoCon next year
....the Bears can still make the playoffs with a solid 8 or 9 wins.
10/17 - East Tennessee State (OOC - non-conference game in 2015)
10/24 - VMI (SoCon) (
UPDATED - DATE SUBJECT TO CHANGE - This date is per a VMI 'insider')
UNK - Stetson (OOC)
UNK - Chattanooga (SoCon)
UNK - Samford (SoCon)
UNK - Wofford (SoCon)
UNK - @ Tennessee Tech (OOC) (Cookeville, TN - 296 miles from Mercer / 4:34 travel time)
UNK - @ Austin Peay (OOC) (Clarksville, TN - 378 miles from Mercer / 5:42 travel time)
UNK - @ Western Carolina (SoCon) (Cullowhee, NC - 231 miles from Mercer / 3:41 travel time)
UNK - @ The Citadel (SoCon) (Charleston, SC - 268 miles from Mercer / 4:02 travel time)
UNK - @ Furman (SoCon) (Greenville, SC - 231 miles from Mercer / 3:29 travel time)
Bears will travel almost 3,000 miles (round trip) to Away games in 2015...and spend almost 43 hours on the buses. Lots of STUDY time!
On that 'not winning the conference' thing....I just realized 2 things this week...and I'm going to use the word IF in this 1st one...I know all about the frog and his lack of wings...so, no need for the trolls out there to call out my use of IF...I get it....but IF...the Bears had scored 6 more against FU, 3 more in B'Ham vs. Sammy, 8 more at Chatt, 3 more against El Cid, and not self-destructed to start the game vs. WCU and scored 15 more points against them, the ugliness at Wofford wouldn't have mattered and Mercer would have won the SoCon Championship and the Automatic Qualifier bid to the Playoffs.
2nd - IF (guess I used it here also, huh) Illinois State can beat NDSU next month, that will mean that the National Champs, in order to get there, came from behind late and barely beat a team (New Hampshire) who came from behind late and barely beat a team (Chatt) in the playoffs, who barely beat Mercer in 2014.
So....Bears' Fans, despite the not-so-attractive SoCon record this year, your Bears were CERTAINLY
competitive in the SoCon and, plausibly,
competitive at the National level in 2014. IF (there it is again) the returning players work their tails off in the off-season, a few key transfers come in, the redshirts are everything that is expected of them, the Bears have a great signing class, and they all perform in games during 2015 at the level of their capabilities, the Bears DO have a realistic shot at winning the SoCon and competing on a National level in the playoffs.
IF...
....the Bears can still make the playoffs with a solid 8 or 9 wins.
