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Post by TigerBearinAtl on May 2, 2021 15:45:11 GMT -5
Per FBSchedules. Yale was supposed to be on the schedule, but I don't see where they fit given the current known schedule. Yale's only open week is October 2nd, but we host Samford that day, so we still need a non-conference game and we don't know when the bye week is yet. 9/2 (Thu) - at Charleston Southern 9/11 - at Alabama (9/18 unknown at this point, but all conference opponents are booked already) 9/25 - at Furman 10/2 - Samford 10/9 - at Western Carolina (10/16 unknown at this point, only available conference opponent is VMI, who we would play in Macon) 10/23 - Wofford 10/30 - at The Citadel (11/6 unknown at this point, only available conference opponents are VMI at home or ETSU in Johnson City) 11/13 - UTC (11/20 unknown at this point, only available conference opponent is ETSU on the road)
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Post by TigerBearinAtl on May 2, 2021 15:50:35 GMT -5
Looking at VMI and ETSU's current known schedules further, 11/6 may be a bye week because it's the only week VMI and ETSU both have available. Unless we play a non-conference opponent on 11/6?
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Post by FUBeAR on May 3, 2021 11:25:02 GMT -5
Yeah - we’ll see, but I think that Yale game might get pushed to another year & Mercer will pick up another OOC contest in the Fall of 2021. Not sure who that might be.
Would love to see it be a Home/Home Contest with an mid- to upper-tier FCS Team - something like a Richmond, McNeese, JaxSt or an HBCU, like Jackson State (Coach Prime comes to Maconga) or Tenn. State.
Stay tuned...
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Post by MUfan on May 3, 2021 18:01:00 GMT -5
Yeah - we’ll see, but I think that Yale game might get pushed to another year & Mercer will pick up another OOC contest in the Fall of 2021. Not sure who that might be. Would love to see it be a Home/Home Contest with an mid- to upper-tier FCS Team - something like a Richmond, McNeese, JaxSt or an HBCU, like Jackson State (Coach Prime comes to Maconga) or Tenn. State. Stay tuned... KSU maybe? |
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Post by FUBeAR on May 4, 2021 13:02:10 GMT -5
Yeah - we’ll see, but I think that Yale game might get pushed to another year & Mercer will pick up another OOC contest in the Fall of 2021. Not sure who that might be. Would love to see it be a Home/Home Contest with an mid- to upper-tier FCS Team - something like a Richmond, McNeese, JaxSt or an HBCU, like Jackson State (Coach Prime comes to Maconga) or Tenn. State. Stay tuned... KSU maybe? I don’t KNOW what I’m talking about, but I don’t THINK either side really wants that game in the regular season. With the way the FCS Playoffs are regionalized, should KSU AND MU both make the Playoffs, they would almost certainly be paired off in a 1st round playoff contest. KSU, playing in what was then a very weak conference, has made the Playoffs in the past & Mercer was an eyelash away this year & not that far away in the past - almost an AQ in 2013. Both programs view themselves as Playoff contenders & squaring off against a highly probable 1st round opponent in the Regular Season is not the best situation for a number of reasons. |
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Post by TigerBearinAtl on May 10, 2021 21:03:51 GMT -5
Per FBSchedules, VMI will be in Macon October 16th. VMI plays ETSU November 6th, so that week would either be a non-conference opponent or a bye week for Mercer.
9/2 (Thu) - at Charleston Southern
9/11 - at Alabama
9/18 - non-conference opponent or bye week, ETSU already has opponent
9/25 - at Furman
10/2 - Samford
10/9 - at Western Carolina
10/16 - VMI
10/23 - Wofford
10/30 - at The Citadel
11/6 - non-conference opponent or bye week, ETSU plays VMI this week
11/13 - UTC
11/20 - at ETSU(?, only week ETSU is available)
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Post by FUBeAR on May 11, 2021 11:23:57 GMT -5
Per FBSchedules, VMI will be in Macon October 16th. VMI plays ETSU November 6th, so that week would either be a non-conference opponent or a bye week for Mercer. 9/2 (Thu) - at Charleston Southern 9/11 - at Alabama 9/18 - non-conference opponent or bye week, ETSU already has opponent 9/25 - at Furman 10/2 - Samford 10/9 - at Western Carolina 10/16 - VMI 10/23 - Wofford 10/30 - at The Citadel 11/6 - non-conference opponent or bye week, ETSU plays VMI this week 11/13 - UTC 11/20 - at ETSU(?, only week ETSU is available) Be very surprised if we don’t see a Home OOC game on 9/18. Otherwise, no Football on campus until October. Pretty sure the powers that be @ Mercer, with college football kicking off in August wouldn’t want to wait until October to rally the school around the Football Bears. Might be a fun exercise to see what FCS Teams are available on 9/18 and ponder if they might be willing to do a Home & Home deal with Mercer… Just saw that National FCS Finalist, Sam Houston, is off on 9/18 and only has 10 opponents booked - maybe the BearKats would want to come to Maconga. Youngstown State is also off 9/18 & only has 10 games booked, but fans will on their message board are saying their Leadership only wants to schedule 10 games in the Fall because of having a Spring season. 3 NEC Squads are not showing 9/18 games & only listing a few games so far…Duquesne, St. Francis, and Wagner. Butler, Davidson, and Stetson from the PFL are “possibles.” Davidson fans are talking about the Wildcats picking up an 11th game, but no one there has mentioned Mercer yet. That’s it - without rearranging other games, those are the only 8 FCS Teams that don’t show a game booked on 9/18 AND don’t already have 11 games booked. Would love to see Sam Houston or Youngstown in Five Star Stadium, but Stetson or Davidson are the more likely suspects. Davidson is playing good ball now & would be a worthy opponent. I don’t think Stetson would be that competitive & their only HC just resigned to become the President of another University. |
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Post by TigerBearinAtl on May 12, 2021 16:24:49 GMT -5
Per FBSchedules, VMI will be in Macon October 16th. VMI plays ETSU November 6th, so that week would either be a non-conference opponent or a bye week for Mercer. 9/2 (Thu) - at Charleston Southern 9/11 - at Alabama 9/18 - non-conference opponent or bye week, ETSU already has opponent 9/25 - at Furman 10/2 - Samford 10/9 - at Western Carolina 10/16 - VMI 10/23 - Wofford 10/30 - at The Citadel 11/6 - non-conference opponent or bye week, ETSU plays VMI this week 11/13 - UTC 11/20 - at ETSU(?, only week ETSU is available) Be very surprised if we don’t see a Home OOC game on 9/18. Otherwise, no Football on campus until October. Pretty sure the powers that be @ Mercer, with college football kicking off in August wouldn’t want to wait until October to rally the school around the Football Bears. Might be a fun exercise to see what FCS Teams are available on 9/18 and ponder if they might be willing to do a Home & Home deal with Mercer… Just saw that National FCS Finalist, Sam Houston, is off on 9/18 and only has 10 opponents booked - maybe the BearKats would want to come to Maconga. Youngstown State is also off 9/18 & only has 10 games booked, but fans will on their message board are saying their Leadership only wants to schedule 10 games in the Fall because of having a Spring season. 3 NEC Squads are not showing 9/18 games & only listing a few games so far…Duquesne, St. Francis, and Wagner. Butler, Davidson, and Stetson from the PFL are “possibles.” Davidson fans are talking about the Wildcats picking up an 11th game, but no one there has mentioned Mercer yet. That’s it - without rearranging other games, those are the only 8 FCS Teams that don’t show a game booked on 9/18 AND don’t already have 11 games booked. Would love to see Sam Houston or Youngstown in Five Star Stadium, but Stetson or Davidson are the more likely suspects. Davidson is playing good ball now & would be a worthy opponent. I don’t think Stetson would be that competitive & their only HC just resigned to become the President of another University.
The other possibility is that we pick up a game against a non-D1 school. I know we've played Reinhardt a couple of times, and Kennesaw State has a knack for playing Point (3 out of 5 non-pandemic seasons). If we're going to do the non-D1 route though, it would be nice to keep it local and play Fort Valley State, although that's not possible this year.
With so few FCS teams available, and the FBS teams likely already having their money games locked in, the lower division/NAIA route may be what winds up happening.
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Post by FUBeAR on May 12, 2021 23:43:26 GMT -5
Be very surprised if we don’t see a Home OOC game on 9/18. Otherwise, no Football on campus until October. Pretty sure the powers that be @ Mercer, with college football kicking off in August wouldn’t want to wait until October to rally the school around the Football Bears. Might be a fun exercise to see what FCS Teams are available on 9/18 and ponder if they might be willing to do a Home & Home deal with Mercer… Just saw that National FCS Finalist, Sam Houston, is off on 9/18 and only has 10 opponents booked - maybe the BearKats would want to come to Maconga. Youngstown State is also off 9/18 & only has 10 games booked, but fans will on their message board are saying their Leadership only wants to schedule 10 games in the Fall because of having a Spring season. 3 NEC Squads are not showing 9/18 games & only listing a few games so far…Duquesne, St. Francis, and Wagner. Butler, Davidson, and Stetson from the PFL are “possibles.” Davidson fans are talking about the Wildcats picking up an 11th game, but no one there has mentioned Mercer yet. That’s it - without rearranging other games, those are the only 8 FCS Teams that don’t show a game booked on 9/18 AND don’t already have 11 games booked. Would love to see Sam Houston or Youngstown in Five Star Stadium, but Stetson or Davidson are the more likely suspects. Davidson is playing good ball now & would be a worthy opponent. I don’t think Stetson would be that competitive & their only HC just resigned to become the President of another University.
The other possibility is that we pick up a game against a non-D1 school. I know we've played Reinhardt a couple of times, and Kennesaw State has a knack for playing Point (3 out of 5 non-pandemic seasons). If we're going to do the non-D1 route though, it would be nice to keep it local and play Fort Valley State, although that's not possible this year.
With so few FCS teams available, and the FBS teams likely already having their money games locked in, the lower division/NAIA route may be what winds up happening.
Probably not wrong… …but Playoff Selection Committee doesn’t ‘count’ wins against Non D1 Teams as ‘wins,’ so when comparing potential At-Large Teams, a win over a great non-D1 Team actually lowers an FCS Teams winning % in the eyes of the Committee vs. a win over an awful D1 Team. Thus, Stetson is a far better opponent for Mercer than Rheinhart, for example. |
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Post by TigerBearInAtl on May 19, 2021 14:49:06 GMT -5
ETSU is confirmed for 11/20 in Johnson City, per FBSchedules. So that leaves one non-conference game for either 9/18 (probable) or 11/6 (possible but much less likely considering everyone is heavily involved in conference play at this time, so this is probably the bye week).
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Post by wcugrad95 on May 25, 2021 15:54:05 GMT -5
Outsider alert - so take it for what it is worth. But to FUBeAR's comments, I agree. WCU has had plenty of scheduling issues, and we have had plenty of bad seasons recently. But not that long ago we won 7 games in a couple of seasons. In at least 1 of those seasons, a win against a DII school I honestly felt kept the Cats out of the playoffs. We could have beaten Davidson or Stetson or somebody like that who were probably no better at the time than say Newberry or Mars Hill or whoever we beat. But a win against another FCS school means a lot more than a win against a non-DI school on paper. Doesn't matter how good or bad the team you play is.
So Mercer should try hard to make it another FCS program if at all possible.
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Post by mumd on May 26, 2021 9:31:36 GMT -5
And...TigerBearInAtl for the win. Apparently we are scheduled against Point U for the first game of the year.
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Post by TigerBearinAtl on May 26, 2021 11:56:23 GMT -5
Mercer's released schedule has a 10-game schedule with a Thursday (presumably night) home game against Point replacing the road game at Charleston Southern, as mumd posted above. Not sure what happened to the Charleston Southern game, CSU actually still has it on the schedule on their website has I post this. No games currently scheduled for September 18 or November 6 weekends. So, per Mercer Athletics:
9/2 (Thu) - Point (formerly at Charleston Southern)
9/11 - at Alabama
9/18 - currently a bye week, another game scheduled would likely go here
9/25 - at Furman
10/2 - Samford
10/9 - at Western Carolina
10/16 - VMI
10/23 - Wofford
10/30 - at The Citadel
11/6 - currently a bye week, a game could possibly go here but much less likely
11/13 - UTC
11/20 - at ETSU
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Post by MUfan on May 26, 2021 17:36:52 GMT -5
Are we focusing on the conference games or is something else going on ?
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Post by FUBeAR on May 26, 2021 21:44:56 GMT -5
Mercer's released schedule has a 10-game schedule with a Thursday (presumably night) home game against Point replacing the road game at Charleston Southern, as mumd posted above. Not sure what happened to the Charleston Southern game, CSU actually still has it on the schedule on their website has I post this. No games currently scheduled for September 18 or November 6 weekends. So, per Mercer Athletics: 9/2 (Thu) - Point (formerly at Charleston Southern) 9/11 - at Alabama 9/18 - currently a bye week, another game scheduled would likely go here 9/25 - at Furman 10/2 - Samford 10/9 - at Western Carolina 10/16 - VMI 10/23 - Wofford 10/30 - at The Citadel 11/6 - currently a bye week, a game could possibly go here but much less likely 11/13 - UTC 11/20 - at ETSU Don’t love it. Guessing Mercer could not get an FCS home game for 9/18 & didn’t want to have no home games until October. Would guess they tried to get CSU to switch & come to Macon, but they couldn’t work it out…so settled for Point. No sense in scheduling another D2 on 9/18 & didn’t really want to travel after trip to Tuscaloosa & before trip to Furman. Also, wouldn’t to give up that 11/6 Open week after 6 Conf games….a little Rest & Recovery before the final 2 could be too important to lose…so, also settling for only 10 games. Assuming win over Point & loss to Bama, not sure Mercer would get an at large bid if they lost only 2 SoCon games because the record would be viewed as 6-3.With the love for the MVFC, the CAA, and the Big Sky that the committee seems to have, 6-5 Teams from those Conferences would be more likely to pull an at-large bid than a “6-3” Mercer Team. |
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