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Post by FUBeAR on Oct 29, 2014 17:45:17 GMT -5
Georgia adds Samford to 2017 Football Schedule
"Georgia has now tentatively completed their non-conference football schedule for 2017. The Bulldogs are also scheduled to travel to Notre Dame on Sept. 9 and Georgia Tech on Nov. 25 and host Appalachian State on a date to be announced." Well...that goes against some rumors I had heard...
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Post by BearDownMU on Oct 29, 2014 18:15:59 GMT -5
Interesting. I had heard differently as well.
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badnewsbear
Penfield Bear
"May they defend this house like and angry bear defends its den." - C. McMahon
Posts: 51 
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Post by badnewsbear on Oct 30, 2014 7:52:40 GMT -5
Georgia adds Samford to 2017 Football Schedule
"Georgia has now tentatively completed their non-conference football schedule for 2017. The Bulldogs are also scheduled to travel to Notre Dame on Sept. 9 and Georgia Tech on Nov. 25 and host Appalachian State on a date to be announced." Well...that goes against some rumors I had heard... Very disappointing... If you are going to play a socon team and send big bucks their way, you'd think they would keep it in the state of ga. Oh well, all good things come with time and we just need a little more time to garner respect... |
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badnewsbear
Penfield Bear
"May they defend this house like and angry bear defends its den." - C. McMahon
Posts: 51
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Post by badnewsbear on Oct 30, 2014 7:55:51 GMT -5
This also goes along with many of their policies about not playing us in baseball and really not wanting to play us in basketball. I really think their might be some bad blood between the two, but it probably just comes down to us being new at football (and good at baseball and basketball)...
I saw their head basketball coach Mark Fox at a banquet and asked him when they were going to put Mercer back on the schedule. His exact words were, "when this group leaves." Now they have left and we are back on their schedule so he is a man of his word. That being said, I think we still have a great shot at beating them (as we always have), and now we have the confidence to finish.
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Post by jackal on Oct 30, 2014 10:58:28 GMT -5
Georgia adds Samford to 2017 Football Schedule
"Georgia has now tentatively completed their non-conference football schedule for 2017. The Bulldogs are also scheduled to travel to Notre Dame on Sept. 9 and Georgia Tech on Nov. 25 and host Appalachian State on a date to be announced." Well...that goes against some rumors I had heard... Very disappointing... If you are going to play a socon team and send big bucks their way, you'd think they would keep it in the state of ga. Oh well, all good things come with time and we just need a little more time to garner respect... Not necessarily. Until they played us in 2010, University of South Carolina had not played Furman since 1982. Of course, the fact that Furman beat them in 1982 had something to do with that. |
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Post by FUBeAR on Oct 30, 2014 11:40:43 GMT -5
Very disappointing... If you are going to play a socon team and send big bucks their way, you'd think they would keep it in the state of ga. Oh well, all good things come with time and we just need a little more time to garner respect... Not necessarily. Until they played us in 2010, University of South Carolina had not played Furman since 1982. Of course, the fact that Furman beat them in 1982 had something to do with that. I've heard about that 1982 game. My wife reminded me just last week that she'd heard about that game too....about 9,996,743 times. |
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Post by underscorex on Oct 31, 2014 10:16:55 GMT -5
Just an observation - UGA doesn't seem terribly willing to play in-state opponents. They see themselves as the only football program that "matters" in the state. Playing Southern a few years back was meant to take those guys down a peg - they're good, but they're not BOOLDWAG good, in essence.
Personally, I have no interest in seeing Mercer play UGA. I don't think the program *needs* the payday in the way that some other schools might, and it's better to hone our program against evenly matched opponents than going and getting blown out in exchange for a bunch of new uniforms.
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Post by BearDownMU on Oct 31, 2014 10:25:51 GMT -5
To be fair, it's more than just the money. And the money is important. Mercer does well financially, but a half a million dollars is a ton in comparison to the fundraising goals and annual raise that comes in. Makes a difference.
But, outside of just the dollars, there are a number of other reasons these games matter.
First and foremost, it's a treat for the kids. Having played baseball at Mercer, we got really excited for chances to go and play UGA, GA Tech, Auburn, Florida State, Florida. It fun to go and see the facilities and meet those guys. And not, even 20 years later, I remember playing against Nomar Garciaparra, Jason Varitek, Tim Hudson, JD Drew, David Eckstein etc. It really is a fun thing for the kids. At least, it was for us. I even struck out JD Drew. I've been telling that story for 20 years. (I also gave up a 9,000 ft home run to Nomar, but we aren't talking about that).
Secondly, especially for a school like Mercer, there is a pretty significant marketing impact. That game against UGA would definitely be on local television. And people will "see" Mercer in that game. You almost can't buy that kind of exposure from a marketing standpoint. People watching those games may have kids considering Mercer. Or may become interested in Mercer. So, basically, you are getting paid a lot of money to come and get exposed to a lot more people.
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Post by FUBeAR on Oct 31, 2014 10:37:43 GMT -5
Just an observation - UGA doesn't seem terribly willing to play in-state opponents. They see themselves as the only football program that "matters" in the state. Playing Southern a few years back was meant to take those guys down a peg - they're good, but they're not BOOLDWAG good, in essence. Personally, I have no interest in seeing Mercer play UGA. I don't think the program *needs* the payday in the way that some other schools might, and it's better to hone our program against evenly matched opponents than going and getting blown out in exchange for a bunch of new uniforms. Playing those games is more than about the money...but the money is quite nice! Pays for better compensation to retain Coaches (VERY Important), expenses for other non-revenue sports, and upgrades to the facilities, uniforms (as you mentioned), and a whole lot of other things. Maybe a bigger factor which does directly translate to winning FCS games is in Recruiting. When competing in recruiting, future schedules are used as a marketing tool. Particularly at the FCS level - kids want to play in those kinds of environments during their careers and against the 'supposed' upper echelon....And if you happen to win one (see App St @ Michigan, 2007), you can use that in recruiting for years to come. Personally, I played and coached for an FCS team that played @ Vanderbilt @ Clemson, @ North Carolina, @ Florida, @ NC State (3x), @ South Carolina (2x), and @ GT. We won 4 of those 9 games and 'competed' in almost all of them. Yeah, that's ancient history, but I know how I felt when I compared that school's schedule to other schools that were recruiting me, how I felt while playing/coaching those games, and how I felt when winning them. Losing them doesn't hurt too bad because it's what everyone, who is not playing (or coaching) in the game, expects. And, though I haven't done or seen a study, it is my experience that there is no greater risk of injuries in those games than in FCS games...actually, there may be less (but I won't go into why that is - other than to say that the biggest difference between FCS and FBS is 1 or 2 elite players and, more importantly, overall depth). So really - Mercer playing against 1 (or even 2) FBS opponents / year is ALL UPSIDE. They will be ready to do that in 2016 (they're probably ready now...but I won't go into that either) against GT and they would have been ready to face UGa in 2017, but it looks like the Dawgs want to send some money to AL instead of keeping it in the home state as I had heard was going to be the case. Disappointing. |
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Post by FUBeAR on Oct 31, 2014 10:51:14 GMT -5
To be fair, it's more than just the money. And the money is important. Mercer does well financially, but a half a million dollars is a ton in comparison to the fundraising goals and annual raise that comes in. Makes a difference. But, outside of just the dollars, there are a number of other reasons these games matter. First and foremost, it's a treat for the kids. Having played baseball at Mercer, we got really excited for chances to go and play UGA, GA Tech, Auburn, Florida State, Florida. It fun to go and see the facilities and meet those guys. And not, even 20 years later, I remember playing against Nomar Garciaparra, Jason Varitek, Tim Hudson, JD Drew, David Eckstein etc. It really is a fun thing for the kids. At least, it was for us. I even struck out JD Drew. I've been telling that story for 20 years. (I also gave up a 9,000 ft home run to Nomar, but we aren't talking about that). Secondly, especially for a school like Mercer, there is a pretty significant marketing impact. That game against UGA would definitely be on local television. And people will "see" Mercer in that game. You almost can't buy that kind of exposure from a marketing standpoint. People watching those games may have kids considering Mercer. Or may become interested in Mercer. So, basically, you are getting paid a lot of money to come and get exposed to a lot more people. I guess you type faster than me... |
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Post by bear38 on Oct 31, 2014 17:34:00 GMT -5
What does the Ga Tech payday look like?
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Post by underscorex on Nov 1, 2014 11:48:08 GMT -5
Just an observation - UGA doesn't seem terribly willing to play in-state opponents. They see themselves as the only football program that "matters" in the state. Playing Southern a few years back was meant to take those guys down a peg - they're good, but they're not BOOLDWAG good, in essence. Personally, I have no interest in seeing Mercer play UGA. I don't think the program *needs* the payday in the way that some other schools might, and it's better to hone our program against evenly matched opponents than going and getting blown out in exchange for a bunch of new uniforms. Playing those games is more than about the money...but the money is quite nice! Pays for better compensation to retain Coaches (VERY Important), expenses for other non-revenue sports, and upgrades to the facilities, uniforms (as you mentioned), and a whole lot of other things. Maybe a bigger factor which does directly translate to winning FCS games is in Recruiting. When competing in recruiting, future schedules are used as a marketing tool. Particularly at the FCS level - kids want to play in those kinds of environments during their careers and against the 'supposed' upper echelon....And if you happen to win one (see App St @ Michigan, 2007), you can use that in recruiting for years to come. Personally, I played and coached for an FCS team that played @ Vanderbilt @ Clemson, @ North Carolina, @ Florida, @ NC State (3x), @ South Carolina (2x), and @ GT. We won 4 of those 9 games and 'competed' in almost all of them. Yeah, that's ancient history, but I know how I felt when I compared that school's schedule to other schools that were recruiting me, how I felt while playing/coaching those games, and how I felt when winning them. Losing them doesn't hurt too bad because it's what everyone, who is not playing (or coaching) in the game, expects. And, though I haven't done or seen a study, it is my experience that there is no greater risk of injuries in those games than in FCS games...actually, there may be less (but I won't go into why that is - other than to say that the biggest difference between FCS and FBS is 1 or 2 elite players and, more importantly, overall depth). So really - Mercer playing against 1 (or even 2) FBS opponents / year is ALL UPSIDE. They will be ready to do that in 2016 (they're probably ready now...but I won't go into that either) against GT and they would have been ready to face UGa in 2017, but it looks like the Dawgs want to send some money to AL instead of keeping it in the home state as I had heard was going to be the case. Disappointing. I'll be honest, it's UGA specifically I have an issue with. As an institution and a program they seem to be pretty "high and mighty" when it comes to other instate schools. I wouldn't give them the pleasure of a game against the Bears. (I'm a Gators fan, so there may be some extra hateration) |
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Post by bear38 on Nov 2, 2014 6:58:56 GMT -5
Rumor is that there is another SEC school in discussion for 2017.
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Post by underscorex on Nov 2, 2014 9:39:54 GMT -5
Well, I've been to Ben Hill Griffin and Jordan-Hare, so a trip to Neyland or Williams-Brice might be nice.
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Post by bear38 on Nov 2, 2014 19:02:51 GMT -5
Well, I've been to Ben Hill Griffin and Jordan-Hare, so a trip to Neyland or Williams-Brice might be nice. Not sure those are the schools in the rumor. We will see. |
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