OT: D1

[Fightingscot82]

UMass making about as strong of a hire as they could have made for UMass taking the Rutgers DC and making him the highest paid coach in the MAC. I had forgotten that he was the HC at Maine several years ago and took them deep into the FCS playoffs.

[Fightingscot82]

It’s not taking long for ESPN and the powers that be to push a 3 loss SEC team into the playoff field. Yes Miami has lost two of three, but I don’t think losing to a ranked Syracuse and a GT that just went into Georgia and should’ve won is any worse than getting absolutely trucked by a really bad Oklahoma team. It’ll get even more interesting should SMU lose to Clemson. Will Alabama jump ahead of SMU to stay in the field if that happens?

ESPN has to protect their bottom line. Wouldn't be surprised if they have an NIL deal with SEC players.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

It’s not taking long for ESPN and the powers that be to push a 3 loss SEC team into the playoff field. Yes Miami has lost two of three, but I don’t think losing to a ranked Syracuse and a GT that just went into Georgia and should’ve won is any worse than getting absolutely trucked by a really bad Oklahoma team. It’ll get even more interesting should SMU lose to Clemson. Will Alabama jump ahead of SMU to stay in the field if that happens?

Roll. Damn. Tide.

[Chuck Norris]

It’s not taking long for ESPN and the powers that be to push a 3 loss SEC team into the playoff field. Yes Miami has lost two of three, but I don’t think losing to a ranked Syracuse and a GT that just went into Georgia and should’ve won is any worse than getting absolutely trucked by a really bad Oklahoma team. It’ll get even more interesting should SMU lose to Clemson. Will Alabama jump ahead of SMU to stay in the field if that happens?

[IUPNation]

So The Cignetti Mafia makes the playoffs. Fake Indiana sits at 10 and with only Conference title games determining the last rankings they will be on the road to someplace for Round 1.

[IUP24]

I wish Rodney Hammond luck wherever he lands. I mean that sincerely. It’s zero surprise to me that he requested a redshirt after his suspension was lifted so that he could transfer.

I know the whole story about the “ruled ineligible” thing. I give the Pitt coaches, specifically Pat Narduzzi, credit for sticking by him. Many (most) would not have and would have sent him out to pasture. I hope Rodney is on a better path. He was a big part of their 2021 ACC Championship team, but he could never really get his footing going after.

[Ship69]

The ACC has academic standards, too. I don't know if WVU makes it there, either.

And the fact that WVU is cutting academic programs left and right probably won't make people view them more favorably.

[IUP24]

I don't think the ACC wants them. I know the B1G doesn't want them largely due to academics.

The ACC never wanted them even when they were available during the first wave of expansion. Academics played a very small part. The ACC wanted more northern expansion, which Pitt provided in a major city. And they wanted Syracuse for basketball and potential access into New York. WVU did not fit what they were looking for at time.

During the 2nd wave of expansion (which is when Cincy, Houston, and UCF went to the Big 12), WVU wanted to leave the Big 12, but nobody would take them. At that point, the B1G, SEC, and ACC were focused only on television dollars OR expanding their television network. Adding WVU added about one-fifth of the television sets that adding SMU did (based on how they calculate those numbers out - it's not as simple as looking at population only; cable providers, cable offerings, etc., all play a part).

The way that works is the dollars generated by the TV deal can fluctuate up or down depending on how television sets you are reaching. That money that comes in gets split evenly amongst the schools. WVU would have entered the league and added the fewest number of television sets in the conference, meaning that everybody's annual payout in the ACC's tv deal would not increase. They added SMU (Dallas), Cal (Oakland), and Stanford (San Francisco/San Jose) which increased the number of televisions they had access to significantly. And for 5 years, each of those schools have agreed to come in and take only a portion of the annual television money, meaning more money for all other members.

As a Pitt fan, and a fan of the Backyard Brawl, I would love for WVU to be an ACC foe.

[IUP24]

WVU fans are right behind Pitt in the delusions of grandeur. One man isn't going to come in there and turn things around. They've had the best they can have in terms of resources. Its a dying state with a limited fan base. The university is in decline. I'm sure some mining idiots paid for Brown to go away. I'm with you that things were pretty decent in Morgantown. Ask the guy what he needs to succeed more and try to make it happen. The worst thing they can do is hire a name who flips that job after 2 or 3 years for the next SEC opening.

I don't know a ton about Neal Brown on a personal level. But you, and the post you are responding to, referenced Pitt/Narduzzi. I think a lot of people overlook how critically important it is at A LOT of programs to have a coach that is unequivocally dedicated and devoted to the job that they are in. People wanted to get rid of Brown, a guy who loved the WVU job. We'll see what happens there.

People at Pitt want to move on from Narduzzi, but forget that he's won more ACC games than all but 3 programs since 2015 and won the ACC in 2021. He loves the Pitt job. You want to move on from him? Fine. But make sure you remember the Todd Graham, Mike Haywood, and Paul Chryst merry-go-round that set the program back a full decade before you do so.

Like you said, it is a far better approach to find a way to generate resources to help the guy who unapologetically wants to be your coach than it is to move onto a different guy who wants to use your job as a launching pad.

[Fightingscot82]

James Madison is an "it" school right now, and that momentum predates HRH Curt Cig's arrival. JMU is probably living the life IUP should have achieved: regional state school turned into midsized D1 research university. They're also northern enough to attract a wide variety of kids. Anything further and you're suddenly in a VERY different Virginia than kids who live in Fairfax, Arlington, or Winchester. Richmond is very old South. Remember, they were the capitol of the CSA and until recently had their main street filled with memorials to Confederate generals. Richmond is also more of a basketball town. It gets much more rural and Kentuckyish west from there. You'll have a hard time attracting kids from Pennsylvania down there, even if they're into the rural MAGA life, because they're not accepted. I once interviewed for a job in Lexington and the only time comparable that I've been so eager for the interview to be over (in my industry they're regularly a full day to 1.5 days) is interviewing for a job in Morgantown.

[IUP24]

My question is, who do they think they’re going to land to replace him? The only way they land a perceived top-tier coach is if he’s fired from a more prominent program. Maybe a Mike Norvell at Florida State or someone along those lines (not saying Norvell is getting fired). It’s not a top-tier program and it’s hardly a destination you point to on a map and say, “I’d love to live there.” Their best bet would be to land an up-and-comer from a smaller school, maybe even FCS, and let him use you for a few years before maybe earning a job with a top-tier team.

Some of these schools just need to be a little more realistic. If West Virginia makes the CFP once every ten years and makes a run at it a time or two in between, that’s pretty darned good. If it weren’t for some untimely injuries, I believe Pitt could have remained in the conversation this year for at least a few more weeks. Unfortunately it went the other direction but that’s another program that has had some success including a recent ACC title in 2021 with a coach that apparently a lot of people don’t like. They would have been in the playoff in 2021 and if you ask me, that’s pretty darned good.

I think WVU would have been better served to keep Brown and let him build something similar to what Narduzzi has done at Pitt. It’s not spectacular, but it’s not awful either and at least you have consistency and every few years you can find yourself in the conversation for a conference title or playoff spot. Now they’re going to throw a bunch of money at someone and think that’s going to solve their problems. As Nation pointed out, they’re also a misfit in the Big 12 so there’s that too.

Good points. The barometer for 90% of college teams should be to win 8 games a year. That's your data point. 7 is below the line, 8 is a good year, 9+ is a really nice year. Too many want 10+ wins every season, every where. That's just not realistic.

I don't know what Brown's buyout was. But in the world that we exist in today, WVU would have been better off taking whatever money they spent to have Brown not coach for them and invest it into the upcoming revenue sharing model to build and/or maintain their roster. I don't think enough people understand that now WVU has to pay Brown to not coach there, pay a new coach, AND pay to field a football team. Brown won 9 games last year. Take the money that you used to get rid of him and help him build a roster that he can win 9 games again with. All this does now is put the new coach in a position where he will have fewer resources to be successful in a world where you need legitimately every cent you can to win a football game.

[IUP24]

Virginia Tech was once an IT school with students I. My bc areas years ago in the 2000’s. It seems to have fallen off that map..I see more James Madison flags on homes now.

Virginia is a very nice state to live in. My sister lives there.

Once outside of the immediate DC area, the schools there are very sequestered into rural-ish, middle to upper class areas that are very nice communities. The use of the word rural may be wrong, so I urge people to not dive too much into that, but I can't think of a better word. UVA is in Charlottesville, which is wine country and a beautiful area overall. Harrisonburg, which is where JMU is located, is a fast growing area of VA. Lynchburg is where Liberty is at, and for being in the middle of nowhere, is a pretty nice little town and community.

Richmond is not rural, but it's not near enough to DC to catch the hustle of the big city. Similarly, William & Mary is in Williamsburg, which is a Richmond suburb. But that's an extremely quiet, beautiful community and area. Even going closer to the coast, Old Dominion is in Norfolk, right near Virginia Beach. The Virginia Beach community can be crime riddled at times (like most seasonal beach towns), but Norfolk is a decently developed town that is pretty nice too.

About the only school that really doesn't fit that mold in the state and outside of DC is Virginia Tech. I went there for a football game 6 years ago, and there is just nothing there. Coal, farming, and power plants. Just desolate country in the mountains of Virginia. I struggle to even call Blacksburg a town it's that small.

When I was at IUP, there was a massive push to tap into Virginia for student recruiting purposes. But with the growth of many of those communities in those towns I mentioned, I bet all PA state schools are struggling to bring those kids north. Virginia is such a nice state. They aren't a southern state (despite their claims), but the weather tends to be nicer there and warmer for longer. The communities are new and growing, and there is so much historical influence to many towns and areas, that despite so much growth and development, they still maintain the look of the colonialism days, which makes for some pretty cool architecture in some of the communities around the state. You have the easy access to DC and Baltimore. You aren't far from the beach.

It's a really nice state to live in.

[IUPNation]

I actually thought Virginia Tech should have gone after him when they moved on from Justin Fuente. I think he would have had an opportunity to be successful there. I think that would have been a good fit.

Brent Pry has done okay I guess. Fuente was extremely concerned about recruiting the Red River states of Texas and Oklahoma, which is where he's from. VT had little cache there, and it did not work out. The Coastal Tidewater, as well as the DMV, were always two areas that Frank Beamer really recruited well. Fuente did not care about players there and ruined VT's inroads in that region. Over the last 5 years, other ACC schools like Georgia Tech, Pitt, the Carolina schools have all done really well there.

I think VT's allure in the overall hierarchy of college football has been forever overblown in my opinion. Outside of maybe a 3-5 year stretch under Beamer, they've been mostly above average at best. Rarely great. Optics and theatre tend to create positive narratives for many programs that are fueled by the media. I doubt people view VT as this college football hotbed if they didn't run out to Enter Sandman and have 65,000 at Lane Stadium most Saturdays.

Virginia Tech was once an IT school with students I. My bc areas years ago in the 2000’s. It seems to have fallen off that map..I see more James Madison flags on homes now.

[Fightingscot82]

I actually thought Virginia Tech should have gone after him when they moved on from Justin Fuente. I think he would have had an opportunity to be successful there. I think that would have been a good fit.

Brent Pry has done okay I guess. Fuente was extremely concerned about recruiting the Red River states of Texas and Oklahoma, which is where he's from. VT had little cache there, and it did not work out. The Coastal Tidewater, as well as the DMV, were always two areas that Frank Beamer really recruited well. Fuente did not care about players there and ruined VT's inroads in that region. Over the last 5 years, other ACC schools like Georgia Tech, Pitt, the Carolina schools have all done really well there.

I think VT's allure in the overall hierarchy of college football has been forever overblown in my opinion. Outside of maybe a 3-5 year stretch under Beamer, they've been mostly above average at best. Rarely great. Optics and theatre tend to create positive narratives for many programs that are fueled by the media. I doubt people view VT as this college football hotbed if they didn't run out to Enter Sandman and have 65,000 at Lane Stadium most Saturdays.

I honestly don't know how high the ceiling is for UVA and VT in the new climate. Their success was largely in the days before 75% of recruiting was done online. Both schools have admissions standards similar to Duke, Georgia Tech, and Northwestern. UVA has a weird old Southern money culture too that doesn't resonate with most football recruits. Charlottesville and Blacksburg are both GREAT college towns, though.

[IUP24]

Liberty HC Jamey Chadwell is the front runner at UCF. I'm not sure that's a great match. If it doesn't happen, that's who WVU should pursue. The dude wins, Google him. LOL Culturally I think he's much more aligned with West Virginia than Florida. Dude is from rural East Tennessee and has coached in the Carolinas and southern Virginia. That doesn't sound or look like Orlando.

I actually thought Virginia Tech should have gone after him when they moved on from Justin Fuente. I think he would have had an opportunity to be successful there. I think that would have been a good fit.

Brent Pry has done okay I guess. Fuente was extremely concerned about recruiting the Red River states of Texas and Oklahoma, which is where he's from. VT had little cache there, and it did not work out. The Coastal Tidewater, as well as the DMV, were always two areas that Frank Beamer really recruited well. Fuente did not care about players there and ruined VT's inroads in that region. Over the last 5 years, other ACC schools like Georgia Tech, Pitt, the Carolina schools have all done really well there.

I think VT's allure in the overall hierarchy of college football has been forever overblown in my opinion. Outside of maybe a 3-5 year stretch under Beamer, they've been mostly above average at best. Rarely great. Optics and theatre tend to create positive narratives for many programs that are fueled by the media. I doubt people view VT as this college football hotbed if they didn't run out to Enter Sandman and have 65,000 at Lane Stadium most Saturdays.