PSAC 2024 Football schedules being redone...

[Horror Child]

Yeah but the pay doesn't keep up nor do they get any sort of hazard pay for that. The people putting in the most hours at a college are on the bottom end of the pay scale.

Oh my heavens. Whatever shall we do to right this horrible injustice?

[Fightingscot82]

Unfortunately scheduling a 1980s-era Homecoming cupcake is long gone. Teams have no control over it anymore as it falls in the heart of the conference slate.

I actually hate that IUP is hosting SRU for Homecoming -- not because it's a tough game but because Homecoming is going to draw well regardless of opponent. I wish Clarion was the Homecoming game and then SRU was a different week. Two big gates instead of one.

A few years back Tort was actually the unofficial Homecoming King. He went 4-0 as a road team on those teams' Homecoming.

Being the road team always provides a little extra juice in that situation. Everybody wants to ruin the Homecoming game for the home school.

Same. Edinboro hosts IUP for Homecoming this year. Its the one home game where both sides are full and parking is an issue. Twice the tailgating, although both are free at Edinboro.

[iupgroundhog]

The Carlisle Sentinel is about the only news outlet that pays much attention to Ship these days, and even that has dropped off. We get an occasional story on PennLive or a few other sites if we've recruited some local kids. Almost no game day coverage and little about results. Mac has stopped even holding press conferences for football because nobody shows up. As far as the local TV stations Ship (and most of PASSHE for that matter) might as well not exist. It's Penn State this, Penn State that. We finally got a little notice on TV yesterday when Shapiro came to campus to tout the new higher education bill, but even that turned out to be more about the vice presidency speculation than about the education bill. It did give Ship a brief spotlight on state and even national news, which was great compared to what we've had.

Growing up in Lock Haven I was exposed to great sports journalism and coverage of LHU and the PSAC , in general, from an early age. In fact, as a result of reading sports in The Lock Haven Express IUP really came on my radar because the local paper covered IUP football, even though it was 120 miles away. But IUP had great teams then in the early '70's and was sort of in a league of its own, somewhere between PSU and the other state schools.

Today, the local media up there continues to provide great coverage of all LHU sports. The Express, while now corporate-owned, covers LHU, as does its sister publication The Sun-Gazette in Williamsport. Deeper sports coverage of all local sports, including LHU, comes from an online publication called therecord-online. The record-online was started by John Lipez from the family who owned the local radio station and provided great local sports coverage starting in the 1950's. The record-online also streams all local HS and college meets and games.

Also in the local mix is Tom Elling who is one of the leading wrestling journalists in the country. He is based at LHU and is the Editor of The Pennsylvania Wrestling Handbook and The Pennsylvania Football News, which focuses on PA HS football. He also coordinates and commentates on wrestling webcasts watched throughout the state. Tom, who is basically a contemporary of Joe Biden, is heading towards retirement. So, 2100 miles and 44 years removed from LH I can still follow all of the local sports from there, in written form and streaming.

Frankly, other local PSAC communities should take a look at the www.therecord-online.com model because it is a gem.

[Ship69]

Unfortunately scheduling a 1980s-era Homecoming cupcake is long gone. Teams have no control over it anymore as it falls in the heart of the conference slate.

I actually hate that IUP is hosting SRU for Homecoming -- not because it's a tough game but because Homecoming is going to draw well regardless of opponent. I wish Clarion was the Homecoming game and then SRU was a different week. Two big gates instead of one.

A few years back Tort was actually the unofficial Homecoming King. He went 4-0 as a road team on those teams' Homecoming.

Being the road team always provides a little extra juice in that situation. Everybody wants to ruin the Homecoming game for the home school.

It has changed. Last year Ship got caught by Lock Haven's improvement and even lost that one. When your team is not great and you draw a top-drawer opponent for Homecoming, it doesn't usually add up to an entertaining afternoon for the alumni. I really hope Mac can get us back on track, but it's not easy to get up off the mat these days.

[cwfenn]

Technically Post was a d2 independent when New Haven beat them in 2022 in Post’s first season. But their last non-conference victory over a D2 team that wasn’t brand new was against WCU in 2018.

Yep. Last regular season non conference win against someone that actually had business being on the field was Shaw in 2017.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

That's a rough opening, but we all get stretches such as that. Ship at one point plays Slippery Rock, Shepherd, and West Chester in a row, then, after a week at Millersville, gets Kutztown for homecoming. The Golden Bears are not an ideal homecoming opponent these days.

Unfortunately scheduling a 1980s-era Homecoming cupcake is long gone. Teams have no control over it anymore as it falls in the heart of the conference slate.

I actually hate that IUP is hosting SRU for Homecoming -- not because it's a tough game but because Homecoming is going to draw well regardless of opponent. I wish Clarion was the Homecoming game and then SRU was a different week. Two big gates instead of one.

A few years back Tort was actually the unofficial Homecoming King. He went 4-0 as a road team on those teams' Homecoming.

Being the road team always provides a little extra juice in that situation. Everybody wants to ruin the Homecoming game for the home school.

[Ship69]

Slippery Rock has pretty fun first half of the season. Opening at home against NE10 yearly favorite New Haven and then @ Shepherd. @ IUP in the first 5 weeks too.

That's a rough opening, but we all get stretches such as that. Ship at one point plays Slippery Rock, Shepherd, and West Chester in a row, then, after a week at Millersville, gets Kutztown for homecoming. The Golden Bears are not an ideal homecoming opponent these days.

[Ram040506]

The Martinsburg Journal does a decent job covering Shepherd sports. They do a write up every week prior to the game and then a post game recap article as well on Sundays. They will also do about 3-4 features on a story with the team or a player (Bagent got a few of these when he was there). The Hagerstown Herald does mostly a post game run down, and an occasional article about the spring game or other things happening as well. Better than nothing!

[Ship69]

It's not just Cal, but I certainly understand what you're saying.

As a whole, media coverage of the the PSAC is (my opinion) at an all-time low. There's a very small handful of newspapers that still cover some of our teams/sports. By 'cover' I mean actually having game stories, features, etc. Running a one-paragraph, chop-shop version of the SID public relations propaganda write-up isn't 'coverage'.

League marketing has been essentially nothing for decades.

I get it. The few people left reading newspapers mostly do so online. It's really easy to track the clicks. D2 doesn't get clicks.

This site is far and away the best place for news about D2 football and basketball. Obviously, to get said 'news' you have to sort through a lot of other stuff. A lot of players visit this site frequently. Ever notice every year when camp starts how many new posters suddenly surface? Those are simply players bored at night. A ton of coaches do, too.

Many programs do run a weekly Coaches' Show during the season. Some of them are a decent watch. Others are programmed robots saying the same stuff weekly.

After Timeout Gate last year, Tort's Monday show probably had the highest rating ever (if ratings actually existed for a D2 coaches' show lol).

The Carlisle Sentinel is about the only news outlet that pays much attention to Ship these days, and even that has dropped off. We get an occasional story on PennLive or a few other sites if we've recruited some local kids. Almost no game day coverage and little about results. Mac has stopped even holding press conferences for football because nobody shows up. As far as the local TV stations Ship (and most of PASSHE for that matter) might as well not exist. It's Penn State this, Penn State that. We finally got a little notice on TV yesterday when Shapiro came to campus to tout the new higher education bill, but even that turned out to be more about the vice presidency speculation than about the education bill. It did give Ship a brief spotlight on state and even national news, which was great compared to what we've had.

[Fightingscot82]

??? That's fairly normal in corporate America these days. I don't know many still doing 40 hours. I work 50-60 hours every week of the year.



That's sad about their staffing. It used to be you had to interview just to get a student job in the athletic department (that's how many people really wanted to get those student jobs).

Yeah but the pay doesn't keep up nor do they get any sort of hazard pay for that. The people putting in the most hours at a college are on the bottom end of the pay scale.

[ESU Warrior]

It's not just Cal, but I certainly understand what you're saying.

As a whole, media coverage of the the PSAC is (my opinion) at an all-time low. There's a very small handful of newspapers that still cover some of our teams/sports. By 'cover' I mean actually having game stories, features, etc. Running a one-paragraph, chop-shop version of the SID public relations propaganda write-up isn't 'coverage'.

League marketing has been essentially nothing for decades.

I get it. The few people left reading newspapers mostly do so online. It's really easy to track the clicks. D2 doesn't get clicks.

This site is far and away the best place for news about D2 football and basketball. Obviously, to get said 'news' you have to sort through a lot of other stuff. A lot of players visit this site frequently. Ever notice every year when camp starts how many new posters suddenly surface? Those are simply players bored at night. A ton of coaches do, too.

Many programs do run a weekly Coaches' Show during the season. Some of them are a decent watch. Others are programmed robots saying the same stuff weekly.

After Timeout Gate last year, Tort's Monday show probably had the highest rating ever (if ratings actually existed for a D2 coaches' show lol).

The pocono record and morning call does a decent job for ESU. I wish the state could somehow market better. A game of the week should be aired, and I said that for years before streaming (on PCN). When talking to high school seniors that want to go to the next level, they don’t even know who is in the PSAC, and what the difference is between Albright and kutztown.

I am curious how other conferences do it. The MIAA and GSC for sure.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Staffing at our schools is also pretty stressed with the exception of the handful of campuses still doing well. Everyone has an SID who is lucky to have a GA or some sort of assistance. SID is one of the craziest set of normalized work environment out there. Our SIDs work 50-60 hours a week half the year. Few if any are compensated accordingly.

??? That's fairly normal in corporate America these days. I don't know many still doing 40 hours. I work 50-60 hours every week of the year.



That's sad about their staffing. It used to be you had to interview just to get a student job in the athletic department (that's how many people really wanted to get those student jobs).

[Fightingscot82]

Staffing at our schools is also pretty stressed with the exception of the handful of campuses still doing well. Everyone has an SID who is lucky to have a GA or some sort of assistance. SID is one of the craziest set of normalized work environment out there. Our SIDs work 50-60 hours a week half the year. Few if any are compensated accordingly.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

This isn't overly shocking. It's almost as if the sports info folks at Hamer Hall are just doing the bare minimum to promote their own teams. You want live Twitter updates on Cal U games in progress? Good luck trying to find any, because even 10-12 years later, there's no effort at all on social media.

Which, for an athletic department which once acted like they were the D2 equivalent of Penn State complete with an arrogance level only matched by Dallas Cowboys fans and employees, is really pathetic (or at least that was the case when I went there about 10 years ago)..

It's not just Cal, but I certainly understand what you're saying.

As a whole, media coverage of the the PSAC is (my opinion) at an all-time low. There's a very small handful of newspapers that still cover some of our teams/sports. By 'cover' I mean actually having game stories, features, etc. Running a one-paragraph, chop-shop version of the SID public relations propaganda write-up isn't 'coverage'.

League marketing has been essentially nothing for decades.

I get it. The few people left reading newspapers mostly do so online. It's really easy to track the clicks. D2 doesn't get clicks.

This site is far and away the best place for news about D2 football and basketball. Obviously, to get said 'news' you have to sort through a lot of other stuff. A lot of players visit this site frequently. Ever notice every year when camp starts how many new posters suddenly surface? Those are simply players bored at night. A ton of coaches do, too.

Many programs do run a weekly Coaches' Show during the season. Some of them are a decent watch. Others are programmed robots saying the same stuff weekly.

After Timeout Gate last year, Tort's Monday show probably had the highest rating ever (if ratings actually existed for a D2 coaches' show lol).

[ctrabs74]

Week 1

IUP at Ashland - Ignore the coach-speak mumbo jumbo. The loser is in playoff trouble immediately. Can Tort get to 5-0 versus Ashland?

Assumption at Kutztown - The Bears oddly struggle in Week 1 - and then go nuts. Assumption may win, 2-0.

California at Charleston - Not much buzz out of the Mon Valley (yet). The Vulcans haven't gone away. Is Charleston next in line to take over the MEC?

This isn't overly shocking. It's almost as if the sports info folks at Hamer Hall are just doing the bare minimum to promote their own teams. You want live Twitter updates on Cal U games in progress? Good luck trying to find any, because even 10-12 years later, there's no effort at all on social media.

Which, for an athletic department which once acted like they were the D2 equivalent of Penn State complete with an arrogance level only matched by Dallas Cowboys fans and employees, is really pathetic (or at least that was the case when I went there about 10 years ago)..