2025 Non-Conference Games

[Fightingscot82]

I believe only a handful have released next year's schedules. Here's what I have without much research:

Indiana: vs. Ashland Sept 6

Lock Haven: vs. Glenville State Sept 6

Slippery Rock: @ New Haven Sept 4. Week 0 and Week 8 open.

[ctrabs74]

August 30: Lincoln (PA) (CIAA) at Shippensburg, 1:00pm

[IUPNation]

August 30: Lincoln (PA) (CIAA) at Shippensburg, 1:00pm

That’s not a bad game for a struggling program like Ship to start a season.

[ctrabs74]

Cal opens the season at home vs. Charleston on Sept. 4 and will host Frostburg State on Nov. 1 (that was the open date thanks to Mercyhurst bailing on the PSAC).

[Fightingscot82]

Cal opens the season at home vs. Charleston on Sept. 4 and will host Frostburg State on Nov. 1 (that was the open date thanks to Mercyhurst bailing on the PSAC).

Two great games. Probably the best they could do.

[Ram040506]

Cal opens the season at home vs. Charleston on Sept. 4 and will host Frostburg State on Nov. 1 (that was the open date thanks to Mercyhurst bailing on the PSAC).

That is a great slate against the best the MEC has. Kudos to Dunn and Cal!

[Finchwidget]

With UNC Pembrokes departure from the MEC, they'll be down to 9 teams, so one team will always have a bye week once they start conference play. Maybe some sort of scheduling alliance can be worked out between them and the PSAC to fill each others mid-season open dates.

[IUPNation]

With UNC Pembrokes departure from the MEC, they'll be down to 9 teams, so one team will always have a bye week once they start conference play. Maybe some sort of scheduling alliance can be worked out between them and the PSAC to fill each others mid-season open dates.

The Home Office In Lock Haven isn't clever enough to think of that.......but it would make sense.

[Ship69]

That’s not a bad game for a struggling program like Ship to start a season.

We'll see. They didn't exactly play a powerhouse in last year's opener and ended up losing that one.

[ctrabs74]

Two great games. Probably the best they could do.

They certainly couldn't have lucked out better in getting two quality out-of-conference - and in-region - games to fill out their slate.

[ctrabs74]

With UNC Pembrokes departure from the MEC, they'll be down to 9 teams, so one team will always have a bye week once they start conference play. Maybe some sort of scheduling alliance can be worked out between them and the PSAC to fill each others mid-season open dates.

This is presuming those MEC teams want to play a PSAC team out of conference. Remember, the CIAA will also have an open date during conference play as they only have 11 teams with St Augustine dropping their athletics program.

[Finchwidget]

This is presuming those MEC teams want to play a PSAC team out of conference. Remember, the CIAA will also have an open date during conference play as they only have 11 teams with St Augustine dropping their athletics program.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but outside of Lincoln, the PSAC and the CIAA don't really face each other much out-of-conference. Probably doesn't help that half the league is based out of North Carolina, but even Bowie State doesn't play that many PSAC games; looks like the last PSAC opponent they faced was Seton Hill back in 2017. Meanwhile there were 5 PSAC-MEC games last year, and another 3 scheduled for this upcoming year. I guess it does presume the MEC would want to play the PSAC more than just Week 1, but if it fills open dates with nearby teams, I don't see why the MEC might see that as a bad thing, other than maybe being upset at giving Shepherd a game once like every 3 or 4 years.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but outside of Lincoln, the PSAC and the CIAA don't really face each other much out-of-conference. Probably doesn't help that half the league is based out of North Carolina, but even Bowie State doesn't play that many PSAC games; looks like the last PSAC opponent they faced was Seton Hill back in 2017. Meanwhile there were 5 PSAC-MEC games last year, and another 3 scheduled for this upcoming year. I guess it does presume the MEC would want to play the PSAC more than just Week 1, but if it fills open dates with nearby teams, I don't see why the MEC might see that as a bad thing, other than maybe being upset at giving Shepherd a game once like every 3 or 4 years.

Many, many teams are just playing 10 games.

Most don't see the point in playing an 11th -- financially.

Most lose money even on home games. By the time all game-day staff gets paid, etc., there isn't much (if anything) left.

Fans don't want to hear it but that's the reality.

[Fightingscot82]

Many, many teams are just playing 10 games.

Most don't see the point in playing an 11th -- financially.

Most lose money even on home games. By the time all game-day staff gets paid, etc., there isn't much (if anything) left.

Fans don't want to hear it but that's the reality.

Yes and no. At this level it's always a loss if you look at it purely from revenue vs cost to run a game. Ticket revenue is usually paying student scholarships, not staff. A lot of schools throw that into the general scholarship pool since football already brings in a lot.

A lot of those people would be paid otherwise or wouldn't have a job altogether. The students working the gate or the sidelines are probably work study. That's free federal money or they'd be working in some office on campus. The police would otherwise be checking cars for parking permits. The athletics staff would be home or working some other game that generates no revenue. The only real expense is paying the refs but that's not a lot of money and universal for all sports.

[Finchwidget]

Many, many teams are just playing 10 games.

Most don't see the point in playing an 11th -- financially.

Most lose money even on home games. By the time all game-day staff gets paid, etc., there isn't much (if anything) left.

Fans don't want to hear it but that's the reality.

I'm not sure if I buy that. I don't doubt that many schools lose money on games, but looking at last year's schedules, only 22 D2 teams played a 10 game schedule. Of those 22, 8 were NE10 schools (where I'll concede that playing only 10 games seems to be the norm for that conference), and another 6 were CIAA and PSAC teams that got blindsided by Mercyhurst/St. Augustine's leaving and who would've otherwise played 11 games. That leaves 8 schools that had a 10 game schedule last season without some kind of extenuating circumstance surrounding them. Maybe this sort of thing is happening in NAIA or D3, but it doesn't seem nearly as widespread in D2 as you claim (at least, for now).