Open Dates Posted

[Redbird28]

http://footballscoop.com/the-scoop/

Illinois State (FCS – IL): Illinois State has open dates in 2020, 2021, and 2022 (two open dates). We are looking for games on 9/12/2020, 9/11/2021, 9/3/2022, and 9/10/2022. Open to FCS opponents. Willing to schedule a “Home and Home.” Please email Quality Control Analyst Nick Meyer at nrmeyer@ilstu.edu if interested.

Glad they aren't looking at any more D2 Games for those open slots.

 

[StLRedbird]

Can we assume that EIU H&H is a given? So, FBS, EIU, and open dates in '20, '21, and '22, with 2 open dates in '22. I count 12 Saturdays between Labor Day weekend and the week before Thanksgiving, so 12 games that season?

I would love to see us start scheduling H&Hs with the best programs in FCS. In particular, we should look at the CAA since the Dakotas and UNI traditionally look west.

 

[isuquinndog]

We have a Quality Control Analyst?

 

[Virginia Redbird]

Can we assume that EIU H&H is a given? So, FBS, EIU, and open dates in '20, '21, and '22, with 2 open dates in '22. I count 12 Saturdays between Labor Day weekend and the week before Thanksgiving, so 12 games that season?

I would love to see us start scheduling H&Hs with the best programs in FCS. In particular, we should look at the CAA since the Dakotas and UNI traditionally look west.

YES, look to the CAA! Quite a few of those teams are fairly close to me and I would love the chance to see the Birds on the road. Purely selfish on my part but James Madison, William & Mary, Richmond are all easy drives from here.
FYI, for all of us that complain about the drop in production over the past couple years (myself included), it is time to get a little perspective. It was just a few seasons ago that a University of Richmond team came into Hancock and handed the Birds a huge Loss in the playoffs. Richmond went 4-7-0 in 2018. That is quite a fall from where that program was at.

 

[redbirds2000]

Can we assume that EIU H&H is a given? So, FBS, EIU, and open dates in '20, '21, and '22, with 2 open dates in '22. I count 12 Saturdays between Labor Day weekend and the week before Thanksgiving, so 12 games that season?

I would love to see us start scheduling H&Hs with the best programs in FCS. In particular, we should look at the CAA since the Dakotas and UNI traditionally look west.

YES, look to the CAA! Quite a few of those teams are fairly close to me and I would love the chance to see the Birds on the road. Purely selfish on my part but James Madison, William & Mary, Richmond are all easy drives from here.
FYI, for all of us that complain about the drop in production over the past couple years (myself included), it is time to get a little perspective. It was just a few seasons ago that a University of Richmond team came into Hancock and handed the Birds a huge Loss in the playoffs. Richmond went 4-7-0 in 2018. That is quite a fall from where that program was at.

Richmond has changed coaches since then too.

 

[Chi-bird]

My top 5 FCS choices for home and home:

1. Montana
2. JMU
3. Chattanooga
4. Liberty
5. Furman

 

[Virginia Redbird]

My top 5 FCS choices for home and home:

1. Montana
2. JMU
3. Chattanooga
4. Liberty
5. Furman

Isn't Liberty playing FBS in 2019? I know they are moving to FBS and thought the target season was 2019.

 

[Chi-bird]

My top 5 FCS choices for home and home:

1. Montana
2. JMU
3. Chattanooga
4. Liberty
5. Furman

Isn't Liberty playing FBS in 2019? I know they are moving to FBS and thought the target season was 2019.

Good catch. They actually started this past year as an independent.

 

[Bender]

I'm not sure if I've seen this posted elsewhere on the board, but it looks like we'll be seeing one of the newest FCS teams in the country playing the Redbirds at Hancock in 2020.

https://fbschedules.com/dixie-state-byu-colorado-state-plus-eight-more-future-schedules/

Dixie State University, located in St. George, Utah, will begin competing as an FCS Independent beginning with the 2020 season.

Illinois State

The Trailblazers will travel to take on the Illinois State Redbirds on Nov. 21, 2020. DSU will receive a $85,000 guarantee.

 

[StLRedbird]

I'm not sure if I've seen this posted elsewhere on the board, but it looks like we'll be seeing one of the newest FCS teams in the country playing the Redbirds at Hancock in 2020.

https://fbschedules.com/dixie-state-byu-colorado-state-plus-eight-more-future-schedules/

Dixie State University, located in St. George, Utah, will begin competing as an FCS Independent beginning with the 2020 season.

Illinois State

The Trailblazers will travel to take on the Illinois State Redbirds on Nov. 21, 2020. DSU will receive a $85,000 guarantee.

So our non-con in '20 is Illinois, EIU, and Dixie St. This just highlights why I don't like the perpetual H&H with Eastern. If you want to schedule a cupcake and a FBS every year, you have no ability to schedule other decent FCS opponents in the non-con.

 

[redbirds2000]

I'm not sure if I've seen this posted elsewhere on the board, but it looks like we'll be seeing one of the newest FCS teams in the country playing the Redbirds at Hancock in 2020.

https://fbschedules.com/dixie-state-byu-colorado-state-plus-eight-more-future-schedules/

Dixie State University, located in St. George, Utah, will begin competing as an FCS Independent beginning with the 2020 season.

Illinois State

The Trailblazers will travel to take on the Illinois State Redbirds on Nov. 21, 2020. DSU will receive a $85,000 guarantee.

So our non-con in '20 is Illinois, EIU, and Dixie St. This just highlights why I don't like the perpetual H&H with Eastern. If you want to schedule a cupcake and a FBS every year, you have no ability to schedule other decent FCS opponents in the non-con.

Which one is the cupcake??


Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

 

[fourthandshort]

I'm not sure if I've seen this posted elsewhere on the board, but it looks like we'll be seeing one of the newest FCS teams in the country playing the Redbirds at Hancock in 2020.

https://fbschedules.com/dixie-state-byu-colorado-state-plus-eight-more-future-schedules/

So our non-con in '20 is Illinois, EIU, and Dixie St. This just highlights why I don't like the perpetual H&H with Eastern. If you want to schedule a cupcake and a FBS every year, you have no ability to schedule other decent FCS opponents in the non-con.

Which one is the cupcake??


Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

no need to pile on our big brother like that .. they're trying !!!

:mrgreen:

 

[ISUBU]

I'm not sure if I've seen this posted elsewhere on the board, but it looks like we'll be seeing one of the newest FCS teams in the country playing the Redbirds at Hancock in 2020.

https://fbschedules.com/dixie-state-byu-colorado-state-plus-eight-more-future-schedules/

Dixie State University, located in St. George, Utah, will begin competing as an FCS Independent beginning with the 2020 season.

Illinois State

The Trailblazers will travel to take on the Illinois State Redbirds on Nov. 21, 2020. DSU will receive a $85,000 guarantee.

This looks like a scheduling win to me. We'll have some good company in schools scheduling Dixie State: BYU, Colo St, Montana, SDSU, etc. That's not a bad group to be a part of.

But then you look at the deals...I think ours is the best. A 1 time buy game for $85K. Other schools were paying more, sometimes a LOT more for the same. Others offered buy games along with home and homes, or 2 for 1's. We get them once, at our place, for an apparently modest fee. Seems like smart scheduling in every way except name recognition/ crowd appeal. Now that is important, but so are other considerations. All in all, I think it's good work.

 

[Virginia Redbird]

I'm not sure if I've seen this posted elsewhere on the board, but it looks like we'll be seeing one of the newest FCS teams in the country playing the Redbirds at Hancock in 2020.

https://fbschedules.com/dixie-state-byu-colorado-state-plus-eight-more-future-schedules/

Dixie State University, located in St. George, Utah, will begin competing as an FCS Independent beginning with the 2020 season.

Illinois State

The Trailblazers will travel to take on the Illinois State Redbirds on Nov. 21, 2020. DSU will receive a $85,000 guarantee.

This looks like a scheduling win to me. We'll have some good company in schools scheduling Dixie State: BYU, Colo St, Montana, SDSU, etc. That's not a bad group to be a part of.

But then you look at the deals...I think ours is the best. A 1 time buy game for $85K. Other schools were paying more, sometimes a LOT more for the same. Others offered buy games along with home and homes, or 2 for 1's. We get them once, at our place, for an apparently modest fee. Seems like smart scheduling in every way except name recognition/ crowd appeal. Now that is important, but so are other considerations. All in all, I think it's good work.

Looks to be a good deal financially but I don't see anyone getting excited about playing Dixie State. Better than the NAIA game last season but who really cares about playing Dixie State? I have one question though. Why does it seem that ISU only looks central and west for non conference games? NAU, Colo State, Dixie State, Austin Peay, Abeliene Christian in the past few years. The last 2-3 years have all been west. There are some top FCS teams out east and also some fertile recruiting ground. I get the idea of scheduling some games against other teams in the center of the country and of course I get scheduling FBS teams when they can but it appears that as far as the eastern part of the country...it seems ISU believes it ends at Eastern Illinois!

 

[fourthandshort]

I'm not sure if I've seen this posted elsewhere on the board, but it looks like we'll be seeing one of the newest FCS teams in the country playing the Redbirds at Hancock in 2020.

https://fbschedules.com/dixie-state-byu-colorado-state-plus-eight-more-future-schedules/

This looks like a scheduling win to me. We'll have some good company in schools scheduling Dixie State: BYU, Colo St, Montana, SDSU, etc. That's not a bad group to be a part of.

But then you look at the deals...I think ours is the best. A 1 time buy game for $85K. Other schools were paying more, sometimes a LOT more for the same. Others offered buy games along with home and homes, or 2 for 1's. We get them once, at our place, for an apparently modest fee. Seems like smart scheduling in every way except name recognition/ crowd appeal. Now that is important, but so are other considerations. All in all, I think it's good work.

Looks to be a good deal financially but I don't see anyone getting excited about playing Dixie State. Better than the NAIA game last season but who really cares about playing Dixie State? I have one question though. Why does it seem that ISU only looks central and west for non conference games? NAU, Colo State, Dixie State, Austin Peay, Abeliene Christian in the past few years. The last 2-3 years have all been west. There are some top FCS teams out east and also some fertile recruiting ground. I get the idea of scheduling some games against other teams in the center of the country and of course I get scheduling FBS teams when they can but it appears that as far as the eastern part of the country...it seems ISU believes it ends at Eastern Illinois!

I used to wonder same thing. Someone once explained .... simply due to demograhics of travel for all FCS teams involved .... lot of east coast schools have to schedule games they can afford to travel to .... and the concentration of available FCS schools thins considerably as you go from east to central to west. So it is is just sheer numbers game and travel budgets.

And I have zero issue schedule 1 FCS patsy every year. I used to be fine with the h&h deal with EIU when they were more competitive, assuming we also got an ok FBS game. But we've owned EIU the last 2 years ... we had much tougher time with them in our 2 best years (2014 & 15) than we have in 2017 & 18. So I'm willing to start doing h&h with a year off occassionally to open up other more competitive opportunities.

That said, so long as MVFC is toughest SOS, I don't have much issue with current scheduling model: FBS, Patsy, EIU. But change of scenery would be nice.

 

[Virginia Redbird]

This looks like a scheduling win to me. We'll have some good company in schools scheduling Dixie State: BYU, Colo St, Montana, SDSU, etc. That's not a bad group to be a part of.

But then you look at the deals...I think ours is the best. A 1 time buy game for $85K. Other schools were paying more, sometimes a LOT more for the same. Others offered buy games along with home and homes, or 2 for 1's. We get them once, at our place, for an apparently modest fee. Seems like smart scheduling in every way except name recognition/ crowd appeal. Now that is important, but so are other considerations. All in all, I think it's good work.

Looks to be a good deal financially but I don't see anyone getting excited about playing Dixie State. Better than the NAIA game last season but who really cares about playing Dixie State? I have one question though. Why does it seem that ISU only looks central and west for non conference games? NAU, Colo State, Dixie State, Austin Peay, Abeliene Christian in the past few years. The last 2-3 years have all been west. There are some top FCS teams out east and also some fertile recruiting ground. I get the idea of scheduling some games against other teams in the center of the country and of course I get scheduling FBS teams when they can but it appears that as far as the eastern part of the country...it seems ISU believes it ends at Eastern Illinois!

I used to wonder same thing. Someone once explained .... simply due to demograhics of travel for all FCS teams involved .... lot of east coast schools have to schedule games they can afford to travel to .... and the concentration of available FCS schools thins considerably as you go from east to central to west. So it is is just sheer numbers game and travel budgets.

And I have zero issue schedule 1 FCS patsy every year. I used to be fine with the h&h deal with EIU when they were more competitive, assuming we also got an ok FBS game. But we've owned EIU the last 2 years ... we had much tougher time with them in our 2 best years (2014 & 15) than we have in 2017 & 18. So I'm willing to start doing h&h with a year off occassionally to open up other more competitive opportunities.

That said, so long as MVFC is toughest SOS, I don't have much issue with current scheduling model: FBS, Patsy, EIU. But change of scenery would be nice.

The travel budgets make sense and something I had not thought that much about. Here on the east coast the teams are generally fairly close together and the trips are not that long. CAA is an example with schools being essentially Mid-Atlantic to the Northeast and not very long trips overall for away games. ISU has much longer travel in the MVC heading out to North & South Dakota.
I like the EIU game for the history of the rivalry but it has been one sided the past couple of years. I was wondering if the current status of the football program at EIU is tied in part to the struggles that the Illinois directional universities are having financially and enrollment wise. Maybe it is just the cycle of a program going through a rebuild. There are very few programs like NDSU that just seem to ramble along year to year at or near the top. Most programs have a couple off or rebuilding years much like the last two at ISU. While I like tradition and still like the EIU game I would be more interested in what is going to help the ISU program. If dropping the EIU game or rotating it every other year is in the best interest of Redbird Football then do it.

 

[MadBird]

Don't necessarily want to turn this into a thread on the EIU game, but . . . I have generally been in favor of keeping the game, most years it seems like a good match-up, saves both teams on some travel dollars, allows fans to hit the road, etc. Here's a good page from Wiki with all the scores. We've only won like 60% in the last 10 years, they had their way with us in the 70's. We owned the 50's and 60's and 00's.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mid-America_Classic

 

[fourthandshort]

Looks to be a good deal financially but I don't see anyone getting excited about playing Dixie State. Better than the NAIA game last season but who really cares about playing Dixie State? I have one question though. Why does it seem that ISU only looks central and west for non conference games? NAU, Colo State, Dixie State, Austin Peay, Abeliene Christian in the past few years. The last 2-3 years have all been west. There are some top FCS teams out east and also some fertile recruiting ground. I get the idea of scheduling some games against other teams in the center of the country and of course I get scheduling FBS teams when they can but it appears that as far as the eastern part of the country...it seems ISU believes it ends at Eastern Illinois!

I used to wonder same thing. Someone once explained .... simply due to demograhics of travel for all FCS teams involved .... lot of east coast schools have to schedule games they can afford to travel to .... and the concentration of available FCS schools thins considerably as you go from east to central to west. So it is is just sheer numbers game and travel budgets.

And I have zero issue schedule 1 FCS patsy every year. I used to be fine with the h&h deal with EIU when they were more competitive, assuming we also got an ok FBS game. But we've owned EIU the last 2 years ... we had much tougher time with them in our 2 best years (2014 & 15) than we have in 2017 & 18. So I'm willing to start doing h&h with a year off occassionally to open up other more competitive opportunities.

That said, so long as MVFC is toughest SOS, I don't have much issue with current scheduling model: FBS, Patsy, EIU. But change of scenery would be nice.

The travel budgets make sense and something I had not thought that much about. Here on the east coast the teams are generally fairly close together and the trips are not that long. CAA is an example with schools being essentially Mid-Atlantic to the Northeast and not very long trips overall for away games. ISU has much longer travel in the MVC heading out to North & South Dakota.
I like the EIU game for the history of the rivalry but it has been one sided the past couple of years. I was wondering if the current status of the football program at EIU is tied in part to the struggles that the Illinois directional universities are having financially and enrollment wise. Maybe it is just the cycle of a program going through a rebuild. There are very few programs like NDSU that just seem to ramble along year to year at or near the top. Most programs have a couple off or rebuilding years much like the last two at ISU. While I like tradition and still like the EIU game I would be more interested in what is going to help the ISU program. If dropping the EIU game or rotating it every other year is in the best interest of Redbird Football then do it.

speaking of the scheduling demograhics issue ... this is essentially the exact same reason Colonial gets so many 1st round playing games against weaker auto-bids from weak conferences ... just a lot more teams/conference on eastern seaboard. Conferences like MVFC and Big Sky get to take turns playing the only patsy conference in central and west .. Pioneer.

 

[Redbird28]

Looks to be a good deal financially but I don't see anyone getting excited about playing Dixie State. Better than the NAIA game last season but who really cares about playing Dixie State? I have one question though. Why does it seem that ISU only looks central and west for non conference games? NAU, Colo State, Dixie State, Austin Peay, Abeliene Christian in the past few years. The last 2-3 years have all been west. There are some top FCS teams out east and also some fertile recruiting ground. I get the idea of scheduling some games against other teams in the center of the country and of course I get scheduling FBS teams when they can but it appears that as far as the eastern part of the country...it seems ISU believes it ends at Eastern Illinois!

I used to wonder same thing. Someone once explained .... simply due to demograhics of travel for all FCS teams involved .... lot of east coast schools have to schedule games they can afford to travel to .... and the concentration of available FCS schools thins considerably as you go from east to central to west. So it is is just sheer numbers game and travel budgets.

And I have zero issue schedule 1 FCS patsy every year. I used to be fine with the h&h deal with EIU when they were more competitive, assuming we also got an ok FBS game. But we've owned EIU the last 2 years ... we had much tougher time with them in our 2 best years (2014 & 15) than we have in 2017 & 18. So I'm willing to start doing h&h with a year off occassionally to open up other more competitive opportunities.

That said, so long as MVFC is toughest SOS, I don't have much issue with current scheduling model: FBS, Patsy, EIU. But change of scenery would be nice.

The travel budgets make sense and something I had not thought that much about. Here on the east coast the teams are generally fairly close together and the trips are not that long. CAA is an example with schools being essentially Mid-Atlantic to the Northeast and not very long trips overall for away games. ISU has much longer travel in the MVC heading out to North & South Dakota.
I like the EIU game for the history of the rivalry but it has been one sided the past couple of years. I was wondering if the current status of the football program at EIU is tied in part to the struggles that the Illinois directional universities are having financially and enrollment wise. Maybe it is just the cycle of a program going through a rebuild. There are very few programs like NDSU that just seem to ramble along year to year at or near the top. Most programs have a couple off or rebuilding years much like the last two at ISU. While I like tradition and still like the EIU game I would be more interested in what is going to help the ISU program. If dropping the EIU game or rotating it every other year is in the best interest of Redbird Football then do it.

I think it's no coincidence that the EIU program has went downhill since the old Jerry's Pizza and Pub was torn down in 2017. We used to hit that joint every time we came over there for a game. Is it Pagliai's level of tasty? No, but it was good nonetheless and you could snag a beer before heading to their field.

 

[chuckie1980]

Googling things...."National Map of FCS Football schools and conferences" produced this...

http://footballscoop.com/news/interactive-map-shows-every-program-plays-ncaa-football/

And the ultimate mapping....I wonder whom the ncaa savant is!! This site appears to be under development but speaks volumes about FCS clusters of schools.

http://ncaasavant.com/apps/map.php?div=fcs&conf=