This may signal the increasing challenge of finding multiple OOC opponents within a reasonable distance.  Particularly true for the better teams as other schools don't want to schedule them either to take a beating or reduce their chances of an at-large bid to the playoffs Travel budgets factor in for many schools as well.  If this arrangement continues, it would be interesting if Randolph-Macon draws its rival Hampden-Sydney to play twice!

I suspect the startup of Roanoke football is driving this. Hard to promise home and home series when you won't have room to schedule them going forward. Also, that third OOC is hard to get. I don't expect this will last more than this season as Roanoke appears to be on schedule to play conference ball in 2025.

Quote from: y_jack_lok on March 12, 2024, 07:16:27 PMRMC schedule announced: https://rmcathletics.com/news/2024/3/12/rmc-football-releases-2024-schedule.aspx

The accompanying article says this: "In 2024, each ODAC school will play one conference opponent twice. RMC drew Washington and Lee..."

Curious to know what is behind this decision, as opposed to schools having three non-conference games.

It sounds like conference schools were having trouble filling dates for just one season. Roanoke joins the schedule in 2025 so everyone had a one-year gap to fill.

Thanks for the clarification. Whew.

I miss the days when W&L's non-conference schedule spanned a large geographic area. From Sewanee in Southern TN, to a myriad of Pennsylvania schools and west to Centre in Kentucky on a regular basis. Usually it was one game local, 2 games geographically spread. This year we have:

Salisbury, Newport News, and Randolph-Macon. W&L's entire season will be played in the mid-atlantic, with Salisbury being a 5 hour trip only because it's a royal pain to get there. Maybe you can exclude Guilford as the mid-atlantic, but only by state boundary, not by any considerable distance margin.

I just can't get excited about this. Not one little bit. Option on option game 1. Uggh. Non-D3 game 2. Double uggh. Conference opponent game 3. Triple uggh.

I know that third opponent is getting hard to find, but it wasn't that long ago we had Johns Hopkins, Sewanee, and C-M-S. Or Averett (pre-ODAC), Sewanee and Centre. Or F&M, Sewanee, and Southern Virginia.

Conference consolidation has just sucked for interesting OOC games. In the ancient times of the late 90s we had 4 or 5 OOC games. I remember going to Johns Hopkins, Davidson, Sewanee, Centre, and Swarthmore (RIP to the program), all in the same home and home 2 season span. We had OOC rivalries and a chance for player parents up and down the whole coast to get to a game easily.

Now... well, it's just uninspiring. I admire the Builders for their program and the challenges they face, but I hate that they are consistently on W&L's schedule (4th or 5th time since 2015). I hate having lost Centre and Sewanee, rivalries that lasted more than 50 seasons, with Sewanee getting 66 of 67 straight years (not counting the 2019 gap). I hate that we haven't played in New York outside of a playoff game in 25+ years. Or that we've never come down to some of the drivable SAA peer type institutions in the deep south now that Sewanee is off the schedule. Rhodes (1976), B-SC (never), Millsaps (never), and Berry (never).

It's just so uninspiring to see this schedule and as conferences continue to consolidate I just don't see it getting any better.

Stumbled across this a few minutes ago:

https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/draft/news/2024-nfl-draft-small-college-prospects-to-watch-at-pro-days-including-a-qb-who-also-stars-on-special-teams/

"David Wallis, WR, Randolph-Macon
Wallis (5-foot-11, 180 pounds) was excellent down at the College Gridiron Showcase, and what stood out to me the most while I was there was his tremendous burst and acceleration. Then when I went back and studied his game, it was obvious that this kid is a legit speed demon. Wallis averaged 21.5 yards per catch during his career. He was a legit deep threat for the Yellow Jackets, and it wouldn't surprise me to see him crack 4.3 seconds in the 40-yard dash on the pro day circuit. With his kickoff return experience, combined with his speed, expect him to be in an NFL training camp this summer."

H-SC's 2x ODAC opponent is Bridgewater
https://hscathletics.com/sports/football/schedule/2024

Averett gets Ferrum 2x
https://averettcougars.com/sports/football/schedule

So that leaves Shenandoah and Guilford 2x

Ferrum announces they are following E&H to D2. The ODAC gains a football school and loses one. I won't cry for the other sports, but this season's schedule is bad enough. Let's not make it the norm.

Quote from: jknezek on April 05, 2024, 05:19:25 PMFerrum announces they are following E&H to D2. The ODAC gains a football school and loses one. I won't cry for the other sports, but this season's schedule is bad enough. Let's not make it the norm.

Just saw that. Here's the article from the Ferrum website: https://ferrumpanthers.com/news/2024/4/5/general-ferrum-college-set-to-move-to-division-ii-and-join-conference-carolinas.aspx

There seems to be lots of change going on at all levels of college sports.

Quote from: y_jack_lok on April 05, 2024, 06:31:03 PM

Quote from: jknezek on April 05, 2024, 05:19:25 PMFerrum announces they are following E&H to D2. The ODAC gains a football school and loses one. I won't cry for the other sports, but this season's schedule is bad enough. Let's not make it the norm.

Just saw that. Here's the article from the Ferrum website: https://ferrumpanthers.com/news/2024/4/5/general-ferrum-college-set-to-move-to-division-ii-and-join-conference-carolinas.aspx

There seems to be lots of change going on at all levels of college sports.

Fron the article


PROJECTED TIMELINE OF TRANSITION FROM NCAA DIVISION III TO DIVISION II
March 2024 - Board of Trustees Approves Proposal to seek membership in Division II
April 2024 - Invite to join Conference Carolinas
February 2025 - Application to NCAA
Summer 2025 - Official Approval from NCAA into DII
Fall 2025 - Begin DII competition in CC
July 2027 - Permanent membership into CC

Well I wish them luck. Honestly though, other than being a "body" for football, they came to the ODAC and made almost no impact on any sport. They went 5-2 their last year in the USASAC and never won more than 3 conference games in a season in the ODAC.

In their 5 years in the ODAC, they never finished higher than 10th in the Overall Commissioner's Cup, and last year they finished dead last among full-time co-ed members. Frankly I'm pretty sure they never won a single sport, men's or women's, since coming to the ODAC.

Just a non-entity in the ODAC except, as I said, for rounding out football schedules.

RMC's David Wallis has a shot with the New England Patriots. https://rmcathletics.com/news/2024/4/28/football-wallis-receives-new-england-patriots-camp-invitation.aspx

SAA and ODAC have a larger scheduling agreement.
https://d3football.com/notables/2024/05/saa-odac-schedule

Quote from: Pat Coleman on May 17, 2024, 10:02:17 AMSAA and ODAC have a larger scheduling agreement.
https://d3football.com/notables/2024/05/saa-odac-schedule

Now this I'm excited about. Going to Trinity is going to be a rough game, but playing R-MC twice wasn't much better in my opinion. So I'm excited that W&L gets a marquee opponent and an incredible travel game. I hate that B-SC shut down, but this is a very cool replacement.

I also like that they did what the ODAC didn't do with the USASAC, matched the expected better programs together. W&L and RMC get Berry and Trinity at the top. H-SC, Shenandoah and Bridgewater get more middle tier games against Centre, Rhodes and Millsaps, while ODAC struggler Guilford gets SAA struggler Sewanee.

W&L can most likely afford the short-notice flight of all the ODAC schools. It will be a long drive for Bridgewater if they choose not to fly. The ODAC seems to have gotten the best of the travel, with Berry making a trek, Rhodes making a trek, Centre making a trek and Sewanee getting the shortest travel.

^^^ When I saw this I wasn't paying attention and thought it was for 2025, so kind of shrugged and thought "so what". Sounds like a great arrangement and definitely much better than ODAC teams having to play a conference opponent twice.