FB: Old Dominion Athletic Conference

[HSCTiger fan]

https://hscathletics.com/news/2023/8/20/football-marty-favret-announces-2023-will-be-his-final-season.aspx

All the best coach!

[hasanova]

ODAC preseason poll is out ... RMC on top.

Also, looks as though Roanoke is adding football.  Club in 2024, ODAC team in 2025.

[y_jack_lok]

ODAC preseason poll is out ... RMC on top.

Also, looks as though Roanoke is adding football.  Club in 2024, ODAC team in 2025.

How does a club football team work? Who will they play in '24 before entering conference play in '25?

Here's an article from the Roanoke athletic website: https://roanokemaroons.com/news/2023/6/1/6_1_2023_86.aspx

[Pat Coleman]

ODAC preseason poll is out ... RMC on top.

Also, looks as though Roanoke is adding football.  Club in 2024, ODAC team in 2025.

How does a club football team work? Who will they play in '24 before entering conference play in '25?

Here's an article from the Roanoke athletic website: https://roanokemaroons.com/news/2023/6/1/6_1_2023_86.aspx

Typically you might play someone else's JV team, or a club team from someone like Virginia Tech if they exist, or a postgrad military academy type. If you get 4-5 games in that developmental season, I'd consider that a success.

[y_jack_lok]

^^^Thanks. Makes sense. Also, in the "club" year how does the funding work for uniforms, equipment, travel, etc,? I assume most club sports (which aren't as expensive as football) don't receive a lot of institutional financial support. Since Roanoke's football "club" will move to varsity status, does that set it apart from other sports clubs? The article says they've raised $1.3 million, so I'd guess the club year expenses would come from that. Or does that money have to be reserved for when it's an official varsity sport?

[Wild Horse Rider]

Jack I was discussing something along these lines when it comes to budgets for smaller college football programs specifically in regards to team travel.  After looking at the article I believe you are correct that all of the initial funding will come from that $1.3M raised.  There typically is not "funding" that comes from a booster club that will work towards day to day costs including the ones you mentioned below.  I'm sure that the College will have recruiting numbers that the coaching staff must bring in each year.  They mention a recruiting goal of 50 for 2024 and I would imagine that the goal would be the same for 2025.  That will produce a roster of about 90-100 depending on retention of the 24 class.  The question then is does the administration wish for 50 new student athletes annually or are they looking at a maximum/minimum number of players.  Some of the schools up north have roster caps.  Other institutions that use the athletic programs as ways to "fill beds" will likely have a minimum number that the programs need to have.  Based on the way the article reads the College is planning on using Football, Cheerleading, and the Marching Band as a way to boost enrolment.

With all that said when we thought about an operating budget for the program I was associated with in a previous life we would actually put a dollar figure to each student athlete that we recruited.  We had recruiting minimums that were placed on our program at the time and when we submitted for our budget we based it on that number.  For example if we were required to have 100 players that we recruited still enrolled in the school by drop add we would request our budget to be $200,000 ($2K per kid).  I am making these numbers up for the sake of this discussion but I think you will get the point.  This budget would cover equipment, uniforms, travel, training, recruiting, maintenance of fields/weight room/locker room, and though we did not include it in that budget request you could include coaching salaries (but you would likely need to increase the dollar figure).

Now if you look specifically at Roanoke College the average cost of school after financial aid based on a quick google search is $28K.  The funding for the athletic program come directly from the cost of attendance.  This would not actually matter if the sport was club, intermural, JV, or Varsity level.  I'm sure that programs such as RMC and Hamden-Sydney have fairly well supported athletic booster funds based on the age of the schools/programs but not every school in the ODAC much less DIII will have booster programs that can really provide enough funds to handle daily operations (nor should they in my opinion).  I would rather see the booster funds go towards betterment of the programs or to provide things directly for the players.  I am not talking about NIL, which I can't see being a thing at this level, but money for things like travel gear, cleats, workout gear, or things along those lines.  I am sure that there are some programs out there in DIII can do that but I promise you it is not all of them.  Even something as little as cleats for a program of 100 players would be somewhere between $8k-$10K.

That was a really long way to answer you question of is the money reserved for an official varsity sport and I would believe the answer to be no.

[Pat Coleman]

I agree with WHR here that that funding would absolutely be used to start up this team for its developmental year.

[y_jack_lok]

RMC roster: https://rmcathletics.com/sports/football/roster?sort=jersey

[Macon]

Key to this roster is 40 seniors, including an astonishing 17 fifth year players.  Should bode well for the Jackets.

[y_jack_lok]

Key to this roster is 40 seniors, including an astonishing 17 fifth year players.  Should bode well for the Jackets.

Yes, I noticed a lot of seniors, sophomores and freshmen, but only 19 juniors. This year's 23 4th year seniors were freshmen in the fall of 2020. Do those guys still have a Covid year of eligibility? If so and some of them opt for a 5th year, then that will help with experience next season. If they don't have a 5th year (or do but don't utilize it) then the 2024 squad will be a bit young.

[HansenRatings]

Playoff projections for the season using my model's preseason ratings:



You can look at other conferences on my website: https://hansenratings.github.io/.

[y_jack_lok]

^^^Thanks. I already follow you on Twitter/X. Appreciate your work. Is there somewhere on your website that describes and defines each of the columns of data you compute? Many are self-explanatory, of course, but a few aren't.

[HansenRatings]

^^^Thanks. I already follow you on Twitter/X. Appreciate your work. Is there somewhere on your website that describes and defines each of the columns of data you compute? Many are self-explanatory, of course, but a few aren't.

I had such a page on my pre-COVID website (I let the domain name lapse in 2020 and couldn't figure out how to get it back). I should probably recreate one. Thanks for the heads-up

[y_jack_lok]

^^^Thanks. I already follow you on Twitter/X. Appreciate your work. Is there somewhere on your website that describes and defines each of the columns of data you compute? Many are self-explanatory, of course, but a few aren't.

I had such a page on my pre-COVID website (I let the domain name lapse in 2020 and couldn't figure out how to get it back). I should probably recreate one. Thanks for the heads-up

Will look forward to it.

[jknezek]

Always nice to take apart the USASAC competition. 3-0. Unfortunately everywhere else in D3 did not look so good for the ODAC, 0-4. And a win against NNA which... well, NNA is occasionally good, but generally not.

I expected W&L to get beat by Salisbury. Option on option, and Salisbury has been better at it for a long time. Stat wise W&L did good things. Controlled the clock, had 21 first downs. Low penalties.  Lots of yards. On the other hand, 4 fumbles, all lost, including two inside the Salisbury 21 yard line on the first two drives didn't help W&L. Neither did giving up TD runs of 52 and 83 yards, or averaging 4 punts for 21 yards. Defensively, kept Salisbury to 3-10 on 3rd down and 0-2 on 4th. So they got some stops, but gave up the big plays also.

H-SC did well against Wabash, just not quite enough. No thoughts on Muskingum. Bridgewater getting rolled by Susquehanna was a bit of a surprise. A loss, sure, but to get trampled I did not expect.

Anyway, not a great look for the ODAC this week.