SRP
Postdoc
Posts: 4911
Reg: 02-04-06
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09-03-14 12:42 AM - Post#172527
In response to gopenngo
My curmudgeonly eye detects a general decline in the quality of PR bafflegab everywhere, not just in the Penn AD. Or perhaps that's just my "sense of standard."
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Stuart Suss
PhD Student
Posts: 1439
Loc: Chester County, Pennsylva...
Reg: 11-21-04
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Schedule facts
09-03-14 02:42 AM - Post#172529
In response to SRP
To add some clarity to the schedule:
1. 18 of the 28 opponents are fixed (Ivy and Big 5).
2. Lafayette is a long-term, regular opponent.
3. Marist, Monmouth and Rider are contractual home games arising from the fact that we played those teams on the road last year.
4. Niagara and Wagner are contractual road games arising from the fact that we played those teams at home last year.
5. Those 24 of the 28 opponents were known when last season ended.
6. We added three new schools to the schedule as likely home and home contracts, Delaware State at home, Navy and Binghamton on the road.
7. The game at Vanderbilt is our customary guarantee game, for budgetary purposes. Usually it is used as either a national TV opponent (Duke, Kentucky) or a return home for players as was the case with UCLA (Bernardini, Cartwright, Crocker) and Iowa (Dau Jok). Vanderbilt seems to fit in neither category, just a paycheck.
8. We were not scrambling to find opponents in the last few weeks, as was suggested. The opponents have been known for some months. The delay in the release of the schedule was because the dates of the games had to be agreed upon, not the identity of the opponents.
9. The quality of the schedule should be praised or criticized based upon the 3 new contract opponents and the one guarantee game, not the 24 fixed opponents.
10. Outside of the Big 5, we have five non-conference home games and five non-conference road games. I suppose that in a perfect world we would alternate home games and road games, but as long as they even up at the end who cares?
11. It is somewhat foolish to complain about one home game between November 22 and January 17 when (a) we play only two total games in a 32 day stretch because of exams and holidays, and (b) three of the road games require "long journeys" to Temple, LaSalle and Princeton. There are plenty of issues of concern regarding the program. The sequence of home and road games is one of the lesser of those issues.
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palestra38
Professor
Posts: 32819
Reg: 11-21-04
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Re: Schedule facts
09-03-14 08:27 AM - Post#172533
In response to Stuart Suss
Good morning Stu. Hate to disagree with you but the defenses you offer only suggest that the incompetence has taken place over a longer period of time than this one year, not that there has been no incompetence. Yes, the return games have been developed over a period of time, but whose fault is it that we have no return games due from anyone good and the general level of competition has dropped substantially since 2007 (Drexel, Virginia, North Carolina and Miami (Fl)--even Elon at home), over which period we have dropped from top 100 to 300s level. Then there is the issue of 1 home game over 2 months during the heart of the season. Sorry, close road games don't count. While we will be there, that's about 40-50 people max. No students go and no interest is generated. Moreover, it is unfair to season ticket holders to concentrate all their non-league games to essentially 2-2 week periods. (Since when have holidays ever stopped us from getting games--sure, Finals, but that is 2 weeks in December). Finally, the need to scramble for even 3 games does indeed suggest general incompetence of a level that surrounded the Italy trip last year---how could not heads have rolled over that? My view of everything that has been transpired? The new AD views this as a throwaway season and the old AD stopped caring a while before we got here.
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13otto
Masters Student
Posts: 779
Loc: Philadelphia, PA
Reg: 11-22-04
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Re: Schedule facts
09-03-14 12:16 PM - Post#172541
In response to Stuart Suss
Well stated, Stu. I'm in agreement. And having only one home game between November 22 and January 17 is fine since the students will be on break for more than half of the road games during that time frame. It appears that the schedule is set up so the students will be around for at least the first 13 home games.
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Quakers03
Professor
Posts: 12533
Reg: 12-07-04
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2014-2015 schedule
09-05-14 11:51 PM - Post#172620
In response to SRP
My curmudgeonly eye detects a general decline in the quality of PR bafflegab everywhere, not just in the Penn AD. Or perhaps that's just my "sense of standard."
The Internet and social media have changed everything.
As for the schedule, and I love you Stu and appreciate you Otto, but just because they are prior obligations doesn't make them the right obligations. They don't just get let off the hook for all of these awful teams because they're locked in. Then again, this group gets let off the hook for just about everything...
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