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Post by brandon on Aug 23, 2017 9:21:00 GMT -6
Someone told me today that we are trying to negotiate deals with Montana, JSU, and Chattanooga. He said the plan is to be able to play A&M and JSU every year. Also play the best from around the country as well. Well NDSU,Western Illinois is a good start. Getting Montana and Chattanooga would be awesome too. Maybe we could turn one of those into a cross country rivalry. Wouldn't mind going to Montana some. Beautiful state, great stadium and atmosphere. Would love to see schools like that in Florence. Living in Chattanooga, playing the Mocs would be awesome. Obviously we need to play them in Florence and not just Chattanooga, but I won't complain about a game 20 minutes away. The Mocs don't always even draw as many fans as we do, but they have really improved their game day experience over the years. Finley Stadium is a great facility, the tailgating and pregame festivities are fun, plus there are a lot of fantastic bars and restaurants within walking distance of the stadium or s short drive away. I want this to be a rivalry so bad, but I admit I'm biased! Playing JSU and A&M would also be an incredible deal for us. To get back our biggest historical rival and one that sits just an hour away is almost enough to justify moving to FCS by themselves. As for Montana, I actually remember talking to some of their fans about 8 years ago (don't remember the exact year), when the FCS title game was still in Chattanooga and my office was a short walk from Finley. They seemed to be a very friendly group of folks. I came away a fan that day. Would love to play them. I would venture to say that, unless my gut is wrong, playing schools like this, year in and year out would cause our already strong fan base (at games) to grow a ton. We average around 10k a year with schools that for the most part none of our core fan base cares about, what about the average fan? I would venture to say that UNA could be (with the right strategies) one of the premier FCS schools in the nation. In my mind that includes- NDSU, Montana, Montana State, James Madison, Villinova, Sam Houston State. I leave off JSU simply because it is relatively new ground for them in FCS being a power, but they could make the list in a year or two. The problem is, the fans are going to have go realize that the first couple of years are going to be tough. But if they stick with UNA it will be worth it. We will do well in a short amount of time. I can realistically see a conference championship 1st year eligible. That would also mean playoffs in the first eligible year. I would also see 2 or 3 teams from the Big South in the playoffs at that time too. But all that to say I would not be surprised to see sold out games at Braly in the next couple of years. Then a new stadium built within (I will go long) 10 years. Probably sooner being that the contract to play at Braly is up in 2022 I think. I would also venture to say that a 25 to 30k seat stadium is being planed now.
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Post by brandon on Aug 29, 2017 10:37:03 GMT -6
Sept.7th 2019 at Montana..........
Per Montana website.
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Post by 1949lions on Aug 29, 2017 11:17:23 GMT -6
Sept.7th 2019 at Montana.......... Per Montana website. Wow, great!
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Post by brandon on Aug 29, 2017 15:41:13 GMT -6
Sept.7th 2019 at Montana.......... Per Montana website. Wow, great! The troubling thing is that Montana released it in June and UNA still hasn't. What's up with that? I guess they could be trying to negotiate a return game?
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Post by lions09 on Aug 30, 2017 13:22:53 GMT -6
I think they may be trying to build excitement by dripping out the scheduled teams. That said, I imagine all talk of 2018 and 2019 will slow down during this current season.
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Post by unafied on Aug 30, 2017 15:14:49 GMT -6
Agree, I think there is a certain lame-duck feeling they need to avoid. There's definitely no reason for people to feel that way about this team, since I think it can compete for a conference and maybe a national championship. But there's probably some casual fans that would be turned off when they hear about NDSU and Alabama A&M but see a team like Shorter on this year's schedule.
As for next year, I was talking to a coworker today who is a Kennesaw State graduate. I told him we should go together to the game next year, before I remembered that conference play doesn't start until 2019. I wonder how likely we are to play a few, if not all, of our Big South opponents next year? Obviously we would just be a non-conference game for them in 2018, but I have to think we'll pick up at least a game or two.
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Post by brandon on Aug 30, 2017 22:11:13 GMT -6
Agree, I think there is a certain lame-duck feeling they need to avoid. There's definitely no reason for people to feel that way about this team, since I think it can compete for a conference and maybe a national championship. But there's probably some casual fans that would be turned off when they hear about NDSU and Alabama A&M but see a team like Shorter on this year's schedule. As for next year, I was talking to a coworker today who is a Kennesaw State graduate. I told him we should go together to the game next year, before I remembered that conference play doesn't start until 2019. I wonder how likely we are to play a few, if not all, of our Big South opponents next year? Obviously we would just be a non-conference game for them in 2018, but I have to think we'll pick up at least a game or two. I would currently think they are working on it. I'm sure that the Big South commish is urging most of the Big South to plug UNA in the schedule if they have open dates. Or dropping any D2 schools they may have and add UNA. But what surprised me is that both JSU and Kennesaw chose to schedule each other next year when both could have scheduled UNA. We could have finally got JSU at home. Maybe it in the works.
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