Championship Subdivision Football | FCS Football | Stadiums | Blogs | Forums

the Florida Times-Union is reporting Appalachian has picked up Jacksonville University (the Dolphins!) as the opener for 2008. Personally, I hope it's not the case, but what say do I have?

After opening the 2007 season with an upset at Michigan, three-time defending national champion (Football Championship Subdivision) Appalachian State has scheduled the other extreme by kicking off 2008 at home against Jacksonville University. For the privilege of likely taking a lopsided defeat, the Dolphins' non-scholarship program under Kerwin Bell will pocket over a $100,000 guarantee, plus transportation expenses. ...

http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/s ... 1564.shtml

that sucks

dmb805 wrote:that sucks

Not necessarily. That depends on the balance of the OOC sched.

There's a difference between having the guts to play up and being suicidal about it. Take the '95 UOP Tigers (Big West Conference), for example. Scheduling Fresno State, Arizona, Nebraska, Oregon, and Oregon State in the first five games does nobody any favors; in fact, we (I was a redshirt QB on the team) got beat up so bad that we won ONE of those five games (somehow, we conned OSU into coming to Stockton and beat them) ended up 3-8. That was a direct cause of our demise as a program a week before Christmas that year.

Nobody wants to see that happen to ANYBODY, especially on the heels of what Appy did this past year.

(BTW, I don't even consider LSU. The D-I national champions are Appy because it was done on the field, not by a bogus poll.)

dmb805 wrote:that sucks

yes, but IMO it's a direct result of the playoff 'selection' last season. Call it our "Iona" game.

SuperHornet wrote:

dmb805 wrote:that sucks

Not necessarily. That depends on the balance of the OOC sched.

So what IS the balance of App's OOC schedule?

AZGrizFan wrote:
So what IS the balance of App's OOC schedule?

well, so far we got (all tentative, of course)

08/30 Jacksonville University Dolphins
09/06
09/13
09/20 @ James Madison
09/27 Presbyterian College
10/04 The Citadel
10/11
10/18 @ Ga Southern
10/25 Furman
11/01
11/08
11/15
11/22 @ Western Carolina

still need to add in the games @ Samford and @ Chattanooga and home games w/Wofford & Elon. Looks like we got 1-2 more spots to fill

I'll admit it: the presence of transitioning (I believe, anyway) Presbyterian makes the Jax game look bad. Or perhaps the other way around.

But aren't Wofford and Elon conference games? Shouldn't the conference have already settled that?

BigApp wrote:

AZGrizFan wrote:
So what IS the balance of App's OOC schedule?

well, so far we got (all tentative, of course)

08/30 Jacksonville University Dolphins
09/06
09/13
09/20 @ James Madison
09/27 Presbyterian College
10/04 The Citadel
10/11
10/18 @ Ga Southern
10/25 Furman
11/01
11/08
11/15
11/22 @ Western Carolina

still need to add in the games @ Samford and @ Chattanooga and home games w/Wofford & Elon. Looks like we got 1-2 more spots to fill

Wow. Jacksonville AND Presbyterian! Looks like the Griz schedule this last year.... Stand by for heavy rolls from the faithful regarding SOS!!!

AZGrizFan wrote:

BigApp wrote: well, so far we got (all tentative, of course)

08/30 Jacksonville University Dolphins
09/06
09/13
09/20 @ James Madison
09/27 Presbyterian College
10/04 The Citadel
10/11
10/18 @ Ga Southern
10/25 Furman
11/01
11/08
11/15
11/22 @ Western Carolina

still need to add in the games @ Samford and @ Chattanooga and home games w/Wofford & Elon. Looks like we got 1-2 more spots to fill

Wow. Jacksonville AND Presbyterian! Looks like the Griz schedule this last year.... Stand by for heavy rolls from the faithful regarding SOS!!!

Col Hogan wrote:

AZGrizFan wrote: Wow. Jacksonville AND Presbyterian! Looks like the Griz schedule this last year.... Stand by for heavy rolls from the faithful regarding SOS!!!

Is that for ME or for their schedule....

AZGrizFan wrote:

Col Hogan wrote:

Is that for ME or for their schedule....

Definately for the schedule...let me think about it for a while if it's also for you...

AZGrizFan wrote:
Wow. Jacksonville AND Presbyterian! Looks like the Griz schedule this last year.... Stand by for heavy rolls from the faithful regarding SOS!!!

I know...I know...too bad y'all won't play with us

I agree Jacksonville and PC are WEAK, but playing a top 10 maybe even top 5 FCS team on the road makes ASU's schedule harder than Montana's from 2007.

This is probably the weakest schedule ASU has had since I've followed ASU, 1985. As we usually schedule a FBS game and a playoff caliber team OOC. This is the first time they don't have a FBS/1-A program on the schedule EVER.

I was like "Yeah, right!" when I saw Saint3333's assertion that 2008 would be the first time Appy would be without a FBS opponent. But it looks like that might actually be true. The only sticking point would be 1978, when the best schools on the schedule were East Carolina, VMI, and East TN State. Not sure about their status. But even if the streak started in '79, seems to me to be hard to let that go at this late date. I wonder what's going through Appy's mind on this.

ASU was in 1-A until 1982 so this could be the first year ever for us with an FBS opponent since ASU was D1.

i guess we can look forward to a good home schedule this year. wofford, elon, furman, citadel all coming up to boone. it's just a shame that we can't find a legitamate fbs team. i would love to play nc state again and considering that their fans are extremely cocky and will probably never let up on beating us in 06, you wouldn't think they would be afraid to play us.