2025 General Football Thread

[Tiger93]

9 minutes ago, TSU88 said:

I wonder how long UNH & Rhode Island are going to stay? And Maine too. Just wondering if those 3 NE schools could cobble together a New England centric conference, that they may bolt too.

Meanwhile, the PL is going to have a helluva football conference, with all these CAA additions. I’d beg them to let us join, for football, but I doubt they’d take us.

I hate to be gloomy Gus here, but at the moment I’m not bullish on the future sustainability of TU football. We can’t go up (I forgot to mention earlier that FCS programs now have to pay like a 1 time multi million dollar fee to move up to FBS. Even if we wanted to do that, which I doubt, where’s that money coming from?) 

The cost of maintaining a football program has to be daunting, especially when the program doesn’t generate any revenue on its own. We’re not too big to fail. There are other universities with good sized enrollment (can anyone say George Mason) that eschew football in favor of focusing more resources on basketball. Forget GMU, we don’t have to look any further than C of C and UNCW as examples. 
 

Pretty reasonable assessment, although Rhode Island, Maine and UNH are probably mostly stuck for football too. It is not like they are juggernauts either, although Maine and UNH have better community, student and alumni support than we do.

The Patriot League should be right behind the Missouri Valley for the best football conference in FCS in the next couple of years. That would be great if we could go back, but it seemed like a strange fit when we were there the first time. 

I feel like the core of Rhode Island, Bryant, Monmouth, Stony Brook, Albany, UNH, Maine, Bryant and Towson seem about right for each other. Although, UNH seems a slight notch about everyone at this point (at least attendance wise). https://herosports.com/fcs-football-2024-attendance-leaders-bzbz/.

The NC A&T, Hampton, Campbell and Elon part of this equation doesn't make much sense. 

[TSU88]

The writing was on the wall several years ago, when JMU’s exodus opened the floodgates. That’s when we should have been thinking about our own exit strategy. Instead, I suspect we did next to nothing & are now content try and be the big fish in the little CAA football pond. I know one thing, we better damn side start dominating. As it is, with the lackluster conference home games we’ll be having, attendance doesn’t look promising, even if there’s a sea change on the field 

[Tiger93]

10 minutes ago, TSU88 said:

The writing was on the wall several years ago, when JMU’s exodus opened the floodgates. That’s when we should have been thinking about our own exit strategy. Instead, I suspect we did next to nothing & are now content try and be the big fish in the little CAA football pond. I know one thing, we better damn side start dominating. As it is, with the lackluster conference home games we’ll be having, attendance doesn’t look promising, even if there’s a sea change on the field 

I am sure it was discussed, but because of what we are I am not sure the options were any more extensive than they are now. This program needs to raise its level of success if it wants to be in a better conference.

By my count, we are 56-58 and 38-42 in conference play since playing in the national title game. With our lack of attendance and fan support it doesn't exactly scream out to anyone that we are an attractive get for any conference. We wanted a new coach and we got one. With two full recruiting cycles for Shinnick, year three is really put up or shut up time in terms of raising the level of the program in a conference where the quality diminishes every year. 

[TSU88]

26 minutes ago, Tiger93 said:

I am sure it was discussed, but because of what we are I am not sure the options were any more extensive than they are now. This program needs to raise its level of success if it wants to be in a better conference.

By my count, we are 56-58 and 38-42 in conference play since playing in the national title game. With our lack of attendance and fan support it doesn't exactly scream out to anyone that we are an attractive get for any conference. We wanted a new coach and we got one. With two full recruiting cycles for Shinnick, year three is really put up or shut up time in terms of raising the level of the program in a conference where the quality diminishes every year. 

Well put. (As an aside, your posts are always well thought out and often serve as a voice of reason amongst some of the more hyperbolic posts here, including mine 😂). 

Now that I’m finished throwing bouquets, you are correct in your assessments that: (1) we squandered the momentum from the 2013-14 Frisco run and (2) it is imperative that Shinnick start winning (that is to say, making the playoffs) starting this upcoming season. And you’re also correct that other conferences probably aren’t clamoring to take us in, as since the 2014-15 season, 7 W’s is basically our ceiling, with 1 playoff appearance during this decade, which resulted in being soundly thrashed at home by that perennial powerhouse, Duquesne. 

 

 

 

[mat1992]

 

[TuTigers2012]

2 hours ago, TSU88 said:

I wonder how long UNH & Rhode Island are going to stay? And Maine too. Just wondering if those 3 NE schools could cobble together a New England centric conference, that they may bolt too.

Meanwhile, the PL is going to have a helluva football conference, with all these CAA additions. I’d beg them to let us join, for football, but I doubt they’d take us.

I hate to be gloomy Gus here, but at the moment I’m not bullish on the future sustainability of TU football. We can’t go up (I forgot to mention earlier that FCS programs now have to pay like a 1 time multi million dollar fee to move up to FBS. Even if we wanted to do that, which I doubt, where’s that money coming from?) 

The cost of maintaining a football program has to be daunting, especially when the program doesn’t generate any revenue on its own. We’re not too big to fail. There are other universities with good sized enrollment (can anyone say George Mason) that eschew football in favor of focusing more resources on basketball. Forget GMU, we don’t have to look any further than C of C and UNCW as examples. 
 

….hmm..

[TuTigers2012]

1 hour ago, TSU88 said:

The writing was on the wall several years ago, when JMU’s exodus opened the floodgates. That’s when we should have been thinking about our own exit strategy. Instead, I suspect we did next to nothing & are now content try and be the big fish in the little CAA football pond. I know one thing, we better damn side start dominating. As it is, with the lackluster conference home games we’ll be having, attendance doesn’t look promising, even if there’s a sea change on the field 

It’s not a pond anymore. It’s a puddle. 

[Blounge]

Need to win the CAA in football now that the competition remaining makes the path easier than ever. Is Shinnick gonna get it done with the current QBs? Is he gonna get more than 6k to show on a Saturday to Johnny U? If not, then the football team seems like a whole lot of effort for not a lot of return monetarily. 

The new CAA = a quasi HBCU conference combined with the little sisters of the (athletic dept) poor 

[TigerNation]

No excuse not to compete or win the CAA now.

[Dan Steenkamer]

https://x.com/MattBrownEP/status/1930296409804169392

I am still trying to learn how to embed a tweet on here 🤔

Edited June 4, 2025 by Dan Steenkamer