plydogg said:

Doesn’t the change to the Patriot League mean we’re off FloSports and onto ESPN+? If that’s true then I’m happy I can finally watch Spider football.

If that’s not true then somebody lied to me and I will be very sad

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that is my understanding.

if your crystal ball is that good what will be the winning lottery numbers this weekend coming?

Doesn’t the change to the Patriot League mean we’re off FloSports and onto ESPN+? If that’s true then I’m happy I can finally watch Spider football.

If that’s not true then somebody lied to me and I will be very sad

Thanks 80s Fan for posting this. I am glad to hear we have a strong NIL collective program as evident by the level of recruits we have been signing to our program in recent years. Here are a couple suggestions I have as a way to enhance the website.

1. Membership Levels - I think this is the biggest thing to getting more participation. Right now, I'm sure there are several very rich donors donating 10K+ to NIL and that's how we get the majority of the money. I think to reach a wider audience to participate, there has to be more incentive for someone to donate $100, $500, or $1000. Look at Cincinnati's website for example. They have different levels of contribution and awards that come with it. For example $50 gets you a car decal, $150 gets you newsletters and other times. The higher in amount goes, you get more access to exclusive opportunities to meet with the team or memorabilia. I think this will go a long way in getting a lot more of the smaller donations (<10K).

Cincinnati: https://cincyreigns.org/

2. NIL Store - The ability to purchase NIL merchandise to get something in return while also contributing to NIL I think is very nice. Look at Dayton's or Duquesne's website: They have a store where you can buy jerseys or other apparel.

Dayton: https://shop.udayton.edu/category/dayton-flyers-athletics/player-nil

Duquesne: https://nil.store/pages/duquesne

3. Program specific donations - As far as I'm aware, our NIL is only for men's basketball. What if someone wanted to donate to women's basketball, field hockey, or baseball? Having it all in one website can make it easier for the user. Not sure if Wake Forest has this option, but I like how they have all their sports under one place

4. Website interface - I know this might be nitpicky and that you acknowledge it on your initial post, but I think our website appears kind of bland and doesn't have the same flair as perhaps other websites, which can entice people more. Again, this is my own opinion and likely trivial, but these small details can make a different and perhaps a more enhanced website design could be helpful in attracting new donors. Unfortunately, I am not good with graphic design otherwise I would've helped!

Our website: https://spidersnil.com/

VT4700 said:

That's not the argument. The pro CAA people are acting the CAA is something special, so the counter to that should not be, "well, what's so special about the Patriot"? If neither one is special, why care if we leave?

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So, my point is the University of Richmond has always tried to align itself with the best possible athletic situation as possible. When we switched MBB to the A-10 20 years ago, it was a big effing deal, as we saw us moving up. And that has been our history with athletic alignment.

This is a lateral step at best and I would say right at present with New Hampshire, Nova, and William & Mary still in the CAA, the Patriot is an inferior football conference. The University of Richmond athletic leadership under Chuck Boone and Jim Miller was not making lateral moves, they were making steps up to make us as relevant as possible. The Patriot League as presently constructed does not make our football program more relevant.

32counter said:

A kid today can easily get 5-10 verbal offers.Our offerees have Ivy and BCS / G5 offers as well

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For now, our offerrees have Ivy/ BCS/ G5 offers. But when we switch, there will be fewer quality players signing up at Richmond.

I suspect many of the players, who are above PL-caliber, will leave within a year. This will be a tremendous net loss for the Spiders.

712LLC said:

I doubt we end up being good in the patriot after the first few years. We’ll have enough talent early on but after recruiting inevitably drops off and with that support of football we’ll be toast. This is the excuse the administration needs to completely push football off to the side and neglect it. I’ve heard people say that level of investment won’t change but I have a hard time believing that. If anything I expect us to eventually not offer scholarships or at least cut the amount of them in half. You don’t make this move if you’re actually serious about football.

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No truer words were spoken.

Gallipoli said:

General US Grant was one of the first practitioners of hard war. He said that nations, like individuals, are punished for their transgressions.

Hamas must be punished for its transgressions against Israel, including its murder of children, its rape of women, and its taking of hostages. It will be pulled from this earth by its roots.

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Yeah, keep justifying why children, including babies, should be slaughtered when going after Hamas. I'm sure they are big supporters of Hamas. The members of Hamas, not innocent children, should be eradicated.

Ferrum Spider said:

Besides Villanova. Are there any other available private northeastern academically elite schools that also do well at FCS football the PL can add?

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I would add W&M, UNH, ME, RI, Elon and Albany to the PL, if they are serious about football.

I think it speaks to the tremendous job coach Chemotti and staff have done with this program for the past 10 years when I say, this year was a disappointment for our men's lacrosse program. With all the talent we had returning to go 0-4 against the big boys (all at home) and not win either the regular season or conference tournament is surely disappointing. I know we can't expect a great year every year and that Chemotti will reload as he always does. The fact that our expectations are as high as it is with this program is a testament to the amazing job he has done in building this program. A10 Mlax is definitely a better conference too with St. Joe's, UMass, and High Point.

Makes total sense now why Aidan transferred with the guys we are bringing in. I hope he gains some confidence and does well at Belmont, sure looked like the tools are there.

A kid today can easily get 5-10 verbal offers.Our offerees have Ivy and BCS / G5 offers/CAA(Nova,WM,rarely Elon or any other CAA team)as well

Congratulations Bryson!

97spiderfan said:

New Hampshire has had a really solid program as well. And to your point, what teams are "special in the Patriot League that we should be excited about?

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That's not the argument. The pro CAA people are acting the CAA is something special, so the counter to that should not be, "well, what's so special about the Patriot"? If neither one is special, why care if we leave?

spider23 said:

Welcome back 17, and glad to see you have a neutral fan friendly avatar, you should be good.

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Thanks, I’ve had it for the last 10 years!

I’m excited to see how next year is going to pan out. I think we did a good job of reloading this offseason. I’m also glad we didn’t just focus on bringing in recruits who have done well at lower leagues, but also recruits who were more highly touted in high school, but for whatever reason didn’t get a chance to showcase their talents at a P6 school.

I think there’s 2 certain starters. White as the primary ball handler at the 1 and Nescovic at the 4. We brought in White after having Hunt, Tyne, and GW3 so I’m sure it’s with the intention of him replicating King’s role last season. We might get creative and have Soulis or Beagle at the 4, but their primary position is at the 5. I say Walz gets the nod over Beagle to start for now given more experience with Mooney’s system but expect about equal playing time, if not more for Beagle by the end of the season. The other guard will likely be Hunt to start, but I can see a case for GW3 if he really shines in this system and Hunt becomes more of a 6th man who can play either the 1 or 2 depending on the situation. The biggest mystery is who plays the 3. I can see Roche, GW3 if we go small ball, Apostolos (though likely backing up the 4) or Robinson. Will be exciting to see how it plays out in practice.

My anticipated starters as of today:

1 - White
2 - Hunt
3 - Roche
4 - Nescovic
5 - Walz

Dr. Spidey said:

So you’re fine with lower quality athletes, lower level competition, lower level public interest, and an eventual disintegration of Spider football?

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Didn't realize Stony Brook (0-10 last year), NC A&T, (1-10), Maine (2-9), Hampton and Campbell were loaded with all these quality athletes that the Patriot League lacks. We played all 5 of those garbage teams last year. Wow, what are we gonna do now without these great teams and great, NFL athletes we faced in the CAA every week? Shoot, my interest was sky high for those must see, exciting D1 type games we had against those great teams from the mighty CAA last year.

Here is a very good summary of the money behind these protests. It is quite stunning and scary. Certainly these people could do more good with their money than this. They are tearing this country apart. Anti-semitism must play a part.

The protests certainly give an appearance of being well-organized and equally well funded. For example, large numbers of identical newly-ordered tents seem to spring up on almost no notice. Did hundreds of young people on shoestring budgets just happen on their own initiative to place orders from the same website at the same time and all pay with their own money? That seems implausible. But if there is professional organization, who are the organizers? And who is paying them?

Shia Kapos piece in Politico:

Some of the groups behind the [anti-Israel] demonstrations receive financial backing from philanthropists pushing hard for [President Biden’s] reelection. The donors include some of the biggest names in Democratic circles: Soros, Rockefeller and Pritzker, according to a POLITICO analysis.

Two of the organizers supporting the protests at Columbia University and on other campuses are Jewish Voice for Peace and IfNotNow. Both are supported by the Tides Foundation, which is seeded by Democratic megadonor George Soros

Several other groups involved in pro-Palestinian protests are backed by a foundation funded by Susan and Nick Pritzker, heir to the Hyatt Hotel empire — and supporters of Biden and numerous Democratic campaigns, including $6,600 to the Biden Victory Fund a few months ago and more than $300,000 during the 2020 campaign.

For those unfamiliar with the Pritzker family tree, Nick is a cousin of both Jay Pritzker (Governor of Illinois) and Penny Pritzker (former Obama-era Commerce Secretary and current Board Chair of Harvard, the person most responsible for promoting Claudine Gay to President of that institution).

MacDougald’s piece at Tablet:
According to reporting in the New York Post, the Columbia encampment was principally organized by three groups: Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), and Within Our Lifetime (WOL).
JVP and its affiliated political action arm, JVP Action, have received at least $650,000 from various branches of George Soros’
National SJP is legally a “fiscal sponsorship” of another nonprofit: a White Plains, New York, 501(c)(3) called the WESPAC Foundation and the Eutopia Foundation funded by to be the project of Albert Wenger, a German American computer scientist
WOL’s role appears to be that of shock troops, akin to the role played by black block militants on the anarchist side of the ledger. ... supported by ...
Soros’ Open Society Foundations... the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the Ford Foundation, and the Tides Foundation.

The Campus Kill-The-Jews Riots: Paid Professional Agitators Funded By Democratic Party Big Wigs, Or Well-Meaning Kids? — Manhattan Contrarian

Several days ago, after the New York police broke up the kill-the-Jews occupations at Columbia, NYU and other universities, it emerged that close to half of the arrestees were not students or otherwise affiliated with the schools in question. At a news conference on April 30 , Mayor Eric Adams

www.manhattancontrarian.com

ncspiderfan said:

I think 50 of the 60 we recruited also had PL offers. I do not think we or PL teams got them all.
He was really trying to be careful what he said when talking about recruiting.

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True. But you get my point. How many of those 50 recruited by a respected CAA team like Richmond are going to wind up in the Patriot League? If the over/under is 5 players, I'm betting the under.

ncspiderfan said:

I think 50 of the 60 we recruited also had PL offers. I do not think we or PL teams got them all.
He was really trying to be careful what he said when talking about recruiting.

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We do a lot of recruiting now in the Carolinas, GA and Fl

My interest in future of CAA football has declined the last couple of years. I would love to see a Nova, W&M or even New Hampshire make the Patriot League a 10 team league. Colgate, Lafayette, Holy Cross and Fordham have had good runs in recent years. It has potential with a couple added teams to be a much stronger conference. I do wonder how hard we looked at SoCon.

KE Spider said:

Will take time to tell if this is a wise move. If Nova comes over, would feel a lot better about it. At least, Spiders are leaving a league with a downward trajectory for one on the rise, particularly with our addition. Let's make it work.

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True - time will tell what the trajectory is for PL and CAA. Am not a fan of the teams CAA has brought in vs who we have lost. The league is weaker than say 3 or 4 years ago. The teams added vs teams lost (JMU and Del) don’t balance. On the other hand this past season and most seasons the CAA is a multi bid league, and the PL is a one bid league. Time will tell if the move hurts us as say…conf runner up. Until the possibility of Nova coming on board upgrading the PL beyond just us and / or the PL regularly obtaining more than one bid, I’m not sold. Granted, we don’t know how the CAA fares in the future, but that is in rear view mirror. Several years from now we will be able to determine if this was a good or bad move. Right now, I’ll continue to go to all home games but am suspect of the PL and admin decision making for this move.

Welcome back 17, and glad to see you have a neutral fan friendly avatar, you should be good.