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Spider football to the Patriot League in 2025

Yep this tells me that football is an afterthought here and that if we wanted to we’d rather either not play football at all or we’d just go non scholarship as we are now doing. This is a program that’s won a national title for crying out loud and has had plenty of other success. What a joke that this is what the school thinks of football. Spider football is what brought me to even being a fan of this school at all because of my dad being a former player and now with this I have to say this is the last straw. I’m done. Will be turning in all my Richmond gear and can’t support this school anymore.
Goodbye!
 
LOL. All because he doesn't get to see us play NC A&T, Campbell, Hampton, Monmouth, Towson, Stony Brook, and Maine anymore?
It’s deeper than that buddy. Dropping to the patriot league is a tell tale sign that this administration doesn’t care about football and that they’re all in on the cult of mooney. Can’t do support an athletic department that doesn’t actually care about trying to win anything. And don’t you dare say “but we won the A10 regular season this year”. Yes we did but then the team quit as usual and now we celebrate a nit bid instead and act like that’s a successful season. The people running this place just aren’t serious.
 
It’s deeper than that buddy. Dropping to the patriot league is a tell tale sign that this administration doesn’t care about football and that they’re all in on the cult of mooney. Can’t do support an athletic department that doesn’t actually care about trying to win anything. And don’t you dare say “but we won the A10 regular season this year”. Yes we did but then the team quit as usual and now we celebrate a nit bid instead and act like that’s a successful season. The people running this place just aren’t serious.
You've been here for two months, you didn't even attend UR, you're almost certainly not a donor, and your name-calling is alienating.

Hope the board, and the athletic department, can survive without you.
 
You've been here for two months, you didn't even attend UR, you're almost certainly not a donor, and your name-calling is alienating.

Hope the board, and the athletic department, can survive without you.
I’ve had other accounts that were banned on here. Been here for almost a decade actually.
 
It’s deeper than that buddy. Dropping to the patriot league is a tell tale sign that this administration doesn’t care about football and that they’re all in on the cult of mooney. Can’t do support an athletic department that doesn’t actually care about trying to win anything. And don’t you dare say “but we won the A10 regular season this year”. Yes we did but then the team quit as usual and now we celebrate a nit bid instead and act like that’s a successful season. The people running this place just aren’t serious.
I share your passion. The decision has already been made. I am surprised that the Spider fans on this board have drunk the kool-aid fed to them by this administration. Ultimately, the school President decided to cut the knees out from under the football program.
 
tbf u have quit the board half a dozen times
Big difference. I have never left this board for a good amount of time because of our school, our teams, our players, our coaches, or our administration. I have left at times because of how the many obnoxious posters on here have acted. When the board is no fun, why bother? But, hey, congrats go to you because you caused me to leave for awhile one time because of your creepiness in trying to dig up past stuff about me. That was beyond strange, especially when we don't know each other.
 
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Big difference. I have never left this board for a good amount of time because of our school, our teams, our players, our coaches, or our administration. I have left at times because of how the many obnoxious posters on here have acted. When the board is no fun, why bother? But, hey, congrats go to you because you caused me to leave for awhile one time because of your creepiness in trying to dig up past stuff about me. That was beyond strange, especially when we don't know each other.

u were done too...then u were not. no difference.

what did I dig up....all has come up directly from u, I've just repeated it b4....u posted only on VA Tech rivals board b4 u had any interest whatsoever on this board. Now reversed. And u r a self proclaimed UVA fan. little strange but that's ok & all that info came from u.....think u might be confusing me with someone else.
 
I share your passion. The decision has already been made. I am surprised that the Spider fans on this board have drunk the kool-aid fed to them by this administration. Ultimately, the school President decided to cut the knees out from under the football program.
When Villanova and W&M leave the CAA for the Patriot League, which has an excellent chance of happening, we'll be in the better league competitively, partnered with outstanding academic schools. I look forward to your observations when that happens.
 
When Villanova and W&M leave the CAA for the Patriot League, which has an excellent chance of happening, we'll be in the better league competitively, partnered with outstanding academic schools. I look forward to your observations when that happens.

Villanova I expect. I'm not sure about W&M. I would have thought they'd be in Patriot by now and they're not. They have all sports affiliation to consider not just football. They seem to be deliberate with all sports considerations. The Southern might be more appealing. If they left CAA I think it's 50/50 Patriot vs. Southern. I leaning Southern even though W&M is high academics.
 
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Villanova I expect. I'm not sure about W&M. I would have thought they'd be in Patriot by now and they're not. They have all sports affiliation to consider not just football. They seem to be deliberate with all sports considerations. The Southern might be more appealing. If they left CAA I think it's 50/50 Patriot vs. Southern. I leaning Southern even though W&M is high academics.
OK, smart reasoning. But with us and Villanova, the Patriot League is better than a CAA minus us, Villanova, Delaware, ODU and JMU, which is the CAA a lot of people here keep using as a comparison point. That CAA is history.

A 9 (or 10, with W&M) team PL is perfect. Play every conference team (4 home, 4 away), Play W&M, play an FBS body-bag game and play a Furman/Elon/The Citadel/NE Conference team. That's a great schedule.

And with us and Villanova, the PL isn't the "one-bid league" some here keep harping on. It's a 2 or 3-bid league, just like the CAA will be when we and the Wildcats are gone.
 
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u were done too...then u were not. no difference.

what did I dig up....all has come up directly from u, I've just repeated it b4....u posted only on VA Tech rivals board b4 u had any interest whatsoever on this board. Now reversed. And u r a self proclaimed UVA fan. little strange but that's ok & all that info came from u.....think u might be confusing me with someone else.
No...it all came from you...non stop for months.
 
“We’re going to continue to invest and make sure we’re as competitive as possible across the board in all of our sports, year in and year out. As the CAA has grown and changed over the last several years, we plan on having a big role in how that new identity comes to be.”

Mann added that part of his job is keeping “an eye on the horizon and always evaluating opportunities for William & Mary, and I will continue to do that ... What people have started to realize is that the best thing that we can do is let this changing landscape play out as much as possible, and see where the CAA falls, see how are we able to strengthen under this new membership, because there’s just so much uncertainty about the future.”
 
I never really expected W&M. Villanova is a must, but the 10th PL team is key in my mind.

Don't add a 10th team = bad, not real set on expansion
Get someone like Sacred Heart = bad, b/c they're bad
Find a way to steal someone like UNH = great. They've got a weird BBall setup as well, crazier things have happened
 
I mean, he didn't even really give a full vote of confidence. He admitted they're keeping their options open.

8qfvbq.jpg
 
If Nova comes over to PL, the die is cast for WM to do the same. More difficult for Tribe bc they are all in for sports with CAA. No way see them going to Southern Conference. Their academic pride and fans won't abide it.
 
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W&M knows what our administration doesn’t. That the CAA is one of the best FCS leagues in the country. This is the single dumbest decision made by our school administrators ever.

“We’re proud to be in the CAA. It remains one of the strongest (FCS) conferences in the country. We’ve had some great success over the last couple of years in that conference and we’re going to continue to do everything we can to build strength in it, and use it as a springboard into the (FCS) playoffs and make a deep run, as we did a couple of years ago,” said Mann.

 
W&M knows what our administration doesn’t. That the CAA is one of the best FCS leagues in the country. This is the single dumbest decision made by our school administrators ever.

“We’re proud to be in the CAA. It remains one of the strongest (FCS) conferences in the country. We’ve had some great success over the last couple of years in that conference and we’re going to continue to do everything we can to build strength in it, and use it as a springboard into the (FCS) playoffs and make a deep run, as we did a couple of years ago,” said Mann.

Yeah, because W&M's athletic department has been much more successful than ours recently. NCAA men's BB berths, NIT berths, NCAA WBB berths, FCS playoff wins, NCAA lacrosse berths ... the Tribe has done it all!
 
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I've sat back and gone through the 5 stages of grief, maybe twice, and have come to the conclusion that the CAA from 15-20 years ago is no longer what we remember it to be. Instead of the SEC of FCS, we're now more like Conference USA. We played nobodies last year (including a terrible MSU team) and snuck into the playoffs on conference reputation alone before we were exposed by Albany who subsequently was curb-stomped by SDSU...basically Liberty vs. Oregon only more lopsided. Perhaps this is a a fun spot for us to hang out while the dust settles on college football alignment.

One thing we haven't discussed is the Patriot League Academic Index (AI) and how that will effect us. I assume that eventually we will have to comply, but I haven't been able to find anything concrete on how that works.

What I've been able to ascertain is they look at certain admission metrics and come up with an index for the entire incoming class based on SAT scores, GPAs and class rank. The incoming recruits would then have to fall within one standard deviation of the rest of the class. I coasted through Lewis Literal's business statistics class and took QA in play term, so I'm not sure what exactly that means. This is stolen from the Holy Cross forum, so credit to them for doing a deep dive and having a more robust discussion of our move (and less shit-posting) than we do here, but not sure of the accuracy:

ValueColgate RichmondGeorgetownLehigh LafayetteHoly CrossBucknell Fordham Cornell
SAT Composite
1400-1600 - %
818678655329175295
SAT Composite
1200-1399 -%
17131633475952455
SAT Composite
1000-1199 - %
2151110292
Top quarter of the
H. S. class - %
94 8395857869867594.5

A couple of takeaways:

1) Our SATs are through the roof. We used to and presumably still do offer generous scholarships to National Merit Scholars to juice that stat.
2) Our class rank is really low considering our SAT scores...maybe the schools we draw from?
3) Are we at a disadvantage because we're only Patriot for football and other sports don't fall under the AI regime? Or maybe an advantage because they will presumably lower our overall incoming class AI
 
I've sat back and gone through the 5 stages of grief, maybe twice, and have come to the conclusion that the CAA from 15-20 years ago is no longer what we remember it to be. Instead of the SEC of FCS, we're now more like Conference USA. We played nobodies last year (including a terrible MSU team) and snuck into the playoffs on conference reputation alone before we were exposed by Albany who subsequently was curb-stomped by SDSU...basically Liberty vs. Oregon only more lopsided. Perhaps this is a a fun spot for us to hang out while the dust settles on college football alignment.

One thing we haven't discussed is the Patriot League Academic Index (AI) and how that will effect us. I assume that eventually we will have to comply, but I haven't been able to find anything concrete on how that works.

What I've been able to ascertain is they look at certain admission metrics and come up with an index for the entire incoming class based on SAT scores, GPAs and class rank. The incoming recruits would then have to fall within one standard deviation of the rest of the class. I coasted through Lewis Literal's business statistics class and took QA in play term, so I'm not sure what exactly that means. This is stolen from the Holy Cross forum, so credit to them for doing a deep dive and having a more robust discussion of our move (and less shit-posting) than we do here, but not sure of the accuracy:

ValueColgate RichmondGeorgetownLehigh LafayetteHoly CrossBucknell Fordham Cornell
SAT Composite
1400-1600 - %
818678655329175295
SAT Composite
1200-1399 -%
17131633475952455
SAT Composite
1000-1199 - %
2151110292
Top quarter of the
H. S. class - %
94 8395857869867594.5

A couple of takeaways:

1) Our SATs are through the roof. We used to and presumably still do offer generous scholarships to National Merit Scholars to juice that stat.
2) Our class rank is really low considering our SAT scores...maybe the schools we draw from?
3) Are we at a disadvantage because we're only Patriot for football and other sports don't fall under the AI regime? Or maybe an advantage because they will presumably lower our overall incoming class AI

Thanks for sharing. One thing I wonder what the impact will be with athletics, is that UR has gone test optional with the SAT/ACT the past several years that was initially due to COVID. So I believe our standardize test scores may be more inflated than normal as only students who had really good scores likely shared them. What that means in terms of recruiting or this academic index, I have no idea. If other students don’t have to report scores I don’t think they’ll mandate the student athletes to do so. Also, I can’t imagine UR has been playing with the same deck of cards, so to speak, as every other CAA football team in terms of recruiting. I imagine we had our own self-imposed restrictions when it came to recruiting student athletes that other programs did not. Whether it’s as rigorous as the Patriot League AI, I’m not sure.
 
Almost every school has gone test optional, so we shouldn’t be unique in that regard. Most will probably return to requiring scores by 2026.

I’m going through the college search process with my eldest now and many of the admissions sessions note that current score data should basically be ignored and some put up the lower pre-COVID scores on the screen as a more accurate indicator.

Obviously our admin is comfortable with whatever AI requirements there are for us, but whether that’s a change from our existing policies, I too am curious.
 
When Villanova and W&M leave the CAA for the Patriot League, which has an excellent chance of happening, we'll be in the better league competitively, partnered with outstanding academic schools. I look forward to your observations when that happens.
I don't see WM going anywhere...Nova is a different atory
 
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W&M knows what our administration doesn’t. That the CAA is one of the best FCS leagues in the country. This is the single dumbest decision made by our school administrators ever.

“We’re proud to be in the CAA. It remains one of the strongest (FCS) conferences in the country. We’ve had some great success over the last couple of years in that conference and we’re going to continue to do everything we can to build strength in it, and use it as a springboard into the (FCS) playoffs and make a deep run, as we did a couple of years ago,” said Mann.

What do u expect him to say? "CAA is done..it's watered down, were going to look elsewhere". Cmon, they're gonna toe the line while considering their options in secret.
 
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I don't see WM going anywhere...Nova is a different atory
I agree with Wood Hall (who just had a heart attack because I’m agreeing with him) . W & M just spent a lot of money fixing up their
Stadium . They aren’t going to want to play Stony Brook or Campbell for
long. The name Colgate, Georgetown, Bucknell, now Richmond have far
better cachet
 
If he isn't smart enough to see this was a bad decision, hardly believe he's smart enough to save this series.

The fact that this board isn't melting down and sharpening pitchforks over this like back in 2005 just shows how little anyone cares about winning championships from the fans to the admin. The nerdy admins have finally won out after breaking our fan base for years.
People on the Spider messageboard would be way more bent out of shape if this were basketball. We already play at a level of football that may as well be Div IV. No recognition no matter how well we do. Does anyone care about playing Monmouth or even powerful Elon for that matter. In other sports at least we play real teams.
 
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