spiderstudent17 said:

I completed understand the sentiment that you all are sharing. I remember being at college gameday in 2016 when we beat JMU and it was an awesome experience. I am in complete agreement that I want us to have the mentality of athletics and academics working synergistically with one another as evident by numerous other schools who use athletics to leverage and boost their school profile.

I will say though that in fairness to our athletic department, we aren't a JMU when it comes to school profile. We do not have the resources, infrastructure, money to be an FBS school. Even if we did join FBS, for every JMU success stories there are plenty more of the UMass's of the world that the football is on a sinking ship and its dragging down all of its athletics department. In today's day-and-age of college football, the divide is becoming even more apparent between the haves and have-nots. Not only would we need money for a lot more scholarships, coaching salaries, facilities, but even the higher NIL to keep up with the Jones's is too much. All for what? To be in Conference USA and hope we finish 6-6 and make it to the Cheez-itz bowl? I don't know how many others feel this way, but I do not want to hurt all of our other sports for the sake of chasing an FBS pipe dream.

This leads me to the next point. Just because we aren't throwing everything we have at football, doesn't mean we aren't dedicated to the athletic success on this campus. I can't find the newsletter for it, but didn't we have 10 out of our 19 teams either finish 1st or 2nd this year in the A10 conference? We also had 5 championships this year (WBall regular season + tournament, MBall regular season, Football regular season, WLax tournament) which is the most since the mid 2000s. The reality is we don't have infinite amount of money/resources and we have to pick and choose our battles. I think many people would rather strive for national success in basketball first and foremost, and also have success with sports like lacrosse or baseball than put all our eggs in the football basket like UMass has.

I agree though that the timing of the move of Patriot League was not good, nor was the reason we gave to be near other teams geographically where our alumni reside. I do think CAA is unstable and will likely break apart at some point, and whether teams like W&M and Villanova come to the Patriot League, time will tell. Also, I wouldn't say it has hurt our recruiting so far. Look at the other offers of high school recruits who have committed here. They have been very solid and comparable to years past. We even have a verbal commitment from a recruit who had P5 offers from Tennessee at one point. The goal is to make deep runs in the NCAA tournament. The conference affiliation is a means to that end.

Click to expand...

SFspidur said:

JOC coverage of the upcoming event. Some quotes from Mooney about the opportunity to enhance NIL contributions with events like this. Mooney won't disclose the NIL budget, but JOC says the same "mid-six figures" we've heard before.

Want to join the NIL game? Spiders hoops issues invitation.

"Different programs are doing different things to generate some revenue, and this is kind of part of what college athletics is today at this level."

richmond.com

Click to expand...

spiderstudent17 said:

Login to view embedded media

Click to expand...

97spiderfan said:

All I know is that 10-15 years ago, we were right there with JMU and others as the cream of the crop of FCS football. Now look at JMU, they are playing big boy ball and succeeding at a level that must make every fan, alumni and supporter of those programs beam with pride. Every JMU fan I know is on cloud fricking nine. Games are sold out, they were ranked in FBS last year, just went to UNC and whipped their asses.

And here we are moving to the effing Patriot League to play games against Bucknell and Georgetown every year. Teams that were warm up games, that we would blow out by 50, 10 years ago, now we will be in dogfights with. Our nice stadium is practically empty on most games day, interest in our program continues to fall year after year.

And if NOVA and William & Mary come to the Patriot League than MAYBE things won't be a complete cluster*****, but that is big if. You would think if we were going to make that move, we would have made it together with the, but it is just us making the move. Right now, we are going right where Bill Cooper wanted us to take us before the alumni rose up and drove him out. And now, they've broken us down this program down to the point, where their is put no point to even fight this. Just resignation from alumni at this point. It's been a slow bleed to get us here, but here we are.

Anyone who has any confidence in what our athletic department is taking our program needs to have their heads examined. It sickens me to think we were peers with JMU as little as 10 years ago and seeing where are respective programs are now and the directions they are both trending couldn't be more opposite.

Click to expand...

spiderman said:

would love to see the team picture. can you link it please?

Click to expand...

brooklyn brownstone said:

Of note from the team picture last week, it seemed that AP was taller than Nescovic by an inch. So Nescovic likely closer to 6'7"?

Spiders have pretty good size balance IMO, though I do wish we had at least one 6'4" guard skills guy like Dji to help on other teams' taller scoring guards.

Click to expand...