SpiderTrap said:

I agree the CAA is much better football conference than Patriot. And from a fan and athletic perspective - its a better fit.

Put it this way - I bet if you told the administration at UR they had 2 options and had to pick one.

1) Be compared to Ivy League schools and be proclaimed the Ivy League or Princeton of the South.
2) Drop slightly in our current rankings as school

I think they pick 1. Hence - the reason they decided to move football to the Patriot league.

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To put it kindly, UR does not want to be associated with Hampton or NC A&T in the CAA. UR has no right to look down its nose at any other football school, unless it can beat them on the field.

The move to the PL will kill UR football.

I thought everyone knew this Gulf Coast one isn't Gazelle. Who don't even have the best ones, yet those are the best ones we can ever get.

That's the point. we are basically a one-trick pony with Gazelle, run by Mooney's agent, and when those options are limited we are sh!t out of luck.

It's amazing to me a 20-year coach has so little MTE connections.

To be fair, Khwan played in every game for Louisville and started 23 including the final 20 games of that season. His role for them was defense, not scoring.

TC Williams once had the highest pass rate in the state. It got away from teaching fundamental law towards more woke courses. Like the rest of UR, it watered down its curricula.

this is short but go to ~ 1:05 mark if u want to skip. It's pretty funny tbh. I do believe u have to jab your rivals occasionally. Tho just 1 more example they are obsessed with the Henrico thing and us being the University of Richmond.

But what I thought was even funnier was the part about meeting new friends...in Monroe Park!

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Gazelle just doesn't host many full-fledged MTEs. Sunshine Slam (decent but not great fields) and Boardwalk Battle (mid-majors) are really the only two big eight-team ones. Legends Classic is an option...now just a four-team, two-game MTE but with good names and usually an A-10 team (St. Joe's in there this year). We last played in it in 2019, so are eligible again. We were just in Sunshine Slam last year, so can't do it again until 2027.

They also run some of the P5-hosted ones as one-offs, like the Marquette one this year that Mason is in.

spiderman said:

no so sure.
this wasn't a Gazalle Group MTE, I don't think.
this may force us back to those. at least they filled their brackets.

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Wasn’t Gazalle

This is the group management:

mr.spider said:

The positive is this should serve as a wakeup call for the future. Get out of your comfort zone, and don't rely on this one connection for OOC tourneys.

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18 year tenured coaching staff's shouldn't need wake up calls to execute on fundamental aspects of their job.

mr.spider said:

The positive is this should serve as a wakeup call for the future. Get out of your comfort zone, and don't rely on this one connection for OOC tourneys.

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no so sure.
this wasn't a Gazalle Group MTE, I don't think.
this may force us back to those. at least they filled their brackets.

Start passing the word. Fill the RC for the Texas & Georgetown games!

spiderman said:

agreed. find better MTE's that won't have problems filling out the lineup.

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The positive is this should serve as a wakeup call for the future. Get out of your comfort zone, and don't rely on this one connection for OOC tourneys.

agree, I think major conf. teams look at these pickups as filler guys to add bench depth for the most part. There are certainly transfer up guys who are looked at as starters/stars, but just saying they have 4 guys going to P4 schools doesn't mean those guys are really capable of contributing much at that level, or that Canisus (or whomever) had a stacked roster.

Case in point are a couple of UR transfers before transfers went insane - ANO went to Pitt and got 8mpg, scoring 1.3 points per game. A couple years later Khwan Fore went from UR to Louisville and got something like 4ppg. They added minor bench depth to those teams, so no one should think those UR teams were stacked bc they had p4 players on them.

agreed. find better MTE's that won't have problems filling out the lineup.

Whether we win or lose in this tournament, we have already lost just by being in it in the first place.

Yes, the workaround on that is claiming they are two separate MTEs. NCAA didn't like it, but apparently didn't/couldn't do anything about it.

The NCAA has an FAQ about some of these aspects like considering whether an MTE is different from a previous for satisfying the four-year rule and about filing for a waiver from the one-per-conference rule if realignments breaches that.

spiderman said:

they found a loophole where the same conference teams are in separate brackets and the brackets don't play each other.

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waiver or loophole it's really the same thing. the ncaa allowed the loophole = waiver. imo. Certainly that wasn't the intention of the ncaa for single site MTE to set up essentially 2 MTEs within 1 larger MTE. Now they can break the rule of not being able to play in the same MTE only once every 4 years too. Those same teams can next year go back and play in the same Players Era Festival and get the NIL money. Just in the other bracket. The following year change the name of the brackets. New bracket names! Different MTE! Easy to find self serving loopholes. Its kinda absurd but unfortunately reality.

GKiller said:

Thanks. makes sense has to be same # of games but didn't the ncaa already abandon the MTE rules in the Player Era Festival? That has Alabama & Texas A&M from SEC and it was not a recent conference switch deal.

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they found a loophole where the same conference teams are in separate brackets and the brackets don't play each other.

spider23 said:

Robinson is a really interesting case. I feel like he is a top 5% type of quick twitch / jump athlete we get a couple every 10 years (Garrett, Smitty) maybe a Burton (though looks more explosive than Burton in HS). So I could see a potential role if we are getting housed on the boards and quick forwards are beating us on the bounce and inside - he could have a role. Really hope he and McGlothin can have positive years - if not big roles at least get comfortable and hopefully see a good future at Richmond. Its a consideration now with the portal and I would rather build from within if and when its possible.

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I hope they're the two best players on the roster right now and they stay for 4 years!

SFspidur said:

Dropping to a two-game MTE is the only solution for 5 teams. All teams must play the same number of games, so an odd number of teams doesn't work for three games.

If somebody got booted or voluntarily left to bring it down to 4, that team would only have to add one game to their schedule, as they'd only be able to have a max of 29 without an MTE. Granted, even one game may be difficult to add at this point, but it's easier than adding three.

If we did stick with 5 and drop to two games, we could all add an additional non-MTE game, as we'd still be allowed 31 total. That could involve 4 of the 5 teams from the event pairing up for two non-MTE games.

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Thanks. makes sense has to be same # of games but didn't the ncaa already abandon the MTE rules in the Player Era Festival? That has Alabama & Texas A&M from SEC and it was not a recent conference switch deal. Tho this is a mid major tourney & a bad one at that so I don't expect any waiver coming like if it were the big boys. It's kind of funny that we could drop to 2 games and then go & play a non-MTE neutral game against 1 of those teams at like the University of Tampa a day later and work around the rules anyway.

I can't see anyone voluntarily dropping 3 games (or getting booted) and replacing with 1 that is almost assuredly going to be a worse game. They signed up partially I assume because they wanted 31 games. Maybe if they have $ trouble and it would save them a lot. We'll see u never know. I think more likely we're getting Florida Southwestern State College on the horn pronto. Or we are adding a 6th team out there you've missed.

& when do we announce your hiring SF....let's get u on the Philly Bob show. We won't mention the alum discount ur giving. Tho needed bc I'm told Lunardi is still on the payroll as scheduling czar emeritus. For fear of retribution in case we r back on the bubble ever again.

Robinson is a really interesting case. I feel like he is a top 5% type of quick twitch / jump athlete we get a couple every 10 years (Garrett, Smitty) maybe a Burton (though looks more explosive than Burton in HS). So I could see a potential role if we are getting housed on the boards and quick forwards are beating us on the bounce and inside - he could have a role. Really hope he and McGlothin can have positive years - if not big roles at least get comfortable and hopefully see a good future at Richmond. Its a consideration now with the portal and I would rather build from within if and when its possible.

I think in some cases, these Power conference schools grab guys as "break glass in case of emergency" type of guys - with the guys transferring in happy - in some cases - to get the NIL money, and play (if very limited) in a big time conference with all the perks and glamour that come along. I do think if they beat a guy out , the coach in most cases will play the best guy. A guy like Matt Knowling - from Yale (and conneticut) I think we talke to. Went to USC. I would bet he has very small role their - but goes to USC - gets NIL buck, southern Cal, plays at sold out BIG away schools, etc. Likely better opportunity at Richmond to play meaningful minutes.