Spider football to the Patriot League in 2025
- Thread starter SFspidur
- Start date
Yuck. A kick to the nads. Turning down the SoCon is idiotic. Probably the end of Spider football as we have known it.
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.
JOC's article says we were picking between the two and that both have wanted us, so I am assuming we turned them down. Doubt the SoCon was requiring us to move there for all sports. That wouldn't have even merited consideration.
I see. That just shows our administration and athletic department looks to the Northeast while the fans (especially the ones that live around here) look to the South.
Agreed. They will justify it by saying "Oh, all our alumni in Philly and NY will be able to see us play football now," when of course in reality, almost none will ever go. Meanwhile, the actual fans of the program in Richmond are going to get really excited about trips to Pa. and upstate NY in November and December? I don't think so.
A big middle finger to everyone involved with this program since its inception. Ray Tate is flipping over in his grave. Still remember the visceral reaction of this move in 2005 when interning at ESPN 950 handed over the air waves to some angry fans who prevented this decision. Now hardly anyone cares and its sad. Rather a bunch of nerds are patting themselves on the back for a job well done to move to what is most certainly a lesser conference as it stands. Rather just drop the program at this point and put the money into basketball if we aren't going to take this seriously. The fact that we turned down the SOCON for this shit is unforgiveable. Havent been this angry since we dropped soccer.
Bold take here but I’m gonna go ahead and say it; Chris mooney is a cancer and is the worst thing to ever happen to our athletic department. He gives the school what they want; players graduate, go to class, no off field issues ever, coach is good in the community etc. With that that’s all the administration here wants once they saw that’s how things would be with mooney. If he had been gone by now I can promise you we’d have more ncaa tournament appearances for one and also the overall attitude of the athletic department and the alignment towards actually winning things would be completely different. We saw the writing on the wall with what the plan would eventually be for football when Danny Rocco left but now we know. All this school wants is for you to show up, give money to the cult of mooney and shut up, who cares if we win oh and we’re gonna just either not play football or drop it to the lowest level possible. What a joke, I’m out and hope there is some outrage over this decision.
I’m a fan for life. Disappointed we couldn’t fix the CAA, or consider the Southern, but the bottom line for me is the quality of the camaraderie and fellowship of our Spiders football pregame celebrations won’t change, only the opponents inside The Brick House. I’ll get used to the new schools.
I just hope we can save the W&M rivalry. There’s college football history there that needs to survive. I hope the UR AD will be looking for ways to save it along with the Indians AD.
Go Spiders!
I know the latest additions to the CAA weren't very exciting but our response to that is to join an even worse league? So now we don't get to play Villanova, UNH, Albany, possibly William & Mary and add such juggernauts as Fordham, Holy Cross, and Georgetown? The narrative that we "weren't happy" with the CAA is a joke and a smokescreen to basically phase out football at UR.
I will now attempt to look at things positively and say that Lafayette, Lehigh, Holy Cross and Fordham do have some pretty nice history in FCS football, and Lafayette and Holy Cross were ranked in the top 25 at the end of last season. So it should be competitive, but I still think the SoCon would have been the move if we were determined to leave.
No one even comes to the games here. Our cities 30th division women's team (Richmond Ivy FC) draws more fans than our football team. That tells you everything you need to know about how much our useless marketing wing of the athletic department cares about our program. Its pathetic. Somehow no one sees this as a problem.
They gave up an actual crowd at home games moving on campus so people could schmooze with one another and have the atmosphere of a minor league baseball game. That's even evidenced by some of the posts here. I guess that's great but I cant help but see this as a white flag being waves while nerdy administrators pat themselves on the back for a job well done.
Is WM even going to bother with us anymore?
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Announced right after the 2024 season ticket window closed…how convenient
No, don’t do that. This was just the east way out for the school to likely eventually get rid of football. Playing in a non scholarship division is never a good move and you can’t call any of those programs good programs at this level. How many national titles does the patriot league have? I’m gonna guess 0. It seems our athletic department forgets how successful of a program this has been in the last 2 decades or so, I mean Jesus Christ we’ve won a national title. No reason for this move.
On Sagarin, SoCon was actually rated only slightly higher than Patriot last year, but SoCon clearly gets more respect...four ranked teams and three playoff participants last year compared to only Lafayette out of the Patriot.
Sagarin Ratings last year:
CAA (19th - 47.14)
93. Villanova
116. Albany
142. Delaware (leaving)
145. UNH
167. Elon
168. UR
171. W&M
172. Bryant (incoming)
174. Monmouth
177. URI
190. Towson
196. Campbell
208. Maine
228. Hampton
230. NC A&T
243. Stony Brook
Patriot (22nd - 42.91)
135. Holy Cross
154. Lafayette
188. Fordham
198. Colgate
207. Georgetown
219. Bucknell
229. Lehigh
SoCon (21st - 44.33)
130. Furman
159. Western Carolina
161. Chattanooga
166. Mercer
181. Samford
209. VMI
221. Wofford
232. ETSU
252. Citadel
Sagarin Ratings last year:
CAA (19th - 47.14)
93. Villanova
116. Albany
142. Delaware (leaving)
145. UNH
167. Elon
168. UR
171. W&M
172. Bryant (incoming)
174. Monmouth
177. URI
190. Towson
196. Campbell
208. Maine
228. Hampton
230. NC A&T
243. Stony Brook
Patriot (22nd - 42.91)
135. Holy Cross
154. Lafayette
188. Fordham
198. Colgate
207. Georgetown
219. Bucknell
229. Lehigh
SoCon (21st - 44.33)
130. Furman
159. Western Carolina
161. Chattanooga
166. Mercer
181. Samford
209. VMI
221. Wofford
232. ETSU
252. Citadel
As much as I don't love this move, you keep saying it's non-scholarship, but it's not. Patriot allows up to the max of 63.
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.
Pros: Leaving the CAA and that dufus commissioner. The CAA we are leaving is not the same as the one in 2005.
Cons: Leaving W&M and Villanova, affiliating North vs. South which is harder travel for locally based fans and SoCon is arguably the better conference.
TBD: A lot (What is Nova doing? Will we abide by their redshirt rules?)
Cons: Leaving W&M and Villanova, affiliating North vs. South which is harder travel for locally based fans and SoCon is arguably the better conference.
TBD: A lot (What is Nova doing? Will we abide by their redshirt rules?)
Too bad we couldn't just create a league that looks something like:
UR
W&M
Villanova
Wofford
Citadel
Elon
Furman
Lafayette
Lehigh
Fordham
Towson
UR
W&M
Villanova
Wofford
Citadel
Elon
Furman
Lafayette
Lehigh
Fordham
Towson
I think if Nova moves to the Patriot too it might alleviate some of the angst some folks have in here. Lehigh, Lafayette and Holy Cross have full scholarships so with us and Nova (possibly) moving over they'll up their game. Let's see what happens.
I agree with this.
Not a popular move right now - I get it - but we might be among the "winners" in this shakeup, if there are any.
The CAA as it currently stands is a bad league with worse leadership.
That would take proactive, aggressive and creative leadership in the AD. That seems to have been in short supply for football in recent years.
I have no idea if we even tried to fix the CAA.
This proposed conference reminds me of the mythical “Magnolia League” from rumors years ago. It would rock!
It remains to be seen how this move affects the program long term. I’m going to give it a chance and see what happens. When we dropped to I-AA in the early 80’s I felt like the world had ended. Then a similar feeling when we joined the Yankee v. Southern in mid 80’s. Obviously a lot has changed since those days, but Spiders football is still alive and I’ll support it.
Ha. Somewhere there is a JMU fan saying “I told you so.” They predicted the Spiders to the Patriot League in 2006.
Go Spiders!
The four AE schools plus URI could be a decent group, but they need a few more. Merrimack and Sacred Heart are currently homeless for football as they transition from NEC to MAAC for their primary affiliation, but NEC had a max of 45 'ships for football, so those two would have to step up if they wanted to join the AE/URI group.
Villanova and W&M seem to be what's holding things together at this point. If they too explore other options, the CAA will be in bad shape. It would feel like a missed opportunity for us if W&M ends up going to the SoCon, but if Villanova went Patriot that would be a decent consolation prize. Villanova has been the subject of FBS rumors seemingly forever though, so I wonder if there will be any renewed momentum for that.
I feel bad for Huesman in all this really. The guy clearly never had a chance here based on how the school treats football and I think we knew that after what happened with Danny Rocco but maybe just didn’t wanna say it. If I’m Huesman I’m out after this year. Also if I’m him I’m telling the guys on the team screw the people in this administration, we’re playing for each other this year, gonna go out and win as many games as possible, hopefully make a deep run to show this school why football is important here. I’d tell the guys that clearly the school doesn’t care about you so I don’t expect you to care about them at all, with that being said I give full permission to go out and do all the things this school hates just to give them the same middle finger they’re giving you. If I’m a player that has any chance of playing somewhere better I’m definitely transferring out too.
College football is devolving daily, it's getting out of control and ridiculously expensive. My opinion doesn't matter to them (or anyone here) but I'm OK with this decision.
Like-sized private universities that we have a lot in common with. We won't be fighting an uphill battle against public schools who can augment their rosters with cheap walk-ons. Guaranteed FCS playoff access. Pretty easy road trips for the most part, except for Colgate (which is the UR of the Finger Lakes), and even then you just charter to Syracuse and make an hour bus ride to Hamilton.
Seven league opponents at the current time; I expect we might see a few more defections join us, like Villanova and W&M. If W&M doesn't join, we can still play them every year, and have room for a Furman or an Elon and the obligatory FBS body-bag game. Heck, maybe we'll even get a game against Army, they regularly play Patriot League teams.
Rather than dooming Spider football, this might be the move that saves it forever by making it much more cost-efficient. UR football was never, ever again going to be like I remembered it five decades ago, playing WVU, ECU, Tech, etc. The landscape has changed, and we have to change with it.
Like-sized private universities that we have a lot in common with. We won't be fighting an uphill battle against public schools who can augment their rosters with cheap walk-ons. Guaranteed FCS playoff access. Pretty easy road trips for the most part, except for Colgate (which is the UR of the Finger Lakes), and even then you just charter to Syracuse and make an hour bus ride to Hamilton.
Seven league opponents at the current time; I expect we might see a few more defections join us, like Villanova and W&M. If W&M doesn't join, we can still play them every year, and have room for a Furman or an Elon and the obligatory FBS body-bag game. Heck, maybe we'll even get a game against Army, they regularly play Patriot League teams.
Rather than dooming Spider football, this might be the move that saves it forever by making it much more cost-efficient. UR football was never, ever again going to be like I remembered it five decades ago, playing WVU, ECU, Tech, etc. The landscape has changed, and we have to change with it.
Big shakeups in football across all divisions are yet to come. Probably sooner than later. This may not be over. Stay tuned and in the meantime just win the damn thing.
This is a program that has won a national title and has 6 conference titles in one of the better fcs leagues there is just since 2005. Not many other schools in the country at this level can say that but this is the choice we make. This shouldn’t be about trying to be cost effective, Richmond has plenty of money. This is about trying to win championships at this level which we will now never have a chance at doing again. This move did the opposite of saving UR football like you claim.
Big Al used to call the CAA the SEC of FBS football, just a few years ago. The CAA made the terrible decision after losing some of its heavyweights likes JMU, ODU, & Delaware to not stay a a smaller league with some really good teams in it (UR, UNH, Towson, Nova, Elon etc..) and maybe try to poach other good teams to instead expand to anyone and bring in just crap programs like Hampton, Bryant, Campbell and North Carolina A&T. Just a terrible decision by the CAA leadership.
It wasn't too long ago where we had outsized influence on the CAA as one of the founding members. I don't know if we have lost our influence or like most anything John Hardt does, just not exerted the appropriate leadership to maintain that influence. But here we are, abandoning ship to go to a league that demonstratively has no heavyweights and is never relevant in FBS football. The academia of UR always wanted us here, it looks like they won, because our athletic leadership is lacking in both presence and vision. Not a good day for UR football.
It wasn't too long ago where we had outsized influence on the CAA as one of the founding members. I don't know if we have lost our influence or like most anything John Hardt does, just not exerted the appropriate leadership to maintain that influence. But here we are, abandoning ship to go to a league that demonstratively has no heavyweights and is never relevant in FBS football. The academia of UR always wanted us here, it looks like they won, because our athletic leadership is lacking in both presence and vision. Not a good day for UR football.
I highly suggest everyone call in to bobs show this afternoon and roast the school about this move. Im sure Bob is gonna give the positive spin on this just like the athletic department that pays him wants him to. Embarrass them as best you possibly can by calling out this move and make Bob have a tough time on the air today. I’ll be calling in for sure.
there is one upside - no more FloSports
We’ll see what happens. The environment is completely different than 2005. If Villanova makes the move over as well it doesn’t look as bad (they were never going SoCon). The SoCon isn’t really a powerhouse either. It’s hard to get excited about anything FCS at this point. We missed our window 20 years ago to make a move up.
We’ll see what happens. The environment is completely different than 2005. If Villanova makes the move over as well it doesn’t look as bad (they were never going SoCon). The SoCon isn’t really a powerhouse either. It’s hard to get excited about anything FCS at this point. We missed our window 20 years ago to make a move up.
