Future Schedules

[LDopaPDX]

I'm SURE you know the details of the Bison an Bobcats deals or surely you would be blabbing about what you are not aware.

They're both 50/50 deals for both games. We are splitting the revenue and the visiting team is paying their own travel costs. The same is true for the UNI series as well. I don't think Eastern tries to keep that information under wraps. Besides, that's pretty standard for home/home out of conference games at every level.

 

[EAGinAZ]

I personally love our non-conference schedule(with the exception of 2011). Yes when we lose to the top tier FCS schools it sucks and can hurt our playoff seeding but it hasn't yet! Eastern has not played a road playoff game since 2009, so everyone that keeps bitching how the schedule is hurting our playoffs seeding needs to drop it because it is not. I know you will come back with 2011 but with all the injuries we had that year, would it have matter who we played?

I will agree no more 4 home games, we must have at least 5 regular season home games every year.

Playing SHS and NIU and NDSU elevates our program and has brought National attention to our program and despite what many on this board think it does help us for the playoffs. The Big Sky is not a physical conference, playing NIU is going to help up be better prepared to face another MVC team in December. So for us to continue home and homes with top tier schools makes sense as an avenue to continue to build the program nationally and to prepare the players for the playoffs.

I also have loved the Pac-12 games we have been playing and hope that continues but recognize that we probably won't get many more then the games we currently have scheduled. OSU will never schedule us again, after we beat WSU next year they will not schedule us again and after 2 very close games i doubt UW will schedule us again. Some of the other Pac-12 schools could and I hope they do but the risk reward factor for those teams just aren't there. Financially we have to pay a $$$ game each year so it will be interesting where Chaves goes to get those games. With Texas Tech already on the schedule maybe a tour of the Big 12... I would love to see them play a SEC school, maybe with Coach Mac at UF it can happen. I would say the Mountain West but every one of those schools should be very afraid to play us and so i doubt they would be willing to schedule us. It would be great if we could get a game scheduled with Boise St, Think of all the promos for that game!!!! A very realistic money game for the future is BYU as long as they stay independent, we have played them before so there is some history.

I know this was a long post but I wanted to reiterate that I like what we are doing in scheduling, I know we have one of the best AD's in the country at our level and even in all of college and if you think for one second Baldwin doesn't have final say on who we play non-conference you are crazy. In Chaves/Baldwin I trust!

God Bless and Go EAGS

 

[clawman1]

EaginAz,
I agree, and like this schedule as well. Sure we maybe might have played western Montana or some other cream puffin place of Northern Iowa and ran up a big score but would what learned? If not for 15 penalties at NIU we would have won but came away with a great learning experience some of which carried over the the Bobcat game, and everyone would be loving this.
You are correct in that Chaves can't just schedule any team he wants, many will not consider playing the Eagles because the downside is greater than the upside.
It is easy to second guess scheduling but if you don't know the rest of the story, save it!

 

[clawman1]

EaginAz,
I agree, and like this schedule as well. Sure we maybe might have played western Montana or some other cream puffin place of Northern Iowa and ran up a big score but would what learned? If not for 15 penalties at NIU we would have won but came away with a great learning experience some of which carried over the the Bobcat game, and everyone would be loving this.
You are correct in that Chaves can't just schedule any team he wants, many will not consider playing the Eagles because the downside is greater than the upside.
It is easy to second guess scheduling but if you don't know the rest of the story, save it!

 

[marceagfan5]

I personally love our non-conference schedule(with the exception of 2011). Yes when we lose to the top tier FCS schools it sucks and can hurt our playoff seeding but it hasn't yet! Eastern has not played a road playoff game since 2009, so everyone that keeps bitching how the schedule is hurting our playoffs seeding needs to drop it because it is not. I know you will come back with 2011 but with all the injuries we had that year, would it have matter who we played?

I will agree no more 4 home games, we must have at least 5 regular season home games every year.

Playing SHS and NIU and NDSU elevates our program and has brought National attention to our program and despite what many on this board think it does help us for the playoffs. The Big Sky is not a physical conference, playing NIU is going to help up be better prepared to face another MVC team in December. So for us to continue home and homes with top tier schools makes sense as an avenue to continue to build the program nationally and to prepare the players for the playoffs.

I also have loved the Pac-12 games we have been playing and hope that continues but recognize that we probably won't get many more then the games we currently have scheduled. OSU will never schedule us again, after we beat WSU next year they will not schedule us again and after 2 very close games i doubt UW will schedule us again. Some of the other Pac-12 schools could and I hope they do but the risk reward factor for those teams just aren't there. Financially we have to pay a $$$ game each year so it will be interesting where Chaves goes to get those games. With Texas Tech already on the schedule maybe a tour of the Big 12... I would love to see them play a SEC school, maybe with Coach Mac at UF it can happen. I would say the Mountain West but every one of those schools should be very afraid to play us and so i doubt they would be willing to schedule us. It would be great if we could get a game scheduled with Boise St, Think of all the promos for that game!!!! A very realistic money game for the future is BYU as long as they stay independent, we have played them before so there is some history.

I know this was a long post but I wanted to reiterate that I like what we are doing in scheduling, I know we have one of the best AD's in the country at our level and even in all of college and if you think for one second Baldwin doesn't have final say on who we play non-conference you are crazy. In Chaves/Baldwin I trust!

God Bless and Go EAGS

Here is the problem, we had to beat FBS teams in 2012 and 2013 to get the seed we did because we played 2 of them in both of those years, thats ridiculous!

Yes, we have only played home games since 2010, but do you know how much luck went into that??? In 2010 MSU lost in the first round or we are headed there for the qtr finals, app state then lost in the qtrs or we are headed there. 2010 was our last really good 11 game schedule and even then we played a home game in seattle....

2011 we were the #1 team in the nation and we scheduled 4, yes 4, home games that year. Actually we didn't schedule any because those were given to us by the Big Sky. We let South effing Dakota pay us to go there and it killed us. We played 3 straight on the road to open the season, were decimated by injuries, and didn't make the playoffs. Scheduling in 2011 was a huge part of what cost us in making the playoffs.

2012 we beat Idaho or we are not a top seed. Lucky we played Idaho and not another top FBS school and there in lies the problem, we shouldn't have to beat an FBS school to be a top seed.

2013 we beat Oregon State or we are not a top seed. We finish the year with 2 losses, had we lost to OSU we are on the road in the playoffs.

2014 - better, much better scheduling, guess why? because we played home games, scheduled a D2, and if VA doesn't get hurt were are the 2 seed.

I don't think most of you realize how many breaks we caught the past few years, both with high seeds losing in the playoffs and the fact that we pulled out a couple wins against FBS schools. Had we not beaten Idaho or OSU, we would have been on the road throughout the playoffs in 2012 and 2013. The Big Sky challenges us enough to where we don't need to schedule a difficult game for every non-conf game...

 

[marceagfan5]

EaginAz,
I agree, and like this schedule as well. Sure we maybe might have played western Montana or some other cream puffin place of Northern Iowa and ran up a big score but would what learned? If not for 15 penalties at NIU we would have won but came away with a great learning experience some of which carried over the the Bobcat game, and everyone would be loving this.
You are correct in that Chaves can't just schedule any team he wants, many will not consider playing the Eagles because the downside is greater than the upside.
It is easy to second guess scheduling but if you don't know the rest of the story, save it!

So why not bring in cupcakes? We have 10K beating down the door to get in every week, we are actually making money on home games, pay a D2 to come here and play. You learn a ton from playing a game against a lesser opponent, it helps. Do you not thing the Big Sky prepares us for the playoffs??? You think a game against UNI in early September prepares us for the playoffs more than Big Sky games, hell no.

 

[clawman1]

EaginAz,
I agree, and like this schedule as well. Sure we maybe might have played western Montana or some other cream puffin place of Northern Iowa and ran up a big score but would what learned? If not for 15 penalties at NIU we would have won but came away with a great learning experience some of which carried over the the Bobcat game, and everyone would be loving this.
You are correct in that Chaves can't just schedule any team he wants, many will not consider playing the Eagles because the downside is greater than the upside.
It is easy to second guess scheduling but if you don't know the rest of the story, save it!

So why not bring in cupcakes? We have 10K beating down the door to get in every week, we are actually making money on home games, pay a D2 to come here and play. You learn a ton from playing a game against a lesser opponent, it helps. Do you not thing the Big Sky prepares us for the playoffs??? You think a game against UNI in early September prepares us for the playoffs more than Big Sky games, hell no.

I'll say it again, just getting into the playoffs is not the objective, being a top 4 seed is what is important. Playing cream puffs isn't going to get us there.

 

[marceagfan5]

EaginAz,
I agree, and like this schedule as well. Sure we maybe might have played western Montana or some other cream puffin place of Northern Iowa and ran up a big score but would what learned? If not for 15 penalties at NIU we would have won but came away with a great learning experience some of which carried over the the Bobcat game, and everyone would be loving this.
You are correct in that Chaves can't just schedule any team he wants, many will not consider playing the Eagles because the downside is greater than the upside.
It is easy to second guess scheduling but if you don't know the rest of the story, save it!

So why not bring in cupcakes? We have 10K beating down the door to get in every week, we are actually making money on home games, pay a D2 to come here and play. You learn a ton from playing a game against a lesser opponent, it helps. Do you not thing the Big Sky prepares us for the playoffs??? You think a game against UNI in early September prepares us for the playoffs more than Big Sky games, hell no.

I'll say it again, just getting into the playoffs is not the objective, being a top 4 seed is what is important. Playing cream puffs isn't going to get us there.

I'm thinking big picture too, but your crazy if you think our schedules with our conference is the way to continue. You realize if we lose 1 conference game this year we won't be a top 4 seed right?

I think you and I have completely different views on how to get a top 4 seed. If you do want examples, check out ndsu and their schedules the past 4 years, or montanas before that. You realize the year we won the chipper we played a cupcake, right???

 

[clawman1]

When the committee is doing the invites and seeding strength of schedule is very important and beating Western Montana, Drake, or even Central Washington does not carry much weight. A loss to a school at that level is a big deal whereas a loss to Northern Iowa early in the season is forgivable.

 

[marceagfan5]

When the committee is doing the invites and seeding strength of schedule is very important and beating Western Montana, Drake, or even Central Washington does not carry much weight. A loss to a school at that level is a big deal whereas a loss to Northern Iowa early in the season is forgivable.

Right, but a win against a lesser opponent is better than a loss against a good one don't ya think? A 9-2 record with two good losses and a win against a lesser opponent will get you seeded higher every freaking time than an 8-3 record with 3 good losses but no cupcakes. Why do you think teams like Oregon schedule Eastern? Or Auburn schedules Jacksonville State, its the same at the FBS level.

If you want stats, here ya go, including the 2007 season (i didn't look beyond that), only ONE team (W&M in 2010) with 3 losses was seeded as a top 4 seed . The rest had 2 losses or less.

I understand your idea on strength of schedule, but that is used way more to determine bubble playoff teams than anything. Seeding basically goes to the teams with the best records and ranked the highest. If strength of schedule really mattered, JSU and Eastern Illinois would never have been top 4 seeds the last two years. You want to be considered for a top 4 seed, you need to have 2 losses or less and be ranked in the top 10 to end the year. Its a simple formula and its been proven this is what the committee does time and time again....

If the Big Sky champ has 2 losses or less to end the year, its almost a guarantee they will be a top 4 seed.

 

[clawman1]

When the committee is doing the invites and seeding strength of schedule is very important and beating Western Montana, Drake, or even Central Washington does not carry much weight. A loss to a school at that level is a big deal whereas a loss to Northern Iowa early in the season is forgivable.

Right, but a win against a lesser opponent is better than a loss against a good one don't ya think?

NO, case in point Sam Houston lost to Lamar, a DII school last weekend, then dropped from being top 5 in the polls to 14. It is a lot easier to fall in the polls than move up, I would not be surprised if they never move up to where they were this year, and shocked if they are a top 4 seed.
I've been saying top see is important but unless we are seed #1 or #2 we'll be traveling to Fargo. Just getting into the playoffs is nice but I want to go to Frisco.
p s I've got 6 tickets I want to use!
https://www.google.com/maps/place/9200+World+Cup+Way,+Frisco,+TX+75033/@33.154248,-96.8359145,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x864c3bfe5b71e351:0xba429fde13c6771d" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

 

[LDopaPDX]

When the committee is doing the invites and seeding strength of schedule is very important and beating Western Montana, Drake, or even Central Washington does not carry much weight. A loss to a school at that level is a big deal whereas a loss to Northern Iowa early in the season is forgivable.

Right, but a win against a lesser opponent is better than a loss against a good one don't ya think?

NO, case in point Sam Houston lost to Lamar, a DII school last weekend, then dropped from being top 5 in the polls to 14. It is a lot easier to fall in the polls than move up, I would not be surprised if they never move up to where they were this year, and shocked if they are a top 4 seed.
I've been saying top see is important but unless we are seed #1 or #2 we'll be traveling to Fargo. Just getting into the playoffs is nice but I want to go to Frisco.
p s I've got 6 tickets I want to use!
https://www.google.com/maps/place/9200+World+Cup+Way,+Frisco,+TX+75033/@33.154248,-96.8359145,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x864c3bfe5b71e351:0xba429fde13c6771d" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Lamar is not a D-II team. They are in the Southland Conference, same as Sam Houston State. I don't know if this was a conference game or not, but I suspect it would be. I think we are the only weirdo conference calling conference games "out of conference."

I'd just add this: Baldwin has played our way out of disaster many times. Had we not beaten Idaho in 2012 and Oregon State in 2013, we'd have opened on the road in the playoffs. I don't think you want to count on winning FBS games to be successful. Had we been one touchdown worse last week, we're 0-3 and essentially out of the playoffs; at the very least, out of contention for any home games.

North Dakota State has won four consecutive championships. They stick to the one money game, one marquee game, one cakewalk game philosophy of scheduling. Clearly it works. Clearly playing a single cupcake doesn't affect their seeding.

I don't think anyone (at least not me) is advocating loading up on Montana-Western, Rocky Mountain College, and Oklahoma Panhandle State. I'm happy using the tried-and-true model of BCS game/ FCS contender/ no name team out of conference schedule. We're in a good enough conference that getting through such a schedule with 2 losses gets us a seed and a shot at the title.

But playing Oregon and then a roadie against UNI is stupid. Especially when a good team like Montana State is lurking around the corner. In fact, I think it is really dumb to play a power team in a dome, where the style and surface increase your chances of injury. Our guys have it tough enough, they don't need a schedule working against them to make it tougher.

 

[marceagfan5]

Has anyone seen the 2016-2019 conference schedule release? I know its out there somewhere as the Griz and UND have set their schedules through 2019 with conference games. Just curious as its been silent on our end...

I know the Griz come here next year on 10/29...

 

[EWU98]

Found this DEEP IN the press release:
2016
9/3 at Washington State
9/10 at North Dakota State
9/17 Northern Iowa
9/24 at Northern Arizona*
10/1 UC Davis*
10/8 Northern Colorado*
10/15 Open
10/22 at Montana State*
10/29 Montana*
11/5 at Cal Poly*
11/12 Idaho State*
11/19 at Portland State*
11/28 FCS Playoffs Begin

2017
9/2 at Texas Tech
9/9 Open
9/16 North Dakota State
9/23 at Montana*
9/30 Sacramento State*
10/7 at UC Davis*
10/14 Montana State*
10/21 at Southern Utah*
10/28 Open
11/4 Weber State*
11/11 at North Dakota*
11/18 Portland State*
11/25 FCS Playoffs Begin

2018
9/15 at Washington State
9/22 Cal Poly
9/29 at Montana State
10/6 Southern Utah
10/13 at Weber State
10/20 Montana
10/27 Open
11/3 at Northern Colorado
11/10 UC Davis
11/17 at Portland State

Also . . .
8/31/19 at Washington

 

[EWU98]

I am not sure what schedule would be considered tougher...this years or next....Looking at it I would say next years looks more challenging.

 

[Seattle Eagle]

I am not sure what schedule would be considered tougher...this years or next....Looking at it I would say next years looks more challenging.

Next year's looks tougher. Wow.

 

[LDopaPDX]

It looks like we are all-in on the 5 home game model for the foreseeable future. Not sure why... We also continue to be all-in on playing as many road games as possible in the month of September.

 

[marceagfan5]

It looks like we are all-in on the 5 home game model for the foreseeable future. Not sure why... We also continue to be all-in on playing as many road games as possible in the month of September.

I hope not. Next years schedule is down right brutal to start. A top 25 caliber FBS team on the road, a top 5 FCS team who has won the last 4 titles on the road, a top 10 FCS team in cheney, then of course we go to Flagstaff to open the Big Sky...ugh. NAU will be really good next year. I hate thinking we need to be 2-2 after 4 games every year, but we need to be.

Hopefully we can bring in a terrible FCS team or a D2 for a 6th home game in 2017...

 

[clawman1]

It looks like we are all-in on the 5 home game model for the foreseeable future. Not sure why... We also continue to be all-in on playing as many road games as possible in the month of September.

I hope not. Next years schedule is down right brutal to start. A top 25 caliber FBS team on the road, a top 5 FCS team who has won the last 4 titles on the road, a top 10 FCS team in cheney, then of course we go to Flagstaff to open the Big Sky...ugh. NAU will be really good next year. I hate thinking we need to be 2-2 after 4 games every year, but we need to be.

Hopefully we can bring in a terrible FCS team or a D2 for a 6th home game in 2017...

marc;
Don't know if you pay any attention to the FBS playoff debate but it is interesting how much strength of schedule matters. There are few teams with a perfect record and many with only one loss. Ohio State is left out with one loss but very few wins over top 25 teams.
I realize the FCS playoffs are much different but there is still some subjectivity involved in the seeding.
With all of that said I hope we continue to schedule the best competition we can find. We need to be able to beat those teams to get higher seeding. Playing D2 teams hurts more than it helps.

 

[LDopaPDX]

It looks like we are all-in on the 5 home game model for the foreseeable future. Not sure why... We also continue to be all-in on playing as many road games as possible in the month of September.

I hope not. Next years schedule is down right brutal to start. A top 25 caliber FBS team on the road, a top 5 FCS team who has won the last 4 titles on the road, a top 10 FCS team in cheney, then of course we go to Flagstaff to open the Big Sky...ugh. NAU will be really good next year. I hate thinking we need to be 2-2 after 4 games every year, but we need to be.

Hopefully we can bring in a terrible FCS team or a D2 for a 6th home game in 2017...

marc;
Don't know if you pay any attention to the FBS playoff debate but it is interesting how much strength of schedule matters. There are few teams with a perfect record and many with only one loss. Ohio State is left out with one loss but very few wins over top 25 teams.
I realize the FCS playoffs are much different but there is still some subjectivity involved in the seeding.
With all of that said I hope we continue to schedule the best competition we can find. We need to be able to beat those teams to get higher seeding. Playing D2 teams hurts more than it helps.

I get what you're saying about strength of schedule, but there are limits to what is reasonable. For example, we play Washington State- likely a top 25 BCS team, and 4-time defending champ and current playoff participant North Dakota State- likely a top 5 FCS team, both on the road. What is the purpose of playing UNI-- a likely FCS top 10 team? For that matter, what was the purpose of playing UNI this year? Replace UNI with Mississippi Valley State and we finish 7-4 and make the playoffs. Yeah, the way our season collapsed, we wouldn't have made it far after that, but making the playoffs ALWAYS has to be goal #1 to make a successful season.

When you look at BCS and talk strength of schedule, you're talking about teams that don't play anything near what we play considering our level. Think of Michigan State playing Oregon, Notre Dame, and an NFL team.. that would be the comparable out-of-conference schedule to ours. You won't find a BCS team anywhere that schedules like that, or even playing 3 other BCS teams in non-con. They'll always schedule at least one paddycake game in that mix.

Our strength of schedule is always tough enough with one BCS team, one good FCS, and a conference slate. We can afford to put one crap FCS nobody on the sked and still have a strength of schedule that far outshines 3/4 of the rest of the FCS.