Last week I read that ASU still has an open home game for an OOC FBS team for the 2014 schedule. This may be our opportunity to start a rivalry. I have three schools in mind: 1) ECU, 2) Charlotte (starting 2015), and 3) Marshal. I favor Charlotte because of our close proximity which will breed heated competition (it already has) and the opportunity to play in the city of Charlotte which will offer an unbelievable chance for this game to become very big in the state of North Carolina. Your thoughts?

I don't think Charlotte won't play us at all anytime soon. Maybe 2016 at the earliest. EZU probably won't play us (in Boone) any time soon either until we expand our stadium. Marshall - really not sure about, but I just don't see them rushing down to Boone to play us now that we are FBS. I think they are the most likely to be the first visitor out of the three you mentioned though. I think we just need to sit tight and be patient.

Does anybody think Wake will schedule us again?

UNCC offers a chance to start a grass roots rivalry, but I would prefer a yearly game with Wake of the ACC or perhaps a game with ECU in Charlotte if they won't come to Boone?

Seems to me that our future rivalry will probably have to come from the SBC. In-state ACC teams don't see any advantage in developing an SBC rivalry, ECU might play us once in awhile, but we will likely have to play catch-up awhile before they see us as an equal peer. Charlotte would be perfect, but it's pretty clear that they'd rather pretend they are above us, than to prove it on the field.
Even the Stink will probably become rivals with Ga. State, until they leave the conference. Maybe, JMU will decide to join the SBC- that would work.

I understand what everybody is saying, but I'm dreaming bigger than that. Perhaps not in the foreseeable future, but once we get grounded I hope that ASU can develop a rivalry that has North Carolina statewide interest. In the state of North Carolina the biggest collegiate games are probably the UNC vs NCSU or ECU vs NCSU. I really enjoyed the ASU vs WFU games, but WFU doesn't draw statewide attention. I think it will take two public universities to reach that kind of excitement. The UNC vs NCSU rivalry is probably the oldest and most endearing, but after that its wide open. ECU needs a rival that reciprocates its feelings. UNC has NCSU; ECU wants NCSU as its rival, but NCSU doesn't care for it. ASU would give ECU all it wants and more. Charlotte, sitting in our backyard, will probably try everything to take us down. I think that I could learn to despise that school - a villainous rival.

I've always disliked Marshall more than any school. Mainly because every time the NCAA investigates them they have found tons of recruiting violations. The MAC schools claim that Marshall had 99 pending NCAA violations when they had that airplane accident.
Plus their fans are a lot like UNCC fans. If we had been FBS already we probably would have been voted into CUSA, but Marshall talked it up about keeping us out. They didn't want the close competition.
So I would think Marshall would turn out to be our rivals.

I think that in the next 5-10 years, ECU will become App's biggest non-conference rival. It will not happen until the stadium is expanded but if that happens and App gets back in the win column against ECU, the feeling will be mutual.

Marshall is certainly another candidate although I'd much prefer ECU as a school to be closely associated with.

AppSt94 wrote:UNCC offers a chance to start a grass roots rivalry, but I would prefer a yearly game with Wake of the ACC or perhaps a game with ECU in Charlotte if they won't come to Boone?

Jerry Richardson would make a good day's gate and we and ECU would get the dregs. Plus ECU has proven that they can't fill it up no matter who they play as far as I've seen.

AppAttack wrote:Does anybody think Wake will schedule us again?

I don't think they will in the foreseeable future. After our SBC invitation was announced, I recall Wake's AD saying their OOC games were set through 2020 when asked about it...

Wake has an opening in 2016 and two OOC games or less scheduled 2017 and beyond.

http://www.fbschedules.com/ncaa/acc/wak ... eacons.php

Other likely candidates open dates:

A = need away game, H = need home game, E - either, multiple openings

ECU - '14 A, '15 H
Marshall - '16 E, '17 A
MTSU - '14 H, '15 E, '16 H, '17 A
ODU - '14 H, '15 A, '16 E, '17 E
S. MIss. - '14 H, '16 E, '17 E
UAB - '14 A, '15 E, '16 E
WKU - '14 A, '15 H, '16 H, '17 E
Toledo - '14 H, '15 A, '16 H
FIU - '15 E, '16 E

Terry Holland how about one more favor?

I doubt ECU comes to Boone before we increase our seating capacity.

Last year we averaged 28/29K with a lot of empty seats. For an ECU game we could potentially exceed 35K and that is absolutely respectable for both CUSA and the SBC.

Those 28/29 K figures with all the empty seats were what I would call fabricated. There is no way in hades 35,000 people are getting in KBS as it stands right now, even if every seat is filled.

Appersrule wrote:Those 28/29 K figures with all the empty seats were what I would call fabricated. You do know that our attendance numbers are guesstimates by the athletic department right? There is no way in hades 35,000 people are getting in KBS as it stands right now, even if every seat is filled.

They're a little more than estimates. It was my understanding they count tickets sold.

They're fairly accurate.

The regular season ones are NOT fairly accurate, they are inflated heavily. They count tickets sold then add however many students they "think" showed up. Which is where it becomes inflated. Now if you want to get down to it. Post-Season Att. numbers are very close to correct because of NCAA reporting. The attendance numbers never have and never will be number of actual butts in the stadium.

i dont know about this whole guessing on students thing. All students have to swipe their cards and student guests have to have a printed out ticket and it be scanned i dont know how one wouldn't be able to just look at the machines.

Appersrule wrote:Post-Season Att. numbers are very close to correct because of NCAA reporting.

And considering the stadium is visibly about half as full as the regular season, the regular season numbers are about right....

Appersrule wrote:The regular season ones are NOT fairly accurate, they are inflated heavily. They count tickets sold then add however many students they "think" showed up. Which is where it becomes inflated. Now if you want to get down to it. Post-Season Att. numbers are very close to correct because of NCAA reporting. The attendance numbers never have and never will be number of actual butts in the stadium.

I did not realize that this was the actual policy. Where did you learn this?

Appersrule wrote:The regular season ones are NOT fairly accurate, they are inflated heavily. They count tickets sold then add however many students they "think" showed up. Which is where it becomes inflated. Now if you want to get down to it. Post-Season Att. numbers are very close to correct because of NCAA reporting. The attendance numbers never have and never will be number of actual butts in the stadium.

Here's what really happens:

DJ logs onto the MMB about mid-way through the 3rd quarter and navigates to the weekly attendance thread. He reads through it and decides who he wants to win the cookie this week. That number becomes the basis for the announced attendance. When he's not feeling generous, he just chooses a number close to 27301, the zip code for his beloved NE Guilford Rams.