I learned a few things I will use in my previews that I missed listening to the call live. (An aside: one coach might have talked about every last player on his team, while another didn't mention a single name until I pushed him, and then pushed him again. But I digress.)
This won't make it into my previews so I thought I would share it here. Penn's Al Bagnoli and Princeton's Bob Surace were asked about the challenge of finding suitable non-conference opponents now that the Patriot League has instituted football scholarships. Here's a lightly edited transcription of their comments.
Penn coach Al Bagnoli:
I think that is going to be a philosophical question that the whole league is going to be confronted with – exactly who to play. If you want to try to line yourself up with at least one team that is aid based on need – so philosophically it would be the same as the Ivy League – there’s not many options out there.
With the Patriot (League) going to scholarships, with the Wagners and the Albanys increasing to 63 scholarships (and) Monmouth going to 63, it just really has limited who you can play. So we are looking toward the Pioneer (Football) League, but in doing that there’s an expensive trip involved and you have to kind of weigh chartering a plane for $100,000 (against whether) you are better off playing Lafayette and Lehigh in our area, for an example, which are an hour-and-a-half bus rides.
So I think we are going to be in a philosophical dilemma as those teams keep adding scholarships, and eventually get to the full maximum, of exactly who do you play? Philosophically the league has to answer that because it is getting progressively harder to look at a schedule and say, 'This makes sense.'Princeton coach Bob Surace:
It will be interesting. I got the job four-and-a-half years ago and the schedule was set until like 2022. I have no idea.
Lehigh ended up being our opener the last four years and they are nationally ranked and go to the playoffs. San Diego had a playoff team last year. You just don’t know how they’re going to be on any given year. I’m sure when those games were scheduled they didn’t know how we were going to be as well. Some of that is well, well, well into the future the way these schedules are set.
My personal opinion, I would love to get rid of all the out-of-conference opponents so we don’t have to talk about who else we are playing. Have an East Division and a West Division and just play Ivy League football. And then have a championship at the end and then go to the playoffs. That would be beautiful.
They do it in baseball that way. I think that’s awesome how they do it. Then we just play each other. That’s who we recruit against, that’s who we play against. I think that’s who the fans want to see for the most part.
But that’s just my opinion, more as an alum than it is as a coach, because our schedule is what it is for the next eight or nine years.Green Alert Take: Bagnoli identified the problem but didn't have an answer. Surace had an answer but currently the NCAA requires a league to have 12 teams before it can host a conference championship and we all know that even if the Ivies got a waiver, going to the FCS playoffs isn't in the Ivy League's future. Beyond that, it's doubtful the rest of the FCS would look kindly on an Ivy League bid if the conference wasn't willing to play outside the league. Personally, I would be concerned how playing just each other would affect recruiting although if there's no NCAA playoffs at the end, would it matter?
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What do YOU think about the scheduling dilemma? If you have a few thoughts, send them via that "contact form" over there to the right, or to my regular email, and I will post them, anonymously if you would like.