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Why are we opening 2020 with a road game vs Utah State?

chipdouglas

chipdouglas

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Blackmail? To save a kidnapped daughter? To collect our lottery winnings?

There must be some kind of scheduling peculiarity forcing our hand? The other 2 noncons are in Pullman so I assume 1 of 3 must be on the road? Because if not, I'm having flashbacks of USC refusing to travel to Pullman, and ACC/SEC getting 4 noncons, while a recent Top 10 finisher is doing road games with bad G5 teams...
 
chipdouglas said:
Blackmail? To save a kidnapped daughter? To collect our lottery winnings?

Edit to add: I don't know if USU is any good next year, doesn't matter. The hand wringing about an empty stadium being a factor in our demise is countered, isn't it?

There must be some kind of scheduling peculiarity forcing our hand? The other 2 noncons are in Pullman so I assume 1 of 3 must be on the road? Because if not, I'm having flashbacks of USC refusing to travel to Pullman, and ACC/SEC getting 4 noncons, while a recent Top 10 finisher is doing road games with bad G5 teams...
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Granted they are a good team, but to escape Pullman on Labor Day is a coup.
 
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Pay them the $75k (or whatever it is) and move it to a home game. I saw that and seriously had to scratch my head.
 
chipdouglas said:
Blackmail? To save a kidnapped daughter? To collect our lottery winnings?

There must be some kind of scheduling peculiarity forcing our hand? The other 2 noncons are in Pullman so I assume 1 of 3 must be on the road? Because if not, I'm having flashbacks of USC refusing to travel to Pullman, and ACC/SEC getting 4 noncons, while a recent Top 10 finisher is doing road games with bad G5 teams...
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Forrest Evashevski blew out USU on the road in his 1st game as WSU (WSC) coach in 1950.

The last time they played WSU got blown out Spokane by USU in 1961
1961 schedule: Two Pullman games, two Spokane games and 6 road games.
 
FnuLnu said:
The last time they played WSU got blown out Spokane by USU in 1961.
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Coincidentally, the last time any upgrades were made to Joe Albi Stadium. ☹️☹️☹️ (Still wish one non-conference game could be in Spokane each year).
 
BleedCrimsonandGray said:
Pay them the $75k (or whatever it is) and move it to a home game. I saw that and seriously had to scratch my head.
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PeteTheChop said:
Coincidentally, the last time any upgrades were made to Joe Albi Stadium. ☹️☹️☹️ (Still wish one non-conference game could be in Spokane each year).
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No thanks.

Saw WSU (with multiple Holiday Bowl starters returning) shut out by Colorado in front of a lifeless Joe Albi crowd.

Maybe when the Zags bring in Paul Wulff to revive their football program.
 
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FnuLnu said:
Maybe when the Zags bring in Paul Wulff to revive their football program.
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I’m sure GU fans and the balding, pot-bellied guy from the Spokesman-Review would be petitioning for the Zags to join WSU and UW in the Pac.
 
Personally, I like the opener. Labor Day home games typically suck, and we get a legitimate opponent to prepare for throughout Fall camp. It's also a team Rolo is very familiar with.
 
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I should know the schedule better but I assume this is the first game in a home and home.
 
wazzucougs96 said:
To add to this, I am honestly not sure we have a big enough fanbase to support 8 home games.
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Who cares?

No travel. No small roster. No extra crap to worry about managing 62 kids away from home. You have your entire roster to work with.

If playing 8 home games was a bad idea the SEC, the 1 conference that holds as many thumbs and fingers on the scale as it can, wouldnt be doing it.

Fans dont wanna come? Fine. Take the home game and win.
 
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BiggsCoug said:
Who cares?

No travel. No small roster. No extra crap to worry about managing 62 kids away from home. You have your entire roster to work with.

If playing 8 home games was a bad idea the SEC, the 1 conference that holds as many thumbs and fingers on the scale as it can, wouldnt be doing it.

Fans dont wanna come? Fine. Take the home game and win.
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Out of 14 SEC teams, zero are playing 8 home games. Zero. Zilch.

Texas A&M is playing all four OOC games at home but is playing a home conference game in Jerry World against Arkansas. Arkansas is an adjoining state and should show up pretty well ... it's sort of a Red River Rivalry-kind of thing.

So ... another case where Biggs is saying stuff in a purportedly authoritative way without knowing what the hell he's talking about.
 
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BiggsCoug said:
Who cares?

No travel. No small roster. No extra crap to worry about managing 62 kids away from home. You have your entire roster to work with.

If playing 8 home games was a bad idea the SEC, the 1 conference that holds as many thumbs and fingers on the scale as it can, wouldnt be doing it.

Fans dont wanna come? Fine. Take the home game and win.
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In general, I completely agree. I am just wondering if this is what the AD was thinking when the series was scheduled.

Its also a way to get new teams to play in Pullman. We just did a series with Wyoming too, that worked out well for us.
 
FnuLnu said:
No thanks.

Saw WSU (with multiple Holiday Bowl starters returning) shut out by Colorado in front of a lifeless Joe Albi crowd.

Maybe when the Zags bring in Paul Wulff to revive their football program.
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The new Spokane stadium is going to hold 5,000 people. GTFO with any ideas of playing anything other than the occasional spring game there.
 
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BiggsCoug said:
Who cares?

No travel. No small roster. No extra crap to worry about managing 62 kids away from home. You have your entire roster to work with.
...
Fans dont wanna come? Fine. Take the home game and win.
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Exactly.

Too many Stockholm Syndrome WSU fans worry about butts in seats (Seattle/Spokane/Pullman), or "interesting matchups," or games they would personally like to go to.

Guess what? "If you build it, they will come." When your floor is 7+ wins and your ceiling is vying for championships, you'd be amazed at how recruits, fans, money and facilities materialize. Never give up a home game you don't have to, never play a team better team than you have to, and otherwise never expose yourself to more risk of losing than you absolutely must. You will get your chance at playing great opponents in conference championships and in bowl season.

I would rather be the least exciting team heading to the playoffs than the most exciting team that missed a bowl game.
 
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chipdouglas said:
Exactly.

Too many Stockholm Syndrome WSU fans worry about butts in seats (Seattle/Spokane/Pullman), or "interesting matchups," or games they would personally like to go to.

Guess what? "If you build it, they will come." When your floor is 7+ wins and your ceiling is vying for championships, you'd be amazed at how recruits, fans, money and facilities materialize. Never give up a home game you don't have to, never play a team better team than you have to, and otherwise never expose yourself to more risk of losing than you absolutely must. You will get your chance at playing great opponents in conference championships and in bowl season.

I would rather be the least exciting team heading to the playoffs than the most exciting team that missed a bowl game.
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Not only that, but its on WSU to continue to build the brand. If people won't pay to come, give the seat away. Just fill the stadium. Get the Spokane and TC peeps coming, and when they see how much fun it can be you get people who want to come back and are willing to pay.

Also, and I've pounded on this drum before : market to the hispanic demo. The TC is nearly 50% hispanic at this point. We need more brown faces on our marketing. WSU is missing an opportunity imho.
 
wazzucougs96 said:
In general, I completely agree. I am just wondering if this is what the AD was thinking when the series was scheduled.

Its also a way to get new teams to play in Pullman. We just did a series with Wyoming too, that worked out well for us.
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All P12 teams play road games against Mountain West Conference opponents. The fact that the SEC doesn't play road non league games is their problem. 7 home games each season is perfect, in my opinion. I think playing on the road against Wyoming, Utah St, Nevada, San Jose St, etc. is interesting.
 
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CougPatrol said:
All P12 teams play road games against Mountain West Conference opponents. The fact that the SEC doesn't play road non league games is their problem. 7 home games each season is perfect, in my opinion. I think playing on the road against Wyoming, Utah St, Nevada, San Jose St, etc. is interesting.
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Interesting? What about being on the road vs home makes it MORE interesting? Just curious, I've never heard someone categorize a disadvantage as "interesting".
 
BleedCrimsonandGray said:
Interesting? What about being on the road vs home makes it MORE interesting? Just curious, I've never heard someone categorize a disadvantage as "interesting".
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Interesting because I like the schools in the MWC, and traveling to road games at some of the destinations is fun. Everyone has a different opinion of the "ideal" schedule, as they should. For me, I'm a Western WA season ticket holder, and I hold a RV Lot #1 pass. I don't personally need or want more home games. And on a side note, I also think it's good sporting etiquette for P5 programs to play road games against group of 5 schools.
 
Just in terms of exposing and correcting weaknesses.Take 19' for instance. They kill Northern Colorado and New Mexico St and so many were projecting another great season. Then it's "Houston...we "may" have a problem followed by WTF at UCLA. Challenging the team ans staff early by presenting some true competition is... imho...the best way to move forward with the rest of the season.
 
CougPatrol said:
All P12 teams play road games against Mountain West Conference opponents. The fact that the SEC doesn't play road non league games is their problem. 7 home games each season is perfect, in my opinion. I think playing on the road against Wyoming, Utah St, Nevada, San Jose St, etc. is interesting.
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Your opinion of taking away a home game to play a Mtn West team is dumb and wrong.
 
froropmkr72 said:
Just in terms of exposing and correcting weaknesses.Take 19' for instance. They kill Northern Colorado and New Mexico St and so many were projecting another great season. Then it's "Houston...we "may" have a problem followed by WTF at UCLA. Challenging the team ans staff early by presenting some true competition is... imho...the best way to move forward with the rest of the season.
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Losing doesnt propel your team forward. Once WSU consistently wins 7 or more and bowing is always certain, Im on board with playing tougher non con teams. Until then it is stupid to schedule anything other than weaker opponents at home.
 
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BiggsCoug said:
Losing doesnt propel your team forward. Once WSU consistently wins 7 or more and bowing is always certain, Im on board with playing tougher non con teams. Until then it is stupid to schedule anything other than weaker opponents at home.
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Some people still think there is "nobility" in a good loss, despite everything over the last 20 years proving otherwise.

There is a reason Bama plays the citadel every year. I mean, they aren't even trying to look respectable with their non-cons.
 
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A
BiggsCoug said:
Losing doesnt propel your team forward. Once WSU consistently wins 7 or more and bowing is always certain, Im on board with playing tougher non con teams. Until then it is stupid to schedule anything other than weaker opponents at home.
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according to the final rankings ...Utah State is a weaker opponent, but not too much weaker where you find out nothing about the team.
 
BleedCrimsonandGray said:
Some people still there is "nobility" in a good loss, despite everything over the last 20 years proving otherwise.

There is a reason Bama plays the citadel every year. I mean, they aren't even trying to look respectable with their non-cons.
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Bama knows what they have every single year. According to the rankings...we wouldn't lose to Utah State. If Utah State is favored...I'll take that bet.
 
WSU had only 6 home games in a season as recently as 2015. Should be 7 every year. 8 is only even possible in years in which WSU has 5 home conference games.

I'm with the general principle of a manageable OOC schedule that supports winning all three of them at the expense of "interesting" matchups. Let's have interesting matchups in our bowl games.

Scheduling to protect the likelihood of a bowl game is important, especially since we're starting at a disadvantage vis-a-vis the SEC with the 9 conference games. Not only do you need and want the bowl prep each year, but making a bowl each year, at minimum, is needed to support a claim that the program is solid, and there's tremendous value in saying, e.g., WSU has been to bowl games 10 straight years. Much better than trying to get into nuances about how we would have made a bowl if not for the "interesting" road game at Wisconsin, etc.

Few care at the time, and even fewer care at any subsequent point, who you played to get there. The most important thing to 99% of people is your record.
 
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425cougfan said:
WSU had only 6 homes in a season as recently as 2015. Should be 7 every year. 8 is only even possible in years in which WSU has 5 home conference games.

I'm with the general principle of a manageable OOC schedule that supports winning all three of them at the expense of "interesting" matchups. Let's have interesting matchups in our bowl games.

Scheduling to protect the likelihood of a bowl game is important, especially since we're starting at a disadvantage vis-a-vis the SEC with the 9 conference games. Not only do you need and want the bowl prep each year, but making a bowl each year, at minimum, is needed to support a claim that the program is solid, and there's tremendous value in saying, e.g., WSU has been to bowl games 10 straight years. Much better than trying to get into nuances about how we would have made a bowl if not for the "interesting" road game at Wisconsin, etc.

Few care at the time, and even fewer care at any subsequent point, who you played to get there. The most important thing to 99% of people is your record.
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In case people missed what you said, I'll restate it because I think it bears reminding people:

WSU was rolling only 5 home games for several years. This is not counting Seattle as a home game.

Our AD was actively whoring out the football team for $$$.

There is no reason to not play as many games as possible in Pullman.
 
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froropmkr72 said:
A

according to the final rankings ...Utah State is a weaker opponent, but not too much weaker where you find out nothing about the team.
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If you are making $3,000,000 per year and cant watch your football team play and have an idea of what you do or dont have, you are a junior high coach.
 
BTW, I remember some people--can't recall if here or on Brand X--claiming with apparent seriousness that the reason we lost the UCLA game was because our weak OOC schedule hadn't "prepared" us for Pac-12 play.
 
425cougfan said:
BTW, I remember some people--can't recall if here or on Brand X--claiming with apparent seriousness that the reason we lost the UCLA game was because our weak OOC schedule hadn't "prepared" us for Pac-12 play.
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I actually don't think that's an unreasonable sentiment. Things went pretty easy vs. Northern Colorado and NMSU, and even Houston after halftime. They were going just as easy vs. UCLA until late in the 3rd quarter. Then when adversity and pressure hit and required the Cougars to buckle down, they acted like they didn't know how. I'm not advocating an OOC game we can't win but a little more of a challenge might develop a better understanding of how hard and smart you have to play to win a conference game.

Glad Cougar
 
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