Am I the only one that actually liked the games against Tennessee Tech, Stony Brook and North Dakota as a diversion from the Southern Utah / Weber State / Idaho State rotation, giving us the chance to see teams we had never gotten to see before? I personally like getting outside of the local team bubble, and getting to know the whole world of college sports and see new teams. Does everyone else look forward to just playing those three schools in the near future when they are scheduled and actually prefer we instead stick with those three? Or better yet, is there anyone that would like seeing us break the SUU/ Weber/ ISU rotation but ALSO prefer regional teams like Sacramento State, Portland State or Northern Colorado as opposed to schools back east.

As a question, with the things you have to sacrifice to go to games, like getting work off for Thursday or Friday games and getting home late, long drives, turning down invitations for family events, going instead of staying home watching the big college football games on TV, etc., do you put games against unfamiliar FCS teams from back east in a lower tier than even ones against Idaho State, SUU or Weber, or are all FCS games the same to you? Like for those of you that didn't want to take work off to come up when we played Tennessee Tech on Thursday a few years ago or North Dakota on Friday this year, would the game being against "At least Idaho State, Weber, or Southern Utah" made a difference with you taking work off, or would it have required it being a conference opponent(or even more than JUST it being a conference opponent) or P5 team or Boise for you to do it?

I enjoyed seeing teams from different parts of the country that we don't generally see. I also like playing FCS teams that are a good team. The Tennessee Tech team was not much of a step above an elite high school, but playing ND which is a solid team is good. I don't care which day the game is I just love going to the games. There are only 6 guaranteed home games a year. I will say the 8:30 November games are not as fun. I love a good afternoon fall game, nothing better than that.

I will say that my interest in seeing teams we had never gotten to see before does carry over to other sports. Like every basketball season, I look forward to the few OOC home games against teams we have never gotten to see before, and when we were in the bracket busters, I would always hope it is someone new, and hate it when we would just get UC Santa Barbara who we had seen several times already. However, I do think it is also good to see some of our old Big West rivals. And it is also good to schedule teams from California where it is less grueling to travel to. And where we do give return games instead of checks in basketball, it is preferable to have an easy bus ride to Pocatello or Orem for return games as opposed to long flights back east.

While I go almost all football and basketball games, I would have to say I make more of a point to go to non football/basketball sports when we compete against schools we don't get to see every year.

As for football scheduling, another valid reason to play the local three schools is they probably demand less of a payout as they bus here while anyone else charters a plane here. There once were reports that Weber raised their asking price, so a number of things could have happened. Jerry Bovee agreeing to pay their asking price, Weber lowering their price as a favor for him, or all the other schools raising their prices as well.

I had the opportunity to talk to several South Dakota fans during the lightning delay. They were a really neat fan base. Would like to see us continue to bring in a variety of schools. Don't really like Thursday games, but Fridays are fine. That said, I'm local.

Especially in recent years we're we've been spanking them pretty bad, didn't we drop 70 points on Weber about 10 years ago?

ViAggie wrote: ↑

September 14th, 2021, 3:49 pm

Especially in recent years we're we've been spanking them pretty bad, didn't we drop 70 points on Weber about 10 years ago?

Yeah, but we wouldn't do that this year, and aren't doing that this year. It's hit or miss with Weber, ISU and SUU having decent teams, and it can be hit or miss with teams from back east.

Aggie84025 wrote: ↑

September 14th, 2021, 3:36 pm

The Tennessee Tech team was not much of a step above an elite high school, but playing ND which is a solid team is good.

The thing is, there are some years that good FCS teams are capable of beating us. 2018, the year we scheduled Tennessee Tech, we probably win fairly comfortably against ANY FCS team. But 2020, A number of FCS schools would have beaten us.

aceofspadeskb wrote: ↑

September 14th, 2021, 3:48 pm

I had the opportunity to talk to several South Dakota fans during the lightning delay. They were a really neat fan base. Would like to see us continue to bring in a variety of schools. Don't really like Thursday games, but Fridays are fine. That said, I'm local.

This was very funny to me.

ViAggie wrote: ↑

September 14th, 2021, 3:49 pm

Especially in recent years we're we've been spanking them pretty bad, didn't we drop 70 points on Weber about 10 years ago?

Then there's the flip side, like when we barely beat SUU (2015??) in the waning minutes of the 4th quarter with a miracle punt return by Andrew Rodriguez.

Slim80 wrote: ↑

September 14th, 2021, 5:54 pm

ViAggie wrote: ↑

September 14th, 2021, 3:49 pm

Especially in recent years we're we've been spanking them pretty bad, didn't we drop 70 points on Weber about 10 years ago?

Then there's the flip side, like when we barely beat SUU (2015??) in the waning minutes of the 4th quarter with a miracle punt return by Andrew Rodriguez.

That was a weird year, that one-point loss to New Mexico still hurts.

I have said it before, maybe in chat when this was being discussed, but I vaguely remember the local fcs schools started to demand significantly more money to play us. It hasn’t been confirmed, so maybe I’m off.

For me personally- I don’t mind playing non local fcs schools. I simply do not care about Idaho State. I care as much about Weber football as I do any other fcs team. I do care about beating Weber, UVU, etc in basketball. Maybe it’s because I’m not a native Utahn. If JMU ever came to town I’d care because one my sisters went to JMU. Maybe I’d care if we played my grad school (another Virginia FCS team). So I can see where native Utahns who have siblings/in-laws that attended Weber or SUU. But for me, it might as well be any random Upstate Tech generic school you see in commercials without any licensing agreements.

I thought it was awesome. I really enjoyed learning about the hockey program at UND. It should be the envy of anyone who enjoys the sport. I’d like to go see a game in their facility someday. I LOVE our Aggies and I love college football, but I’d trade our football team for a hockey program like theirs any day. I’m not sure football in general has a bright long term future anyway.


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I too like to see other schools, and this is exactly why I don’t care if we play Utah or byu. It’s the same discussion, why play us when they can play any other school around the US.

Slim80 wrote: ↑

September 14th, 2021, 5:54 pm

ViAggie wrote: ↑

September 14th, 2021, 3:49 pm

Especially in recent years we're we've been spanking them pretty bad, didn't we drop 70 points on Weber about 10 years ago?

Then there's the flip side, like when we barely beat SUU (2015??) in the waning minutes of the 4th quarter with a miracle punt return by Andrew Rodriguez.

....and some on this page, like myself, remember that wintery Thanksgiving Day sitting in Wildcat Stadium in the late 70's when Weber State took USU to the woodshed. Only time we lost to them, maybe, but I sat there asking why we were playing them...

Winkie wrote: ↑

September 14th, 2021, 8:59 pm

Slim80 wrote: ↑

September 14th, 2021, 5:54 pm

ViAggie wrote: ↑

September 14th, 2021, 3:49 pm

Especially in recent years we're we've been spanking them pretty bad, didn't we drop 70 points on Weber about 10 years ago?

Then there's the flip side, like when we barely beat SUU (2015??) in the waning minutes of the 4th quarter with a miracle punt return by Andrew Rodriguez.

....and some on this page, like myself, remember that wintery Thanksgiving Day sitting in Wildcat Stadium in the late 70's when Weber State took USU to the woodshed. Only time we lost to them, maybe, but I sat there asking why we were playing them...

I have heard stories about when we played at Idaho State and got taken to the woodshed. I have tried asking here, to no avail, what was different back then that would have caused us to play Idaho State and Weber State at their fields.

When the Big Sky was formed, Idaho retained their university level football status. There was some talk about the entire BigSky jumping up to that level. It hadn't been all that long since both Montana schools had been in the Skyline Conference, after all. It made sense.

In 1972, accordingly, USU made home and home agreement with Weebe, though not with the Bengals. That single trip to Pocatello, on the other hand, was a one-off.

Don't fool yourself. The reason for the new FCS teams is that their payout is a lot less than the local FCS schools. I seem to remember Hartwell eluding to this in one of his interviews. He said something to the effect that the local schools were asking for a lot more.

For FB Junkies, watching new and different teams is fun. For the casual fan (and there a lot more of them), the local teams are likely to have a player or two they know, and their fans will travel with them.

They are more attractive than a team the casual fan has never heard of.