2014 football schedule announced

[david aka the TYZ]

Saw this in the headlines thread:

http://cincinnati.com/blogs/uc/2014/02/12/aac-announces-2014-football-schedule/

Conference game dates are not announced yet, but one thing I found interesting is that we won't be playing Central Florida again this year. Kind of surprising. At SMU looks like our toughest conference game. Of course we go to Ohio State and Miami, FL this year.

 

[Bearcat_NTS]

Wow this conference sucks. I will be decreasing the amount of UC football games I watch again next year...really only 2 games I want to see (possibly a 3rd if ECU is any good).

 

[david aka the TYZ]

Wow this conference sucks. I will be decreasing the amount of UC football games I watch again next year...really only 2 games I want to see (possibly a 3rd if ECU is any good).

I was thinking the same thing. I imagine Central Florida and us will be the teams to beat. No real home games to get excited about and being the games are downtown I'm even less excited. I will renew my season tickets though. Seeing this schedule makes me hope that they won't overcharge us for tickets this year. That was a concern of mine.

 

[LaxCat31]

The American conference commissioner received a lot of backlash on twitter yesterday when the schedules were released for not pitting the two best teams in the AAC against each other. Other than our two away games, this schedule is downright dismal.

 

[Scheids21]

The American conference commissioner received a lot of backlash on twitter yesterday when the schedules were released for not pitting the two best teams in the AAC against each other. Other than our two away games, this schedule is downright dismal.

Did you catch Michael Costa (director of football for the American) response to cincyontheprowl? Cincyontheprowl was tweeting how the AAC had no clue what they were doing and he responded, "our bad. We forgot about the 100 year old rivalry between UCF/Cincinnati."

I'm not sure why you wouldn't want your best two programs to play each other. My only theory is they are trying to raise the conferences chances at having a team play in the "access bowls". Starting this year, the highest rated conference champion among the AAC, CUSA, MAC, Mountain West, and Sun Belt gets an automatic bid to the Fiesta Bowl, Chick-Fil-A Bowl, or Cotton Bowl. Theoretically, UCF and UC not playing each other erases an automatic loss for one of the teams.

This is my only guess as to why they would do this. The fact that we essentially need to come in 1st out of about 50 teams just to get a bid to basically a BCS bowl is daunting and exemplifies why we desperately need out of the AAC in terms of football. You can get respect in basketball in a non-power conference, but in football, you need to go undefeated pretty much every year to remain relevant.

 

[cincycpaw]

Bottom line, UC needs out ASAP.

 

[UCalum08]

Very ugly schedule.

 

[david aka the TYZ]

Did you catch Michael Costa (director of football for the American) response to cincyontheprowl? Cincyontheprowl was tweeting how the AAC had no clue what they were doing and he responded, "our bad. We forgot about the 100 year old rivalry between UCF/Cincinnati."

I'm not sure why you wouldn't want your best two programs to play each other. My only theory is they are trying to raise the conferences chances at having a team play in the "access bowls". Starting this year, the highest rated conference champion among the AAC, CUSA, MAC, Mountain West, and Sun Belt gets an automatic bid to the Fiesta Bowl, Chick-Fil-A Bowl, or Cotton Bowl. Theoretically, UCF and UC not playing each other erases an automatic loss for one of the teams.

This is my only guess as to why they would do this. The fact that we essentially need to come in 1st out of about 50 teams just to get a bid to basically a BCS bowl is daunting and exemplifies why we desperately need out of the AAC in terms of football. You can get respect in basketball in a non-power conference, but in football, you need to go undefeated pretty much every year to remain relevant.

I was thinking the same thing that they didn't have them play each other so maybe one team or both can go undefeated. We play two really tough out of conference road games, not sure what Central Florida has. I get that not every team will play each other, but I've never heard of not playing a team two years in a row in a conference where there's no divisions. I say there's a 99% chance that this is intentional. If there were a conference championship game it wouldn't really matter.

 

[Bearcat_NTS]

Did you catch Michael Costa (director of football for the American) response to cincyontheprowl? Cincyontheprowl was tweeting how the AAC had no clue what they were doing and he responded, "our bad. We forgot about the 100 year old rivalry between UCF/Cincinnati."

I'm not sure why you wouldn't want your best two programs to play each other. My only theory is they are trying to raise the conferences chances at having a team play in the "access bowls". Starting this year, the highest rated conference champion among the AAC, CUSA, MAC, Mountain West, and Sun Belt gets an automatic bid to the Fiesta Bowl, Chick-Fil-A Bowl, or Cotton Bowl. Theoretically, UCF and UC not playing each other erases an automatic loss for one of the teams.

This is my only guess as to why they would do this. The fact that we essentially need to come in 1st out of about 50 teams just to get a bid to basically a BCS bowl is daunting and exemplifies why we desperately need out of the AAC in terms of football. You can get respect in basketball in a non-power conference, but in football, you need to go undefeated pretty much every year to remain relevant.

The conference is run by a bunch of amateurs.

 

[Bearcat Rob]

We have osu and miami(Florida ) in ooc, but no marquee home game, especially with the much larger off campus paul brown being home next we could use a big time home game. Really wish we played central fl and also wish they could finish nippert in time for next season. Either way 60k Paul brown is to big they should close they top section and make it into a 40k stadium, similar to nippert, and would create more noise

 

[Scheids21]

We have osu and miami(Florida ) in ooc, but no marquee home game, especially with the much larger off campus paul brown being home next we could use a big time home game. Really wish we played central fl and also wish they could finish nippert in time for next season. Either way 60k Paul brown is to big they should close they top section and make it into a 40k stadium, similar to nippert, and would create more noise

With the progress they've made in the last two months, I'm almost surprised they won't be done by August. Then again, its easier to tear down than to build.

 

[david aka the TYZ]

With the progress they've made in the last two months, I'm almost surprised they won't be done by August. Then again, its easier to tear down than to build.

I'm not a construction expert, but I don't really understand why it will take two years to build the new structures. They can build skyscrapers in less time. I have a bad feeling that attendance will be embarrassingly low next year at Paul Brown and like the previous poster said with it being a 67,000 seat stadium, even 30,000 will look empty. They already are throwing in a bunch of incentives for those that renew their season tickets for next year. No reason to do that unless they anticipate a drop-off in ticket sales. Personally I am not looking forward to making the trek to Paul Brown next year, but I will support my team.

 

[Scheids21]

I'm not a construction expert, but I don't really understand why it will take two years to build the new structures. They can build skyscrapers in less time. I have a bad feeling that attendance will be embarrassingly low next year at Paul Brown and like the previous poster said with it being a 67,000 seat stadium, even 30,000 will look empty. They already are throwing in a bunch of incentives for those that renew their season tickets for next year. No reason to do that unless they anticipate a drop-off in ticket sales. Personally I am not looking forward to making the trek to Paul Brown next year, but I will support my team.

Attendance will definitely be down, and they know this. Playing at PBS causes a UC game to lose its luster, especially when the games are ECU, USF, Miami, Toledo, Houston, and Memphis. The only hope is the product on the field will be successful and we won't lose too much momentum when we head back to renovated Nippert in 2015.

 

[Scheids21]

http://cincinnati.com/blogs/uc/2014/02/13/the-reason-why-uc-again-is-not-playing-ucf-in-football/

Above is an article Groeschen wrote today that basically says the schedules for 2014 were set when the league formed in July 2013. It makes more sense than "the league is just stupid" assuming its true.

 

[david aka the TYZ]

Attendance will definitely be down, and they know this. Playing at PBS causes a UC game to lose its luster, especially when the games are ECU, USF, Miami, Toledo, Houston, and Memphis. The only hope is the product on the field will be successful and we won't lose too much momentum when we head back to renovated Nippert in 2015.

I guess we'll have the real answer as to all the fans who clamored a few years ago how much bettter Paul Brown was than Nippert and they wish all games were down there for the fan amenities.

 

[david aka the TYZ]

http://cincinnati.com/blogs/uc/2014/02/13/the-reason-why-uc-again-is-not-playing-ucf-in-football/

Above is an article Groeschen wrote today that basically says the schedules for 2014 were set when the league formed in July 2013. It makes more sense than "the league is just stupid" assuming its true.

I still don't buy it. I won't pretend making a schedule is easy but this couldn't have been an oversight. One of their reasons was it was hard not to have two teams not play in the same city two years in a row. Well, having us play a team we didn't play at all last year will help that out. If this schedule was signed off before last year then why was it not announced then? I think the fact that they have to backtrack and explain themselves means they are guilty of something.

 

[Scheids21]

I still don't buy it. I won't pretend making a schedule is easy but this couldn't have been an oversight. One of their reasons was it was hard not to have two teams not play in the same city two years in a row. Well, having us play a team we didn't play at all last year will help that out. If this schedule was signed off before last year then why was it not announced then? I think the fact that they have to backtrack and explain themselves means they are guilty of something.

Agreed David. Either way, it just would've been one game against a borderline top 25 team. Unless it was at home, it wouldn't have done much good anyway. Hopefully the team can gel and take care of the hand we've been dealt.

 

[LaxCat31]

I'm not a construction expert, but I don't really understand why it will take two years to build the new structures. They can build skyscrapers in less time. I have a bad feeling that attendance will be embarrassingly low next year at Paul Brown and like the previous poster said with it being a 67,000 seat stadium, even 30,000 will look empty. They already are throwing in a bunch of incentives for those that renew their season tickets for next year. No reason to do that unless they anticipate a drop-off in ticket sales. Personally I am not looking forward to making the trek to Paul Brown next year, but I will support my team.

When it comes to season ticket sales for 2014, it all comes down to the 2015 season. Basically what the ticket office is saying is that if you want your seats and priority points you have to renew your tickets for the season at Paul Brown, and that right their is why people will renew their season tickets.

 

[david aka the TYZ]

When it comes to season ticket sales for 2014, it all comes down to the 2015 season. Basically what the ticket office is saying is that if you want your seats and priority points you have to renew your tickets for the season at Paul Brown, and that right their is why people will renew their season tickets.

I get that, but in my mind why wouldn't fans want to renew their tickets next year for Paul Brown? I want to watch my Bearcats play. I'd rather it be at Nippert, but I support the team, not the stadium. It's for one year, not ideal but I can deal with a year of going downtown. But, isn't the general consensus that Paul Brown is a nicer venue? Weren't the fans saying that a few years back? How many people want us to move basketball and football down there for one reason or another. We heard all the excuses in the past and now that reality is bringing us a season downtown all of a sudden they don't expect to sell tickets? Reality always hits hard for people who make excuses. I would venture to guess a similar thing would happen if we announced playing at US Bank for a year or more.

 

[UCalum08]

Why in the world does UC have two byes to start the season? IVE never heard or seen a team have that. Isn't the purpose of bye's is to get a much needed break? It makes zero senses.