PL OOC

Bucknell OOC games that are known at this point:

- Penn State (Away)
- La Salle (Home)
- Hofstra (Away)
- Princeton (Away)
- Rider (Home)
- Albany (Away)
- Siena (Home)
- Fairfield (Home)
- Towson (Away)

Rhode Island will host Patriot League member Lehigh as part of the HOF Tip-Off. URI will see a Quinnipaic visit in its other campus game in this event.

Jon Rothsten just announced two new home and home series starting in 2020 for Rhody - Seton Hall (starts in Kingston) and Boston College (at Conte Forum).

It appears that URI has made a concerted effort to stay close to home during this pandemic. Only two (Western Kentucky and FGCU) of thirteen OOC games will require serious travel as all the other games are either at home or within 90 miles.

Rhode Island's Tentative 2020-2021 Schedule

HOME (6)
Lehigh
Quinnipiac
Brown
Drexel
Boise State (A-10/MWC Challenge)
Seton Hall

AWAY (5)
FGCU
Western Kentucky
Harvard
Boston College
Providence

NEUTRAL (2-Mohegan Sun)
Marquette
Minnesota or UCF

Don't forget that there are probably still about three more games to be added.  If the addition is a multi-team event with a couple of strong teams, then the schedule will be similar to last year. If not, it will be a bit weaker. A big issue, as it is for other programs, is a requirement to keep down travel expenses.  They probably can't book any games that require overnight stays unless there is a guarantee to cover it. 

 Even right now, I think it's fairly challenging as the only team on it that might be weak is Fairfield.  La Salle was much improved last year and should improve again this year, and PSU was a top 30 team.    Note that eight of the games this year are return games or renewal of series, so a lot of it is the same as last year:

Return Games (8):  Penn State, La Salle, Fairfield, Hofstra, Princeton, Rider, Albany, Siena  
Teams played last year but not this year ((5):   Syracuse, Vermont, Seattle, Yale, Canisius
New opponents - so far (1):  Towson

Colgate at Texas - nice payday - probably something in the $100,000 range
no rumors about our ooc schedule ? even with financial concerns everywhere and our reshaped roster, I would imagine we're not looking for anything like this game

That is a pretty decent OOC slate.  Depending on who else they add, it could become very good.  

Yes, as the W&M admissions officer explained to us when my son was visiting, the drive between DC and Williamsburg was between 2 and 12 hours, "depending". The third of us in the room from Northern Virginia roared in laughter.

The trip to Newark would be a little more predictable.

The trip from the beltway in VA to Williamsburg is an easy drive as long as you take the bypass to 64- cops are tough on 64, but mostly go after students

Of my seven, one went to W&M, the others to Gtown and UVA. The tribe offered by far and away the best education. Now had any gone north to HC, I wouldn’t be making that statement.

For the most part we made it from McLean to Williamsburg in around two hours over the years-college, soccer and hoops tournaments. I guess it depends on the time of day when you make the trip

I would suggest that times have changed. When I was making the trip in the '80s and '90s, it was usually uneventful. In the mid and late 2010s, not so much. Now, I am not as experienced as njj who has made the trip 1,000 times, but I've probably got over 75 under my belt. You've got to plan well and get lucky. Two of the top 7 US traffic bottlenecks are located along the route and one accident can bring disaster (link provided on request).

You are correct, efg, with respect to the education provided at W&M. For my money, and they got enough of it, best in the state.

You may well be right that congestion has impacted travel time. I defer to those who've made the trip more recently than I.

On another note, I have often advocated for W&M as a potential PL add when and if the conference ever considered further expansion. When the PL added Boston in 2012 I wrote on our board that one of Fordham, W&M or GW would make sense as the 10th member, for different reasons. Here's what I said then about W&M:

"The Tribe would be a longshot for the PL, given their strong showing in the CAA since joining in 1985, and their location in Williamsburg. That's a three-hour drive for AU, and we're the closest to them by a lot! Pretty sure most PL schools would have to fly to W&M, and vice versa, and that means everybody's paying for more expensive jet fuel.

W&M hasn't been very good in basketball (the best the men have done in recent years is a tie for third; the women have had one winning record the last seven years), but they've been good in football (reaching the FCS national semifinals in '09), great in both men's and women's track and field and cross country, and solid in soccer. Our best hope for getting W&M in the Patriot would be the continued dilution of the CAA, but it's hard to see that conference just sit by and watch itself implode without raiding some smaller conference to restore itself.

Academically is where W&M is a great fit. Its four-year APR of 974 is solid (ahead of AU and Army); it ranked 33rd in USNWR's rantings, its tuition (roughly 35K) is in line with other PL schools, its enrollment of 8,000 is higher than most PL schools, but lower than AU and BU, and it had a 90 percent six-year graduation rate. Its SAT average of 1850-2160 ranks just behind Lehigh, 32nd nationally, and it has an endowment of $684 million, behind BU, Lehigh, Colgate and Lafayette but ahead of Holy Cross, Bucknell and AU."

The numbers have changed since then, but still love a potential fit of the Tribe in the PL if there was ever a defection by another school.

Yes, no chance for Richmond and W&M unless the PL opts to allow full redshirting and eliminates the Academic Index.

Considering the current virus condition in Florida, what are the chances of that tourney being played in Florida ?
A final decision would have to be made by September at the latest.