Use this thread to talk about anything game-related. For away games, we'll have a separate travel thread.

Date: December 30th, 2016 7:00 PM

Opponent: Urbana  (5-5)

Site: Convocation Center

TV: None

Radio: Ohio Radio or on TuneIn Radio

Webcast: None

Urbana media guide, statistics and roster

I've seen the last couple of teams called "hacks" and we lost to them so I'm not sure we should take any team lightly.

I don't know, but I can venture a guess as to the reason for playing this game at this time of year. Ohio probably tried to get D1 teams to come to Athens for this date, and couldn't come to an agreement. Here's another thing to consider - when you're working on SOS and RPI, non-D1 games don't count towards those, so perhaps the staff just wanted a game to use as a pre-conference tune up game with no consequences on their SOS and RPI.

They shouldn't even be a DII opponent.

At least we aren't playing three or four games of this nature, like some other MAC teams.

Playing a DII school is one thing, playing a DII program like Urbana is a totally different thing. They are a bad NAIA team.

OWU and Scott Tedder would beat Urbana by 50, I don't mind playing one of these games a year, but let's schedule at least a team that belongs in their classification at least. OWU was a DIII Champion that year, and that young man was an absolute stud 2 sport athlete!!!!


Urbana counts 2 wins v Branch Campus programs, and gave up 132 points to West Liberty, 132!!!!! Losing by 35 points!

I refuse to once again use the "hac_" word, regardless of how applicable it may be. However, I feel compelled to mention that Urbana was nipped by WV State by about 15 points and 20 ( or so ) to Charleston. That particular Charleston would be the former Morris Harvey variety in the WV capital city NOT the University of Chaleston SC team once coached by my friend Bob Creamins.
Would I be piling on if I mentioned that West Liberty sneaked by Urbana by 35 with liberal substitutions? I really like our chances.

I hate that this game is on this schedule. Ridiculous that it's being played.

"I need to be mad about something so, darn it, I guess I pick this."

Are we really complaining about something that nearly every other D1 team does? What difference does it make that it counts or is an exhibition? We have 13 days between the WKU game and our first MAC game so the timing is perfect. Nobody is in town anyway so it's a good time to knock the rust off. And the D1 teams that would be willing to travel to Athens, Ohio on December 30th you guys would be complaining about as well.

I think it's a matter of a D1 school needing a pre-conference tuneup but not able to schedule another D1 school, for one reason or another. The D1 school can treat it as a regular season game, since they're only allowed one exhibition game a year, but it doesn't count toward RPI. The only real risk is injury to a key player. The lower division school can call it an exhibition, since they don't have the one-a-year restriction. There are lots of other similar games on the D1 schedule in the next seven days. Some schools play two.

Lander @ South Carolina
Covenant @ Tenn St
Eastern NM @ NMSU
Mars Hill @ Western Carolina
Hutson-Tillotson @ Prairie View
Miles @ UAB
Virginia-Wise @ EKU
Asbury @ Morehead St
Marian @ IUPUI
Thomas (GA) @ Jacksonville
East Mennonite @ JMU
Truett-McConnell @ NC Central
Spring Hill @ Nicholls
Louisiana College @ Northwestern St
Fort Valley St @ Samford
MO-Rolla @ SIU Edwardsville
Central Penn College @ Elon
Henderson St @ SEMO
Olivet College @ Fiami
Brescia @ Murray St
Our Lady of the Lake @ UT-Rio Grande Valley
East Central @ UTSA
Fort Valley St @ Alabama St
Hutson-Tillotson @ Lamar
Allen @ South Carolina Upstate
Marywood @ Binghamton
Ohio Christian @ Toledo
Coker @ Hampton
Montreat @ NC Central
Fisk @ Jackson St
Bethesda @ Cal St Fullerton
Life Pacific @ UC Irvine
North Georgia @ Kennesaw St
Florida Tech @ Florida Gulf Coast
TxAM-K'ville @ UT-Rio Grande Valley
Illinois-Springfield @ NIU
Valley Forge @ Md-Eastern Shore
Wheelock College @ New Hampshire
Palm Beach Atlantic @ North Florida
Ave Maria @ Stetson
Antelope Valley @ Utah Valley

I'll add that when I was in college(but school was out on break), a school a bit better than Urbana played in the Convo. They brought all of their fans, on December 30th no less, and we had the normal school-is-out crowd. Then they beat us like a drum and drove back to Lexington. So I think people would be complaining either way. Personally I'd like to have the bigger names when there is a higher chance for a larger crowd, if possible.

I'm not going to get too worked up over it, but essentially this is a scrimmage so we don't get too rusty with 2 weeks off.

If the starters play more than 10 minutes I'll be shocked and disappointed.