The Unofficial Furman Football Page

ETSU has scheduled a home and home with North Dakota St. The first game is at Johnson City in 2024. How does ETSU get NDSU to come to their 10k seat stadium but we struggle big time just to get anyone? We currently do not have any FCS ooc games for next year. ETSU is the second SoCon team to get NDSU for a home and home with WCU being the other but I understand NDSU bought out the game in Cullowhee.

Dang! The Bison are who we thought they were. And we let em off the hook!

I guess with this scheduling they have no plans to move up.

They read our message board!

My guess is the Furman administration or coaching staff didn't want to travel to Fargo. Furman actually has a history of pretty good OOC games compared to say, Wofford or Samford who plays a bunch of D2 schools. The SoCon has a history of playing a bunch of Big South or OVC teams OOC, which makes sense as they are economical bus trips but they generally don't help the SoCon SOS any.

The Mocs did play JMU in 2019 and were supposed to play them again in 2020 - that was a pretty good OOC game against a national top team. We also play JSU regularly and they are usually top 10, with the advantage to also being a short bus ride.

One thing that doesn't help is that the selection committee seems to reward wins more than SOS. Let's take a generic SoCon team and give them schedule A. - Wins 6 SoCon games, loses their money game to a P5 team, and beats two D1 Pioneer Teams OOC for a record of 8-3. They are in the playoffs for sure and the coach can tout that they are a playoff team and they have a top 15 ranking. Take that same SoCon team and give them schedule B. - Wins the same 6 SoCon games and loses to the same P5 team, but instead of two FCS cupcake wins, they have close losses to NDSU and KSU and a record of 6-5. That team is not in the playoffs and the coach is getting questioned why he can't get the team over the hump.

For the Mocs, I've always felt that for OOC games we needed one ranked opponent - that if we beat would be a quality win, and another FCS team that should be a win. That way if we loose to the ranked opponent, we still have a shot at the playoffs by going 6-2 in the SoCon and 1-2 in OOC play (let's face it barring a miracle, every FCS team starts out 0-1 with the money game on their schedule).

BTW the Mocs play Austin Peay, whom I assume will be the favorite in the OVC now that JSU left, and UNA in 2021. That fits the profile of a ranked team and a should-be-a-win FCS team. Both of those games are easy bus rides between schools, and schools that I think would like more of a rivalry with UTC (and vice versa).

In '22 the Mocs play Eastern Illinios and UNA - not a good OOC schedule but at least it's D1

In '23 the Mocs play UNA and Jacksonville State - the latter assumed to be a top 15 team when we play them and both easy bus rides.

Mocs123- I think you are right, the committee looks at wins and losses and the opponents don’t matter much. We all like to think that they study teams, who beat who etc etc but that is not the case. Sounds like the Mocs schedule is pretty set through 2023. Unfortunately and hard to believe but FU only has one ooc game on the books for next year(2022) and that is Clempson. Currently no fcs ooc games. To get 2 good games this late is going to be tough. I guees we could always call Point U. again.