UVA to Scrimmage @ ODU

[∞∞∞]

Twitter feed on CAAzone more or less says: "Breaking News: UVA will scrimmage @ Foreman Field. ODU WILL NOT scrimmage against UVA, but UVA wants to scrimmage there to recruit 757 players. ODU will be paid a good amount." As much as I hate UVA, I hope this is true because it will bring a lot of BCS football fans to ODU and show them how great the facilities are here.

Even if it's not true, do BCS/FBS schools do this often, using different stadiums for recruiting purposes?

[Silenoz]

Idaho tried to negotiate the use of Wa-Griz for home games, but we said "no way!". They have to agree to start playing us again first!

[danefan]

There are clearly positives to it, but the negative may be a marginalization of ODU as some sort of "minor league" team.

UVA fans should know better (being in the same league as teams like....ahem....W&M) but the casual observer may see it that way.

[green&gold75]

There are clearly positives to it, but the negative may be a marginalization of ODU as some sort of "minor league" team.

UVA fans should know better (being in the same league as teams like....ahem....W&M) but the casual observer may see it that way.

They wish!

[Herky]

Idaho tried to negotiate the use of Wa-Griz for home games, but we said "no way!". They have to agree to start playing us again first!

Yeah, when Idaho drops to DII and are at the same level as Western State

[CAA Flagship]

UVA practice at Old Dominion will take place tomorrow. At least 100 potential recruits are expected to attend. However, the UVA coaches are not permitted to talk to any of them because it is not on their campus. But the Old Dominion coaches can talk to them since they will be on our campus. Nothing like using others to do your dirty work for you.

[JMUpurplehazed]

James Madison is going to practice at UVa and UVa is having a scrimmage at ODU...unusual things are happening in VA.

[∞∞∞]

I think it's a pretty sweet deal for us. Not only do we get paid pretty well (supposedly), we get exposure for our young football program and school, can talk to the recruits that are there and UVA can't, and we're building a relationship with an FBS school...maybe they'll vouch for us when the ACC comes knocking on our door?

And even though I hate UVA football, tomorrow's gonna be a beautiful day to head out to Foreman Field, and check out the UVA tailgates and maybe meet some of their fans. I think they'll be impressed with the quality of our stadium...plus the fact that we sell booze at Foreman (which they'll be doing tomorrow); I don't think they sell beer at UVA's stadium. Can W&M fans confirm this?

[∞∞∞]

Was at the scrimmage for about 40 minutes today. I'd guesstimate 5000-6000 people showed up. Saw ODU's assistant coaches in the stands but I didn't see any of them talking to recruits (not that I knew which kids were recruits); the UVA coaches weren't allowed to talk to recruits. In general, it was a very festive atmosphere...windy but nice weather, music, games, food, bears. A lot of good comments from outsiders about the stadium which was pretty cool...makes you proud to be part of the school. Talked to a UVA guy who's last time at Foreman Field was the Oyster Bowl that Georgia Southern had played in like 20 years ago (against VMI I think he said) and he blown away by the changes. Pretty nice day overall, even though there was way too much orange for my liking.



Hopefully we build a stronger relationship with Mike London and UVA heading into the future, and who knows what it could lead to?

edit: and about the actual scrimmage...all you have to know is that UVA still looks horrible.

[ODUalum11]

Like I said on monarchnation.com, I still don't quite understand the logic behind letting UVA have a scrimmage at our home field. I understand it benefits us from a financial standpoint and we were able to talk to numerous recruits but I'd love to see Rich Radford, one of the writers for the Virginian Pilot sit down with Monarch Head Coach Bobby Wilder and ask what exactly his reasons were behind this.

[∞∞∞]

Here are some quotes to answer that question from Daily Press and the Virginia Pilot.

Among all those recruits, there were at least 10 kids that are top recruits in this area that were here. I got to talk to them or guys on my staff got to talk to them. The biggest thing for us is that not all of them are going to go to Virginia or Virginia Tech, and to have them on our campus was just a huge advantage for our program. The kids I talked to today all left with a great impression. I had one kid say, 'Coach, I didn't realize that your facilities were that good at Old Dominion.'

It's an opportunity for ODU to show off their facilities and perhaps bring some area players to campus who otherwise would not have come there.

Plus we got money from the concessions and the use of our facility, and we built a relationship with UVA and their fans came across impressed. Some even said they'll have to check out an ODU game in the future which brings in even more revenue and will maybe create more fans for us?

I guess the real question is, what did we lose out of the deal?

also, expect to see more of this in the future:

My vision for the future is to have Virginia in one weekend, Virginia Tech in the next weekend, and to make both weekends big events.