After the announcement was made about UD moving to Conference USA, as GoHens media rep, I sent an email with several questions to Brendan Thomas, in late November, who passed them along to Jordan Skolnick.
Several of those questions and answers have been addressed in the interim, but with the recent announcements about future games with Del State, Wake Forest, and Buffalo, I think some of the questions are still pertinent.
I have deleted the questions that have been answered already.
Also, keep an eye out for a follow-up post containing some highlights from a media call with Coach Carty of signing day.
2. Does our move to FBS affect, or, possibly, invalidate any contracts we have for future games with FBS schools who intentionally schedule FCS schools (Penn State, for example)?
No contracts are invalidated, and we are currently receiving lots of inquiries about potential matchups for both guarantee games and home & home games. We’ll share more information in the coming months about nonconference matchups that have been scheduled.
3. How do you anticipate that this will impact the fundraising efforts for the new field house and expanded north end zone renovations? Are there any potential donors lined up whose commitments are predicated on this move? And, what is the anticipated timeline for making a formal announcement about that project?
We expect this move to really galvanize our donor base and excite people to want to continue to invest into Delaware Athletics. Our top priority is fundraising for the $6M needed this year for entry, exit and reclassification fees. We have raised $3.5M towards that goal. We are also seeing people step up to support a future facility project and are excited to share more about that when we are ready, but we don’t have a timeline at the moment.
4. There are a myriad of questions about how to move the football team through the process of transitioning from 63 football scholarship equivalencies to 85 full scholarships. Obviously, a number of other schools have made a similar move recently - have we been in contact with any of them (or do we plan to contact them) about the approach each took in that process and lessons learned?
We have spoken to a number of schools who have made the move from FCS to FBS to understand their process and learnings. We will be phasing in our scholarships and be ready to be fully funded when we are playing an FBS schedule.
(Note that the increase to 85 scholarships will be phased in, so I do not expect us to see that level next year.)
6. Do you anticipate that this will impact the long-standing football rivalry that we have had with Villanova?
We will be playing Villanova next year as part of our CAA schedule. We will then be scheduling one FCS game per year after that, some of which are already scheduled and some we still need to schedule. Those are all TBD at the moment but the conversations will begin now that our announcement is public.
Post Season Tidbits #1
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1. Be respectful of our online community and contribute to an engaging conversation. We reserve the right to ban impersonators and remove comments that contain personal attacks, threats, or profanity, or are flat-out offensive.
2. Stay on topic. If you feel you really have something to add that doesn’t quite fit the current topic, start a new one.
3. Keep rebuttals and disagreements impersonal. You can disagree with someone respectfully without resorting to name-calling or other insults.
4. Do not single out players for criticism by name, number or position. These are 18-23 year-old kids that are trying their best while juggling a college class load. Let’s be supportive.
5. Remember always that players read these boards; players’ families read these boards; respective recruits read these boards; opposing fans read these boards. As a GoHens.net member, YOU represent Delaware Football to others. Please do so in a positive manner.
Post Season Tidbits #1
Mickey to Rocky about SPEED - https://youtu.be/N0GdQyIm7DU
