Post by Aggie One on Feb 22, 2007 9:08:17 GMT -5
NCCU announces 2007 football schedule
By MIKE POTTER, The Herald-Sun
February 22, 2007 12:52 am
It wasn't an easy task, but N.C. Central has put together an 11-game football schedule for its first season as a member of the NCAA's Football Championship Subdivision, formerly known as Division I-AA.
One of the teams back on the schedule is traditional rival North Carolina A&T, which ended the Aggie-Eagle Classic in 2005 after back-to-back losses to NCCU. Also back on the schedule after a multi-season absence is Winston-Salem State.
The schedule includes five home games and six away from Durham and includes a few teams the Eagles may play only once -- ever.
But such are the perils of putting together a football schedule as an independent, with no particular parameters required and not a single team required to play the Eagles.
"We've been working on this for a whole year and had to rearrange it several times," said NCCU athletics director Bill Hayes, who had associate athletics director George "Bulldog" Smith doing much of the legwork on the task. "We probably had 20 schools agree to play us and then call back later and cancel."
It didn't help that NCCU, now under first-year head coach Mose Rison, went 11-1 last year and are the two-time reigning CIAA champions.
"What made it difficult was our success," Hayes said. "Who wants to play an 11-0 [regular season] team when you're asking them to play you at your home?
"We called people all over the country looking for games."
The slate includes five in-state opponents and seven games in North Carolina, with two trips to Georgia, one to Alabama and one to Kentucky.
North Carolina A&T, which finished 0-11 last season, and Winston-Salem State (4-7) join former CIAA foes Fayetteville State (3-7), St. Augustine's (4-6) and Elizabeth City State (9-3) on the 2007 schedule.
Also returning from last season is SIAC power Albany State (7-4), a team the Eagles shocked 20-0 in Durham in last season's opener matching up the reigning champions from the two Historically Black Division II conferences. The game is a return match on a two-year contract.
The Eagles will also make a trip to Savannah State (2-9), an Historically Black institution that like NCCU has aspirations of joining the MEAC. NCCU leads that series 1-0-1, with the last meeting a 30-0 win in 1975.
One more area opponent appears on the schedule in former South Atlantic Conference power Presbyterian (7-4), which like NCCU is in its first year as a Championship Subdivision member after making the move up from Division II. NCCU has signed a two-year contract with the Blue Hose, the only other NCAA team joining the Eagles in the move to Division I this season, and the Sept. 29 game in Durham will also be the schools' first football encounter.
The rest of the schedule is a bit unusual, with three more brand new opponents.
The homecoming opponent on Oct. 13, and the final home game of the season, will be North Greenville (10-2), a Division II independent that was the last team added to the schedule.
On Oct. 6, NCCU will travel to Legion Field in Birmingham, Ala., to face West Alabama (6-5), a member of the Division II Gulf South Conference, in the Southern States Classic. Considered among the top football conferences in Division II, the Gulf South Conference includes Delta State and North Alabama, the teams that ended NCCU's playoff runs in Durham over the past two seasons.
The biggest name school on the slate probably is Western Kentucky (6-5), which is in its first season transitioning to the Bowl Subdivision (formerly known as Division I-A) from the former Division I-AA.
NCCU will divide the gate with Fayetteville State, as they play in the "Labor Day Classic" at O'Kelly-Riddick Stadium on Sept. 2.
The contracts with A&T and WSSU, like the one with Presbyterian, are two-year home-and-home deals. This year's A&T game currently is scheduled for Aggie Stadium in Greensboro, with the 2008 Eagle-Aggie contest a designated NCCU home game at a site to be determined.
Besides the FSU game, NCCU will pay guarantees to St. Aug's, ECSU and North Greenville, and receive guarantees from Western Kentucky, Savannah State and for the classic against West Alabama.
Among the six opponents the Eagles have played before, NCCU won the most recent meeting against each. Along with the victory over Albany State last year the Eagles beat FSU 49-6 in Fayetteville, topped St. Augustine's 27-18 in Raleigh and beat ECSU 17-14 in the CIAA title game in Durham on Brandon Gilbert's 51-yard field goal at the buzzer.
NCCU beat WSSU 20-17 two seasons ago in a thriller at Bowman Gray Stadium, and topped A&T 23-22 earlier that season when the Aggies missed a long field goal at the horn.
URL for this article: www.heraldsun.com/sports/18-822061.cfm
By MIKE POTTER, The Herald-Sun
February 22, 2007 12:52 am
It wasn't an easy task, but N.C. Central has put together an 11-game football schedule for its first season as a member of the NCAA's Football Championship Subdivision, formerly known as Division I-AA.
One of the teams back on the schedule is traditional rival North Carolina A&T, which ended the Aggie-Eagle Classic in 2005 after back-to-back losses to NCCU. Also back on the schedule after a multi-season absence is Winston-Salem State.
The schedule includes five home games and six away from Durham and includes a few teams the Eagles may play only once -- ever.
But such are the perils of putting together a football schedule as an independent, with no particular parameters required and not a single team required to play the Eagles.
"We've been working on this for a whole year and had to rearrange it several times," said NCCU athletics director Bill Hayes, who had associate athletics director George "Bulldog" Smith doing much of the legwork on the task. "We probably had 20 schools agree to play us and then call back later and cancel."
It didn't help that NCCU, now under first-year head coach Mose Rison, went 11-1 last year and are the two-time reigning CIAA champions.
"What made it difficult was our success," Hayes said. "Who wants to play an 11-0 [regular season] team when you're asking them to play you at your home?
"We called people all over the country looking for games."
The slate includes five in-state opponents and seven games in North Carolina, with two trips to Georgia, one to Alabama and one to Kentucky.
North Carolina A&T, which finished 0-11 last season, and Winston-Salem State (4-7) join former CIAA foes Fayetteville State (3-7), St. Augustine's (4-6) and Elizabeth City State (9-3) on the 2007 schedule.
Also returning from last season is SIAC power Albany State (7-4), a team the Eagles shocked 20-0 in Durham in last season's opener matching up the reigning champions from the two Historically Black Division II conferences. The game is a return match on a two-year contract.
The Eagles will also make a trip to Savannah State (2-9), an Historically Black institution that like NCCU has aspirations of joining the MEAC. NCCU leads that series 1-0-1, with the last meeting a 30-0 win in 1975.
One more area opponent appears on the schedule in former South Atlantic Conference power Presbyterian (7-4), which like NCCU is in its first year as a Championship Subdivision member after making the move up from Division II. NCCU has signed a two-year contract with the Blue Hose, the only other NCAA team joining the Eagles in the move to Division I this season, and the Sept. 29 game in Durham will also be the schools' first football encounter.
The rest of the schedule is a bit unusual, with three more brand new opponents.
The homecoming opponent on Oct. 13, and the final home game of the season, will be North Greenville (10-2), a Division II independent that was the last team added to the schedule.
On Oct. 6, NCCU will travel to Legion Field in Birmingham, Ala., to face West Alabama (6-5), a member of the Division II Gulf South Conference, in the Southern States Classic. Considered among the top football conferences in Division II, the Gulf South Conference includes Delta State and North Alabama, the teams that ended NCCU's playoff runs in Durham over the past two seasons.
The biggest name school on the slate probably is Western Kentucky (6-5), which is in its first season transitioning to the Bowl Subdivision (formerly known as Division I-A) from the former Division I-AA.
NCCU will divide the gate with Fayetteville State, as they play in the "Labor Day Classic" at O'Kelly-Riddick Stadium on Sept. 2.
The contracts with A&T and WSSU, like the one with Presbyterian, are two-year home-and-home deals. This year's A&T game currently is scheduled for Aggie Stadium in Greensboro, with the 2008 Eagle-Aggie contest a designated NCCU home game at a site to be determined.
Besides the FSU game, NCCU will pay guarantees to St. Aug's, ECSU and North Greenville, and receive guarantees from Western Kentucky, Savannah State and for the classic against West Alabama.
Among the six opponents the Eagles have played before, NCCU won the most recent meeting against each. Along with the victory over Albany State last year the Eagles beat FSU 49-6 in Fayetteville, topped St. Augustine's 27-18 in Raleigh and beat ECSU 17-14 in the CIAA title game in Durham on Brandon Gilbert's 51-yard field goal at the buzzer.
NCCU beat WSSU 20-17 two seasons ago in a thriller at Bowman Gray Stadium, and topped A&T 23-22 earlier that season when the Aggies missed a long field goal at the horn.
URL for this article: www.heraldsun.com/sports/18-822061.cfm