RPI 2023 Off-season: We March Fourth Into the Off-season

[Wicked Slappaahs]

Anything is possible, but a number of people close to the program at that time told me that Barr wanted the job and didn't get an offer. I recall McElroy said at the time (I think at the press conference announcing Coach Smith) that they wanted someone with head coaching experience, and that effectively eliminated Barr. I just think the decision makers didn't want the same profile they got when they first hired Appert.

Time will tell whether that was the right decision, although I can't imagine that Barr would have had better luck with RPI's COVID restrictions or level of investment in the program.

The new president is clearly a hockey fan, a potential for some investments is there. Let's see how things unfold in the near future.

Agree 100% with all of this.

[Ralph Baer]

I received an email from Coach Smith that the annual golf outing at the Troy Country Club will be on Monday, 8/21.

[Ralph Baer]

Today is 13 April 2023. There are 177 days until RPI's next game.


This is based upon 7 October 2023 for the start of next season.

[sezenack]

Going to try my hand at our non-conference opponents (not including Mayors Cup obviously):

Games we owe:
Mercyhurst two away games, Canisius one away game, Army one away game.

Other possibilities:
We did the home and home with Northeastern in 21-22. Usually teams do 2 year agreements, so maybe we see a home and home with them again?
UMass Lowell never returned games from the Turkey Leg Classic in 2019-20.
Wouldn't be surprised to see UVM on the schedule again, but we've done two years of home and homes with them so maybe we're done.
Coach Smith has said a couple times he wants a road trip to Minnesota since we have a lot of players from there... Maybe Bemidji State or Minnesota State? I think they'd be more likely than Minnesota, St. Cloud, UMD and St. Thomas if we go out to Minnesota.

In summary, if I had to predict right now, I'd say:
2x away at Mercyhurst
1x away at Canisius
1x away at Army
2x away at some Minnesota school
2x home and home with Northeastern
2x home vs UMass Lowell
2x home vs TBD (Atlantic Hockey school? Hockey East school? Other?)

I think only half of that is right at best, but it'll be fun to see who we end up scheduling

[Ralph Baer]

Today is 14 April 2023. There are 176 days until RPI's next game.


This is based upon 7 October 2023 for the start of next season.

[Ralph Baer]

Going to try my hand at our non-conference opponents (not including Mayors Cup obviously):

Games we owe:
Mercyhurst two away games, Canisius one away game, Army one away game.

Other possibilities:
We did the home and home with Northeastern in 21-22. Usually teams do 2 year agreements, so maybe we see a home and home with them again?
UMass Lowell never returned games from the Turkey Leg Classic in 2019-20.
Wouldn't be surprised to see UVM on the schedule again, but we've done two years of home and homes with them so maybe we're done.
Coach Smith has said a couple times he wants a road trip to Minnesota since we have a lot of players from there... Maybe Bemidji State or Minnesota State? I think they'd be more likely than Minnesota, St. Cloud, UMD and St. Thomas if we go out to Minnesota.

In summary, if I had to predict right now, I'd say:
2x away at Mercyhurst
1x away at Canisius
1x away at Army
2x away at some Minnesota school
2x home and home with Northeastern
2x home vs UMass Lowell
2x home vs TBD (Atlantic Hockey school? Hockey East school? Other?)

I think only half of that is right at best, but it'll be fun to see who we end up scheduling

I would like our schedule to be somewhat harder, but that probably is the difficulty which we will end up with. Mankato would do that to a degree even with their current turmoil. I feel that we will continue to play LIU.

[Wicked Slappaahs]

RPI Football receives $1mil gift. Wow.

https://www.timesunion.com/sports/ar...orts-spotlight

[sezenack]

I would like our schedule to be somewhat harder, but that probably is the difficulty which we will end up with. Mankato would do that to a degree even with their current turmoil. I feel that we will continue to play LIU.

I think that this would be an improvement over the past 2 years. I disagree on LIU. My gut tells me we are done with them for now

[Wicked Slappaahs]

Going to try my hand at our non-conference opponents (not including Mayors Cup obviously):

Games we owe:
Mercyhurst two away games, Canisius one away game, Army one away game.

Other possibilities:
We did the home and home with Northeastern in 21-22. Usually teams do 2 year agreements, so maybe we see a home and home with them again?
UMass Lowell never returned games from the Turkey Leg Classic in 2019-20.
Wouldn't be surprised to see UVM on the schedule again, but we've done two years of home and homes with them so maybe we're done.
Coach Smith has said a couple times he wants a road trip to Minnesota since we have a lot of players from there... Maybe Bemidji State or Minnesota State? I think they'd be more likely than Minnesota, St. Cloud, UMD and St. Thomas if we go out to Minnesota.

In summary, if I had to predict right now, I'd say:
2x away at Mercyhurst
1x away at Canisius
1x away at Army
2x away at some Minnesota school
2x home and home with Northeastern
2x home vs UMass Lowell
2x home vs TBD (Atlantic Hockey school? Hockey East school? Other?)

I think only half of that is right at best, but it'll be fun to see who we end up scheduling

I am holding out hope (however misguided) that we'll actually schedule a road trip to somewhere enjoyable for fans....i.e. ASU, Tampa tourney, Milwaukee's holiday tourney, etc. I suspect that because our A.D. is not a hockey person, that often these opportunities are not levied to RPI.... It sure would be nice for once to travel to see the Cherry and White in a place that isn't Anchorage or Potsdam....

[giwan]

I think that this would be an improvement over the past 2 years. I disagree on LIU. My gut tells me we are done with them for now

Is Union still your travel partner and does that play any role in your out of conference schedule?

Always wanted to see RPI and Union play MTU and NMU

[Wicked Slappaahs]

I noticed that Quinnipiac's head basketball coach left to join Villanova as its General Manager ....." a new position focused on name, image and likeness deals, the transfer portal, marketing, and fundraising for the men's and women's basketball programs."

I realize that its a different sport, but NIL is reality ...can't help but wonder what plans if any RPI is making to utilize it.

[Ralph Baer]

Is Union still your travel partner and does that play any role in your out of conference schedule?

Always wanted to see RPI and Union play MTU and NMU

Union is still our travel partner, but that only refers to league games. What you are stating with return games in NY makes sense. We have both hosted an OOC team on a weekend, but if we owe a team away games, they are often done separately, often in different years.

A while back there was talk here of an engineering school tourney between RPI, MTU, Clarkson, and RIT, but it fizzled out.

[ServinisScores]

I noticed that Quinnipiac's head basketball coach left to join Villanova as its General Manager ....." a new position focused on name, image and likeness deals, the transfer portal, marketing, and fundraising for the men's and women's basketball programs."

I realize that its a different sport, but NIL is reality ...can't help but wonder what plans if any RPI is making to utilize it.

I listened to Rand Pecknold on Spittin Chiclets; he said he lost a couple of recruits to other unnamed programs for an NIL of $100k spread over 4 years. He is slightly panicked that the big 10 schools and “big fish” will use this to run away and hide from the smaller schools.

I couldn’t help but think if he’s panicked, what should non-Ivy programs, like RPI, etc be thinking and doing to compete. Let’s face it, the brand of RPI, on and off the ice isn’t what it used to be, and since they’ve aligned with the Ivies, but aren’t one, have really put themselves at a disadvantage across the board.

[Ralph Baer]

Today is 15 April 2023. There are 175 days (25 weeks) until RPI's next game.


This is based upon 7 October 2023 for the start of next season.

[rpi82]

Over the years I’ve had season tickets at RPI and Cornell for hockey and at UConn for football and basketball. I’ve been to many minor league baseball, hockey and even basketball games but never went on a regular basis because I never had a passion for it. If college sports are really just another minor league (at $25K plus room and board doesn’t that make college a better pay day than the ECHL?) then I’ll probably be done. I might go to a game or two per year but the passion will be gone. I expect that to happen in the next five years. Frankly, I’ve already wondered if NIL was a factor in a few of our transfers…..