Just an Opinion:Who's next for the Panthers?

With the Division III playoffs well underway, those that did not make "the show" are turning their attention to next year. Anymore, there is no off season. There is plenty to do after the last down of the year. Facilities and equipment evaluation, recruiting, and scheduling just to name a few. It is the last area of scheduling that I will focus on today. First, I want to preface anything I write by saying that in no way am I trying to be negative toward Ferrum. I do not presume to be more capable than those in the Athletics Department, and I have absolutely zero experience at college athletics scheduling. I am sure it is a difficult task.
With that said, I write this hoping to bring to light a different approach to the football schedule.

Overall, it seems that compared to other conferences, the USA South is ranked fairly low. These rankings are based on number of playoff wins.

CNU started its football program eight years ago. They have consistently put up strong numbers in this sport of football. Six out of eight years they have been in the playoffs. From the beginning, they have been successful.

North Carolina Wesleyan has had a football program for only four seasons. In those four seasons, they have only had one losing season, (2005, 4-6) and they have made the playoffs and won a playoff game in those four years (2007)

Ferrum has been a very consistent program also, but the difference is that they have not won a playoff game in many years. In fact, I cannot find a playoff victory in the last ten years. Only once have they made the D3 playoffs in the last ten years, and lost badly to Wesley College out of Dover DE.
In my opinion, if Ferrum wants to get back to the playoffs, they need to do several things, but one of the most important ones is scheduling.
The one consistent theme to making the playoffs for CNU and NC Wesleyan is the quality of non-conference opponents that they schedule.Ferrum's non conference schedule has regressed over the last 10 years as far as quality of opponents goes.
From 1999-2004, Ferrum played Wesley College on a regular basis. Wesley makes the playoffs regularly, and is consistently nationally ranked. Ferrum use to play Salisbury regularly, but not anymore. Salisbury too is a consistently strong team, and usually ranked. There is a serious truth to the theory that you increase your level of play by increasing the skill level of the opponent. Ferrum, at the least, needs to remove Southern Virginia University from the schedule, and replace it with a team that is ranked. Examples would be: Wesley, Salisbury, Muhlenburg, Hampden Sydney, Mary Hardin-Baylor, or Washington and Jefferson.
These are all reasonable distances from Ferrum, (Except for MHB)and will in the long run give the Panthers a taste of playing at the next level so to speak. Its also very reasonable to schedule a Division 2 opponent. Chowan or another CIAA school would be a possibility.
I know expenses have to be a consideration, but other schools in the conference are doing it, so I believe Ferrum can also.

In the event that Ferrum can move two games, I would consider the slot that was taken by Bridgewater this year. Although this is typically a strong program, They were not nationally ranked, and Ferrum is already playing Emory and Henry from the ODAC.. The goal is to develop a championship caliber team, that can win the USA South, and progress in the D3 playoffs.
The Emory and Henry game has a regional rivalry flavor to it, and should probably stay on the schedule.

Many people will say that CNU is a State supported school, and therefore gets tax revenues toward their program. This may be true, and while I too believe that CNU does have fiscal advantages that other conference schools do not, they have consistently increased their difficulty in scheduling and are benefiting by it.

Besides North Carolina Wesleyan, Averett has in the past two years also scheduled more aggressively. In 2007, they took on national powerhouse Mount Union. While they lost this game, I am willing to bet that there were positives gained from this loss. The schools that seem to be really improving are Ferrum, CNU, NC Wesleyan, and Averett. I believe that for Ferrum to be a conference contender, they must upgrade their non conference competition. Lastly, I wonder if an eleventh game is a possibility? I see other D3 schools going to an 11 game schedule, and think this is a reasonable option to upgrade the competition.

This just scratches the surface, and by no means addresses the complexities of scheduling opponents. It hopefully will provide food for thought, and provoke discussion. (By the way, Wesley has open dates of Sept. 12, Oct. 3, and Nov. 14 2009. According to D3 football .com)