Subscribe
Follow Us
Bobby Wilder is currently in his first year as the head of the Tennessee Tech football team, and he is not happy with the way that his team's schedule has played out. The Golden Eagles played FBS Middle Tennessee State and #1 Georgia early in the season, and then they have also had three straight road games in league play.
The Ohio Valley Conference and the Big South have a scheduling alliance, and they hold a zoom meeting with the coaches every week. Bobby Wilder didn't hold back when addressing his concerns during this week's meeting.
“The first thing I'm going to do, because I'm pissed off right now, is address the scheduling model this league has, the scheduling model at Tech,” Wilder said during the meeting. “This is absolutely horrendous. We're a 2-5 football team right now. We're beat up, lost our starting quarterback, and I inherited this when I got here. So, first two games, FBS; we play at Middle Tennessee, play at Georgia, who's No. 1 in the nation (at that time), get a bunch of kids hurt. Then we come home and play Tennessee State when we're still fairly healthy, even with a backup quarterback, and beat them. That's their only league loss, 6-2 and 3-1 right now. Then the league sends us on the road three consecutive times in the league on the road. I don't understand how that's even possible, and we've got to put up with it. So now we're sitting here at 2-5, we're all beat up; thankfully we just got our quarterback back.”
Wilder wants things to change, and he made that clear. He's not happy with how many teams have more road games than home, and he thinks that this model is hurting everyone involved.
“In the big picture, the league has to change this or we're going to be a one-bid league,” Wilder continued. “We've got nine teams in the league, five of us play seven away games, five home. Only four teams play six and six, which is unacceptable. All four teams who played two FBS money games all have losing records.Western (Illinois), us, Gardner-Webb and Eastern Illinois, who went into the league preseason No. 2 into the year. Got the crap beat out of them, now they're sitting there at 0-3, 1-6. This whole model has to change. There's a couple of teams that have a tremendous model. I give Tennessee State credit, they did a great job, didn't play any Power 5 teams, they were 3-1 non-league. I'll give Tuke credit out at SeMo, who I happened to notice their A.D. was in the meetings back in January. Phenomenal job by them. They play Week Zero, they play three games, bye, six games, bye in November. They're clearly the top team in the league now. Smart scheduling. They play a 2-5 New Mexico State as their money game, where we go to Georgia and get the crap kicked out of us for money.”
Bobby Wilder referenced other conferences doing it the right way
Bobby Wilder is demanding change. He sees how other conferences are doing things, and he wants similar practices to be involved when his Tennessee Tech schedule is made.
“I'm pissed about it,” Wilder said. “This bothers me. This is going to stay a one-bid league until leadership decides to make some changes. Because you look at the Missouri Valley, there will be probably six teams in; you look at the Big Sky, there will be probably four teams in. They have a smart model, they do it right, more home than away, they buy teams (for games) to come in to help with the schedule.We need to fix that at Tennessee Tech, which we're going to. I've talked to the president (Phil Oldham) and the A.D. (Mark Wilson); we're going to fix that because it bothers me. We're sitting here with a good team right now that's 2-5 having played five of our first seven on the road and three of our first four in the league on the road.”
Wilder made it clear that he wants changes. It will be interesting to see if his concerns are addressed in the future and how he will react if they aren't.
