Disappointed this isn't us... would have been great for our first season fully in FBS....
http://hamptonroads.com/2013/03/odu-sch ... s-nc-stateNorth Carolina State and Old Dominion have signed a home-and-home football agreement that will bring the ACC school to Foreman Field in 2015, ODU officials said tonight.
Senior associate athletic director Bruce Stewart said the schools have agreed to play in Raleigh in 2014 and Norfolk in 2015. The dates of the games have yet to be set.
N.C. State is the first ACC school to agree to a home-and-home series with ODU and would be the first Bowl Championship Series school to play at Foreman Field.
Virginia Tech and ODU had earlier agreed to a 2-for-1 contract, which calls for the Hokies to come to Norfolk in 2018 and the Monarchs to travel to Blacksburg in 2016 and 2019.
“This is the first of what I believe will be many BCS schools that will agree to play Old Dominion home-and-home,” coach Bobby Wilder said.
“People on a national stage realize how good the high school football is here in Hampton Roads. They want to come into this market. That’s why I believe more BCS schools will want to come play Old Dominion.”
ODU has played just four seasons of football and is moving up to the Football Bowl Subdivision and Conference USA. ODU will play as a Football Championship Subdivision independent next season and moves up to FBS and joins C-USA in 2014.
“This validates our decision to elevate our football program to the FBS level,” athletic director Wood Selig said. “It shows we can have success in attracting quality non-conference opponents for home-and-home scheduling.”
ODU is studying how to expand the 20,088-seat Foreman Field, but any expansion is unlikely to be finished by 2015.
N.C. State was 7-6 last year, including a 17-16 upset victory over No. 3 Florida State, and lost to Vanderbilt, 38-24, in the Music City Bowl. The Wolfpack have been to bowls in nine of the past 13 seasons.
The Wolfpack fired Tom O’Brien as head coach after last season and hired Dave Doeren away from Northern Illinois. Doeren was was 23-4 in two seasons at Northern Illinois.
Stewart, who handles football scheduling for the Monarchs, said his goal is to bring a BCS-level team to Norfolk every season.
The 2014 schedule is nearly set, with games at N.C. State and UNC Charlotte, a home game with Hampton University and eight C-USA games. ODU is looking for another home game.
“I’d like to find a quality FBS opponent” to play in Norfolk in 2014, Stewart said.
Wilder said ideally he’d like ODU to play an ACC or Big East team at home every year.
Selig said he has held discussions with the University of Virginia. “They have expressed great respect for our program, but so far, there’s not a lot of interest on their side to play us,” he said.
Selig said he would expect the N.C. State game to be televised nationally by the either of C-USA’s television partners, CBS Sports Network or Fox Sports Networks.
“We all thought it was big when we played Georgia Southern on national television” in the FCS playoffs, Wilder said. “Think of what it will mean to our program to play North Carolina State here on national TV.”
