… as in I-81, for us. If you drive that route to the Salem/Roanoke area, watch out for law enforcement. They patrol that in force, usually.
D3football.com has landed in Salem, Ryan Coleman and I left D.C. early because of the snow/ice forecast for Thursday morning. Didn’t want to get stuck in it. Safe travels to all.
Thursday’s itinerary: Gagliardi Trophy ceremony, team practices and interviews.
Good idea to hit the road early. I live right off 81, and on my way to work this morning (at Bridgewater), I was greeted by an inch of snow fall in the faculty/staff parking lot. And this is suppose to continue all morning and afternoon.
Not to mention this area is calling for freezing rain from 3 pm to 8 pm.
Be safe everyone!
See you all in Salem in less than 48 hours!
Yeah, I decided to wait it out and go on Friday,via plane, so I can make it to the luncheon, practices, etc.
See y’all down there.
I’ve only been to two Stagg Bowls but I sure would like to see the NCAA change the venue. The Roanoke-Salem area is fine but it would be nice to see the games played in a nicer climate. Anyone have any thoughts about this?
tje,
As I mentioned in an earlier post, Salem and the ODAC do a great job with the Stagg Bowl and other events they host. Granted, I have a Virginia /ODAC bias and VA weather in December is a crap shoot. The Stagg Bowl used to be held in Alabama (Mobile, I think) some years ago. I’m sure most of the time December weather is nicer there but I think they had attendance issues. Not sure if there were other factors for moving.
I think they wanted to have it in a Division III area, where you could count on local interest, and this area certainly has local turnout (there were 2,100 tickets sold just to locals at close of business yesterday, about 1,500 to participating institutions, with the phone ringing on a regular basis at the box office today.
Also, I would say the weather is partly due to the lengthening of the season. It’s a week longer than it used to be. But there isn’t going to be a good place that is driveable for most Division III schools and guarantees good weather on the third Saturday of December. Salem is an ideal place for the Stagg Bowl, and I hope it enjoys an Omaha-type relationship with the game.
Hard to disagree with PCole…
Salem hosts the Stagg Bowl and men’s final four with precision. It’s down to a science and you’d be surprised how much that can help. People rarely notice when things go smoothly, but certainly when things aren’t going so well. The women’s final four bounces all over the place and it’s near impossible to get a hitch-free event with people who aren’t used to hosting it.
This will be the fifth Stagg Bowl I’ve been to, and the organization just gets better.
I’m with Pat and Pat, hands off Salem. They do a great job. Who else in the places that have been named would go as far out of their way to host a small college championship. Arizona? Southern California? Get Real
While we are on the topic I think that kudos are in order for Brad Bankston and the folks at the ODAC. Pat, you probably know more about this than I but I have a feeling Brad and Co. are pretty involved with putting this event on too.
I’ll answer…Brad is the chief rep for football operations as head of ODAC, host of the Stagg Bowl, while Carey Harveycutter represents the City of Salem, co-hosts…
Hard to think of anyone else doing it any better, and these two don’t get enough credit.
Whitewater band is bussin’ out for an overnight trip this afternoon. Let’s see some good football, may the best team win… but I still gotta say it.
GO HAWKS!!