Drexel is terrible and beating up on them does nothing to help prepare us for the season. Whatever happened to the exhibition games against teams like Marathon Oil and Athletes in Action? These teams were filled with ex-college players and provided much more of a test before the season begins.
Here's an article by Jeff Goodman on Fox that will help explain.
http://community.foxsports.com/blogs/goodmanonfox/2008/10/31/WEEKEND_SCRIMMAGE_SLATE_CHECK_OUT_THE_SCHEDULEWEEKEND SCRIMMAGE SLATE: CHECK OUT THE SCHEDULE!
Oct 31, 2008 | 11:55AM | report this If given the choice, most coaches would rather scrimmage against another D-1 school rather than play an exhibition game against, say, American International (that’s who UConn plays on Nov. 5) or Panhandle State (Oklahoma’s opponent on the same day).
But some don’t have the option and have orders from above because they will pack the stands and that brings in a decent amount of revenue.
Others, like Villanova’s Jay Wright, will play one scrimmage (this weekend against George Washington) and also play an exhibition (Nov. 6 vs. Northwood and ex-‘Nova coach, Rollie Massimino).
Wright wasn’t allowed about the specific scrimmage, but said that they certainly have their advantages.
``We can control the situation and we can get a very competitive workout that will simulate a Big East game,†he said.
Here are the primary advantages:
1) The competition is usually superior
2) You can tailor it to how you want (meaning you can play more than 40 minutes, you can agree to work on specific situations, etc.)
The main downside, however, is that there is no live crowd.
The NCAA doesn’t want these so-called “secret†scrimmages out in the public domain, but I’m going to let you in on basically the entire slate:
Friday
Columbia at Rider
Western Carolina at Presbyterian
Saturday
Davidson at Texas
Arizona State at New Mexico
Memphis at St. Louis
Virginia Tech and Georgetown
George Washington at Villanova
Wake Forest at South Carolina
Portland State at Washington State
Fairfield at Boston College
College of Charleston at Georgia Tech
Creighton at Iowa State
Clemson at Georgia
UNC Wilmington at Charlotte
Santa Clara at California
Wichita State at Kansas State
Wyoming at Washington
Rutgers at UMass
Utah at Colorado
West Virginia at Virginia
DePaul at Iowa
Drexel at St. John’s
Akron at Xavier
Fordham at Seton Hall
Nevada at Saint Mary’s
Chattanooga at Auburn
Cleveland State at Eastern Michigan
Eastern Illinois at Illinois-Chicago
Princeton at Marist
Cal State Fullerton at San Diego State
Long Island at Albany
Liberty at East Carolina
Cornell at Hartford
UT Arlington at SMU
Sacramento State at San Jose State
Mount St. Mary’s at UMBC
Sacred Heart and Brown
Lipscomb at Murray State
Iona at Holy Cross
Army at Yale
Wofford at Winthrop
St. Francis (Pa.) at Towson
St. Francis (NY) at St. Peter’s
Florida International at Central Florida
Southeast Louisiana at Southern Mississippi
Lafayette at Monmouth
UTEP vs. Lamar on neutral court
Sunday
Vanderbilt at North Carolina
Marquette at Nebraska
LSU at Tulane
Ohio State at Miami (Ohio)
Kent State at Michigan
Siena at Colgate
Campbell at Coastal Carolina
American at Richmond
Valparaiso at Northwestern
St. Bonaventure at Buffalo
Long Beach State at San Diego
Stony Brook at Central Connecticut State
Nicholls State at South Alabama
Tennessee Tech vs. Arkansas-Little Rock at neutral site
Stetson vs. Georgia Southern in Jacksonville