RU ready for UConn? - The Big East slates came out in February.  Not much interests us this season at The Birthplace of College Football.  There may be a fill-in game after an afternoon HS game against Tulane, or Syracuse might make things interesting late in the season.  There's no competitive Big East game scheduled at home for RU  that we can make on a weekday night.  However, the UConn Huskies should fill in nicely to provide us with key Big East battles this year.  Two home games will be played on weekday nights to see them host WVU (Friday, 10/29) with Noel Devine and Pitt (Thursday, 11/11).   Two of the conferences best will battle it out against UConn in East Hartford.  If a couple of other options don't pan out on our annual family visit to New England next Thanksgiving, we could see them host the Cincinnati Bearcats.  We expect Cincy to be in the thick of things despite Brian Kelly's exodus.  He left Grand Valley State and Central Michigan for greener pastures and both of them stayed as competitive as ever.  We're also able to fit in a pretty good road game when the Huskies meet the improving Temple Owls coached by Al Golden on Sept 18 in Philly.  It would be our first Temple game to be seen at "the Linc".  After a 9-4 season and Eagle Bank Bowl loss to UCLA, Golden's Boys are expected to challenge again for the MAC Championship.  We might make a trip to a rare Tuesday night game in the City of Brotherly Love on November 16 when defending MAC Champ Ohio U under Frank Solich comes calling.  we hope to see the Owls rise this season and see if Al Golden's name starts getting mentioned to replace his former mentor out in Happy Valley.

"Lafayette, we are here"... - and waiting!  Once the Patriot League's Leopards announce their schedule, we're hoping to fill in a couple of blanks on our schedule with preferably a decent mini-package plan they'll offer  Our goal is to get tickets for this year's traditional finale against Lehigh with a package.  It will be our third such match-up if we can get the hot tickets to the longest-played rivalry in college football, but it will be our first at LC's Fisher Field.  It holds 13,132 fans, about 2,000 less than Lehigh's Goodman Stadium.  We'd just like to feel the atmosphere of that game in a packed house at Lafayette. This will be the 146th game between the two schools barely ten mile apart.   We're hoping a few night home game there may even give us a chance to do a Lehigh Valley double header if Lehigh's home on the same date.  The Mountain Hawks do host FCS national champs Villanova on September 11, and that could be the start  of a big day for us in the Lehigh Valley.    A home opener on Sept. 4 would give us a nice, short drive to possibly open our season, and a night game on Oct. 2 would give us another option after our HS football obligation that day.  Eric's schedule works out pretty good only taking up three football Saturdays for us.  The Leopards' Spring game is scheduled April 16, and they'll be selling season tickets. So hopefully the schedule will be out by then.

Fifth Quarter - We're hoping to get to Madison, WI and Camp Randle for our first trip to see a Badgers' home game. If we do, we'll look forward to enjoying their tradition of the Fifth Quarter after the game where the crowd remains to celebrate with the band, " a team of wild horses", win or lose.  Most likely, it will be a win.  We'll probably get out there to see them in November when they host Indiana.  We have an airline voucher that should cover a trip to Milwaukee and have to use it by next February.  It's a plan!  Camp Randle is definitely a prime target for us to see a game.