This only post at the Rhino and Compass site intermittently strategy means that the close overage of Following the Compass (adopting 2 teams a year, then keeping close tabs on one of their games in a season) has been lax. Both games for the 2018 calendar have been played, and the teams for next season have also been selected, so let’s just chat about all of it.
The first game this season featured the Texas Tech Red Raiders football team. They’ve recently been very good, and a very fun team to follow, thanks to a high flying passing game. It started with Mike Leach, but now his former QB Kliff Kingsbury is at the helm and continuing that strategy. This year hasn’t been a standout for the Red Raiders, as they have only gone 503, but they’ve had a big win against Oklahoma State and TCU.
One of the games that they won was their non-conference home game against Lamar, from Beaumont Texas. It was a complete whitewashing for the Red Raiders. They failed to score only once after throwing an interception, while Lamar was held scoreless. The final was 77-0, and was far more out of hand than even the most optimistic Texas Tech fans had presumed.
On the other hand, Syracuse, the other selection for the 2018 calendar, is ranked in the top 25 for the first time in over a decade. They’ve defeated Florida State and North Carolina State, while remaining competitive against Clemson The game preceded the FTC game against Pitt, played at Heinz Field.
Pittsburgh is not having a great season, however they aren’t a poor team, on the level of the Lamar Cardinals, and they gave Syracuse a game.The Orange seemed to have some momentum leading to the half, but a long weather delay at half time really threw things off. The Panthers made a hard charge to make a game of it.
Eventually, they did tie it up and sent the game to overtime,a very long time after the game kicked off. The Panthers scored on their first possession, but the Orange looked lost when they took control, despite having put up 37 points already, and were unable to put the ball in the end zone, allowing the Panthers to steal victory form a superior opponent.
Next year, things will be entirely different. Instead of two college football teams from major conerences, we'll be following two college basketball teams from minor conferences. One of the schools is one of the most prominent mid-majors from the last decade or so, switching conferences from the SoCon to the OVC in a hunt for greater challenges. The Belmont Bruins are one of the preeminent teams to rise up through the small conference ranks in recent years. Located in Nashville, the Bruins are going to be traveling to Cape Girardeau, Missouri on March 2nd in their regular season finale, taking on one of our old Following the Compass sides, Southeast Missouri State.
The other team has had some small conference success in the past, but have recently been overwhelmed by the influx of teams from the Dakotas in their conference. Frankly, though, I think most people know this Oklahoma school because of the strange namesake. Oral Roberts University in Tulsa is the second game on the calendar. Unfortunately, the game we selected, #10, will be a part of the 2019-20 season, so we will need to wait until late next fall to figure out exactly who and where they will be playing. They play a fairly regional schedule, including teams from the Dallas area, Oklahoma and Missouri, but also have one big neutral site tournament in Michigan. This season, game 10 for Oral Roberts is against SMU in Dallas, if that gives you an idea of what the game might be. Game 10 will likely fall in early December next year. .
It's been since 2015 since I drew two college basketball teams in the same year. The fact that those teams are everywhere, though, can make it so much more fun.
