Payday Games (Great Article)

[Harry]

Why These Games Are Important

Since 2005, when the NCAA ceremoniously allowed a 12th regular season game, Power 5 schools have been scheduling FCS and lower Division-I programs on a yearly basis. These contests are referred to as “guarantee games.”

For instance, during the Saban era alone, Alabama has faced Kent State, North Texas, Middle Tennessee, Georgia Southern, Charleston Southern, Western Carolina, Chattanooga, Georgia State, Florida Atlantic, and San Jose State, among others, and has drawn considerable backlash for doing so, particularly for booking FCS opponents.

The media will banish these programs into the categories of patsies, cupcakes, “rent-a-victims” and any major Power 5 program that schedules them can expect to be lambasted for padding their schedule with these runts of the litter.

“Every time I saw Coach Saban, I thanked him. “I said, ‘Thank you so much for playing us, I really appreciate it.’ We need it to keep our programs alive and do the things we need to do to be successful. For us, it’s huge.” -- Russ Huesman, former coach at Chattanooga

Oddly enough, this mind-set of the college football biosphere is the exact opposite of college basketball, as no one would want to see a March Madness ball without Cinderella. What the critics, analyzing in a silo, don’t understand is that these perceived unsexy contests benefit college football as a whole, and the trickle down effect keeps programs that desperately need the revenue afloat.

Read more:  https://www.saturdaydownsouth.com/alabama-football/facing-saban-small-school-coaches-reflect-on-playing-alabama/

[oldguystudent]

Quote

Since 2005, when the NCAA ceremoniously allowed a 12th regular season game, Power 5 schools have been scheduling FCS and lower Division-I programs on a yearly basis. These contests are referred to as “guarantee games.”

 

Totally disagree that this is a recent phenomenon.  I remember Cal St. Fullerton and Pacific playing Michigan in the early nineties as well as San Jose St. going into Cal for their annual paycheck drubbing. 

There was one particular weekend in the fall of 1994 when I was into playing parlay cards (ahem..for recreational purposes only, of course) and I recall Pacific being a 55 point dog to some huge Big 10 team.  I skipped that game because I couldn't decide if that spread was big enough or not. 

The google machine tells me that game was at Nebraska where they lost by 49 points and totes covered the spread. 

Further, the google machine tells me that 1995, Pacific's last season, they played #19 Arizona, #2 Nebraska, and #17 Oregon.

If anything, I'd argue that money games have become less frequent.

Edited July 3, 2017 by oldguystudent