Bcs Teams Having A Tougher Time Filling Schedules

[MeanGreen61]

Off the Muts board from the Atlanta paper.

from the AJC:

...The 2007 college football season ended just 17 days ago but, for a number of schools, crunch time for the 2008 season is here.

At least 10 schools in the six BCS conferences, including Georgia Tech and Virginia Tech in the ACC and Kentucky and LSU in the SEC, still need a game to complete their 2008 schedules.

"I can't remember having this many schools needing games at this late date," said Nick Carparelli, associate commissioner of the Big East who has three schools (Louisville, Rutgers, Syracuse) still looking for games.

And for those schools the clock is ticking because a lot of very important people are waiting:

? Season-ticket holders are set to renew but want know exactly what they are getting.

? Conferences need the final schedules because, in the case of the ACC and Big East, the league office waits until late January to assign dates to the conference games.

? TV needs the final schedules so they can sit down with the conferences this spring and start picking the games they like for September.

"For a lot of different reasons football scheduling has become complicated," said Mitch Barnhart, the athletics director at Kentucky. "Finding a game this time of year is very complicated ? and expensive."

Make that very expensive. Arkansas, for example, needed a game for Nov. 1. It already had one Division I-AA team (Western Illinois) on its schedule and didn't want another because NCAA rules stipulate that only one of those games can count toward the six wins needed to qualify for a bowl. Tulsa had a contract to play Texas Tech on Aug. 30 but also an open date on Nov. 1. Tulsa paid a $150,000 fee to Texas Tech, which is stipulated in the contract, in order to cancel the game and play at Arkansas for a guaranteed payment of $850,000.

A Division I-AA team would have received about half that much in guaranteed money to make the trip.

The move made good business sense for both schools but it's fair to say that Tulsa athletics director Bubba Cunningham and Texas Tech athletics director Gerald Myers, who now needs a game, will not be exchanging Christmas cards this year.

"It's a tough business," Mark Womack, the executive associate commissioner of the SEC, said.

And it is a business that operates under the law of supply and demand.

"If you need a game on a specific date this late in the process it is going to cost you," said Rick Chryst, the commissioner of the Mid-American Conference. "We haven't seen guaranteed games worth $1 million, but I don't think we're far away."

Georgia Tech has been trying for three months to find a non-conference opponent to replace Army, which was supposed to host the Yellow Jackets on Oct. 11, 2008 at West Point. But last October, just moments before the two teams were set to play at Bobby Dodd Stadium, Army athletics director Kevin Anderson handed Georgia Tech counterpart Dan Radakovich an envelope. Inside was a check for $125,000 and a letter stating that Army had decided not to play the 2008 game.

Now Georgia Tech faces the likelihood that it will have two Division I-AA teams on its non-conference schedule. The Yellow Jackets open on Aug. 30 against Jacksonville State and are expected to announce another I-AA opponent late this week or early next week. If Tech is forced to schedule a second I-AA opponent, it is going to have to go 7-5 against a schedule that includes home games against FSU, Miami and Mississippi State, and on the road against Clemson, Virginia Tech and Georgia.

"It's tough on our season-ticket holders but when somebody pulls out of a contract that late your options are really limited," Wayne Hogan, Tech's associate athletics director, said.

For most schools in this situation there are really only two options: 1) Pay the large guarantee to get a Division I-A opponent or 2) Pay a Division I-AA school which will take less money and not require a return game.

That is why three teams in the ACC (Clemson, Florida State, Georgia Tech) are expected to play two Division I-AA schools this season. That number could be four when Virginia Tech eventually fills an opening on its 2008 schedule........

Link: Tech among schools still looking for '08 opponent

[UNTflyer]

This business of paying teams to play is becoming ridiculous, but what else are you going to do?

As a conference commissioner, I would approach a near-by conference about guaranteed home-home matchups. C-USA #1 at Sun Belt #1, Sun Belt #2 at C-USA #2, etc.

Edited January 24, 2008 by UNTflyer

[Dodge2007]

"If you need a game on a specific date this late in the process it is going to cost you," said Rick Chryst, the commissioner of the Mid-American Conference. "We haven't seen guaranteed games worth $1 million, but I don't think we're far away."

$1 million bones per game goes a long way in a program like UNT. Big pay checks might get Dodge and his team to a new stadium.

[UNTLifer]

Get some of the big boys to schedule home and homes instead of trying to play at least 8 home games, and they would probably have an easier time filling their schedules.

[Monkeypox]

"If you need a game on a specific date this late in the process it is going to cost you," said Rick Chryst, the commissioner of the Mid-American Conference. "We haven't seen guaranteed games worth $1 million, but I don't think we're far away."

$1 million bones per game goes a long way in a program like UNT. Big pay checks might get Dodge and his team to a new stadium.

Sure, $1 million per bodybag game (what's our record so far? $500k?) x 3 bodybag games a year = $3 million

We do that 10 years in a row, and we'll have a cool $30 million for a new stadium.

So all we have to do is become a perrennial doormat playing 8 away games a year until 2018, and we'll have bought ourselves a fancy new stadium.

I don't know about you guys, but I LOVE it.

[greenjoe]

Wouldn't it be fun to start off the season, just once, 1-0 ? I know, the money is what makes things work, but how about going into, say, LSU, or Texas with one win under our belt ?

[emmitt01]

Here's a novel concept. Texas, you need a home game to fill out your schedule? Call LSU. What's that? Your coach has said publicly that he won't schedule teams from BCS conferences in the OOC because of Ohio State coming into Austin and beating you? Oh, that's too bad...I'd hate for you to put your multi-million dollar football program out there like that. And that goes for you too OU. And you aTm. We can't all schedule like Texas Tech.

[PlummMeanGreen]

Sure, $1 million per bodybag game (what's our record so far? $500k?) x 3 bodybag games a year = $3 million

We do that 10 years in a row, and we'll have a cool $30 million for a new stadium.

So all we have to do is become a perrennial doormat playing 8 away games a year until 2018, and we'll have bought ourselves a fancy new stadium.

I don't know about you guys, but I LOVE it.

It is the feeling of many that Todd Dodge and his staff (with his latest new coaching addition) will take the term "body bag" out of the Mean Green football vocabulary forever. Seems UNT's former conference-mate, ie, the Boise State Bulldogs for darn sure has theirs.

GMG!

[GreenBat]

It is the feeling of many that Todd Dodge and his staff (with his latest new coaching addition) will take the term "body bag" out of the Mean Green football vocabulary forever.

By who?

Plumm don't tell me you've been in the Green Kool-Aid.