It seems to me that the idea of allowing college football and basketball teams to negotiate their own non-conference schedule is fundamentally skewed in favor of the big-conference teams. In both sports, you’ll see teams like Lehigh go on the road to face Indiana, or Kent State having to battle the raucous crowd at the University of Michigan, but seldom do you see the larger teams go on the road to face these little schools.
The Old Dominion Monarchs football team is playing next year as an FCS independent before joining the FBS as an independent in '14, and finally becoming a full member of Conference USA in '15. ODU’s 2013 schedule only illustrates my point:
vs. Howard, Citadel, Liberty, Rhode Island, Charlotte
at East Carolina, Maryland, North Carolina, Norfolk State, Idaho
What’s up with that? Are the big-conference schools so terrified that they may get upset by a much less well-known team that they do everything possible to stack the deck in their favor by scheduling no road games against such opponents? And why is such a clearly biased system permitted? (Money, Dear Boy?)
Maybe it’s not
Obvious to you
Now, but
Everyone else sees the
Yearly attendance figures.
Michigan et al lose
Obnoxious amounts of cash if they’re
Not at home. Also, those little schools
Earn a lot more moola when playing
Your biggest universities.
Moreover, “afraid” is not appropriate.
“Opportunistic” is better.
Nearly anyone with power will use it.
Each athletic administrator is trying to get the most revenue for their schools.
Yes, those with power abuse it. Such is life.
Actually, the B1G has set up a series of home and home football games with teams in the MAC. I don’t know how the economics of that work. I don’t know if they raise ticket prices in the smaller MAC venues or what. It’s a gesture that is good for college football and the MAC conference but I can’t see how it will generate the same revenue.
If you can get all those Wal-Mart Wolverines to spend their unemployment checks in a stadium that will stuff in 100,000, why play down the road in a stadium that only holds 35,000?
It’s not just money. The big football schools schedule games against smaller schools because they can run up the score and look good to alumni and in the polls (which does, of course, lead to more money as a side effect). A couple of 30-0 and 40-7 games in the beginning of the season gets the notice of the people voting in the national poll, who notice the score more than they do the quality of the opponents.* Similarly, alumni see the score and think the team is in great shape, so the donate more.
The big school basically pays the small school to roll over for them (not that the game is fixed, but the gap is quality usually ensures the result). Their stadium holds thousands more fans, so it makes sense to do it in the larger stadium.
*One of the reasons for John Heisman running up the score to 222-0 against Cumberland College in 1916.
I believe that only Michigan State has done that. I can’t picture the 100,000-seat schools playing a MAC team on the road.
The University of Illinois scheduled a MAC road game once, versus Western Michigan at Ford Field in Detroit in 2008. I doubt the Illini are anxious to repeat the experiment since (a) the game drew the smallest crowd of any U of I game, home or road, since World War II; and (b) the Illini lost.
I think those are 2-for-1 (two games in the B1G stadium, one game in the MAC stadium), but it’s still better than one-and-none. ETA: Maybe it is only MSU. I thought it was wider spread than that, but don’t know.
I’ve also been to a “home” basketball game for Oakland University Vs. Michigan State, where they played in the Palace (Detroit Piston’s home court). OU is right near there, but most of the fans were MSU fans anyway. Still, that’s a good solution, allowing for larger attendance. (And they sold beer! Win-win-win!)
This is what my high school always did for homecoming. I don’t think there’s any payment involved. I’ve always wondered what the incentive is for the losing team–maybe to have a chance playing a more skilled team, allowing them to get better?
I went to the University of Rochester in 1978 when the woeful Yellowjackets played a basketball game at North Carolina. The game made some headlines because the coach said three of his starters wanted UNC star Phil Ford’s autograph. One reason, besides money, was the U of R felt they could recruit better players if they could offer them a chance to play a top Division I team instead of just the usual Division III opponents. Looking up the record, the Yellowjackets did make the NCAA division tournament in 1981 so maybe that helped.
As for basketball, there are some major college coaches that will tell a recruit that they will schedule an away game at a venue that is close to their hometown so their friends and family can see them play. In basketball it isn’t such a big deal in the per-conference schedule.
There are also arrangements in football and basketball where the athletic dept. of a major college will schedule an away game with a school where a loyal assistant has taken the head coaching job at another college. It’s professional courtesy. I think that is what is behind the MSU away game at Central Michigan. The CMU head coach is Dan Enos who was an important player at MSU and an assistant coach.
Sometimes it blows up in the major school’s face but I won’t get into that.
In Division I football, it’s money: they patsy team is paid a ton to get beaten.
For basketball, it could be what you say. Siena College, where I work, used to schedule games against real basketball powers so the players could face a higher level of competition in case they got into the NCAAs (it seemed to work - they’re 4-6 in the tournament, quite a good record considering their size).
One part of me feels like it’d be nicer to have forced, even schedules like the NFL, but part of the charm of college sports is having the Davids and Goliaths. Something like Appalachian State upsetting #5 ranked Michigan at Michigan would never happen in the NFL.
That said, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to expect that teams could limit themselves to scheduling only one patsy (defined as any non-1-A team) to a year, preferably with the other two out-of-conference games with one non-AQ team and another BCS conference team. Then play 9 conference games. And not play 1-AA teams in November. Yes, I’m looking at you, SEC.
The Wisconsin Badgers played Bowling Green at the Cleveland Browns stadium a few years back and Northern Illinois at Soldier Field last year. As I recall the BG game was poorly promoted and woefully attended, the game in Chicago wasn’t a sellout but decently attended… Certainly more than could have fit in their home stadium in DeKalb. Helps that there are a lot more local UW alums in Chicago and its closer to Wisconsin than Ohio!
