It starts with 1 - College Football opening weekend thread

The "guarantee" game deal goes down the line. For as much as FCS schools need the pay check from playing LSU (Northwestern State this year) or Michigan (Appalachian State, if you recall) they generally try to balance their schedules by getting a D-II or NAIA to come to their place.

Check out the Thursday night schedule. A lot of it was FCS vs. D-II games. I would bet most, if not all, of those FCS teams have to go to an FBS opponent later in the season. If you're going to play somebody who will never return to your place for a home game, you have to try to balance that by bringing in an opponent who you will never have to go to.

It's not necessarily a money maker -- I'm sure Stephen F. Austin didn't draw a bunch of people to see McMurry give up 82 points. But what it does is cut expenses by making sure you don't have seven road games to pay for. And you can pay a small guarantee to the D-II opponent out of the guarantee money you'll make later in the year.

 

And even those games aren't guaranteed wins for the I-AA (FCS) team. Pittsburg State and, I think, Washburn have both won games at Southwest Missouri State.

 

My biggest fear this weekend: Baylor and Georgia win, snuffing out the non-qualifier talk before it reaches a warm point.

TCU I can handle losing. But I pray fervently that Boise punches Team Richt in the mouth, knocking its teeth out.

 

Larry "My hands are clean" Coker leads Texas-Alamotown against the once-named Redmen of Northeastern Oklahoma State, colors, green and white. Coker once played there.

 

Delta State lost by a point at Northwestern State last night. Now Northwestern St. has to go to LSU next week.

 

The reason you see so many more FCS teams on schedules now than in the past is money. An FCS team will generally come for half the guarantee money or less than a Sun Belt or MAC school. They have fewer scholarships and fewer athletic programs in general than FBS schools so they'll take $350-$400k where the MAC team is looking for $600k-$1 million in some cases (the dollar amounts may be a little off, but it's close).

If MAC and Sun Belt teams were willing to come for less money, they'd get scheduled more.

 

I also think that those who don't want to see the FCS teams step up are a bit elitist. Once in a while, look at it from the side of the little guy.

 

I agree with that sentiment. But I think the implication by the original poster was that the big boys schedule patsies because they're afraid to lose, and most times that's not the case at all. It's about money, for both sides of the equation.

 

Fear the Ichabod!

 

I am quite stoked that ESPN UK is airing Boise State-Georgia. Not even ESPN America. The actual ESPN over here. Which means I can watch in glorious HD ... provided I can stay up until 4 in the morning, that is.

*-Level of stokedness subject to change depending on the outcome, natch.

 

My alma mater, San Diego State, is doing the FCS opponent thing by opening the season against Cal Poly.

Of course, this isn't your usual big (well, medium) guy against little guy. Cal Poly is undefeated (2-0) this decade in San Diego against head coaches named Long. Of course, the Aztecs current Coach Long is different from the previous one and they're coming off a bowl season, but I'm still worried.

 

It's not unusual for FCS teams to beat non-BCS FBS opponents (that's just way too much alphabet soup).

There really isn't much difference between a good FBS team and a mediocre team in the WAC, Sun Belt, MAC, even the Mountain West or C-USA. Heck, a lot of FCS teams can beat low-end BCS teams.