Why can't we schedule for football like this???

[JacksonDevilDog]

Last year, Ohio State had Youngstown State, Akron, and Kent State at home. I know the connection with Tressel at YSU, but damn.

This year LSU has: Appalachian State, Troy and North Texas as their first three games (all in Baton Rouge). I know App State won at Michigan last year, but they won't sneak up on anyone anymore. They also play Tulane in Baton Rouge.

I know our schedule is easier this year, but I hate that we have Georgia Tech in Atlanta instead of ULM in Starkville. I know there's money factors and the home and home deal. It just seemed that from 2002-2007, schedule wise, when our program was in the dumps until last year, our schedule seemed to be WAY too tough.

Thoughts?

 

[JacksonDevilDog]

Last year, Ohio State had Youngstown State, Akron, and Kent State at home. I know the connection with Tressel at YSU, but damn.

This year LSU has: Appalachian State, Troy and North Texas as their first three games (all in Baton Rouge). I know App State won at Michigan last year, but they won't sneak up on anyone anymore. They also play Tulane in Baton Rouge.

I know our schedule is easier this year, but I hate that we have Georgia Tech in Atlanta instead of ULM in Starkville. I know there's money factors and the home and home deal. It just seemed that from 2002-2007, schedule wise, when our program was in the dumps until last year, our schedule seemed to be WAY too tough.

Thoughts?

 

[8dog]

the only teams we can allegedly afford to have at home every year are the 1AA teams and we can only schedule 1 of those. There aren't enough 1A teams that will go to someone else's place every year so those teams go to the highest bidder.

 

[Todd4State]

is because LT would wait until the last minute to fill out the schedule, so we end up with Gardner-Webb at home and a home/home with La Tech and Middle Tennessee.

Problem was, everyone else was taken and we end up at the mercy of the Sun Belt teams.</p>

 

[RebelBruiser]

I agree, and as much as I hate it, it means we'll continue to see home and homes with teams like Georgia Tech, Wake Forest, Missouri, West Virginia, and other non-rich BCS programs that are in the same boat. Unfortunately, it also means we'll see home and homes with some mid-major programs as well like Memphis, UAB, etc. due to the lack of good buy games.

 

[Sarc Dawg]

Gardner Webb was a fill in for another team (Jacksonville State?) that backed out last minute because they had a higher offer to play Georgia. While I would love to see MSU have as many homegames as possible, I think money will cap it at 7. MSU can not or will not afford/ pay more then that.

 

[Stormrider81]

Byrne said the same thing last night when asked about scheduling. Adding the 12th game made crappy 1A teams more in demand. LSU and Ohio State can afford to pay way more than we can. Byrne said that maybe if we can increase revenue created by our games then we could get in there and get some constant home opponents.

 

[vhdawg]

....is that the Ohio States, LSUs, Georgias, Auburns of the college football world have a full-price season ticket base of probably 55,000-70,000 people. We're somewhere in the 20,000 range. If we can get to a point where we have 40,000 Bulldog Club tickets being sold a year, it'll help knock a chunk of that out.

*-and as this has been asked before, I'm saying a "full-price" season ticket is your $200 Bulldog Club ticket, not counting maroon plan/skybox plans. The big schools don't sell mini-packs because their regular season ticket holders are sitting in those seats.

 

[Stormrider81]

We have to raise our ticket base. Although he didn't come right out and say it, he pretty much implied that we need to get to where we don't discount seats to sell them but rather sell to BC members as full ticket price.</p>

 

[RaiderDawg24]

Middle Tennessee got 750,000 plus traveling expenses (about 1 million total) to go to Oklahoma for a one-time game. Schools like OU and Ohio State are willing to and can pay that type of money to 3 lower tier teams to get them at home. MSU can't pay the big money for 3 guarantee home games per year. That gives schools like MT and La Tech leverage when negotiating contracts. Like others have said, State has to increase revenue so they can pay more in guaranteed games or we will see more road trips to Ruston and Murfreesboro in the future.

 

[Coach34]

Gardner Webb was a fill in for another team (Jacksonville State?) that backed out last minute because they had a higher offer to play Georgia. While I would love to see MSU have as many homegames as possible, I think money will cap it at 7. MSU can not or will not afford/ pay more then that.

</p>How was Vandy able to have 7 and 8 home games then? And its not because they are such a high revenue football program

 

[8dog]

and 6 next year. With the 12 game schedule becoming a fixture, small schools getting 8 home games in any year or 7 home games every year will become rarer and rarer.

 

[Coach34]

it can be done

 

[8dog]

It can, but as I said, as the 12 game schedule becomes a fixture, the bidding war is getting more intense.

I didn't believe it for a while either but now even Byrne is saying we have a problem.

To get 7 home games every year or 8 every other year, you have to find one 1A team that will play at your place every year without a return. There are probably at least 80 teams that no one has a chance of doing that with. That leaves 80 teams fighting over about 40 teams on a yearly basis.

 

[Optimus Prime 4]

so it can't be that hard.

 

[patdog]

Much like the way we would alternate years with 7 home games with years with only 5 back in the 90s. I'd much rather see us have 7, 7 and 6 home games than have 8 ,6 and 6 like Vandy has. Of course, I know we haven't come close to 7, 6, and 6 under Templeton, but I'm hopeful we can under Byrne.

 

[8dog]

than we do. And you would draw more to that extra game than we would.

And misspoke to an extent, some of the really big schools don't have to just choose from the E. Michigans of the world. Auburn was able to get KSU and Wazzu to give them a game without a return.

 

[Sarc Dawg]

But they probably have someone better at contracts, or a better negotiator then Templeton doing their schedules. Maybe the stars aligned. Maybe they paid more and just managed the rest of their finances better. All I know is that prices have consistantly gone up and unless MSU makes a huge jump in their budget, it isn't going to be able to consistantly outbid others for no return home games.

 

[RaiderDawg24]

Templeton waiting so late to finalize schedules has been a major problem.Tough to negotiate a good deal when there are only a few teams available and they know you need them. Even Kentucky is paying Middle Tennessee 700,000 + travel expenses this year to get the game in Lexington.

 

[RaiderDawg24]

Vandy did get 8, but because of that they are stuck with 5 home games in a few year. Plus their deals stuck them going to Eastern Michigan, Temple, and Middle Tennessee twice in the next few years.

I would rather consistently have 6 home games every year with a 7th occasionally than 8 once and be stuck we 5 home games down the road. The truth is State just has to increase revenue, then they can afford to buy the 7th or 8th home game.

 

[JimHalpert.nafoom]

In my opinion, schools like Ohio State and LSU schedule these games because they can get away with it. Ole Miss and MSU can't. OSU and LSU will get to play for the national championship pretty much every time if they win their conference- their name alone gets them a huge amount of respect across the nation.

If middle of the road BCS teams want to make that next step up in respect, they'll have to start beating name teams in other conferences.

When bowl committees look at a 7-5 Ole Miss and a 7-5 Ohio State, they'll look at our total schedule, and Ohio State gets in just for being Ohio State.</p>

 

[stateskills]

I don't know about Wazzu, but Auburn has a return trip to K-State scheduled.

Of course, in typical Auburn fashion, they'll probably buy it out at the last minute, but it is scheduled.

 

[8dog]

There is a no cost buyout on that deal and both teams have to agree to play so my guess is that that game will never happen.

 

[USMatFTL]

Big pink elephant in the room, masquerading as a dead horse.