Another Date, A Lot More Dollars?

Expansion to 12-game season creates opportunities for Championship Subdvision teams

July 10, 2007

By Jerry Palm

Special to CSTV.com

	JERRY PALM Jerry runs the web sites CollegeRPI.com and CollegeBCS.com and a CSTV.com analyst. E-mail here!

        ---   Column Archive   --- FOOTBALL 12/2: Tigers Land On Their Feet 12/2: Losses Leave BCS In Disarray 11/29: A Merciful End 11/25: A Fitting Chaos 11/22: Games To Be Thankful For 11/18: No-Backup Blues 11/15: Down The Stretch They Come 11/11: Kansas Not Quite In Control 11/11: LSU, Oregon Figure To Be Tops In BCS 11/8: Jockeying For Other BCS Bowls Begins 11/4: No. 2 Ripe For The Picking 11/1: Soft Schedule Warriors 10/28: Road To The BCS - Smooth Travels...For Now 10/25: Road To The BCS - Four On The Floor 10/21: LSU Still Not No. 2 10/14: Road Starts Rocky 10/7: Road To The BCS Is A Bumpy One 8/25: Ohio State Replacing Troy and Ted 8/7: Weis' Cloak of Secrecy 7/10: Another Date, A Lot More Dollars? 3/29: Football Playoff Up to Presidents 11/18: ND Sends Seniors Out In Style 11/11: Michigan Can Finally Look Ahead 11/9: Irish's Faint Title Hopes Alive 11/4: ND Airs It Out 10/28: USC Loss Gives New BCS Hopes 10/21: Thirty-Five Seconds Means Everything 10/7: Irish Efficient In Win 9/30: Problems? What Problems? 9/16: Wolverines Make Statement MEN'S BASKETBALL 1/22: Losers Make The News 1/15: Plenty of Bracket Impact 1/8: Season Lacking Surprise For Now 11/7: Masochistic Scheduling Tendencies 11/6: Salukis Cream of MVC Crop 10/13: Butler Back On Top 7/24: The Game's Toughest Job? 6/24: Sun Belt Goes A Different Route 6/12: The Big Balancing Act 3/29: Brand Speaks on Graduation Rates 3/12: Road To 64: Final Edition 3/6: Make Or Break Time Across The Board 2/27: It's Now Or Never 2/22: Rockets Surge Past Stumbling Huskies 2/21: Locking Up 2/20: Freshman Helps Redbirds Celebrate Senior Day 2/20: At-Large Bids Live Away From Home 2/17: Cats Tame 'Dogs in Battle of Non-BCS Powers 2/15: Purdue Pulls Big Win 2/13: Could Duke's Struggles Keep Them Out? 2/6: Who's Hot, Who's Not 1/30: Conference Play Really The Judge 1/27: A Feeling In The Ayer-s 1/26: Butler Baffles In Win 1/23: Separation At The Top 1/16: Road to the Final 64: First Edition 1/13: Badgers Survive Scare From Northwestern 1/10: Illinois State Throws Monkey Off Its Back 12/16: Oden Returns Home In Buckeye Rout 12/16: Graves Explodes For Butler 12/07: Notre Dame Hits High Tide 12/05: Purdue Handles Loyola At Home 3/31: Hoosiers Are the Talk of Indy 3/25: Looking at the Elite Eight 3/22: Big Ten Anything But 3/12: Air-ing Grievances 3/07: One Last Chance 2/27: All About Team 2/21: Looking At The Bubble 2/14: No. 1 Seeds a Tough Call 2/07: The Home Stretch 1/17: Explaining the Bracket 1/09: The Valley Is High

When the NCAA changed the football scheduling rules two years ago to allow Division I-A (now Bowl Subdivision) teams to play 12 games instead of 11, the motives behind the change were clear. It was to give those schools an opportunity to generate more revenue, but it has also had the effect of generating more revenue for Division I-AA (now Championship Subdivision) schools as well.

For the BCS conference schools especially, generating more revenue means playing more home games. With only so many open dates, and only so many non-BCS schools willing to play on the road without a return trip, many schools have turned to the Championship Subdivision for home game fodder.

Games against Championship Subdivision opponents are up almost 37% in the last two years when compared to the number of those games in a typical 11-game season, and it seems like almost everyone is getting into the act.  Every Bowl Subdivision conference is playing more non-conference games against Championship Subdivision opposition than it did in the days of 11-game schedules.

The Big Ten had historically avoided playing Championship Subdivision teams better than any other league. Big Ten schools had only scheduled 10 Championship Subdivision foes total in the last seven 11-game seasons. But with another game to fill, the conference played eight Championship Subdivision teams a year ago and will do so again in 2007. Only Michigan State has avoided playing one so far.

Michigan tried a handful of Bowl Subdivision teams to fill a September 1 date on its schedule but was turned down. As a result, the Wolverines are playing a team from the Championship Subdivision for the first time since it was created in 1978. The last non-major school Michigan played was Great Lakes in 1945. In Michigan's defense, the Wolverines aren't exactly taking it easy. They host Appalachian St, the two-time defending Championship Subdivision winners, which means the Mountaineers are probably as good as half of the teams in I-A. Appalachian State will take home around $400,000 as a lovely parting gift.

Northwestern is one school that feels Championship Subdivision teams will be a regular feature on its schedule after not having played one since 1986. Assistant A.D. Mike Wolf explains, "The reason for the rule change was to give schools a chance to play an additional home game. A home game has a significant impact on our budget. For us, the easiest way to do that is to play Championship Subdivision teams because they don't require a return trip."

With enough Championship Subdivision schools to go around, it's still a buyers' market for the BCS schools. Northwestern, for example, won't have to play just any Championship Subdivision team. Wolf says, "We have to be a little smarter about which schools we schedule though because the non-conference games are usually played at a time when our students are not yet in school. Next year, we are playing Southern Illinois, which has a good fan base in Chicago."

Other schools are helping out their old friends. In 2007 and 2008, Ohio State will play Youngstown State, which is where the Buckeyes found head coach Jim Tressel. Purdue's next two I-AA opponents are Eastern Illinois and Northern Colorado, which are coached by former Boilermaker assistants.

Most Championship Subdivision teams won't do quite as well as Appalachian State because most I-A teams don't have the resources of Michigan, but the typical BCS conference school will pay $250-300K for a Championship Subdivision team to come in for one game. With 41 of those games on the docket, that will mean more than $10M collectively to the Championship Subdivision schools that play those games. Northwestern State and Western Carolina will get double shares because they are each playing two BCS schools.

While the money is important, it's not everything. Appalachian State associate A.D. Jay Sutton says the payday from Michigan "does have an impact, but we're not playing just for the money. It doesn't make or break us. We're mostly playing for our kids to have the experience of playing someone like a Michigan in a stadium like theirs."

Some schools are getting it both ways. Hawai'i, which in March was still looking to fill three spots on its schedule, is paying Charleston Southern a reported $125K plus travel expenses to go to paradise and get whipped by the Warriors.

Not all feeding troughs are open to the Championship Subdivision schools though. The Pac-10 decided to add a conference game when the schedules expanded, meaning the league would play a full round-robin. As a result, only two Pac-10 schools are playing Championship Subdivision opponents in 2007, Arizona and Oregon State. Annual games against Championship Subdivision foes are typical for both schools.

A few teams have chosen not to play the extra game at all, or had that choice thrust upon them. Hawai'i never did fill all the remaining spots on its schedule, despite offering a couple of unnamed BCS conference schools a package reportedly worth around $750K for a game that would have been televised on one of the ESPN networks. The Warriors even tried to get a road game at Mississippi State, but that didn't work out. Hawai'i probably could have found another Championship Subdivision team to come play, but many feel that the two the Warriors already have is too many, especially for a team with BCS aspirations.

WAC mates Boise State, Utah State and Fresno State also decided not to schedule the extra game this year, either because they wanted to keep their bye week or because they could not find a suitable opponent. Those teams won't entirely miss out though. All three will play 12 games because they play at Hawai'i, but the scheduling rules allow such teams to play 13.

While there are a few schools like Tennessee and Notre Dame that simply won't play Championship Subdivision teams, there are still a lot more opportunities for Championship Subdivision schools to cash in on big paydays than there used to be, and it looks like we will continue to see a glut of those games on the schedule.