Post by aggiejazz on Jan 24, 2008 9:07:25 GMT -5
In the near future (and if A&T can win games) there are big money games available for the Aggies to play against Division 1A. There is a art to maximazing the returns. It seems if you are going to play a D-IA school it is smarter to wait until these schools are under the gun to complete their scheduling for the upcoming year. Instead of getting maybe $250,000 - $300,000 you can get $450,000-$500,000 like Appalachian State did against Michigan due to late scheduling. Of course there is a negative and that is the pounding a D-IAA team could take going against a D-IA team.
Excerpt from a bigger article:
Tech among schools still looking for '08 opponent
By TONY BARNHART; The Atlanta Journal-Constitution; Published on: 01/23/08
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.
"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.
The schools that need games this late in the process do reach out to their conference offices and to television for help filling out the schedule.
But that doesn't always work. A year ago Michigan needed an opponent to open the season at home on Sept. 1. ESPN told Michigan that if it would play Hawaii in Ann Arbor, the game would be televised. Michigan said no. Instead, the Wolverines chose to open the 2007 season with Appalachian State, a Division I-AA team.
Appalachian State shocked Michigan 34-32.
The ACC has a more difficult task. The conference opponents for each team are set years in advance but the league office waits until all of the non-conference dates are set before assigning dates for its conference games. So right now there are no dates set for conference games in the ACC for 2008.
The good news for the schedule makers is that in 2008 there are 14 Saturdays between the first weekend of the season (Aug. 30) and the conference championship games on Dec. 6. In most years there are only 13 Saturdays to squeeze in 12 games.
But no one's counting on that.
BCS SCHOOLS STILL LOOKING FOR 2008 GAMES
Georgia Tech, Illinois, Kentucky, LSU, Louisville, Rutgers, Syracuse, Texas Tech, Virginia Tech, Wisconsin
Excerpt from a bigger article:
Tech among schools still looking for '08 opponent
By TONY BARNHART; The Atlanta Journal-Constitution; Published on: 01/23/08
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.
"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.
The schools that need games this late in the process do reach out to their conference offices and to television for help filling out the schedule.
But that doesn't always work. A year ago Michigan needed an opponent to open the season at home on Sept. 1. ESPN told Michigan that if it would play Hawaii in Ann Arbor, the game would be televised. Michigan said no. Instead, the Wolverines chose to open the 2007 season with Appalachian State, a Division I-AA team.
Appalachian State shocked Michigan 34-32.
The ACC has a more difficult task. The conference opponents for each team are set years in advance but the league office waits until all of the non-conference dates are set before assigning dates for its conference games. So right now there are no dates set for conference games in the ACC for 2008.
The good news for the schedule makers is that in 2008 there are 14 Saturdays between the first weekend of the season (Aug. 30) and the conference championship games on Dec. 6. In most years there are only 13 Saturdays to squeeze in 12 games.
But no one's counting on that.
BCS SCHOOLS STILL LOOKING FOR 2008 GAMES
Georgia Tech, Illinois, Kentucky, LSU, Louisville, Rutgers, Syracuse, Texas Tech, Virginia Tech, Wisconsin
