thetandd.com/sports/things-are-going-to-change-s-c-state-football-coach/article_a8f7486c-9138-11e4-80c6-afa9f336445b.htmlWord of an impending decision that would see the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference forego its automatic bid to the FCS playoffs in favor of participating in a lucrative, ESPN-funded postseason bowl game angered some vocal South Carolina State fans on Tuesday.
One day later, S.C. State head coach Buddy Pough opted to weigh in.
“Everything right now is based on speculation,” Pough said. “We need to settle down and let’s have some confidence in leadership of our schools and our conference to explore some ways we can get better. I can say that people are doing that. I’m speculating on some of it because I don’t know ins and outs, but people are getting in a rile.
“Even if we do something for a year or two, it’s an experiment trying to get better. As a conference, we have to give more schools incentive to get better at football. We had five teams split our conference championship this year, and to me, that’s an indication that more people are trying to get better.”
Morgan State Athletics Director Floyd Kerr confirmed the plan for a postseason bowl in a recent call-in appearance to The Carlos Brown Show on WUBR-910 (Baton Rouge, Louisiana). He said the MEAC would drop the playoffs in order to have its conference champion compete against the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) champion, HBCUsports.com reported Tuesday.
The game, created by ESPN, will pay each conference $1 million, Kerr said.
“The presidents of each league have decided that, yes, this is going to happen,” Kerr told the radio show. “ESPN is the driving force behind it and it’s been vetted quite well.”
Referencing the role of the leagues’ head coaches, Pough said the shift to a MEAC-SWAC postseason bowl was a decision being made “at a level above us.” He did confirm that he had spoken with S.C. State administrators concerning the plan but declined to speculate on a time frame for the release of an official stance from the conference.
“At some point, I’m sure they will make a decision,” Pough said. “The landscape is changing. Schools, conferences and everybody are trying to figure out the best course of action, so what we do is let those guys above us make those calls. They have access to info we don’t have and then go about implementing the changes we need to make.”
Pough said the current 24-team Football Championship Subdivision playoff model has not been a financial boon to the Bulldogs, who have made four trips to the playoffs in his 13 years leading the program. He pointed to a 2013 home playoff game against Furman as particularly disappointing from a revenue standpoint and mentioned that the recent exit of traditional FCS powers Appalachian State and Georgia Southern to the FBS level as an indication of a changing climate.
“I can tell you we have to figure some stuff about the finances of playoffs, because from that end, it’s been disappointing,” Pough said. “Even when we have been involved, there’s not a lot of money to be made. When you start seeing people like the App States and Georgia Southerns of the world looking for a better answer, that’s an indicator that something needs to be done ... it’s a conundrum of sorts for us.
“We like the honor of having made the playoffs and like being a part of it, but we are going to need more opportunities for schools to have postseason play. There’s not enough. It’s hard to not have a place to go in December.”
Further changes could be on the way, thanks to the introduction of a four-team playoff at the FBS level. With the Big 10 having already prohibited members from playing FCS schools in an effort to bolster its strength of schedules, Pough said other conferences could follow suit.
That would mean the Bulldogs may not have the option of playing lucrative “guarantee games” with large FBS schools such as South Carolina, Clemson, Texas A&M and Georgia Tech, all opponents on recent Bulldog schedules.
“Things are going to change,” he said. “When it looks bad to have us on a schedule for the playoffs, there will be some change.”
Pough said a postseason bowl game would not have to be a permanent fixture and emphasized it would not preclude the Bulldogs from making the playoffs as an at-large selection, a scenario that played out for MEAC rival Bethune-Cookman in 2013.
“One year doesn’t make the process,” Pough said. “Even if for instance we were to try something, all decisions are experimental. You have ability to try to do something for a time or two and it’s not fair to not give the process a chance. We are trying to figure out how to better ourselves ... I don’t know what direction we’re going. I don’t know what will be presented to us. I’ve heard some numbers being bounced around. I don’t know if we’ve gotten a final offer. I don’t see anything set in stone. If we were to send one of our teams to the bowl, who’s to say maybe we can’t have a team in the playoffs as well.
Some people will say, well, you’re going backwards. Sometimes when you’re trying to get better, you get worse. You have to take a step back when you’re trying to take a step forward.”