why we seldom schedule in-state opponents like troy/UAB/South Alabama etc...
- Thread starter chuaner
- Start date
I thought you were going to explain it. I'll put it in the simplest possible terms.
Because no good can come of it.
I can give a more lengthy explanation, but these programs shouldn't exist. Alabama doesn't even have 5 million people in it, yet thanks to football welfare (all of the other three starting after the 85 scholarship limit), they have 5 FBS programs. If the rest of the country had as many undeserving FBS programs, there would be over 300.
Another one of the many reasons is that Alabama doesn't need help, nor would they get any help from playing waste of money U from Alabama. They're already dominant in-state. They however do get a slight raise in visibility from playing a neighboring region that they recruit.
Because no good can come of it.
I can give a more lengthy explanation, but these programs shouldn't exist. Alabama doesn't even have 5 million people in it, yet thanks to football welfare (all of the other three starting after the 85 scholarship limit), they have 5 FBS programs. If the rest of the country had as many undeserving FBS programs, there would be over 300.
Another one of the many reasons is that Alabama doesn't need help, nor would they get any help from playing waste of money U from Alabama. They're already dominant in-state. They however do get a slight raise in visibility from playing a neighboring region that they recruit.
With you 100%. They should not exist. But since they do, why give them credibility by playing them.
Not to be overly technical, but, Alabama has never played UT-Martin. Perhaps you meant UT-Chattanooga?
Was thinking about this yesterday. Georgia, a state which turns out many more D1 prospects than Alabama, only has 3 D1 teams: Georgia, Georgia Tech, and I believe Georgia State is now D1.
It is really ridiculous that Alabama has 5, and that some of the others like Jacksonville State have actually considered making the jump up.
It is really ridiculous that Alabama has 5, and that some of the others like Jacksonville State have actually considered making the jump up.
I think Georgia Southern is also D1 now, or will be soon. They're part of the Sun Belt Conference.
i didn't realize that they made the jump up (or were planning to). I've heard rumblings that kennessaw state is going to add football at some point
I didn't realize they'd made the jump yet. I thought they had gotten smart and decided not to.
Don't forget about UNA - the University of North Alabama - here in Florence. They've already approved and begun the process of moving to D1 and are just awaiting acceptance from a conference to make the jump.
First of all, we've never played UT Martin; we have played UTC a few times. Secondly, the sudden increase in scheduling such opponents happened back in 2002 when they approved an additional regular season game. We didn't used to play these clowns.
If I had my way, we'd reduce FBS (D1) down to about 80 teams or so, have five power conferences of sixteen teams (but no divisions) with a mandatory championship game and a nine-game in conference two game OOC mandatory play other big teams. At least then a playoff would make sense (to some degree). Then - just to show how much I can think like the really big dogs, I'd put together a biased selection committee to decide whether the outcomes of games were just or not and put two-loss teams in the CCG over unbeaten ones just because it would make more money.
But I digress.
We don't play them because it's lose/lose. You lose a million dollars and if they beat you.......you can lose on the recruiting trail, too.
I'm not sure if this is still the case, but in recent years UAB has filled seats via The Birmingham News printing tickets in their Sunday paper prior to the game.
That's right. You cut the ticket out of the newspaper and get in the game free.
And UAB wants to build a new stadium?
Perhaps the UAB administrators watched 'Field of Dreams' on their last company retreat and adopted "if you build it, they will come" as their new, unofficial motto.
[emoji3]
They don't. UAB meets the minimum requirements by having the city buy tickets (I didn't know about the whole newspaper thing). They're kind of the MAC of the southeast. UAB actually averaged just over 10,000 last year, which is below the NCAA minimum but I don't recall the NCAA ever kicking anyone for violation of the minimum attendance rule and I don't suppose they'll start now. South Alabama was just over the 15,000 minimum, helped by dirt cheap tickets and having companies buy a lot of tickets.
Two posters mentioned UNA moving to Division 1. They are moving up to 1-AA because D-II is losing members. The Gulf South Conference no longer exists as it once did. All six of the Arkansas schoolsl left (i.e., Harding) and the likes of Troy, JSU, Samford, and others are 1-AA (or FBS in the case of Troy). Right now the GSCC only has eight members but they are adding one in 2015 (Lee University) and another in 2016 (Mississippi College). Moving up actually makes sense for them since D-II has become so weak in the SE.
Here's an article about it: http://www.una.edu/division1/
One thing to note is the "trickle-down" affect that schools like Troy, GA Southern, JSU going FBS has on other programs like UNA. Basically moving up one level puts them where they were say 10 years ago. IOW, none of the schools that did move up should have. Their decision has changed the landscape of other levels. Right now there are only 5 D-II schools within 3.5-4 hours of UNA.
I would have used the "reply-to-post" but it would not work in Safari for some reason.
Here's an article about it: http://www.una.edu/division1/
One thing to note is the "trickle-down" affect that schools like Troy, GA Southern, JSU going FBS has on other programs like UNA. Basically moving up one level puts them where they were say 10 years ago. IOW, none of the schools that did move up should have. Their decision has changed the landscape of other levels. Right now there are only 5 D-II schools within 3.5-4 hours of UNA.
I would have used the "reply-to-post" but it would not work in Safari for some reason.
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Troy made the move, and started becoming a whipping boy for the big dogs. Sure, they get big payouts for showing up, and in the past they put a scare in a few teams, but look at them now. They can't even beat teams on their own level, much less give power conference teams a good game. They expanded their stadium, but you just can't draw big crowds to a small town when you have to compete with two SEC teams. Even the fans that do go have their attention divided. My wife got mad at me once because I didn't shake hands with band director Dr. Johnny Long (a big snub to a Sound of the South member) because I had my head down listening to Eli Gold and didn't see him. Hey, it was a close game, and Bama scored two late TD's to beat LSU.
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