Hey, kids! It's time to play...2009 OOC schedules!

[Van]

Talking to Killian in another thread, it prompted me to go look up the 2009 Texas schedule. I needed to find out the date of the RRS.

While I was looking it up I also checked out the rest of their schedule...

Well, jesus fuck.

Texas

Louisiana Monroe
at Wyoming
Central Florida
Texas El Paso

That is just hideous.

They got themselves home games against a boring French president, a weathervane and a jar of salsa. They play a road game against Brokeback Mountain.

But wait. Let's be fair about this. Maybe they're not alone in attempting to schedule themselves a winning season even before they climb out of bed.

Lets take a little looksee, shall we?

Oklahoma

BYU
Idaho St
Tulsa
at Miami (That's Florida, not Ohio)

You know, minus the roadie scrimmage at White Supremecists St that's a pretty deece OOC schedule. Props, OU. Great job.

Oh, and shame on you, Texas.

Taco Tech

North Dakota
Rice
at Houston
New Mexico

Okay, that's fuggen awful. Somehow though it's at least a step up from last year.

Still...North Dakota?? Wtf?? That doesn't even fall under the bullshit umbrella of trying to help out a local program with a nice sacrificial lamb paycheck.

Okay, let's try some Big 10 teams...

Michigan

Weathervane Michigan
Weathervane Michigan again
Delaware St (!!)
ND

Oh, and they're all at home.

Nice 8-4 home/away schedule there which, unfortunately, is a fairly common scheduling practice around the country.

Basically though, wow. Besides the one obligation game with ND their AD really reached for the stars when he picked up the phone.

That Delaware St call was a stroke of genius.

"I always liked me some blue chickens..."

"Uh, sir? Wrong Delaware."

"Aww, damn. Book 'em anyway."

Penn St

Akron
Syracuse
Temple
Weathervane Illinois

All at home. 8-4 home/away schedule.

When Syracuse is arguably the toughest test you allowed yourself you are quite the whimpering vagina.

Guess JoPa wants to leave no gall stone unturned in his quest to stay ahead of Bowden.

How about the Pac 10? Anything cookin' over there?

No, not really. Other than Oregon St pussing out and playing the Dins St Fighting Glanvilles pretty much everything is status quo with Pac 10 OOC schedules.

There is this doozy though...

Oregon

at Boise St
Purdue
Utah

Damn, Dins! Utah and Boise St? Oregon, with their unis, playing the Smurfs on the Blue Turf?

It's retinas exploding everywhere! It's the BCS Buster Bonanza!

You'd best represent the Pac this time, bitch. Lock all your QBs in Phil Knight's private jet during spring practice. Maybe issue a state wide order: If ONE of you douches even TOUCHES anyone wearing a red jersey, and yes, gold digging sluts watching our practices from the sidelines, I'm talking to YOU too, your ass is expelled...from life.

Still, let's quit beating around the bush here, we all know what we came here to see: The Meatgrinder!

Bama

Chattanooga
Weathervane Texas
Florida Fine Print
Va Tech

All at home. 8-4 home/away schedule.

Ahhh, the ol' play-one-decent-team-and-otherwise load-up-on-a-fuckload-of-home-games-against-gussied-up-corpses trick.

Playing a model train though, I gotta hand it to you, Bama. That's novel.

Auburn

Auburn's usually good for a laugh here, right?

This isn't all that bad though. Seriously. Not for Auburn...

La Tech (That's French for "patsy")
Ball St (Huh?? That one is just a bizarre match up.)
Furman
W Virginia

All at home. The ubiquitous 8-4 schedule.

Still, I got just one word for you...

...Furman.

Auburn is playing a shirtless Iraqi and counting it on their record.

How about our erstwhile, ersatz national champeens?

Florida

Charleston Southern
Troy
Florida St
Florida Fine Print

Didn't Charleston Southern get itself all blowed up and shit by Francis Scott Key? And didn't Brad Pitt already beat Troy?

LSU

at Washington
Louisiana French Patsy
Louisiana French Whore
Tulane

Hey, at least the Washington "game" is on the road. Nice to see LSU waiting until Ty Willingham was coaching Washington and they were even worse than Washington St before LSU saw fit to schedule themselves a west coast roadie.

More importantly, has LSU ever lost one of these home games to any of their on call French concubines?

Is it Fall yet?

[PSUFAN]

Penn St

Akron
Syracuse
Temple
Weathervane Illinois

All at home. 8-4 home/away schedule.

When Syracuse is arguably the toughest test you allowed yourself you are quite the whimpering vagina.

Guess JoPa wants to leave no gall stone unturned in his quest to stay ahead of Bowden.

Believe me when I tell you that this has been a lively point of discussion out this way.

This is simply an awful OOC slate for a football fan...but it shines and glitters for the spreadsheet fan. Your derision is misdirected, however. Joe doesn't want to load upon cupcakes, the AD does. PSU's scheduling isdone by Tim Curley and his team. They have been scheduling with the primary goal of mazimizing revenue. Joe's issue is that he honestly believes that Temple and Syracuse are solid football teams that present his team with difficult challenges.

Back in the day, PSU would play anyone, anywhere - and give them a tough game. The scheduling reflected this, for the most part. The spreadsheet wonks who rub their hands at this OOC slate have forgotten that tough matchups build a team's character. Smashing 4 cupcakes at home will not do much apart from building false, inflated expectations that will be deflated the moment a little adversity is encountered.

There are dozens of folks in PSU's athletic department who have become used to living high on the hog. They assume that PSU's ticket demand will always be massive. As such, they see nothing wrong with a cupcake slate, because there will always be huge demand, in their view. I think they are wrong. Given a propensity for money-grab matchups, an inevitable turnover in the fanbase demographic, and the economy, it might start to get tough to fill fields with RVs and to fill a 110k stadium.

I think when Joe Paterno retires, every last safeguard against totally crass money-making attempts will be removed. The AD wants to stack benjis, and they are not burdened by any sense of sportsmanship or tradition or rectitude. The cheaper they can stage their moneygrabs the better.

Many sycophants of the AD respond, "but EVERYONE is doing it!!" - of course, they also love to tell us that PSU is a cut above, a special program imbued with an unassailable integrity. They fail to understand the contradiction, or maybe it's the contradiction that really excites them. I dunno.

Trust me, I'm with you in deploring the work of the Spreadsheet Fans.

[Van]

I apologize to JoePa. I'm sure you're correct and JoePa himself is obviously not to blame there. It's his AD who's trying to ensure that JoePa stays ahead of Bowden.

Same reasons too, as everything else you correctly stated. It's still about money. Maintaining the JoePa legacy is big business for Penn St. Long after JoePa is gone and there's a big shnozzed little troll stature in front of Beaver Stadium (and can someone please tell me why the Nittany Lions play in something called "Beaver Stadium"?) PSU will still be cashing in on that "home of the winningest coach of all time" shpiel.

So, yeah, along with everything else it's always going to be in PSU's best financial interests to make sure JoePa gets the record. Coastal Carolina and a buncha Zips can just go ahead and make sure it happens.

One caveat though...

JoePa could prevent this crap from happening every year, at least at Penn St. If he truly didn't want this crap to happen all he'd have to do is schedule a single news conference. Once ESPN came dutifully running he would merely need to look right into the camera and say...

"I, JoePa, deplore this nonsense of scheduling nothing but home game scrimmages. It's disgraceful. In fact, I will no longer be a party to it. Henceforth, I refuse to coach this team against any D1-AA teams. I also want to say that while I don't make the schedules, my AD does, I want it known that he does not have my blessing in scheduling these farces. He does so, only against my wishes.

I want Penn St football to stand for something good. This isn't good.

See, I guess I've kinda become the face of this program and I don't like what we're doing here. What we're doing here, it reflects poorly on this institution and it reflects poorly on me.

Mr AD, stop doing this. Schedule good teams. No offense, but our fans don't want to see Penn St play Western Illinois and Akron. Our fans who pay for all this deserve to see real games. How dare we charge them the same for a Coastal Carolina ticket as we do for an Ohio St ticket.

Mr AD, stop making 8-4 schedules. My kids need to learn how to play under adversity. This means learning to play well even against good opponents, in front of their fans. Schedule us 6-6 every year.

Thank you. Now, where are the cannolis?"

PSU, you can't tell me that if Joe Pa took just three minutes to say what I just wrote that it wouldn't have a profound impact not just on how PSU schedules but also on the way many teams across the country schedule.

JoePa could force this change at PSU. Penn St Nation would go to the wall for him over this issue, if he made it his issue.

If he did it other programs would be shamed into following suit. Maybe not all of them and maybe not even the majority of them, but some of them.

Regardless, he could make it happen at Penn St. The fact that he doesn't is a form of complicity.

[Mr T]

Bama

Chattanooga
Weathervane Texas
Florida Fine Print
Va Tech

All at home. 8-4 home/away schedule.

Ahhh, the ol' play-one-decent-team-and-otherwise load-up-on-a-fuckload-of-home-games-against-gussied-up-corpses trick.

Playing a model train though, I gotta hand it to you, Bama. That's novel.

That Bama-Va Tech game is in the georgia dome. Will be a pro-bama crowd but still a neutral site.

FSU's OOC
At BYU
Maine
USF
At the gaytors

[PSUFAN]

Van, Joe's wish that the program is achieving something important is satisfied by the fact that by getting 7 home games a year, essentially they can support the entire budget of the athletic department with football program revenue. Penn State doesn't have to use any money from the General Fund on athletics.

I think this is an excellent goal, to be sure. The problem is, the AD reaches for more under these auspices.

[Vito Corleone]

Talking to Killian in another thread, it prompted me to go look up the 2009 Texas schedule. I needed to find out the date of the RRS.

While I was looking it up I also checked out the rest of their schedule...

Well, jesus fuck.

Texas

Louisiana Monroe
at Wyoming
Central Florida
Texas El Paso

That is just hideous.

It's a very shit schedule thanks to Arkansas and Utah dropping us. Monroe and Wyoming were late adds, we also tried to add Wisconsin but those weenies wouldn't do it either. Believe me Texas fan is pretty pissed about this schedule as well.

[MiketheangrydrunkenCUfan]

I'm a little disappointed with the Buffs' schedule this year:

Colorado St.
@ Miami, OH
Wyoming
@ West Virginia

At least it's 6 home, 6 road. I can live with playing CSU every year (in-state rivalry and all), although it's too bad they couldn't get a deal worked out to keep it in Denver. I'm a little surprised to see them playing AT Miami. I know they played in Boulder a couple years ago, but I didn't realize it was a home & home. I can also understand throwing Wyoming a bone every now and again, since they're only a couple hours away, but it's just too bad all three of these games are in the same year. WVU wasn't the team people expected them to be this past season, and they'll most likely be worse with White gone. Still, at least they're a BCS opponent. I'd like to see at least two BCS schools every year, but at least they're not playing any FCS schools. Considering how they've performed the two times they have played FCS/1-AA schools, I would hope they never play one again.

Then again, if they're going to have a pussy OOC schedule, this would be the season to do it. I said it a couple months ago and I'll say it again: If CU can't win 8 games next season with that kind of a schedule, Hawkins should be out of a job. No ifs, ands or buts. That's pretty much three freebies right out of the gate.

And for the record, 2010 will be a lot more respectable:

@ CSU
@ Kal
Hawai'i
Georgia

That's more like it.

[SunCoastSooner]

Talking to Killian in another thread, it prompted me to go look up the 2009 Texas schedule. I needed to find out the date of the RRS.

While I was looking it up I also checked out the rest of their schedule...

Well, jesus fuck.

Texas

Louisiana Monroe
at Wyoming
Central Florida
Texas El Paso

That is just hideous.

It's a very shit schedule thanks to Arkansas and Utah dropping us. Monroe and Wyoming were late adds, we also tried to add Wisconsin but those weenies wouldn't do it either. Believe me Texas fan is pretty pissed about this schedule as well.

Clemson and Middle Tennessee State both dropped OU and we still managed to fill out a pretty damn nice OOC schedule... nice excuse though; we're used that by now from Vitoworld.

BYU was a very late addition to the schedule. The Miami date had to be moved due to a scheduling conflict at Pro Player with the Marlins which caused us to lose out on better competition than Idaho State but we did what we had to do to keep another BCS conference school on the slate. OU has at least one serious game locked in theory through contract all the way through 2022 with opponents that include Florida State, Tennessee, Ohio State, LSU, and Notre Dame.

Congrats on the Wyoming series I suppose; At least their conference is trying to make an argument about being in the BCS... too bad you had to go after their bottom feeder.

[Vito Corleone]

Talking to Killian in another thread, it prompted me to go look up the 2009 Texas schedule. I needed to find out the date of the RRS.

While I was looking it up I also checked out the rest of their schedule...

Well, jesus fuck.

Texas

Louisiana Monroe
at Wyoming
Central Florida
Texas El Paso

That is just hideous.

It's a very shit schedule thanks to Arkansas and Utah dropping us. Monroe and Wyoming were late adds, we also tried to add Wisconsin but those weenies wouldn't do it either. Believe me Texas fan is pretty pissed about this schedule as well.

Clemson and Middle Tennessee State both dropped OU and we still managed to fill out a pretty damn nice OOC schedule... nice excuse though; we're used that by now from Vitoworld.

BYU was a very late addition to the schedule. The Miami date had to be moved due to a scheduling conflict at Pro Player with the Marlins which caused us to lose out on better competition than Idaho State but we did what we had to do to keep another BCS conference school on the slate. OU has at least one serious game locked in theory through contract all the way through 2022 with opponents that include Florida State, Tennessee, Ohio State, LSU, and Notre Dame.

Congrats on the Wyoming series I suppose; At least their conference is trying to make an argument about being in the BCS... too bad you had to go after their bottom feeder.

Nice attempt at ankle biting but we have our share of good teams coming up on future schedules.
UCLA starting next year, Mississippi, Arkansas, and we will be adding Michigan, Notre Dame and Arizona state to the OOC in the coming months.

[MiketheangrydrunkenCUfan]

Damn, Van. USC is only playing 3 OOC teams?

The Pac 10 has this wacky, off-the-wall idea that the best way to determine a conference champion is for all the teams to play each other. Nutty, huh? Nine conference games = only three OOC games. Abacus out front shoulda toldja...

[Shoalzie]

An Excel workbook of next year's schedule...NOTE: NOT ALL SCHEDULES FINALIZED

http://www.mybearterritory.com/cal_bear ... hedule.xls

[Van]

'Spray, umm, no. You really don't wanna go here. Auburn Fan doesn't ever wanna engage USC Fan in talk of OOC scheduling. See, while San Jose St is a really game bad for USC they'd be one of Auburn's best OOC games...most any season.

While ND is down right now they're also the second winningest team of all time and arguably the most prestigious opponent in the history of CF. They've also flat out owned USC for long stretches of time.

Besides USC (the last top shelf OOC opponent for Auburn, and we all know how that worked out for War Beagle) when was the last time Auburn had an OOC opponent that ever beat them more than once? Has Auburn ever had an OOC opponent that was good enough to roll through Auburn every year for a generation of seasons?

When you play ND every year you don't have to apologize for when they go through lean times. They've kicked your ass plenty enough to've earned the right.

Besides, a game in South Bend would be the crown jewel of Auburn's OOC schedule nearly every year of Auburn's provincial existence. That's why Auburn's never had the sack to schedule ND.

Then there's that little roadie USC is taking to Columbus. Not Columbia. Columbus. USC is traveling to play Ohio St in The Horseshoe.

When was the last time Auburn did something like that? (I'll save you the effort. The answer is never.) When was the last time any SEC team did something like that?

USC's two OOC roadies this season are in South Bend and Columbus, two of the most storied stops on the entire CF map.

Auburn? Forget a big silver bird, they don't even board a bus this season to play an OOC game. They play all their games at home, including an epic home game tilt with...

....ahem...

...FURMAN!!!

Quick...don't look it up...

What's Furman's team nickname? What conference do they play in? WHO is Furman named after?

USC plays on the road beneath Touchdown Jesus and the ghost of Woody Hayes. Auburn plays at home against Furman and Louisiana Venereal Disease.

Please, do yourself a favor and stick to ripping on m2 and Cal. Auburn Fan doesn't want any part of of USC.

[King Crimson]

Furman's nick is the Paladins, possibly even the Purple Paladins. it's in one of the Carolina's.

that's all i got, though.

[Van]

Furman's nick is the Paladins, possibly even the Purple Paladins. it's in one of the Carolina's.

that's all i got, though.

I guarantee you that's two more things than 'Spray would've gotten.

It's also two more things than I would've gotten. Then again my team isn't scheduled to play a home game against them like 'Spray's is.

Are they even a D1 team? I don't think they're in the Sun Belt or Conference USA so I'm guessing no, they're not. Auburn's once again playing a D1-AA team, something USC has never done, and Furman's barely even the worst OOC team Auburn scheduled.

(Edit: I just looked up Furman. They play in something called the Southern Conference of D1-AA. They're in the same conference as other such powerhouses as Elon, Wofford, Samford and The Citadel. They finished 4-4 in conference play last year, with Appalachian St winning the conference.

Here's the kicker though: There was a team who went 0-8 in that conference last year. Auburn's not playing them this year, thankfully.

Bama is! Bama plays 0-8/1-11 Chattanooga this year! Bwaaahahaaa!!)

[PSUFAN]

Van, 6 home/6 away will never happen at Penn State. Like I said, Joe let it slip that they needed 7 home games a year to achieve the goal of funding the entire athletic department. I phrase it that way because I know the whole athletic department must have shit the bed because he didn't say 8.

So let me open another front here - how do each of these schools fund athletics? Is it honorable to line up a shit cupcake slate if the goal is to fund the entire athletic department? Does USC use general funds to fund athletics?

My beef is not with Joe, because it seems to me that he's not motivated solely by the dream of duplicating Fort Knox in a a Lasch Building (athletic department building) basement. My beef is with the AD who wants to grab as much money as possible in every circumstance.

Once Joe goes, PSU Football will be made available to the highest bidder - as rapidly as possible, in every way possible.

So...PSU doesn't play a shit cupcake slate because Joe wants to load up easy wins over Bowden. PSU plays a shit cupcake slate because it makes the AD a ton of money. This money goes towards funding the entire athletic department...and none of us outsiders really know how well that effort is going. it is Tim Curley's job to maximize revenue, so aside from a little minor personal antipathy, I can see what is motivating him.

Myself, I think PSU should do the following:

4 home conference games
1 shit cupcake OOC opponent (but I would like to see that team be a PA team)
1 annual home-and-home with Pitt
1 home and home with a BCS conference opponent - preferably on that finished in the BCS top 8

That gets us 7 home games...and it does so while maintaining the competitiveness of the program.

The other side of scheduling that irks me is that in the rush to stack Benjamins, Tim Curley has forgotten that if PSU doesn't schedule any decent teams, then when it becomes BCS time, we'll fail to achieve a score that will allow us to play for a championship. That's exactly what was looming in '08, until Iowa took care of it for us. What this really means is this: a season with an 8-4 result is the best thing for the AD, because he can line up 4 shit cupcake opponents and sit back and go through conference play, losing enough games that the BCS isn't a point of debate. If PSU suddenly starts competing for MNC titles, as they briefly did this year, he's going to have to provide the team with a schedule that will build the BCS score, not raze it to the ground. He'd prefer to sit back and attend a lesser bowl game, because that scenario makes his beloved spreadsheet sing.

[buckeye_in_sc]

that is the same issue with OSU from what I understand...they need 7-8 home games a year...and let's be honest the Big Boys aren't too keen on giving up home games every year with possibly the exception of USC...but to PSU fans point how does USC fund it's program...OSU has what 39 varisty sports I believe...maybe USC doesn't have that many and can afford only 6 home games a year...maybe some of the other sports can sustain themselves moreso and don't rely on Football for everything like a lot of these schools do...all I know is

105k seats x $65 avg ticket price x 7 or 8 is a hell of a lot of cabbage that OSU needs to fund the athletice department...plus when you consider OSU has the largest budget with Texas coming in second...well it is easy to see why they schedule 1 big away game a year...and keep the rest at home...

i personally think the networks could help out here...matchup some huge games...sell the shit out of advertising...give the schools a piece of the concessions, etc...and maybe you might see more bigger OOC games and more of them...

I know OSU has
Navy
Toledo
USC
and New Mexico State I believe...

I like Navy, Toledo and USC...NMSU...not so much...

[MgoBlue-LightSpecial]

Michigan State was one of the last four or five teams that had yet to play a D1AA team...up until now. That streak comes to an end next season when the Montana State Bobcats - 3rd place representative from the mighty Big Sky conference - roll into East Lansing.

Yay

[MgoBlue-LightSpecial]

Dude - Furman, Citadel & Fuck State could have beaten both Washington schools this year!! They weren't even high school teams!

First of all, that's fucking retarded, and doesn't even deserve a thoughtful retort.

Secondly, the subject is out of conference scheduling. Nobody has control over how good or bad the conference foes they're forced to play are. Is it really that hard for you to stay on subject?

[PSUFAN]

So I've started to understand that games against lower division schools are here to stay. PSU's game against Coastal Carolina was scheduled because Joe Paterno wanted to throw Moose Koegel - one of his former team captains - a bone.

I wish that if they are going to behave in this way - dispensing matchups to favored parties like Popes once granted nations trade concessions - they would look to help out some PA schools. I'm sure the rest of you folks are seeing the same sorts of news headlines in your states - but PA is facing a big problem where funding education is concerned. Football programs and entire athletic departments are nice things to have...but when you have to take big money away from educational facilities and give it to the AD, then you're in a tough place indeed.

Even at PSU, where the football program is able to load up a ~108K stadium 7-8 times a year, they are sweating bullets...because folks have to be able to pay to get to the games.

We may end up looking back on these years as something of a CFB Golden Era, flaws and all.

[Screw_Michigan]

Michigan State was one of the last four or five teams that had yet to play a D1AA team...up until now. That streak comes to an end next season when the Montana State Bobcats - 3rd place representative from the mighty Big Sky conference - roll into East Lansing.

Yay

I was also impressed the way MSU bullied WMU into dropping their "home game" at Ford Field and moving it to East Lansing. Pussies.

[MgoBlue-LightSpecial]

I was also impressed the way MSU bullied WMU into dropping their "home game" at Ford Field

bwaaaa

You and I both know there's no good reason for playing that game at Ford Field, dicklick, other than taking away your "home team" status.

The move made it more attractive financially for WMU, yet you act as if WMU was strong armed into it. They threw money at WMU, and WMU is a directional school...directional schools always go for the $$$$. A game in E. Lansing was also more convenient and logical for both schools, especially considering the state of the economy. Look, a 30 point blowout is a 30 point blowout regardless of where it's played, ASS. As long as you're getting your shit pushed in, you might as well rake in some more cayshe out of the deal.

[Van]

Okay, the short answer is...

...nobody needs seven or eight home games. Teams want them, as a luxury which then allows them to easily afford other things.

Pac 10 schools play just as many NCAA sports as a any other conference. In fact Pac 10 teams win more NCAA championships in more sports than any other conference, and that's despite often having fewer teams than other conferences.

UCLA and Stanford don't need eight home games and they field the most comprehensive and successful all around athletic programs in the country, along with USC. Arizona St does just fine too.

If anything a school like Washington St needs the eight home games more than monster programs like Bama and Penn St. WSU doesn't do it. They still get by.

This is all about want, not need.

Has anybody here seen LSU's facilities, upclose and personal? I have.

People, a lot of the money LSU raises by raping and pillaging their usual schedule of local French whores is going straight back into the football program. A lot of their recent facilities are football specific and not available to the general student population.

The argument that teams need to play eight home games in order to fund their women's lacrosse program is just lip service. Most of these major programs who afford themselves eight home games are the teams who least need to do it. The teams they're playing are also competing in a multitude of lower level NCAA sports and they're somehow managing it without having eight football games at home.

If LSU or Penn St wanted to pay for lesser sports they would simply use other means to pay for them. They could easily find ways, were it a true priority. The eight home games thing is just the path of least resistance and a convenient rationalization for padding their football team's win/loss records.

Hell, half of Nick Saban's annual salary could fund the majority of Bama's women's sports.

This shit, it's all about football want, not institutional need...period.

[Van]

PSU's game against Coastal Carolina was scheduled because Joe Paterno wanted to throw Moose Koegel - one of his former team captains - a bone.

Call me Oliver Stone but I have a suspicion that had Moose Koegel been employed by LSU rather than Coastal Carolina his phone wouldn't have rang, and he wouldn't have picked up his own phone to call JoePa.

It's awfully convenient for JoePa be so benevolent, especially and only when it means a guaranteed home game blow out victory.

[Screw_Michigan]

You and I both know there's no good reason for playing that game at Ford Field, dicklick, other than taking away your "home team" status.

Yeah, well, other than the fact you pussies are too scared to play WMU in Kzoo. And the fact you'd make it the fifth straight season WMU's beat a BCS team, even though you'd have a crowd advantage of 2:1 in Detroit.

A game in E. Lansing was also more convenient and logical for both schools, especially considering the state of the economy.

Shut the fuck up, idiot.

Look, a 30 point blowout is a 30 point blowout regardless of where it's played, ASS.

Keep fucking dreaming, tard.

[Van]

What's this?? Michigan St-Weathervane Michigan smack, and we're not even talking hockey??

Fucking sweet!!! While you're at it couldja guys maybe throw in some good regional "you're so stupid/your momma/you know you're an aggie when..." smack too??

[MgoBlue-LightSpecial]

Yeah, well, other than the fact you pussies are too scared to play WMU in Kzoo.

MSU has incentive to go on the road and play a team like Cal - an ABC prime time game vs an upper echelon Pac 10 school.

What incentive does MSU have to play in Kzoo? Just name one. That's all I ask. Take your time.

Shut the fuck up, idiot.

Persuasive shit. Really.

[Screw_Michigan]

What's this?? Michigan St-Weathervane Michigan smack, and we're not even talking hockey??

Fucking sweet!!! While you're at it couldja guys maybe throw in some good regional "you're so stupid/your momma/you know you're an aggie when..." smack too??

I'm surprised you actually have the time to post in this thread while you're busy posting novels and getting your ass kicked by Tardling Sale in the Second Grade Geography thread.

[Screw_Michigan]

MSU was shitting their fucking knickers over the prospect of being humiliated by WMU in Detroit. So, they threw a wad of cash on the table and WMU predictably caved. WMU is not about winning, just about whoring itself by spreading its legs for the highest bidder.

It will make shitting in your crib extra special, dickbag.

[PSUFAN]

If LSU or Penn St wanted to pay for lesser sports they would simply use other means to pay for them. They could easily find ways, were it a true priority.

Sure, it's easy! Just have state taxpayers foot the bill.

Let me sketch this out for you, Van. In the commonwealth of PA, there are four "State-Related" schools - Penn State University, the University of Pittsburgh, Temple University and Lincoln University. These four are NOT "state schools"...that's a whole different system.

State system base tuition this year? $5,358.
PSU base tuition? $13,014.
Pitt base tuition? $12,832.

Since 2001, Penn State's state appropriations have been reduced $48 million.

A state-related school generally receives a state appropriation matched to a percentage of its operating budget. PSU's appropriation has generally hovered around 10%. That seems like a slender percentage, but the real number approaches $400 million from the state every year.

Look - it's not possible to ask state taxpayers to fund Penn State's athletic department...especially when a solution is at hand. The solution, according to Paterno, is for the football program to schedule at least 7 home games a year. The revenue gained from that can support women's basket-weaving and everything.

Now - a program like Pitt has to use state money to keep the athletic department afloat. That is NOT a good situation for them to be in...and sometimes what that costs them can be seen directly in the sloooow progress they have made in rebuilding the program.

I think it's fair when Joe says they "need" 7 home games a year. I think you're off base in your assessment - that he's really looking to guarantee a specific win total.

Now...given all of that, my complaint is that they are not working hard to keep scheduling competitively. They are lazily scheduling whoever will come to town the cheapest.

Let me ask you, Van - how does USC fund its athletic department?

[Van]

Admittedly Bama's OOC isn't too formidable

Yeah, and come to think of it, well, okay, I guess we might've been a skosh out of line with the Jews.

-Josef Mengele




Sam, you didn't just schedule a home game against a D1-AA team. You scheduled a home game against the absolute worst D1-AA team. Despite playing in a conference with Wofford, Samford, Elon and The Citadel they still took a season long bagel!

This is on top of scheduling two more compass schools. On top of that you also managed to land every dreg of your own conference except Vandy. You landed Misstake St, Ole Mishap, Cuntucky, Weathervane Carolina, Arkentucky, The Orange Puddin' Pops and shutyomouth.

You even get rebuilding LSU at home.

Unless you consider feckless Va Tech to be a serious threat you literally have a one game schedule in 2009, and that's assuming we're to consider either Ole Mishap or a 7-5 LSU team with another new QB to be all that much of a threat.

Sam, that's a remarkable schedule. You loaded up on some of the tastiest creampuffs imaginable when you had the opportunity to pick your opponents. You landed nearly every horrible team in your conference. You skip the two good teams in your conference, and I'm not sure that an overrated Georgia team with Stafford and Moreno isn't going to be an even more overrated team without 'em.

So, let's count 'em up...

Chattanooga Choo Choo: W
Florida Fine Print: W
Weathervane Texas: W

(You're already half way to bowl eligibility and your season's alarm clock hasn't even gone off yet.)

Misstake St: W
Orange Puddin' Pops: W
Cuntucky: W

(There ya' go. Six wins. Call your travel agent. Okay, right. My bad. Gas up the RV. You're already going bowling and your season still has sleep boogers in its eyes.)

Arkentucky: W
shutyomouth: W
Weathervane Carolina: W

(You're now one win from a likely BCS bowl and your season still has some serious morning wood.)

Va Tech: W (Va Tech couldn't score at a Poison concert.)

Now your season is enjoying a breakfast of Cheerios, served in a nice BCS bowl.

Ole Mishap: One of only three potentially lose-able games on your entire schedule, and still you'll be heavily favored.

LSU: LSU was flat out horrible last year, on both sides of the ball. They lose their best offensive lineman, their best defensive lineman and their best linebacker. They go into this season with a new starting QB again, and again he's a highly inexperienced player. He's not a Matt Flynn, ie, a new starter but a guy who's been in the system for four years. Nope, he'll again be a young, inexperienced "athlete" type of a QB, the kind of guy who limits your playbook while still making mistakes all over the place.

LSU won't be able to throw the ball, again.

You also get the game at your place, where Saban is yet to beat LSU.

Sam, if Bama doesn't go into the SEC title game with no worse than an 11-1 record then Saban needs to be shot. Their schedule is just off the charts easy, and that includes their conference schedule. The fact that they also padded an easy conference schedule with a flat out abomination of an OOC schedule is borderline criminal.

This schedule is such a sham that Bama should trade in their helmets for sequined masks. Saban should run out onto the field carrying a folding chair.

Seriously, I must've missed the big announcement where Bama announced the hiring of Vince McMahon as their new AD...

[Van]

Now - a program like Pitt has to use state money to keep the athletic department afloat. That is NOT a good situation for them to be in...and sometimes what that costs them can be seen directly in the sloooow progress they have made in rebuilding the program.

Thank you. You just defined both sides of the situation.

Obviously state money can be used, as needed. Moreover, Penn St is a rather popular concern. They have a lot of supporters. One might even refer to those supporters as, well, boosters.

I'm sure people in Pennsylvania are familiar with things like lemonaid stands and bake sales. These are small scale versions of things which are known as "fundraisers."

I'm pretty sure Penn St Nation has the wherewithal to do a little fundraising for the men's lacrosse team, as needed.

Would Penn St remain a CF monolith, minus their eight home games and cupcake OOC schedules? Maybe. Maybe not. Maybe they might not be able to keep up with the other greedy bastard football factories such as LSU. Maybe they end up being no better in football and other sports than, say, Pitt.

That's what this is all about. It's about the desire for high level football success. It's not about any real institutional need.

[PSUFAN]

Um, or they could consider the scenario I proposed above:

4 conference home games
1 traditional rival home and home
1 BCS-quality home and home series
1 shit cupcake

Viola - 7 home games AND a competitive schedule - AND we still get to snicker at Pitt's bake sales.

[Van]

Let me ask you, Van - how does USC fund its athletic department?

I honestly don't know the complete anaswer to that question. They're a private school though and I know they certainly receive a ton of private funding.

They don't own the stadium in which they play. The Los Angeles Coliseum is owned by the city of Los Angeles, or "The Coliseum Commission," whatever that is, but it's not owned by USC. So, I don't know what USC's cut is regarding ticket sales, concessions and parking. I also don't know how much USC receives from whatever local TV contract they have.

USC has a highly visible, wealthy and generous alumni base. I know this goes a long way towards the funding of various facilities around the campus. When the film school wants the latest gizmo George Lucas is as likely as not to simply step up and write the check.

How much of this private funding is specifically funneled into the athletic program? Again, I just couldn't say.

USC is a unique situation, as is Stanford. They're both elite private schools. I think a better Pac 10 comparison to Penn St's situation would be made by using the Pac 10's "state related but NOT state schools" programs: Oregon, Washington, UCLA, Cal and Arizona.

Those programs all manage to fund all their teams despite none of those programs ever playing eight home football games. Oddly enough though, none of their football programs are quite on the level of LSU's, Bama's or Penn St's, though their non football athletic programs are often superior to those of the football factories.

Imagine that.

[socal]

Let me ask you, Van - how does USC fund its athletic department?

I honestly don't know the complete anaswer to that question. They're a private school though and I know they certainly receive a ton of private funding.

They don't own the stadium in which they play. The Los Angeles Coliseum is owned by the city of Los Angeles, or "The Coliseum Commission," whatever that is, but it's not owned by USC. So, I don't know what USC's cut is regarding ticket sales, concessions and parking. I also don't know how much USC receives from whatever local TV contract they have.

USC has a highly visible, wealthy and generous alumni base. I know this goes a long way towards the funding of various facilities around the campus. When the film school wants the latest gizmo George Lucas is as likely as not to simply step up and write the check.

How much of this private funding is specifically funneled into the athletic program? Again, I just couldn't say.

USC is a unique situation, as is Stanford. They're both elite private schools. I think a better Pac 10 comparison to Penn St's situation would be made by using the Pac 10's "state related but NOT state schools" programs: Oregon, Washington, UCLA, Cal and Arizona.

Those programs all manage to fund all their teams despite none of those programs ever playing eight home football games. Oddly enough though, none of their football programs are quite on the level of LSU's, Bama's or Penn St's, though their non football athletic programs are often superior to those of the football factories.

Imagine that.

Seeing that the largest revenue source in the Coliseum aside from SC is Mexico national team soccer friendlies, USC held a gun to the Coliseum Commission in negotiating their 25 year lease. Though I don't have any numbers I would guess that USC got to name their price. They probably even get a cut from the hot dog and t-shirt "vendors" scouring the parking lot after an event.

[Van]

Oh, I'm sure you're right. Still, they don't own the place so they don't get all the revenue.

The point is they very obviously don't fund their entire athletic program simply via the revenue of six home football games per season. They raise funding in a large number of ways, as could Penn St, LSU or any other well supported football factory.

[The Seer]

Penn St

Akron
Syracuse
Temple
Weathervane Illinois

I can only speak for myself, but not seeing Coastal Carolina on your OOC this year is devastating...

[M Club]

that a football team can support an entire athletic dept. is something to take advantage of. why ask boosters to fund an extra 500 seats when you can do it yourself and they can pay for a new chemistry building instead? bo was on record before dying that he despised the cupcake scheduling but if the system wasn't going to reward tough scheduling, then so be it, which i think was just cover for the fact the current ad inherited a red clusterfuck from tom goss [the previous ad, of ed martin fame] and incorporated a plan to get them into the black without accessing the funds used for, you know, education.

instead of writing a dissertation on weak ooc scheduling it'd be a lot easier to just say "your ooc is six of our pac 10 games." we get it: revenue, shite schedules, etc. i don't think there are many people in here pumped about directional schools.

[Van]

...or nine of your Big 10 games...

[M Club]

your second-best team barely beat a shite purdue team before losing at home to boise state. your third-best team was waxed by penn state. there's a reason most sec teams end the season with higher sos ratings than pac 10 teams in spite of their ooc schedule.

[Screw_Michigan]

Rack Petrus' sugar daddy.