Wednesday, August 29, 2007
College Football begins with easy wins and easy money
The first week of college football is upon us and it is a merry occasion for me, despite some of the silly games some of the power house teams take in the early part of the schedule. However this isn’t such a bad strategy as I have found. The easy “W” helps the team psyche and can also help smaller schools in the state of the power house schools.
The Buckeyes
For this discussion, you have to start with The Ohio State University and their state-side sportsmanship. Each year for the last several, the Buckeyes have started the season playing an opponent from Ohio, usually a MAC school. This year’s romp goes to the Division I-AA Youngstown State, former stomping grounds of Coach Tressel for 15 years. The Penguins will receive $650,000 for their work this weekend. This is a smart partnership; the money gets to stay in the state of Ohio.
East Carolina University
How about the East Carolina football team who has sold out all of its season tickets (22,000) for the upcoming season--a first in the school’s history. Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium will be rockin’ this season! They achieved this hard work through strategic partnerships with North Carolina and North Carolina State in which there are not even individual tickets for these two games in ECU’s 43,000-seat stadium. ECU’s students will use their 12,000 ticket allotment for each home game, and there are 5,000 ticket allotments for each visiting schools. Along with the Tar Heels and Wolfpack, the Pirates will host Southern Miss (Sept. 15), UCF (Oct. 6), UAB (Oct. 27) and Tulane (Nov. 24).
Here is the first silly August/September weekend schedule:
#1 USC vs. Idaho (Idaho lost five of their last six games last season and made it on the ESPN.com Bottom 10 as #9
#5 Michigan vs. Appalachian State (AppState, the former home of Dexter Coakley, it’s all I got. But did you know the AppState mascot’s name is Yosef?)
#6 Florida vs. Western Kentucky (why does everyone have to pick on Kentucky during the first weekend?)
#10 Louisville vs. Murray State (17 years ago the Cardinals beat Murray State by the score of 68-0; have some mercy Mr. Brohm)
I wonder how much the schools representing Kentucky against Florida and Louisville will bring to the coffers this weekend?
The Buckeyes
For this discussion, you have to start with The Ohio State University and their state-side sportsmanship. Each year for the last several, the Buckeyes have started the season playing an opponent from Ohio, usually a MAC school. This year’s romp goes to the Division I-AA Youngstown State, former stomping grounds of Coach Tressel for 15 years. The Penguins will receive $650,000 for their work this weekend. This is a smart partnership; the money gets to stay in the state of Ohio.
East Carolina University
How about the East Carolina football team who has sold out all of its season tickets (22,000) for the upcoming season--a first in the school’s history. Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium will be rockin’ this season! They achieved this hard work through strategic partnerships with North Carolina and North Carolina State in which there are not even individual tickets for these two games in ECU’s 43,000-seat stadium. ECU’s students will use their 12,000 ticket allotment for each home game, and there are 5,000 ticket allotments for each visiting schools. Along with the Tar Heels and Wolfpack, the Pirates will host Southern Miss (Sept. 15), UCF (Oct. 6), UAB (Oct. 27) and Tulane (Nov. 24).
Here is the first silly August/September weekend schedule:
#1 USC vs. Idaho (Idaho lost five of their last six games last season and made it on the ESPN.com Bottom 10 as #9
#5 Michigan vs. Appalachian State (AppState, the former home of Dexter Coakley, it’s all I got. But did you know the AppState mascot’s name is Yosef?)
#6 Florida vs. Western Kentucky (why does everyone have to pick on Kentucky during the first weekend?)
#10 Louisville vs. Murray State (17 years ago the Cardinals beat Murray State by the score of 68-0; have some mercy Mr. Brohm)
I wonder how much the schools representing Kentucky against Florida and Louisville will bring to the coffers this weekend?
# posted by Cincinnati Public Relations @ 7:50 AM 
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Interesting stuff. I thought it was also interesting to read in The Enquirer that UC was paying SE Mizzou St. $260K to open their season. It's even more interesting if you read tmac's post about the struggling UC attendance.
Pat Forde of ESPN.com also makes light of the patsy schedules many of the powerhouses open with and notes that this was not always the case.
I'm not positive on this, but I believe OSU only started scheduling in-state schools for these "guarantee games" after the Ohio legislature demanded it after they saw how much money was leaving the state through OSU's football program.
Pat Forde of ESPN.com also makes light of the patsy schedules many of the powerhouses open with and notes that this was not always the case.
I'm not positive on this, but I believe OSU only started scheduling in-state schools for these "guarantee games" after the Ohio legislature demanded it after they saw how much money was leaving the state through OSU's football program.
On a related note: Ball State University opens its newly renovated stadium with its traditional MAC foe, Miami, eschewing the 'cupcake' opener. In attendance for the Thursday night titanic struggle will be former IU president and Bobby Knight-slayer Myles Brand--perhaps to hand over the basketball program investigation papers in person to Jo Ann and Tom Collins.
The big news this season, though, may come from the University of Toledo, where its own gambling investigation has now reached its tentacles to La Costa Nostra in Detroit (see Hoffa, Jimmy) and to Tampa Bay, where the former Rocket quarterback, Bruce Gradkowski, is now being named in some of the point shaving allegations.
From the NBA to college sports, from Arizona State to Boston College to the CCNY scandal that brought down East Coast collegiate basketball, gambling is as much a part of the game as Gatorade. As long as there is easy money to be made by collegians who dont' have two nickles to rub together, gambling will be an issue. Pay the players a living stipend and some, albeit not all, of these problems could go away.
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The big news this season, though, may come from the University of Toledo, where its own gambling investigation has now reached its tentacles to La Costa Nostra in Detroit (see Hoffa, Jimmy) and to Tampa Bay, where the former Rocket quarterback, Bruce Gradkowski, is now being named in some of the point shaving allegations.
From the NBA to college sports, from Arizona State to Boston College to the CCNY scandal that brought down East Coast collegiate basketball, gambling is as much a part of the game as Gatorade. As long as there is easy money to be made by collegians who dont' have two nickles to rub together, gambling will be an issue. Pay the players a living stipend and some, albeit not all, of these problems could go away.
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