UNI @ Drake 9/22 -- Article up

[CincyPanther88]

This was a terrible job of scheduling this year. We have one game against a lower division opponent then don't play at home again for 6 weeks? I'm not sure how we came to have 4 conference home games and only 2 road, but I am sure we are going to make up for it down the line sometime. We will at some point have only 2 home conference games and possibly only a 4 game home schedule some year in the future.

You have to remember that WKU went to FBS this year and that decision was made in late October or early November. So that eliminated a conference game right there. I'm sure they were looking for another opponent as soon as that happened.

[jegbomb52]

Well in truth you can kind of count one D2 game. You definitely don't want more than one. To qualify you need 7 D1 wins. As long as you have that you can qualify. The D2 game doesn't hurt you. I don't know if another game against a 1AAA team helps any more than a game against a D2 team unless you are struggling to get to the 7 D1 wins. At that point you aren't likely to make the playoffs anyway. History says unless you win the automatic bid, you aren't going to the playoffs with 7 wins.

True, however a 9-2 record will get you a 3 or 4 seed with playing a I-AA non scholly as apposed to a D-II, a 9-2 record will have you begging for a home game with a D-II win instead of a non-scholly. Example, 2001 UNI (9-2, one I-A loss, on I-A win and a D-II win had to travel to #4 seed Eastern Illinois (9-2, one I-A loss, no I-A wins, one I-AA non-scholly win).

[Khan4Cats]

So how many of the other 6 remaining conferences schools did a buy out to get a road game against a lower division opponent?

What is your issue here?

Do you want to only play 10 games?
Do you want to play another BCS team, in Mississippi?
Do you want to play Appalachian State in North Carolina?

Those were our options. Follow along here, NO ONE ELSE WAS WILLING TO PLAY US. Despite what you appear to believe, we cannot merely snap our fingers and make the ideal schedule (whatever that is) appear. Drake did us a favor by scheduling us, it is a probable loss for them as opposed to a probable win over a D-III school. Yes we will increase their revenue for tickets, but we aren't sacrificing anything because, again read closely: WE WERE NOT GETTING ANOTHER HOME GAME. We got the best available opportunity.

We still have to win the game, but it counts as an FCS win, it's in state so our fans will easily be able to attend, and Drake has said they are willing to schedule with us in the Dome in a future year. Is that a guarantee? No, but I would take their word on it more than other scholarship FCS teams.

[jegbomb52]

One problem with that, it again puts us and Drake on the same playing field, which we are not!

If a gateway team had to payoff someone to get a game this year we should have put it in a contract that WKU had to pay it to get out of the Gateway! We only had to do this because WKU backed out of the conference with their tail between their legs. Shouldn't you dominate for a couple of years before leaving? You know, like Northern Iowa?

[Khan4Cats]

I think the GFC learned from the WKU situation and put some exit penalties in for the XDSU's to join. As much as it sucked the way WKU left, they didn't do anything outside of what they had agreed to do when we let them in and it put us in a tough situation. Maybe some of what we had to pay UW-L can be made up from the admission fees the XDSU's paid since other schools may get travel help?

[panther2317]

Looks like a road trip to Des Moines! Go Panthers.

[jegbomb52]

Agreed, we need to be getting more money for our FBS "sure loss" of the year. There is no reason we shouldn't be pulling upwards of 500 to 600 grr for our loss. Not to mention the D-II thing, it must go. We could get Drake or Dayton or someone to come in every year as apposed to the potential "upset minded" North Dakota type teams. If we played Dayton at home last year instead of North Dakota we are in the playoffs easily, probably with a home game.

[UNI MadCat]

Someone remind me of:

Guarantee for ISU in '07
Guarantee for ISU in '06
Guarantee for Iowa in '05

???

I know Montana and YSU both got "plum" deals for their games last year which sparked a thread on here. I'm trying to remember the specifics and how much of a gap we had (realizing, in Montana's case, that there were more travel expenses)?

[Jesse Schieltz]

Someone remind me of:

Guarantee for ISU in '07
Guarantee for ISU in '06
Guarantee for Iowa in '05

???

I know Montana and YSU both got "plum" deals for their games last year which sparked a thread on here. I'm trying to remember the specifics and how much of a gap we had (realizing, in Montana's case, that there were more travel expenses)?

The reason Montana and YSU got the big deals is when I-A added the 12th game, many teams were scrambling to make that 12th game a home game. The I-AA's with an open date were able to "sell" themselves to the highest bidder. Bascially its just supply and demand.

There was a quote from Hartzel on NPR last year stating UNI had a few similar offers last year, but he didn't want to play 2 I-A's in the same year.

[Newsbreaker]

My guess is that we take less from our FBS game because we want to play a "regional" team...like ISU or Iowa. If we were willing to travel outside our region, we'd probably be able to fetch more from a different program.

[Marc Wigim]

Agreed. Our travel costs for playing Oregon would be considerably higher than loading up a bus and going to IC. The 500,000k an Oregon would give us would likely be closer to 425K.

[BCPanther]

I would love to get a lower tier Big Teneleven team every year. Northwesternm, Illinois, Indiana.

I get this feeling in talking with some high school coaches that attended Chizik's Coaching clinic that he is going to get it done down there. Iowa State is only going to remain a winnable option for a limited amount of time going forward... IMO...

[Newsbreaker]

Go back several years, and you'll find many High School coaches in Iowa who thought McCarney was going to "get it done" in Ames as well.

The moral of the story: High School coaches don't know what it takes to "get it done" at that level.

[BCPanther]

No Newsy...

Same guy told me from the start that McCarney was disorganized and never would get over the hump. He was right.

Chizik gives him a different feeling. That is guy that drives for success and has the organization and staff to get it done...

[Matt Trump]

Macarney could sell it when there was nothing to sell, but he couldn't get it done on the field with his coaching decisions. Technically, he did get it done at ISU. He pulled them out of the basement and took them to a few bowl games. Put butts in the seats. That was nice for their fans for a bit but he couldn't feed the animal he created because he refused to change from the underdog mentality.

FWIW. All college coaches in this state will be liked by the high school coaches. A lot of them don't know what it takes at the college level because they don't have much experience. But, a lot of them do know what they are talking about.