FCS Roundtable: Should The NCAA Limit Paycheck Games?

For every Youngstown State defeat of Pitt, there are several lopsided routs pitting the FCS against the FBS. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-US PRESSWIRE

Savannah State’s two lopsided losses at Oklahoma State and Florida State generated some controversy about big time FBS programs scheduling FCS opponents with no chance of a win, luring them over for an easy W in exchange for desperately needed funding. The Tigers were horrifically outclassed, to the point FSU would have beaten the historic point spread had cooler heads not prevailed and called the game during rain showers. Before the mercy ruling, the game clock was running, a nearly unprecedented occurrence in the college ranks more closely resembling a woeful high school game.

On the flip side, the FCS has eight wins over the FBS this season and the single year record is in sight. The best of the FCS shines against its more well-funded foes, earning prestige to go with the considerable paycheck. Our Jeff Twining tackled the subject in his Wednesday Rewind.

Denying an Appalachian State or James Madison the opportunity to shock Michigan or Virginia Tech seems hasty, so should the NCAA set a minimum standard on what caliber FCS opponent an FBS program can schedule?

Todd Davis, JMUSportsBlog.com

Hate to be too simplistic, but the NCAA’s power is lessening every year in football and trying to impose some type of restrictive rules on who can play who will only hasten their inevitable fall to irrelevance. Maybe it’s easy for us to say because of how much that win in Blacksburg over Virginia Tech (21-16 by the way) means to JMU, but these games happen at every single level of football from anklebiters to the NFL and unfortunately it’s part of the game.

Obviously the party carrying the largest burden of responsibility for the Savannah St. debacle is the SSU administration, but that said, there has to be a way to distinguish between, and reward, FBS teams that schedule top FCS teams from those that schedule mismatches. In many cases, the risk of scheduling a top FCS program out of conference is much larger than that of scheduling a bottom FBS team from another league. Just ask Colorado St. whether they’d rather have played Western Kentucky than NDSU last week?!

I’m guessing the Sagarin ratings or something similar are at least a component of the current “computer polls” we hear so much about at the FBS level, but it certainly seems more could be made of this, possibly by incorporating a small “bonus” for wins over FCS teams if those teams are still ranked or receiving votes in one of the FCS polls at the time the final BCS standings are announced, coincidentally the start of FCS playoffs (although the FCS polls are admittedly even more garbage than the BCS largely due to grossly uneducated voters). Wish we could hope for greater awareness and education with regard to the differences between FCS teams, especially given that the gap between the best and worst FCS teams is vastly greater than the gap between the best and worst FBS teams. But given that being a pipe dream, we’d rather just take a more paternalistic view and force voters in polls at both levels to pass some type of objective test in order to participate. Those of us contributing or reading the FCS roundtable probably know more about all levels of college football than is healthy for our 9-5 jobs, but tons of voters at both levels couldn’t tell Sam Houston St. from Houston. For every knowledgeable Herbstreit, Van Pelt , Spencer Hall, or Kensing, there’s a Craig James, a John Feinstein, a Skip Bayless, or some other clown with no knowledge of the passion, commitment, and general badassness found at the top 25 FCS programs.

Ben Moore, PantherTalk.com

The NCAA would be very unwise to set any minimum standard as it relates to FCS vs. FBS games. Savannah State is a far exception to the rule. Their total endowment as a University is $5.1 million. They gained more than $600K from their first two weekends. While it is not something we want to see as fans, they are a program who have been FCS since 2000 but have had major issues on the University side of things that have impacted athletics in a big way.

The tougher thing for me is the perception that FCS is somehow Division 2 or worse nationally. BCS programs need home games and FCS programs need to balance their budgets. It will be very interesting to see when conferences like the ACC/SEC/Big 12 go to 9 conference games and how that affects these games moving forward.

I believe the line is getting more blurry from the top of the FCS and the bottom of the FBS. The 8 FCS wins over FBS schools through two weeks prove to me that preparation for FCS schools will have to improve by FBS coaching staffs moving forward.

Russell Varner, SouthernPigskin.com

I have never been a big fan of most of these FBS-FCS matchups. Most are just blowouts that do nothing to help the state of your team apart from the nice paycheck you get for coming. Sure, every now and then, you will have upsets. Every now and then, you will have an Appalachian State-Michigan upset. But most of the time, it is an ugly game that sees the FBS team dominating in most facets of the game.

It is great when FCS schools are able to pull off the upset or come close to it, but often these victories are soon forgotten or even ignored by the FBS community – ask any FBS fan what they thought of William & Mary’s Maryland scare this season or Jacksonsville State’s upset of Ole Miss last year or Cal Poly’s should-have-been upset of Wisconsi n in 2008. Many have already forgotten about these games and give little to no credit to the FCS teams for their great play, something that truly grinds my gears.

I would love to see a minimum quality standard issued by the NCAA. I’d love to see games like these go away. Apart from the payday the school receives from it, there is little to nothing to gain from these games. Ask the Savannah State football team and their fans how they feel about their season and program after their games against Oklahoma State and Florida State.

The problem with that is I do not see a better way for small schools to get big paydays. This is the quickest and most effective way to get that money right now it seems. And until someone comes up with a better way, we will continue to see FBS-FCS blowout games throughout the college football season.

Kyle Roth, Bison Illustrated & College Sports Journal

I think when one is looking at why these FCS teams travel to FBS schools, the lowest common denominator is money. In the case of some schools, like your Savannah States or lower-tier (read: non-MVFC, CAA, SoCon, Big Sky, or Southland) universities which either fund fewer total scholarships or are strapped for the funds to do so, they’re playing these brutal schedules just to make ends meet. Northern Iowa and Missouri State are doing the same thing this season, playing Wisconsin and Iowa for the Panthers and Kansas State and Louisville for the Bears. Occasionally you’ll get a dandy like UNI-Wisconsin where the Panthers made a game of it – other times it’ll be a total drubbing like MSU received from the Wildcats. Occasionally you’ll get the kind of absolute haymaker Savannah State received two weeks in a row, getting a combined 139 points dropped on them in two weeks. The chief motivator there is obviously the (rumored) $800,000 paycheck which basically covers the costs of a program like that, but how can getting beaten that badly be worth it?

I look at North Dakota State’s philosophy and think that they’ve found a nice balance between playing teams that are of at least some caliber yet beatable by a program at the FCS level. The past few years have seen the Bison go 6-3 over FBS foes, with wins over Minnesota twice, Central Michigan, Ball State, Kansas, and Colorado State. Granted, none of those programs are going to be in a BCS bowl anytime soon, but they’ve still got the resources to fork over a decent paycheck and NDSU made it onto ESPN a few times for their efforts.

In cases like those, it’s not just a financial thing. It’s also an exposure bit, and we’ve gotten a ton of recruits the past few seasons who have brought up the wins over Minnesota, Kansas, etc. as being factors in their decision to play for the Bison. Coach Craig Bohl has expanded NDSU’s footprint into Nebraska to great success recently, and playing those regional schools is a great move in continuing to reinforce that recruiting pipline that’s nabbed us a few gems in the last three seasons.

So we come back to Savannah State and try to apply those same metrics. Sure, you might make it onto ESPN, but at best it’s highlights of the other team slapping your players silly. What recruit looks at that and thinks to himself, “Wow, I’d really like to play for that school and get clobbered by Florida State!” It’s almost counter-productive in the sense that it’s negatively promoting your program when you aren’t even competitive in games you schedule – are you playing to win? If not, why are you playing?

Maybe this will be an unpopular opinion, but with some of the schools that do this kind of scheduling, perhaps they need to take a look at how many scholarships they’re funding. I won’t pretend to know the economics of college football any better than any athletic director, but when you need to line up this kind of slaughter to fund your program, you’re almost putting your players in harm’s way to unnecessary degree. You’ll find the occasional program like Northern Iowa that’s been the unfortunate victim of significant budget cuts from the state’s contribution to your athletic fund, and from what I understand the Wisconsin-Iowa thing was a one-time deal. All the same, the Savannah States of the world need to take a hard look at how they’re running their program if this is the kind of thing they have to subject themselves to. They’re sacrificing the long-term perception and success of their program for the short-term benefit of getting the team in the black, and it’s unfortunate for the team, the players, and the rest of the teams in the FCS.

Kyle McGough, Yosef’s Cabin

I think setting a minimum quality standard for FBS teams when scheduling FCS opponents is not the way to go. There’s only one way to set quality standards and that is through some sort of subjective reasoning as to who is good enough and who isn’t. To boot, these games are more often than not the first or second weekend of the season so how do you judge the quality – based on last year’s team? We all know how quickly a team can change in quality both up and down the scale. If Savannah State wants to travel the country getting whooped but fund their athletic department for the year, I say let them. It gets the players excited (even in a somewhat sure loss) and it allows students in other sports to compete as well as get an education.

Joseph Suhoski, VBR Productions

If measures will be created to prevent FCS programs from playing FBS progams, then it needs to be across the board. What metrics would be used to determine if the FCS school is a good enough program to be competitive on the field? New Hampshire had won several consecutive games against FBS teams prior to losing to Toledo in its 2011 season opener 58-22. This past week the perennial playoff team also lost 44-7 to a Minnesota team that was 3-9 last year. It’s no sure thing to know years in advance, when schedules are made, how good either program will be on the field.

Taking a slight twist on the question, it would be easier for the NCAA to prevent FCS schools from playing multiple FBS teams in the same season. This offers FCS programs an opportunity to compete on the field while still collecting a paycheck, while preventing them from being outmatched and possibly disheartened more than once. This idea removes qualitative factors of trying to guess which programs will be competitive against FBS teams.

Shaun Bummer, Griz Nation Blog

FCS vs. FBS match ups turn out to be some of the greatest FCS games in the season, and as an FCS fan they are some of the games I look forward to most every season. Sure, most get a little lopsided, but when a FCS team can compete against or even defeat an FBS foe it’s great exposure for the subdivision.

Looking at this subject from Montana’s perspective as a Grizzly fan/blogger, I’m always excited when we take on FBS opponents. Last season the Grizzlies traveled to take on Tennessee in addition to matches against Oregon and Iowa in 2005 and 2006, respectively. Were any of these games even close? Absolutely not. However, the games were great exposure for the university along with a great experience for Grizzly players and fans.

Heck, I’ll throw out the fact Montana has a historical rivalry with FBS Idaho, and the Grizzlies won four straight games against the Vandals from 2000-2003 before the series was called off. With Eastern Washington’s win over Idaho this season, Illinois State’s win over Eastern Michigan, and North Dakota State’s victory over Colorado State as proof, many do not realize the elite echelon of the FCS ranks is very comparable to most mid-major teams of the FBS.

Fortunately, Montana’s athletic department is very well off financially for a FCS program, and the only future FBS opponent the Grizzlies have scheduled is Washington in 2017. However many, if not most other FCS athletic departments struggle financially, and FCS vs. FBS match ups (or guarantee games in this instance) give a financial boost to these programs.

Truly answering this week’s question, I do not believe there needs to be a restriction on FCS vs. FBS match ups. With Savannah State as the “sexy” example, games against Oklahoma State and Florida State tremendously boost their athletic program. Sure, these games, along with numerous others, aren’t competitive and leave fans on both sidelines snoozing. However, we have to remember college athletics is a business, and in many cases money rules all else (just look at the BCS and the new playoff coming in 2014).