Stop Scheduling FCS Opponents

#26
#26
crusse10 said:
Am I supposed to feel bad that you struggle to show support for your team for roughly 4 hours a day for roughly 7 days a year if they aren't playing an opponent that you deem worthy each of those days?
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It's not a lack of support, it's a lack of enthusiasm for some games. I'm evidently not the only one. If UT had played a decent opponent Saturday there wouldn't have been thousands of empty seats . I've been a season ticket holder for 34 years. I've spent 10s of thousands of dollars on tickets, merchandise and donations. That doesn't make me better than anyone else but I'll damn sure give you my opinion. And my opinion just be worth a little more than someone who has sat in their recliner with their feet propped up on a Miller Lite beer cooler for 34 years.
 
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#27
#27
MT LeConte said:
It's not a lack of support, it's a lack of enthusiasm for some games. I'm evidently not the only one. If UT had played a decent opponent Saturday there wouldn't have been thousands of empty seats . I've been a season ticket holder for 34 years. I've spent 10s of thousands of dollars on tickets, merchandise and donations. That doesn't make me better than anyone else but I'll damn sure give you my opinion. And my opinion just be worth a little more than someone who has sat in their recliner with their feet propped up on a Miller Lite beer cooler for 34 years.
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34 years and you can't support your team for 4 quarters if the foe is subpar?
 
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#28
#28
I loved it when Appy State knocked off Michigan back in aught-7. Those occasional upsets make it all worthwhile.
 
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#29
#29
It also gives the younger guys some playing time and experience for down the road and gives the other guys time to heal. I love that Tennessee schedules FCS teams from inside the state. It helps little brother tremendously.
 
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#30
#30
It doesn't bother me because I don't find much difference between Western Kentucky and Wofford.

Particularly if you have a good team.

Now, if the argument was to get rid of all cupcakes.....that would be different.
 
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#31
#31
ntxVOL said:
I hate playing FCS schools as much as everyone else but I understand why we do it.
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I agree with the first half, but refuse to understand the last part.

It is like a HS team with 5000 students playing a school with 200. And unless that school with 200 students is someone like IMG academy, it's a joke. If you win, what have you accomplished? Not much.

But if you lose? Remember that Michigan-Appy State? Mention that game to a Wolverines fan even today, and watch their faces. The whole thing seems like a lose-lose scenario to me.

I gotta lean toward the guy that mentioned survival of the fittest. Ask yourself this: Outside of watching your own team, what other SEC game did you find yourself paying attention to last week:

A. Ole Miss-UT Martin (I got mad at the updates)
B. Missouri-SE Missouri State (Didn't even think of tuning in)
C. Florida-New Mexico State (Watched Powell score the first TD, and moved on)
D. Georgia-ULM (watched one quarter while shopping online)
E. Auburn-Louisville (watched the first half, and wished I had been able to catch it all)
F. Alabama-Wisconsin (since the Vols weren't on, I watched it from start to finish)

Conclusion: Life is too short for BS football games.
 
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#32
#32
TNnative said:
I agree with the first half, but refuse to understand the last part.

It is like a HS team with 5000 students playing a school with 200. It's a joke. If you win, what have you accomplished? Not much.

But if you lose? Remember that Michigan-Appy State? Mention that game to a Wolverines fan even today, and watch their faces. The whole thing seems like a lose-lose scenario to me.

I gotta lean toward the guy that mentioned survival of the fittest. Ask yourself this: Outside of watching your own team, what other SEC game did you find yourself paying attention to last week:

A. Ole Miss-UT Martin (I got mad at the updates)
B. Missouri-SE Missouri State (Didn't even think of tuning in)
C. Florida-New Mexico State (Watched Powell score the first TD, and moved on)
D. Georgia-ULM (watched one quarter while shopping online)
E. Auburn-Louisville (watched the first half, and wished I had been able to caught it all)
F. Alabama-Wisconsin (since the Vols weren't on, I watched it from start to finish)

Conclusion: Life is too short for BS football games.
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The problem is you need opponents who are willing to not have a return home game. Those teams are few and usually pretty bad
 
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#33
#33
99gator said:
The problem is you need opponents who are willing to not have a return home game. Those teams are few and usually pretty bad
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Your reaching gator. There are around 120 teams in the FBS conferences, and the 4 independents. And there are several that have never been to Knoxville. They have never been asked. Plenty of them would do the one and done.

PS: Are you really a congressman? Figures.
 
#35
#35
If you would have enjoyed seeing Christians devoured by lions in ancient Rome's colosseum, these FCS-FBS games are tailor made for you. Appy State is a notable exception, but the Ole Miss mauling and humiliation of Tenn. Martin is all too often the norm. That game should have been called at the half because it had become so sadly pointless. This is the case with far too many of these unwise pairings.
 
#37
#37
FCS schools are about as tough as the competition Holgerson plays. These games allow smaller programs to generate cash to provide scholarships for students.
 
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#38
#38
FCS schools use those payouts to fund their entire program. If they don't get the $500,000/game checks, I would imagine many schools would shut down football. Less student athletes, more kids to follow the wrong crowd. Many layers to the onion. I think it goes beyond just beating up little schools.
 
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#39
#39
I absolutely disagree with the OP.

We're gonna play 8 SEC games each year.

We're gonna play 1 challenging (Power 5) OOC game, on top of it.

The other 3 games are going to be less of a challenge, by design. Every program does it. Including W Va.

Now, whether you're playing #127 Directional Michigan (FBS) or #131 Wofford (FCS), it doesn't really matter to your program. It's a cupcake, you're gonna win, and it doesn't help your SoS.

But to those regional FCS programs, getting a payday for playing you may mean the difference between being able to afford new lights for the football field; being able to hire a sports medicine therapist; being able to try to take the big step up into the FBS ranks.

Why on earth would we NOT want to help out the UT-Chattanoogas and West Carolinas, our neighbors, in this way?

Keep the one FCS game a year. And let the W Va coaches of the world pretend that they're doing a far better thing by playing FBS Georgia Southern of the Sun Belt instead.
 
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#41
#41
I also have to strongly disagree with all the posters who think a big12 schedule is difficult. There are six builtin cupcakes in that league. Kansas got beat by an FCS school on Saturday for christ's sake. Just look at the NFL draft results from the past few years, there is little elite talent in that league.
 
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#42
#42
There are some in this thread who, thinking primarily of themselves, believe instituting a "no FCS games" rule would suddenly give them more peer-to-peer games to watch each year.

Wrong. Unless you find it far more fascinating to watch a game against Georgia State (FBS) than a game against North Dakota (FCS).

Fact is, most college football fans usually can't tell the bottom third of the FBS ranks from the top half of the FCS ranks. So you wanna follow Dana Holgren's example and ignore the latter in favor of the former. It's a magician's trick. Don't be fooled by it.
 
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#43
#43
jkleno said:
FCS schools use those payouts to fund their entire program. If they don't get the $500,000/game checks, I would imagine many schools would shut down football. Less student athletes, more kids to follow the wrong crowd. Many layers to the onion. I think it goes beyond just beating up little schools.
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I understand and fully appreciate what you say here. I have also had this same discussion with many UT Martin players enrolled in my classes through the years. Apart from experiencing the perks of a big venue, there isn't much they can find to relish. They do, though, fully understand why they are being sold down the river. Do they like it? Not really, but who does enjoy getting embarrassed? Do the UT Martin fans like it? One does, but the other one doesn't. :p (Therein is the source of the budgetary woes at most FCS schools.)

It truly is what it is. I accept that. I just wish I could get the word "prostitution" out of my mind each time I go about peeling away the onion's many layers.
 
#44
#44
pcake.png
 
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#45
#45
While I get bored with the cupcake games, they are going to happen.

If you make a rule against scheduling FCS opponents, then you'll have an influx of FCS teams moving up to FBS, and the Power 5 teams will wind up playing the same exact schools. This just seems like much ado about nothing.
 
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#47
#47
I've been looking forward to seeing my Mercer Bears play GA Tech in 2016 since the game was announced a year ago. It probably won't mean much to the Tech fans but Mercer people will show up and be psyched.

Now if you could get FBS to a nine game season with a 32 team playoff you might get my interest.
 
#50
#50
montanatenn said:
What fcs schools make in these games, moneywise, funds their athletic programs. Without these games they would cease to exist athletically.
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And the bigger factor, perhaps, is that it's a guaranteed home game's worth of revenue, and for a lot of coaches and schools it's a win which can be the difference as far as whether a team gets bowl eligibility (and in some cases, between whether a coach has a successful or unsuccessful season, record wise).
 
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