Home Field and Seeds

[Lehigh Football Nation]

I think this is possible. At least it was at one time, not sure if it still is.

Let's say the bracket shakes out like this:

Coastal Carolina @ The Citadel at No. 8 Charleston Southern

Let's say The Citadel wins. Chuck South has first right to host the second-round game.

But they could refuse this, right? They could elect to decline hosting the game, and thus have The Citadel host it at Johnson-Hagood.

I think this could theoretically happen. Am I right?

In 2003, Colgate had the option to host a game in Hamilton, but they were facing Florida Atlantic. They thought it would be better for everyone to play in Florida, and they did.

[Professor Chaos]

It makes a decent amount of sense since the campuses are just 20 miles apart from each other. If CSU's facilities are that bad they might a get better following to play at a better facility that's just a few minutes away.

The biggest hang up I could see is tickets since the home team usually gets to control all the tickets except for a small fraction so they could ensure their fans get the prime seats. However, if there was an agreement of some kind to split tickets more evenly I think it would make a lot of sense.

[SENOREIDA]

It makes a decent amount of sense since the campuses are just 20 miles apart from each other. If CSU's facilities are that bad they might a get better following to play at a better facility that's just a few minutes away.

The biggest hang up I could see is tickets since the home team usually gets to control all the tickets except for a small fraction so they could ensure their fans get the prime seats. However, if there was an agreement of some kind to split tickets more evenly I think it would make a lot of sense.

Is there a possibility CSU could play a game at Fort Dorchester High or Wando High?

[walliver]

General Hagood's Stadium is a much nicer venue in many ways, but I seriously doubt CSU would choose to play there for several reasons.

1) The minimum guarantees, especially for early rounds, are actually quite low. $30K may sound like a lot, but that is really quite an easy target to reach (2000 tickets at $15 or 1000 tickets at $30).

2) CSU has field turf, although the Citadel has a well maintained grass field.

3) CSU has no way to set up a ticketing system for JHS on short notice. Basically, they would have to let the Citadel do the ticketing with Citadel fans on the nice side and CSU fans by the piss wall.

4) The prestige of hosting a playoff game.

Now if the committee treats the Citadel as well as they have treated Wofford in the past, the Cadets will be playing in North Dakota. CSU could then easily rent JHS, but I still doubt they would.

[rokamortis]

Is there a possibility CSU could play a game at Fort Dorchester High or Wando High?

It would have had to be part of the bid I believe.

As far as CSU giving up home field to the Citadel - forget about it. The Bucs are ticked off that El Cid won't play at their stadium for regular season so I think they would just keep it at their place if they earned the seed.

[Professor Chaos]

Another problem with tickets I didn't think of is most schools on bye have their ticket office start selling tickets the week of Thanksgiving. At that point CSU wouldn't know for sure who they're playing so they'd have to delay ticket sales a week until after their second round opponent has been determined. I can't imagine this would help ticket sales.

[Sandlapper Spike]

The only way Charleston Southern doesn't host the second-round game in this scenario is if CSU didn't bid on hosting the second round game. It is my understanding that it did.

[Lehigh Football Nation]

The only way Charleston Southern doesn't host the second-round game in this scenario is if CSU didn't bid on hosting the second round game. It is my understanding that it did.

OK, so that is pretty huge. If they bid for a game and get a seed, they get the game. Or could they opt out? Or can the only opt out after the second round? This is what I'm not sure about.

My understanding is that the schools "bid" on first and second round games. Of course the schools don't know if they will be seeds. If they are seeds, they get precedence for bidding. Each round after the first two, the bidding process re-opens. So if Chuck South were the No. 1 seed, they would have to host the second-round game because they had a "bid". But if they were slated to play NDSU the following week, they could simply not bid and let NDSU do it.

I'm not sure if this is completely right.

The Colgate/FAU game could perhaps be considered a special case. Colgate had hosted two snow bowls in a row to relatively mid-sized playoff crowds (actually pretty decent considering things today). FAU was playing in Lockhart stadium, on natural grass, in the sun and could host 20,000 fans, 2x the capacity of Andy Kerr.