UD: Take The FBS Money and Run?

[superman7515]

Get The Money and Run (http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20100724/SPORTS07/7240319/1028/UD–Get-the-money-and-run)

[superman7515]

Should the Blue Hens take the I-A money? (http://blogs.delawareonline.com/collegesports/)

(By the way, could a few other people please write this sportswriter and tell him that I-A and I-AA have been dead terms for almost 5 years now? Thanks)

[DFW HOYA]

Should the Blue Hens take the I-A money? (http://blogs.delawareonline.com/collegesports/)

(By the way, could a few other people please write this sportswriter and tell him that I-A and I-AA have been dead terms for almost 5 years now? Thanks)

It's OK. I'll still call it I-AA because, outside coaches, sportswriters and message boards, that's what people still call it.

[MsippiRattler]

Dang....why the discussion? It's a no-brainer. Take the money to imrove the program and facilities.

[Sader87]

Do the Fightin' Blue Hens get any guaranteed $$$ when they play USNA?

[henfan]

Do the Fightin' Blue Hens get any guaranteed $$$ when they play USNA?

Of course but it's probably not as much as UD makes on a home game.

Because home games are so profitable, the only way an FBS game would make good financial sense for UD would be to land a high dollar guarantee from a major conference FBS school that did not require them to board a plane. Penn State, UVa and VPI may be the only local options.

[superman7515]

Rutgers would be closer than any of them at about a 90 minute ride and would probably be a decent payday. Penn State is a little over 3 hours, UVa is 3 1/2 hours, VaTech is 5 1/2. Assuming you're willing to go as far as Blacksburg's 5 1/2 hour ride as you mentioned, West Virginia is just under 4 hours, Syracuse is just over 4 hours, Pitt is 4 1/2, Boston College is just under 5 1/2. Even East Carolina is right around 5 1/2, although I'm not sure what kind of payday you could get out of them but they have been on the rise lately.

[Sader87]

Didn't Delaware play Maryland fairly recently?

[superman7515]

Yes. Lost 14-7 in 2008 to Maryland who went on to beat 3 teams ranked in the FBS Top 25 and then win the Humanitarian Bowl vs Nevada. Could've won that one. Not sure how much of a payday that was though, Maryland doesn't seem the type to throw out a lot of money for FCS teams.

[UNH Fanboi]

FBS checks are nice, but they are not going to magically give UD enough money to renovate their stadium.

[bluehen05]

Not to mention with Maryland, we had that outcome with our worst team in school history (4-8). I'm with everyone on this - every couple years take a game that our odds are low but potentially winnable and we could drive to.

[State Line Liquors]

Has UD ever played PSU, even once, in the history of either program? Don't Maryland, PSU & Rutgers seem like natural choices for programs we would play an FBS game against?

To me, the Navy games have lost their luster. Even if we miss out on a hundred grand or so by getting an FBS pay game, won't the fact that we at least made the effort to challenge ourselves make the West Chester, Del St, or Dooquesknee medicine seem easier to swallow every so often?

[Squealofthepig]

Plus, these games are good for FCS anyway. Most FBS fans I talk to remember the very close calls with FCS teams (and the ASU/Michigan game), but when asked don't recall any of the FCS losses. So really we only make an impact on fans (and, thus, possible recruits) by playing, and the more we play, the better chances of pulling an upset.

Do however disagree with the author's argument, "And none of it severely affected any playoff positioning. Appalachian State won the I-AA national championship that year and the following two seasons, including a win over Joe Flacco and the Blue Hens in the 2007 title game." It won't affect playoff positioning for the really good teams, but there are always a few teams right at six wins at the end of the season who would object to this, as that FBS payout could potentially rob them of a playoff spot.

[henfan]

Has UD ever played PSU, even once, in the history of either program? Don't Maryland, PSU & Rutgers seem like natural choices for programs we would play an FBS game against?

UD & PSU have never played. Rutgers was a regular opponent until after 1974. RU's guarantee probably wouldn't be very large.

Still, I'd agree from the recruiting & competitive standpoint, it wouldn't be a bad idea to play UMd & RU every now and again. While they wouldn't likely be the huge payouts that the author of this article was referring to, those games would serve our purposes, provided we could make the financial numbers didn't work to UD's extreme disadvantage. xtwocentsx

[GannonFan]

Kinda a dumb article. Playing an FBS team for the selling point to recruits is certainly one angle, but UD isn't going to get rich and be able to afford facility improvements by playing these games. For the most part, these games are money losers for UD versus playing a home game. If you're going to play these games with the strict idea of making money off of them, it's not a good option. Playing the games for other reasons make sense of course, but let's not try to argue that financially these are good ideas for UD.

[WestCoastAggie]

Yes. Lost 14-7 in 2008 to Maryland who went on to beat 3 teams ranked in the FBS Top 25 and then win the Humanitarian Bowl vs Nevada. Could've won that one. Not sure how much of a payday that was though, Maryland doesn't seem the type to throw out a lot of money for FCS teams.

I believe that was the game that gave the MD State Legislator and Former Howard QB Jay "Sky" Walker motivation to propose that legislation where MD would be forced to play MD FCS Programs.

[WestCoastAggie]

If UD doesn't feel they need the bodybag game, why do it. Apparently, their Athletic Budget is in decent shape and one of the biggest in all of FCS.

[DaBigBlue]

UD is a member of the 20-20 Club. 20,000 fans at $20 a seat, equals $400,000 and that seems to be the average BCS payout. So why take a BCS game when you can make that much at home and give your fans another home game. But then you have App St, that $400,000 they got for the Mich game was nothing compared to the free press they got for the win. The trick is to grab a BCS game against a team you can compete with, I know this isn't easy with schedules being made years in advance. I'm a little on the fence with games like Ga St, which are body-bag games. These games help no one and makes the FCS seem even more the lesser product.

[State Line Liquors]

UD is a member of the 20-20 Club. 20,000 fans at $20 a seat, equals $400,000 and that seems to be the average BCS payout. So why take a BCS game when you can make that much at home and give your fans another home game.

Because even the most devout UD fans get tired of paying to see us slap West Chester like a bag of Franzia every year.

[UD77]

UD is a member of the 20-20 Club. 20,000 fans at $20 a seat, equals $400,000 and that seems to be the average BCS payout. So why take a BCS game when you can make that much at home and give your fans another home game. But then you have App St, that $400,000 they got for the Mich game was nothing compared to the free press they got for the win. The trick is to grab a BCS game against a team you can compete with, I know this isn't easy with schedules being made years in advance. I'm a little on the fence with games like Ga St, which are body-bag games. These games help no one and makes the FCS seem even more the lesser product.

Don't forget the parking and concession stands. UD would most likely loose money to anyone but the highest paying team. The person that wrote this article didn't put any time in doing the math. At best UD would come up with maybe $50,000 if they didn't have much expenses with the trip. Can't get much upgrades for 50K - only need 500 years to pay off the $25million stadium expansion.

[superman7515]

Because even the most devout UD fans get tired of paying to see us slap West Chester like a bag of Franzia every year.

Luckily that series is coming to an end. The question is, who to replace them with. Tresolini suggests in his article that UD fans would be much more excited by Delaware playing schools such as the Ivy's and Patriot League. Depending on which of those teams was scheduled, I could see the interest being a lot higher than the annual warm-up game with West Chester.

[henfan]

Kinda a dumb article.

Completely agree. However, consider that it was written by someone with little to no perspective on UD FB or, apparently, the FCS.

My recommendation would be for him to get up to speed quickly before he publishes his next article to spare himself any further embarrassment.xsmhx

[State Line Liquors]

Luckily that series is coming to an end. The question is, who to replace them with. Tresolini suggests in his article that UD fans would be much more excited by Delaware playing schools such as the Ivy's and Patriot League. Depending on which of those teams was scheduled, I could see the interest being a lot higher than the annual warm-up game with West Chester.

When I saw that there were still 3 more of those games to play I did a double take. It's probably just me being antsy, but every time I hear about the series ending it seems like they add another year to it. I thought for sure it was only this year and next year.

As a common sense thinking fan I understand the economics of having the home games at UD. I won't deny that the benefit of the FBS game annually is murky at best with a program like ours.

However, as a red blooded male I don't think a bit of strange 'kitty' would be such a bad thing on our schedule, particularly if it meant we got to go home with a real knockout (a PSU, a Va Tech, Rutgers and UMd to a lesser extent) at the end of the night, even if we had to crash over at her place. Sure, there's a good chance she might love us and then leave us, and we might feel a little used in the morning. But with a few select opponents, at least we could say we'd been in bed with a dime and gave her all she could handle for a few. We get a few drinks out of it, a few memories, and can tell our grandkids (and recruits) about it one day.

[superman7515]

Completely agree. However, consider that it was written by someone with little to no perspective on UD FB or, apparently, the FCS.

My recommendation would be for him to get up to speed quickly before he publishes his next article to spare himself any further embarrassment.xsmhx

He's been a sportswriter for the News Journal for over 20 years and covering UD football for over a decade of that time. If you feel he isn't up to speed by now, I don't think he'll be getting there. Haha. Not that there is a dearth of decent sportswriters in the area.

[henfan]

He's been a sportswriter for the News Journal for over 20 years and covering UD football for over a decade of that time. If you feel he isn't up to speed by now, I don't think he'll be getting there. Haha. Not that there is a dearth of decent sportswriters in the area.

Actually, not. The article was written by Chris Branch, an LSU student & LA native who's interning at the NJ this summer. He's only been in Delaware for a couple of months.

[YoUDeeMan]

Completely agree. However, consider that it was written by someone with little to no perspective on UD FB or, apparently, the FCS.

My recommendation would be for him to get up to speed quickly before he publishes his next article to spare himself any further embarrassment.xsmhx

The article was an embarrassment for the intern, his mentor, and the editor. And KT for commenting on it.

The intern also mentioned a $1MM payday...has any FCS team gotten close to a million?


In other UD news, I am surprised no one on this board mentioned the new DT transfer from Rutgers.

[superman7515]

Actually, not. The article was written by Chris Branch, an LSU student & LA native who's interning at the NJ this summer. He's only been in Delaware for a couple of months.

Sorry, I thought you were talking about the 2nd article I linked that Tresolini wrote.

[henfan]

The intern also mentioned a $1MM payday...has any FCS team gotten close to a million?

Michigan paid out $400K to App State (I believe) and $500K to Del State. I seem to recall an FCS getting a $600K guarantee (Wofford? YSU? help!) for a game but, for the life of me, don't recall who it was.

Interesting that Tresolini mentions that UD & Army are talking about a possible game. That would be a terrific game for UD to pick up from the competitive standpoint and it will be a great experience for our fans. It's just not going to be the huge FBS payday we could land from a Penn State or UVa.

[henfan]

It's OK. I'll still call it I-AA because, outside coaches, sportswriters and message boards, that's what people still call it.

I notice those terms are becoming less used and sounding even more anachronistic as the years go by.

I'm sure somewhere in the country, a crotchety old guy still refers to our subdivision as 'the College Division'. Never could get used to those fancy & confusing D-II, I-A and I-AA designations. God bless him and his hiked up Sears & Roebuck trousers.

[Ronbo]

Michigan paid out $400K to App State (I believe) and $500K to Del State. I seem to recall an FCS getting a $600K guarantee (Wofford? YSU? help!) for a game but, for the life of me, don't recall who it was.

Interesting that Tresolini mentions that UD & Army are talking about a possible game. That would be a terrific game for UD to pick up from the competitive standpoint and it will be a great experience for our fans. It's just not going to be the huge FBS payday we could land from a Penn State or UVa.

Montana got $650,000 from Iowa. Tennessee is paying us $500,000 plus traveling and expenses, so that's got to be worth close to $650,000.

[YoUDeeMan]

While $400K, and 600K are big numbers (and UD would need the second of those numbers to make a clear profit versus a home game), they are not close to the $1MM game the writer suggested. As previously menioned, we are simply not going to do multi-million dollar expansions/upgrades from scheduling FBS games. No way.