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Unite and win

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So I was reading Hutton's blog and he mentioned something that seems now so obvious.  Our chances of beating a BCS team go way up if we play them at home.  So how about this.  The Sun Belt teams get together and agree (under penalty) that no team will schedule any future games that do not have a return game.  This puts the SEC in a bind since they rely heavily on the Sun Belt for OOC games, but would also affect the Big 12 (Nebraska plays 3 belt teams this year).  If we unite we could force these teams to come to us AND still ask for some monetary compensation as well.  It would be even better if all of the non-BCS conference could agree to this, but lets start small.

Our only BCS win came against Minnesota in a near empty stadium…which is a huge improvement over a stadium full of Minnesota fans.  Now imagine if it was a full FAU stadium.  Against USF our crowd definitely played a huge factor. The time has come for Belt teams to unite and end the no-return money game.

Florida Atlantic University Owls
2007 Sun Belt Football Champions 2007 New Orleans Bowl Champions 2008 Motor City Bowl Champions 2011 Sun Belt Basketball Champions No Bowls without Owls
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Re: Unite and win

SeminOWL2006 said

Against USF our crowd definitely played a huge factor. The time has come for Belt teams to unite and end the no-return money game.

No doubt…it was like having another player on the field…can't recall the energy at another point in time from the Team the way they showed it that day…it was landmark for sure…
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Re: Unite and win

SeminOWL2006 said

So how about this.  The Sun Belt teams get together and agree (under penalty) that no team will schedule any future games that do not have a return game.

It would be phenomenal if this would work but I doubt they'd all agree to it. I'm not even sure we'd agree to it. They'll be afraid that if the BCS teams don't want to give us a return game, they'll just book games with the MAC and CUSA instead, who won't have similar agreements. We'd need ALL non-BCS, not just SBC, to agree to these guidelines for it to work. If BCS won't sign agreements with us, that leaves us picking up winnable home games against MAC and CUSA, which would be good for our record but bad for our budget.

The question is then how to nullify that disparity: how are we going to get BCS-level players if we keep getting embarassed by BCS teams, which turns off prospects? Well, once we build the stadium we can limit our money games from 2 to 1 and replace that with a winnable "B" game, which could net us good enough players to start getting upsets. Then when you get upsets, you get higher rankings, so at that point its worthwhile for the BCS to play us however they can get us because they want to be highly ranked. Not necessarily teams like Ohio State, Penn State, etc that are always Top Ten even when they haven't really done anything… but we could get teams like Illinois, Wisconsin, Vanderbilt, Georgia Tech, etc playing us at home once the stadium is completed.
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Re: Unite and win

owlcountry said

SeminOWL2006 said

So how about this.  The Sun Belt teams get together and agree (under penalty) that no team will schedule any future games that do not have a return game.

It would be phenomenal if this would work but I doubt they'd all agree to it. I'm not even sure we'd agree to it. They'll be afraid that if the BCS teams don't want to give us a return game, they'll just book games with the MAC and CUSA instead, who won't have similar agreements. We'd need ALL non-BCS, not just SBC, to agree to these guidelines for it to work. If BCS won't sign agreements with us, that leaves us picking up winnable home games against MAC and CUSA, which would be good for our record but bad for our budget.

The question is then how to nullify that disparity: how are we going to get BCS-level players if we keep getting embarassed by BCS teams, which turns off prospects? Well, once we build the stadium we can limit our money games from 2 to 1 and replace that with a winnable "B" game, which could net us good enough players to start getting upsets. Then when you get upsets, you get higher rankings, so at that point its worthwhile for the BCS to play us however they can get us because they want to be highly ranked. Not necessarily teams like Ohio State, Penn State, etc that are always Top Ten even when they haven't really done anything… but we could get teams like Illinois, Wisconsin, Vanderbilt, Georgia Tech, etc playing us at home once the stadium is completed.

All true concerns and I'd like to add that although I doubt FAU in the near future will host a top-tier BCS program (i.e. UF, Ohio State, ect.) I believe, with an on campus stadium of course, that scheduling mid-level/lower BCS programs would be doable.  I has already been done for one thing (USF, Minn) but I believe that our location will draw these teams, particularly teams from the Big 10.  Remember when Minn came down, they arrived on a Thursday so their coaches could spend extra time recruiting the South Fla area.  If teams see this as a positive to their program then they would be more apt to schedule believing it would help them in the long run.
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Re: Unite and win

Remember Michigan State was supposed to be up first next year. I'd consider that a marquee AQ school.

They will come to an approriate venue and Howard Schnellenberger has the connections in the college football world to make that happen.

FAU just fell down on getting the stadium ready. Really the only glaring failure in the program at this time. Everything else fell into place nicely and the team performed better then expected. The stadium is the only bad thing IMHO.

I have come here to chew bubble gum and kick @$$ and I'm out of bubble gum.

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Re: Unite and win

I don't know how that would work.  SEC and BIG 12 schools still have MAC, WAC, C-USA and a ton of 1-AA teams to schedule.  Besides, that would take a huge bite out of the football programs profit.  The Nerds already complain enough that we have a D-1A football team.
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Re: Unite and win

You only get 1 I-AA team per year (that will count at least), and there are not enough MAC and C-USA teams to go around…the fact is to fill schedules big teams would still have to schedule us, except that we (the Sun Belt) would have the upper hand to negotiate both payment and a return game.

Big East teams like USF are easy because they have 5 OOC games a year so they are knocking down doors to get games…and are willing to do returns games.  I am not proposing we try to get teams that wont do returns to do them, they wont.  Instead, blacklist teams like UF who absolutely never leaves for OOC games and reward teams like LSU, Miami, or Texas that are willing to do return games.

Tonight we are seeing Toledo rock a Big12 team and although they may be a good team and Colorado might not be that good, the homefield advantage has a huge role to play.

Getting all the non-BCS teams to do this would be ideal for all involved….collective bargaining at its best to jack up the prices for non-return games to a point where the BCS teams would rather give a return game then pay out upwards of $2M for no return.

Florida Atlantic University Owls
2007 Sun Belt Football Champions 2007 New Orleans Bowl Champions 2008 Motor City Bowl Champions 2011 Sun Belt Basketball Champions No Bowls without Owls
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Re: Unite and win

The said

BIG 12 schools still have MAC…teams to schedule.

Just tuned into ESPN and Colorado is getting spanked by TOLEDO

Down 37-10 late in the third.

Are you kidding me??

Wow…
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Re: Unite and win

SeminOWL2006 said

Tonight we are seeing Toledo rock a Big12 team.

The Buffs have self destructed.

51-24 with 8:41 to play…

On a side note:

Former FAU Coach Eli Rasheed is on Staff at Toledo.  Early congrats!
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Re: Unite and win

Unite and win

Things are starting to loosen up and BCS programs are visiting smaller programs - Who knows what will happen with the Michigan State game now, but they did agree to come down here and you have Kansas State visiting the Cajuns & USF at Western today.

AD's in the Belt need to get creative to get teams to sign return games whether it's 1-1 or 2-1 games.

We do have an advantage with the recruiting territory we do reside within…helping make it attractive for BCS schools to come here - especially once we do get our stadium built.  And I do believe it will be much easier to do so once the dirt starts moving.
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