Football Scheduling

(Corrected with thanks to the commenter).

A small summer interlude....that is not about Jim Tressel.

One thing fans debate a lot is whether it is good for a MAC team to schedule FCS teams.  One school of thought is that everyone does it...another is that we will never gain respect for ourselves if we don't play the big boys.

The occasion for the musing is that BG is playing Morgan State this year.  It is our first FCS game since we played WKU in 2007, and they were actually transitional, so our last pure FCS game was in 2004 against SE Missouri.

I'm in favor of it.  For the following reasons.

1.  In the 12-game schedule era, almost everyone does it.

Last year in the MAC, 8 teams played FCS opponents, with only BG, UT, Miami and EMU (really?) playing 100% FBS schedules.  In the Big 10, only one team (OSU) did not play an FBS opponent.  For 2011, only 2 MAC teams (Ball State and Miami) do not have FCS on their schedule.

(Caveat.  Temple plays Villanova, which is actually a rivalry game for them).

2.  Playing an FCS opponent allows us to get a 6th home game

Being at the Doyt makes me happy.  Football season goes by so fast, and, as a fan, that 6th home game makes a big difference.

An addition is that we are adding a sixth home game and it is going to be on a Saturday and when the weather is nice...

3.  Playing the big boys is nice, but playing road games against very big and physical BCS teams is tough on our guys physically.  If the Big 10 teams take a week to play FCS teams, why shouldn't BG?

4.   We don't get any respect playing the Big Boys anyway.  And, lately, the wins have been few and far between.  Now, do BCS busters play a FCS opponent...did Boise?  No.  Again, the MAC is not realistically in that boat anyway.

5.   An FCS game is not a guaranteed win.  Villanova plays Temple tough, and there are FCS teams that would be very competitive in the MAC.  NIU struggled with North Dakota, which has notched wins over Minnesota in recent memory.  And, of course, App. State beat UM at the Big House, just as UT did.  Having said that, FCS wins in games like this are few and far between.

The best counter-argument I can think of is that the MAC has so many poor teams that it is already playing a couple of games against sub-par competition, and this just makes it worse.  I looked at the Sun Belt schedule, and I didn't see them playing too many FCS teams.

In conclusion, I think it is fine for the MAC to play one game against FCS competition, though not 2.