The price will keep going up for guarantee games as the Sun Belt Conference starts pulling teams off the market.Florida Atlantic received $900,000 to open the season at Texas, its biggest payday ever.Increasingly, the only way to get a couple home games with a 1-A patsy at an affordable price is to either cut a full conference deal like the Big Ten did with the MAC or teams are going to have to swallow hard and accept a 2-for-1 deal.
Florida International turned down an offer of $1.2 million to play at an SEC team next year.
And Sun Belt Commissioner Wright Waters told the conference's athletic directors not to even consider an offer to play a road game against a BCS conference team for less than $1 million.
"A million is cheap to those guys," Waters said. "They ought to be paying us $2 million."
In an ideal world, this would encourage more teams to actually schedule more games against better teams and do home-and-homes. Sadly, the reality will be even more 1-AA opponents put on the schedule since they are cheaper.
Well at least UNC-Charlotte will join the patsy ranks. Perhaps sometime in 2013.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
9-23-2008 @ 11:17AM
nunya said...
If more 1-AA teams are going to be scheduled, then expect more Michigan-like upsets. Those teams don't play around anymore, and even though people want to laugh at Michigan that was just a taste of what's to come. Toledo had Fresno State running (but no one cares because it was Fresno State and NOT Michigan...although...Michigan DOES have to play Toledo in a few weeks, and Michigan is not that good this season...). They just wouldn't go away. The score wound up 55-54 Fresno State after, what, two overtimes??? And this was after Fresno State had them down 10 points with, like, 1:30 left in the 4th, if I'm not mistaken. Those 1-AA teams want their respect, and they want it NOW.
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