Sounding Off on Guarantee Football Games
Stuart Nachbar
November 19, 2009
Fourteen months ago, I wrote a syndicated post about Georgia State University's entry into college football. I took the position that the school should be considered for membership in the Big East Conference by 2017.
I reasoned that after seven years of play the university might want to take their game up a notch, and that the Big East would benefit greatly by entering in the Atlanta media market. Two other conferences, the Atlantic Coast Conference and the Southeastern Conference, do extremely well in this market.
Then I picked up a recent copy of ESPN The Magazine. I wanted to read their basketball stories. As I got closer to the end of the magazine, I caught a story: Georgia State will play Alabama in the last road game of their very first season. That's right. The University of Alabama, undefeated and ready to compete for conference and national titles this season. The home of legendary coach Paul "Bear" Bryant--their stadium is partly named for him--winner of six national championships.
What on earth were they thinking?
Georgia State, according to this story, is guaranteed $450,000 to show up at Bryant-Denny Stadium. Bill Curry, the Georgia State coach, and the former head coach at Alabame, says, and I quote the story:
"It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, We won't deprive our young players of seeing how it feels,"
I know how I'd feel. Sick.
I come at this from a slightly different perspective as a Rutgers football season ticket holder. Our team was on the losing end of an 80-7 debacle during Greg Schiano's first season as head coach--and we played West Virginia, an in-conference opponent.
I doubt that Coach Schiano had anything to feel good about after that game, or that any of his players saw positives from this disaster. Best case, they learned how hard they had to work before they could become competitive. But a football team does not need to be sent through that type of humiliation in a non-conference game.
Other things I hate about guarantee games:
Fans do not see a competitive contest. There is nothing exciting about being on either side of a blow-out game. Especially if you paid the other team to take the beating.
Fans pass on these games. If you want to give up your tickets you can't sell them for face value. Rutgers added to this problem by selling tickets to the guarantee games as a two-for-one special. Pay $40 and you got another seat free. I renewed my season tickets in January, eight months before the season opener, and I get penalized for being loyal to my team?
The money spent to guarantee the win could be spent elsewhere. Athletic programs across the country are facing decisions to cut budgets by eliminating non-revenue sports. Even a football power such as Alabama is not immune from the pressure to make cuts. If I attended Alabama I would prefer that the $450,000 be directed to keep some sports that would otherwise be cut. Those athletes deserve their chance to compete.
If a sports program is running a deficit--Alabama is probably one of the profitable programs--then spending in the hundreds of thousands for a guarantee game is immoral. If my alma mater went into the academic budget to subsidize a program that paid for guarantee games, I would reconsider my contributions to that school.
If the so-called bowl subdivision schools cannot agree on a play-off to determine a national champion, then I suggest a refinement to the ranking system. Drop a team three places in the ranking for every guarantee game--we'll call this a non-bowl-subdivision team for now--on their schedule. So, if Florida inks a game with Charleston Southern, for example, they start off ranked fourth instead of first.
On second thought, that might be difficult to enforce, because so many top football schools play guarantee games. So, here's another thought: lose the game and, regardless of your end-of-season record, you drop out of the top 25 and do not go to a bowl. That will give the opponent more motivation to play better and spoil your season. If you're anxious to reap the spoils of victory, then be prepared to handle the humiliation of defeat.
Stuart Nachbar blogs on education and politics at www.EducatedQuest.com. Learn more about his novel, Defending College Heights, an investigation into the murder of a U.S. Army recruiter at www.DefendingCollegeHeights.com
I reasoned that after seven years of play the university might want to take their game up a notch, and that the Big East would benefit greatly by entering in the Atlanta media market. Two other conferences, the Atlantic Coast Conference and the Southeastern Conference, do extremely well in this market.
Then I picked up a recent copy of ESPN The Magazine. I wanted to read their basketball stories. As I got closer to the end of the magazine, I caught a story: Georgia State will play Alabama in the last road game of their very first season. That's right. The University of Alabama, undefeated and ready to compete for conference and national titles this season. The home of legendary coach Paul "Bear" Bryant--their stadium is partly named for him--winner of six national championships.
What on earth were they thinking?
Georgia State, according to this story, is guaranteed $450,000 to show up at Bryant-Denny Stadium. Bill Curry, the Georgia State coach, and the former head coach at Alabame, says, and I quote the story:
"It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, We won't deprive our young players of seeing how it feels,"
I know how I'd feel. Sick.
I come at this from a slightly different perspective as a Rutgers football season ticket holder. Our team was on the losing end of an 80-7 debacle during Greg Schiano's first season as head coach--and we played West Virginia, an in-conference opponent.
I doubt that Coach Schiano had anything to feel good about after that game, or that any of his players saw positives from this disaster. Best case, they learned how hard they had to work before they could become competitive. But a football team does not need to be sent through that type of humiliation in a non-conference game.
Other things I hate about guarantee games:
Fans do not see a competitive contest. There is nothing exciting about being on either side of a blow-out game. Especially if you paid the other team to take the beating.
Fans pass on these games. If you want to give up your tickets you can't sell them for face value. Rutgers added to this problem by selling tickets to the guarantee games as a two-for-one special. Pay $40 and you got another seat free. I renewed my season tickets in January, eight months before the season opener, and I get penalized for being loyal to my team?
The money spent to guarantee the win could be spent elsewhere. Athletic programs across the country are facing decisions to cut budgets by eliminating non-revenue sports. Even a football power such as Alabama is not immune from the pressure to make cuts. If I attended Alabama I would prefer that the $450,000 be directed to keep some sports that would otherwise be cut. Those athletes deserve their chance to compete.
If a sports program is running a deficit--Alabama is probably one of the profitable programs--then spending in the hundreds of thousands for a guarantee game is immoral. If my alma mater went into the academic budget to subsidize a program that paid for guarantee games, I would reconsider my contributions to that school.
If the so-called bowl subdivision schools cannot agree on a play-off to determine a national champion, then I suggest a refinement to the ranking system. Drop a team three places in the ranking for every guarantee game--we'll call this a non-bowl-subdivision team for now--on their schedule. So, if Florida inks a game with Charleston Southern, for example, they start off ranked fourth instead of first.
On second thought, that might be difficult to enforce, because so many top football schools play guarantee games. So, here's another thought: lose the game and, regardless of your end-of-season record, you drop out of the top 25 and do not go to a bowl. That will give the opponent more motivation to play better and spoil your season. If you're anxious to reap the spoils of victory, then be prepared to handle the humiliation of defeat.
Stuart Nachbar blogs on education and politics at www.EducatedQuest.com. Learn more about his novel, Defending College Heights, an investigation into the murder of a U.S. Army recruiter at www.DefendingCollegeHeights.com
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