Next Year\'s Schedule

[DJViking]

After reading today's article in the Oregonian, I've got some thoughts on next year's schedule. It quotes Interim AD Mariani saying she's trying to schedule one big "payday" game like Montana got with Iowa. I don't like that idea at all. Playing against a BCS school from any conference besides the PAC-10 is a waste of time. It wont give us any meaningful exposure. We need to play up to teams on the West Coast. If we could secure a PAC-10 "payday" game, I think it would be a great idea. I would then like to see us schedule a WAC school (Boise State, Fresno State) and with the last non-conference game.......Cal Poly or UC Davis. I think we need to begin a home and home rotation with Poly or Davis. We play there one year, they play here the next.

These are my thoughts on the "ideal" situation for next year. We get a decent payday ($200,000-350,000) from a PAC-10 school along with the exposure of that. We get some more exposure from playing a WAC school (where I think many of us would like to see PSU eventually end up). We also don't play down to any teams, so our strength of schedule doesn't get hurt. We play some of the best teams on the West Coast in I-AA, and we should have a shot at playoffs every year.

 

[martymoose]

Yep, one big payday game for exposure. I'd love to see it in the NW myself. WSU, UO, OSU, etc.

Cal Poly or UC Davis will be key in getting PSU on the map as a year in and year out D1-AA top 20 team.

 

[Pounder]

I have a snarky and sometimes dangerous way of reading between the lines.

IMO...

Signing on to a big payday game back East (which is only inferred in the article, not assured)...

...equals one or both of the below...

(1) Everyone out west is scheduled up.

(2) They pay more back east.

The dirty truth about football fans out west- we're more fairweather. SOUTH CAROLINA, with one of the more dodgy histories in major college football, has an 80,000-seat stadium and fills 98% of it, while Washington's success never brought Husky Stadium beyond 70,000 (actually, it might be 72,000, but in Husky, there's only 60K "reasonably good" seats), and their downturn stung them noticeably. Stanford just reconstructed their stadium, reducing the capacity by 41%. Oregon makes major news by expanding to 54,000 with about 5K in standing room available. USC and UCLA never bothered to build their own stadia, and UCLA always has trouble filling the Rose Bowl... for that matter, USC never sold out the Coliseum for a season until their latest run. In almost every case, when any given Pac-10 program goes a little bit south, the fans are faster to stay away than in most regions of the country. (I said MOST regions- the Big East is mostly full of "never-was" schools, Miami always has fluctuations, the ACC outside Tallahassee and MAYBE Clemson also often falls short.)

So, the theory: on average, the Big 10, big 12, and SEC pay better.

(NOTE: when we talk fluctuations, we're still talking about stadiums going from completely full to, depending on the situation, at worst, half full. I recognize PSU would likely kill to be consistently half-full in PGE Park right now)

 

[ManOfVision]

I have a snarky and sometimes dangerous way of reading between the lines.

IMO...

Signing on to a big payday game back East (which is only inferred in the article, not assured)...

...equals one or both of the below...

(1) Everyone out west is scheduled up.

(2) They pay more back east.

The dirty truth about football fans out west- we're more fairweather. SOUTH CAROLINA, with one of the more dodgy histories in major college football, has an 80,000-seat stadium and fills 98% of it, while Washington's success never brought Husky Stadium beyond 70,000 (actually, it might be 72,000, but in Husky, there's only 60K "reasonably good" seats), and their downturn stung them noticeably. Stanford just reconstructed their stadium, reducing the capacity by 41%. Oregon makes major news by expanding to 54,000 with about 5K in standing room available. USC and UCLA never bothered to build their own stadia, and UCLA always has trouble filling the Rose Bowl... for that matter, USC never sold out the Coliseum for a season until their latest run. In almost every case, when any given Pac-10 program goes a little bit south, the fans are faster to stay away than in most regions of the country. (I said MOST regions- the Big East is mostly full of "never-was" schools, Miami always has fluctuations, the ACC outside Tallahassee and MAYBE Clemson also often falls short.)

So, the theory: on average, the Big 10, big 12, and SEC pay better.

(NOTE: when we talk fluctuations, we're still talking about stadiums going from completely full to, depending on the situation, at worst, half full. I recognize PSU would likely kill to be consistently half-full in PGE Park right now)

This seems like solid analysis, pounder. If Eastern Washington can go to West Virginia, then so can we. I'd agree with you about the fan bases across other parts of the country. I think this has something to do with why it seems easier for non-traditional powers (Utah, Boise St., Fresno St.) to rise up out West when you do see as much of that in the South.