S-R story: Five games = $2 million for EWU

[eagwatcher]

Here's the last of my stories from the recent Big Sky meetings in Utah:

http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2012/jul/19/scheduling-pac-12-teams-gives-ewu-big-boost/

I'll be back from vacation on July 30, SO ready for football - Jim

 

[Screamin_Eagle174]

Kind of disappointed, figured we'd get at least $500k for the Oregon thrashing. 150k for Idaho? I guess getting paid to win is getting paid to win.

 

[clawman1]

Looking forward to Dopa's words of wisdom.

 

[marceagfan5]

The Pac 12 games aren't the bad games for us, they are great financially and for the players and program, its the Toledo's and the Idaho's that are bad for the schedule. We make little money and add an extra FBS game to the schedule. The next 2 years will be very telling for us in this regards. If we don't make the playoffs, all the fans we gained from 2010 will be gone (argue all you want but they will be) and making the $2 million really won't be worth it IMO. If we are successful and make the playoffs then I think the program, and the additional money made from FBS payouts, will move forward towards a stadium expansion.

It sucks to say, but Idaho is a GIANT game for us this year, and thats the problem, an FBS game should never be as close to a make or break game as this one is going to be. WSU is going to be really tough to beat and we have some real tough conference road games this year (MSU, WSU, PSU, SUU are all top 25 caliber teams).

On a side note, I was hiking in Glacier park this weekend, sporting my EWU gear and ran into some great EWU fans on the trails. Love to see EWU gear outside of the Spokane area, especially in GRIZ country.

 

[EWURanger]

I love the Pac-12 games; they're great for the program and travel costs are pretty minimal if you're playing one of the Northwest 4. Plus they are accessible to alum in Washington and Oregon. We should be trying to schedule one of them every year.

The Idaho game I'm not too emotional about because it's close and a game we can win.

Gotta admit, not real excited about the Toledo game because of the travel costs involved and the fact that it's against a team that has very little interest in the PNW. At least it's being played in a 12 game season.

 

[LDopaPDX]

Looking forward to Dopa's words of wisdom.

I'm in favor of all of these games. .. Great exposure and a great payout. The games that frustrate the hell out of me are the road games against Idaho and Toledo for much less money, much less exposure, and still a lot of risk to lose (we'll be big underdogs in both games.). The ONLY reason to schedule an Idaho or Toledo is if you don't already have an FBS big dog on the seedy. Adding two throwaway games in the schedule is a tremendous disservice to our team's playoff chances and even a win is only going to be viewed a nebulous FCS win over n FBS sad sack.

I'd love to see Eastern adhere to the old A, B, C model of out-of-conference scheduling... That means one body bag for money and exposure, one home/home with an FCS school, and one guaranteed win against a low-tier FCS program or a D-II. The damage, as always, is when we play two FBS teams (often at least one of those pays very little) or take all FCS opposition on the road. it's definitively better to schedule teams you know you can beat before adding one one that has a chance to overwhelm you. Plus, we need a minimum of 5 homes games every year and really should have 6 homers more often than not.

if you look at the FCS teams that have perennial success, you'll notice that they tick to the A, B, C format tightly. They never play 2 FBS teams and usually play at least one D-II or at least one non-scholly FCS program.