Author Topic: WVU notebook: Holgorsen supports ending FCS matchups  (Read 4228 times)

Offline IAA Fan

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WVU notebook: Holgorsen supports ending FCS matchups
« on: September 10, 2015, 11:07:56 AM »
By Craig Meyer / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — West Virginia’s game Saturday against Liberty was agreed to almost exactly one year before Dana Holgorsen became the school’s coach and well before the issue of Football Bowl Subdivision schools scheduling Football Championship Subdivision teams became as divisive as it is today.

The fifth-year Mountaineers coach respects his team’s upcoming opponent — spending the first three minutes of his Tuesday press conference saying as much — but he wonders how much longer FBS programs, including his own, will enter such arrangements.

“We are one of the only teams in the country that are scheduling two Power Five schools in the future,” Holgorsen said. “If you look at our future schedules, we are scheduling them. I wish that everybody else would do the same thing.

“If we are scheduling two Power Five schools and a non-Power Five school, then I wish everyone else would, too, as opposed to what some of the other schools are doing by scheduling an FCS school or two FCS schools and two other non-Power Five schools. You can figure out who I’m talking about.”

Though a number of FBS programs cram their schedules with games against lower-level opponents, West Virginia, among others, wants to move away from that model.

In an interview with the Post-Gazette in June, new athletic director Shane Lyons said he plans for two of the Mountaineers’ three non-conference games every year to be against Power Five schools. The third game, he said, ideally would be against a non-Power Five institution.

“That is going to help us when we get to that selection process, where they’ll say that our strength of schedule isn’t hurting us,” Lyons said.

West Virginia will play FCS team Youngstown State next season, but it currently has no games against FCS schools in 2017.

While it could hurt smaller colleges that receive hundreds of thousands of dollars for games against top programs, some Power Five schools are beginning to avoid FCS matchups altogether. The Big Ten, for example, passed a measure in July restricting its members from scheduling FCS opponents, beginning in 2016.

The gradual disappearance of such games, however, has no bearing on the Mountaineers’ preparation for the Flames, particularly after Power Five programs like Kansas and Washington State lost to FCS schools last week.

“It happens and it’s been happening,” defensive coordinator Tony Gibson said. “It’s not like it’s a new thing.”
« Last Edit: September 10, 2015, 02:29:11 PM by IAA Fan »

Offline JP21

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Re: WVU notebook: Holgorsen supports ending FCS matchups
« Reply #1 on: September 10, 2015, 11:45:20 AM »
There is no upside for FBS schools to play FCS.  If you win, you didn't win by enough and if you lose well it's complete embarrassment.  Not to mention the gap is closing between the lower tier power 5 teams and the upper tier FCS teams.

Offline guinpen

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Re: WVU notebook: Holgorsen supports ending FCS matchups
« Reply #2 on: September 10, 2015, 08:37:49 PM »
This is an unfortunate side effect of the play-off system and it will hurt the pockets of a lot of schools including YSU.

We would be hypocrites to complain about it, once upon a time we played area D2 schools. That was the game their program looked forward to, a chance to play the big boys and make a little cash. But wait, playing these games hurt our SOS and kept us out of the play-offs. Bye bye D2 games.

No different for the real big boys playing these games do not help their SOS and god forbid they might lose one.

This is only the tip of the iceberg, shakeup has hardly begun.
« Last Edit: September 11, 2015, 08:03:55 PM by guinpen »
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Offline Wick250

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Re: WVU notebook: Holgorsen supports ending FCS matchups
« Reply #3 on: September 10, 2015, 11:00:54 PM »
Guinpen, I agree.  This is just the start of a process that will eliminate all P5-FCS games.  Why should a West Virginia play lowly YSU when they can schedule juggernauts like Kent State and Eastern Michigan? :P

I would have hoped that we would have considered the money game revenue as a "bonus" that might disappear someday.  But I fear that we have incorporated those funds into our budget and that their end will leave a very big hole.

On the bright side, if those money games end, we could actually upgrade our schedule.  We could still have six home games each year but eliminate one dog.  The ooc foes could be one NEC school, one quality road FCS game, and one quality home FCS game.  FCS schools will now have to play each other ooc on a regular basis.