I think we all agree that YSU’s out of conference schedules for both football and basketball leave a lot to be desired. Here is my question for this board: in both football and basketball why do similar-sized universities as YSU schedule aggressive away-games against superior competition and make good money in the process whereas YSU chooses to schedule home opposition that is of no interest to YSU fans. To me it comes down to the leadership of the athletic department. Does AD Strollo have any say in the football and basketball scheduling? It would be great to have an athletic director with balls whose philosophy is for his coaches to schedule challenging out of conference games, where playing nationally ranked teams in basketball, for example, is the norm and not the exception.
Football: The last two years YSU played 12 games (this year it’s back to eleven). I understand YSU needs home games for financial reasons and while I want to schedule as many exciting home games as possible I would rather have YSU develop an “attitude” and play an exciting road game if it’s prudent financially. For example: “okay Akron, Kent, and Toledo, you won’t play a home/away series with us then we’ll play you at your place and beat you;” or play two BCS teams like other MVC teams do; or play a “destination game” so fans can travel with the team, such as Memphis (in Memphis), SMU (in Dallas), or Tulane (New Orleans). I think fans would be much more excited for these types of games.
Basketball: There are schools out there that will play anyone at anytime (Oral Roberts and Oakland for example). True, you’ll play most of these games on the road and you’ll lose most of them but they will toughen you up and in the long run you’ll become better and perhaps YSU will eventually recruit better athletes because of a tougher schedule. I assume that YSU earns between $60,000 - $100,000+ by playing elite teams. Wouldn’t we rather see YSU be aggressive and play this type of schedule vs. what we have been subjected to the past number of years? Why won’t Slocum/Strollo play more of these big-money games? YSU scheduled only one BCS conference team this year, Texas A&M, and earned $85,000 in the process. The Vindicator did a cute story on the one big “money game” against Texas A&M and what this means to the program. Playing the likes of Texas A&M should be the norm, not the exception, read the story here:
http://www.vindy.com/news/2014/dec/11/ncaa-basketball-money-games-pay-off-for-/Comments?
