ERASU2113
February 3rd, 2008, 08:07 PM
Not sure if it was posted earlier today or not. Sorry if it was.
ASU's win at Michigan a hindrance
DAVID SCOTT
[email protected]
Beating Michigan last season did many wondrous things for Appalachian State's football program. Making Jay Sutton's job easier was not one of them.
Sutton, an associate athletics director who handles the Mountaineers' football scheduling, is still searching for two more games for the 2008 season. Among them, he hopes, is at least one against an NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision (formerly I-A) opponent.
"There's been a little good, a little bad," Sutton said of the effect the Michigan victory has had on scheduling. "Let's just say we've come up a little short with getting some teams to look at us."
Appalachian State, a member of the Football Championship Subdivison (formerly I-AA), can schedule 12 games next season because of an extra week between the first Saturday of the season and Thanksgiving.
The Mountaineers already have their eight-game Southern Conference schedule set (the league is adding Samford), as well as nonconference games at James Madison and home against Presbyterian.
Appalachian State has played at least one FBS team every season since 1982, when the Southern Conference moved to the FCS.
Playing Appalachian State has not become an attractive option for most FBS teams. Before the 34-32 victory in Ann Arbor last September, the Mountaineers were coming off two straight FCS championships (they won a third in December) and had been competitive in losses against N.C. State and Louisiana State in recent seasons.
"Of course we don't want to play (Appalachian)," said one ACC coach who asked not to be named. "But it's not because I don't think we can beat them. You have to work too hard against them. When we play an (FCS) team, we want to play our starters for one quarter, get a lead, and get them out of there. That's not going to happen against Appalachian."
With FBS teams playing 12 games every season, many have scrambled to fill out their schedules. Some opponents come from the lower echelons of FBS or the FCS. But FBS teams generally only want one FCS opponent because only one of those games counts toward the six wins required to qualify for a bowl.
Appalachian State, in fact, already has games against FBS teams scheduled in future seasons: LSU (2009), Florida ('10), Virginia Tech ('11) and Georgia ('13).
Only a handful of FBS teams need games for next season. ACC teams, according to associate commissioner Mike Finn, have completed their schedules. Sutton said Georgia Tech, Florida State and North Carolina all declined to play Appalachian State.
In the SEC, LSU and Kentucky each still need a game. Because of the game they played in 2005 and the one scheduled for '09, Appalachian and LSU -- the NCAA's two defending Division I national champs -- obviously already have a relationship.
A few weeks after declining Appalachian State's offer late last year, North Carolina scheduled a game with McNeese State, an FCS power that was seeded second in last season's playoffs.
"That kind of hurt, hearing that," said Sutton.
Larry Gallo, North Carolina's senior associate athletics director, said coach Butch Davis prefers to play nonconference games against teams near or close to areas where he likes to recruit. McNeese State's Lake Charles, La., location isn't far from Texas, a recruiting target area for Davis.
There are substantial financial guarantees for the smaller programs in these kinds of games. Appalachian State, for instance, received $400,000 from Michigan last year.
But Sutton also thinks an Appalachian-North Carolina game would go beyond that, as it did two seasons ago when the Mountaineers lost at N.C. State.
"There's something to be said about two public schools from the same state playing each other," he said. "It seems like a positive thing. I think everybody got that sense walking off the field in Raleigh."
But then Sutton comes across something like this: He recently called an athletics director in the ACC about scheduling a game.
"He said it sounded pretty good and that he'd walk down the hallway and asked his coach," Sutton said. "He said he'd get back to me by the end of the day.
"He called back 15 minutes later. He just said, `Sorry.' "
ASU vs. FBS
Appalachian State's record against football bowl subdivision (formerly I-A) teams since 1982, when the Southern Conference moved to what was then known as NCAA Division I-AA:
TEAM REC
Auburn 0-1
Clemson 0-4
Hawaii 0-1
Kansas 0-1
Louisiana State 0-1
Marshall 0-1
Michigan 1-0
N.C. State 0-4
South Carolina 0-3
Virginia Tech 0-1
Wake Forest 6-11-1
Wyoming 0-1
http://www.charlotte.com/sports/story/475644.html
ASU's win at Michigan a hindrance
DAVID SCOTT
[email protected]
Beating Michigan last season did many wondrous things for Appalachian State's football program. Making Jay Sutton's job easier was not one of them.
Sutton, an associate athletics director who handles the Mountaineers' football scheduling, is still searching for two more games for the 2008 season. Among them, he hopes, is at least one against an NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision (formerly I-A) opponent.
"There's been a little good, a little bad," Sutton said of the effect the Michigan victory has had on scheduling. "Let's just say we've come up a little short with getting some teams to look at us."
Appalachian State, a member of the Football Championship Subdivison (formerly I-AA), can schedule 12 games next season because of an extra week between the first Saturday of the season and Thanksgiving.
The Mountaineers already have their eight-game Southern Conference schedule set (the league is adding Samford), as well as nonconference games at James Madison and home against Presbyterian.
Appalachian State has played at least one FBS team every season since 1982, when the Southern Conference moved to the FCS.
Playing Appalachian State has not become an attractive option for most FBS teams. Before the 34-32 victory in Ann Arbor last September, the Mountaineers were coming off two straight FCS championships (they won a third in December) and had been competitive in losses against N.C. State and Louisiana State in recent seasons.
"Of course we don't want to play (Appalachian)," said one ACC coach who asked not to be named. "But it's not because I don't think we can beat them. You have to work too hard against them. When we play an (FCS) team, we want to play our starters for one quarter, get a lead, and get them out of there. That's not going to happen against Appalachian."
With FBS teams playing 12 games every season, many have scrambled to fill out their schedules. Some opponents come from the lower echelons of FBS or the FCS. But FBS teams generally only want one FCS opponent because only one of those games counts toward the six wins required to qualify for a bowl.
Appalachian State, in fact, already has games against FBS teams scheduled in future seasons: LSU (2009), Florida ('10), Virginia Tech ('11) and Georgia ('13).
Only a handful of FBS teams need games for next season. ACC teams, according to associate commissioner Mike Finn, have completed their schedules. Sutton said Georgia Tech, Florida State and North Carolina all declined to play Appalachian State.
In the SEC, LSU and Kentucky each still need a game. Because of the game they played in 2005 and the one scheduled for '09, Appalachian and LSU -- the NCAA's two defending Division I national champs -- obviously already have a relationship.
A few weeks after declining Appalachian State's offer late last year, North Carolina scheduled a game with McNeese State, an FCS power that was seeded second in last season's playoffs.
"That kind of hurt, hearing that," said Sutton.
Larry Gallo, North Carolina's senior associate athletics director, said coach Butch Davis prefers to play nonconference games against teams near or close to areas where he likes to recruit. McNeese State's Lake Charles, La., location isn't far from Texas, a recruiting target area for Davis.
There are substantial financial guarantees for the smaller programs in these kinds of games. Appalachian State, for instance, received $400,000 from Michigan last year.
But Sutton also thinks an Appalachian-North Carolina game would go beyond that, as it did two seasons ago when the Mountaineers lost at N.C. State.
"There's something to be said about two public schools from the same state playing each other," he said. "It seems like a positive thing. I think everybody got that sense walking off the field in Raleigh."
But then Sutton comes across something like this: He recently called an athletics director in the ACC about scheduling a game.
"He said it sounded pretty good and that he'd walk down the hallway and asked his coach," Sutton said. "He said he'd get back to me by the end of the day.
"He called back 15 minutes later. He just said, `Sorry.' "
ASU vs. FBS
Appalachian State's record against football bowl subdivision (formerly I-A) teams since 1982, when the Southern Conference moved to what was then known as NCAA Division I-AA:
TEAM REC
Auburn 0-1
Clemson 0-4
Hawaii 0-1
Kansas 0-1
Louisiana State 0-1
Marshall 0-1
Michigan 1-0
N.C. State 0-4
South Carolina 0-3
Virginia Tech 0-1
Wake Forest 6-11-1
Wyoming 0-1
http://www.charlotte.com/sports/story/475644.html