The Price of a National Championship

When you see a team like Georgia State taking on Alabama, it's a money thing.  The big school is willing to pay the small school to come in and play them in order to generate revenue.  So then why does a program like Delaware, making more money playing home games than they would get against FBS teams, still schedule these matchups against the top division schools?  K.C. Keeler does not understand it either and he had put an end to it. Sort of.

This storyline from K.C. Keeler's segment on the CAA Football Teleconference today on Delaware playing FBS and Division 2 schools was plenty interesting and entertaining.  When talking about the Navy game, Keeler got into his feelings about having an FBS team on the schedule:

"I'm not in favor of [FBS] games.  You know, I don't really see the benefit of a [FBS] game.  I rather just play an all [FCS] schedule personally.  What we're going to move to in the future is the years that we have 11 games we will not play a [FBS] game.  The years that we have 12, that's when we'll pick up a [FBS] game. So, we have one more year that we have a [FBS] game the years that we have 11.  Then after that, the schedule's been pretty well put together in terms of we're not going to have anymore [FBS] games the years we have 11.  Cause when you have 11 games, boy, you know, the national numbers that you can get to 7 wins, you know, and we have a D-2 and a [FBS] game on our schedule. So, D-2 is going to be coming off in a year. And the [FBS] games are going to be put to a limit in terms of when we're going to play those games.”

When asked about how he got the administration to agree to this scheduling, he responded:

“Yeah, we should be making enough money on a home game that that should be our primary concern, and you know, what's the price of trying to win a National Championship?  The reality is it's really difficult to get into the playoffs, and so you want to put yourself in the best position possible, so you know, that's what I've had our administration buy into. Again, I prefer not to play any [FBS] games.  We've played a bunch here, we've played Navy a bunch of times, we had Maryland, we have Pitt on the schedule coming up, so that's what we've settled with.  The years that we have 12, we'll pick up a [FBS] game, the years we have 11, we'll stay to [FCS] games.”

And lastly when questioned about fan expectations against FBS opponents, he replied:

“...Everyone wants us to "bring in Appalachian State bring in..." yeah, but the bottom line is at the end of the year, you need enough wins to be in the playoffs, and that's the philosophy of the program.  I think people get caught up in the [FBS] games a little bit too much in terms of the goal of our program is not to win a [FBS] game, the goal is to win a national championship.  So then, how's the best way to put ourselves in position to win a national championship? Probably not play a [FBS] game. It's probably not going to be a benefit to you..."

I love everything that came out of Coach Keeler's mouth in this part of the interview! The man is brilliant!  For FBS teams, there's only one way to get into the National Championship game, and that's by being one of the the top-two ranked teams at the end of the season.  So the FBS teams need to schedule the big matchups that could make or break their seasons, just to get that boost in the rankings for beating these top teams.  Big risk/reward scenario.

For FCS schools, you either need to win your conference or be one of the ten best schools who did not clinch a conference just to make the playoffs.  At the end of the day, it comes down to wins, so why would you not use every possible chance to rack up victories and bolster your standing before the playoffs?  If Delaware scheduled App. State, what is that really accomplishing? They would have to travel to them as a replay the following year, and a loss would be one that neither team wants to suffer, no matter how good the win may look.  And with Delaware being in the CAA, they are already playing three conference games against ranked opponents.  They could play all weak teams in their non-conference slots, and their conference play would be plenty good enough to get them a playoff spot (assuming they win these games).  This is a no brainer and should have been done years ago.

The West Chester game is finally gone as well.  To me, it was a guaranteed win on the schedule, but did nothing for rankings or to help anyone besides the second-team players get some action before the real games got under way.  Kudos to the UD Athletics Administration for recognizing this and eliminating the D-2 game.  Yes, seeing the Hens face an elite opponent here and there is nice, but the only thing these games are good for are either 15-minutes of fame if you can pull off the upset, or to have an opponent show you the glaring weaknesses in your squad.  Thank you K.C., for doing what's best for Delaware and not following the trends of other schools.

"The future's so bright... Our coach needs to wear shades!"