MONEY BALL
Why tough non-conference games might be giving way to cupcakes
UCLA came to Oklahoma two weeks ago.
Boise State was at Oklahoma State last week.
And now this week, Army will be at OU.
Interesting opponents. Intriguing histories. Entertaining matchups all the way around. These are good days for football fans in our state. How good the actual games will be is never assured, but the promise and the potential in such non-conference games is grand fun.
More non-conference matchups need to be like that — but in coming years, good ones may sadly be harder to come by.
The guaranteed money being demanded by lower-tier teams continues to rise. Some of the schools from the Group of 5 are asking for exorbitant amounts from non-conference games, pricing some schools right out of the conversation and causing even the bluest of bloods to flinch at the price tag.
And teams may really start balking if we keep having weekends like this past one. Saturday, three teams from the Group of 5 won games in which they also received guaranteed payouts of at least $1 million. Arkansas paid North Texas $1 million to come to Fayetteville, and the Mean Green left with a 44-17 victory. Nebraska gave
Troy $1.15 million and got a 24-19 loss in return. And Northwestern paid Akron $1.2 million for a 39-34 loss.
“Looking on out into the future — and when I say ‘on out into the future,’ I’m talking probably five years and beyond — it’s most likely a $2 millionplus guarantee,” OU athletic director Joe Castiglione said.
Is that extortion? Or market forces? The reasons are not as important as the reality — these big payouts are going to change the way Power 5 teams schedule.
I fear it won’t be for the better.
There’ll be more nameyour-score cupcakes and fewer glorious stretches like the one were in the midst of. Because most Power 5 schools aren’t keen on raising ticket prices to pay the tab for a nothing-burger midmajor, they are likely to start looking for cheaper options.
Now, one cheaper option for Power 5 teams is other Power 5 teams. OU and OSU and just about every other serious program in the country has taken to scheduling at least one non-conference game against another Power 5 opponent. There are lots of reasons for that — strengthening schedules, bolstering playoff resumes, enticing fans, endearing broadcast partners — but increasingly, money has to be part of the equation.
When Power 5 teams do a home-and-home series, they agree to nearly identical payouts. What OU gave Ohio State a few years ago when the Buckeyes came to Norman, for example, Ohio State then gave to OU last year when the Sooners went to Columbus.
The guaranteed money is a financial wash.
That is a huge incentive for Power 5 teams to seek non-conference series with other Power 5s.
But as great as it would be for OU and OSU to play every non-conference game against teams like Alabama, Clemson and Ohio State, that isn’t feasible. No one else is doing it — Big 12 teams already play 10 Power 5 opponents as it is — so there’s no incentive to jam pack every last spot in those non-conference schedules.
But at this point, there’s diminishing incentive to schedule good midmajor teams that want $1 million or more for a onegame series.
“If School A is willing to pay a big number, that’s what those schools in that market think they should be able to get,” said OSU deputy director of athletics Chad Weiberg, who oversees the Cowboys’ football scheduling. “If they are able to get that at certain places, of course that’s where they’re going to go. It just makes it difficult for those of us who don’t want to pay that much.”
OSU would prefer a non-conference slate with a Power 5 opponent, an opponent willing to schedule a home-andhome series like Boise State was and a one-time “buy game” in Stillwater.
“But that may have to be adjusted if that becomes financially not feasible,” Weiberg said.
Plenty of traditional powers are saying the same.
OU has South Dakota on the schedule next season, Missouri State the following year. In modern history, the Sooners have played only six Football Championship Series teams, programs formerly known as NCAA Division I-AA, and Castiglione isn’t thrilled with playing two in as many seasons.
But he’s even less thrilled about the alternatives.
“I hate to say it this way, but if someone considers the name of the school asking for an exorbitant guarantee versus the name of the university that we might be able to schedule that’s an FCS opponent,” he said, “I don’t think our fans would respect the difference in what we would have to pay to get that game. It’s not a question of a university disrespecting any opponent. You just get to a financial formula that is no longer wise.”
Castiglione, who says FCS opponents can be as much as a million dollars cheaper to schedule, recognizes there will come a point when those bigger guarantees have to be paid, but he doesn’t believe OU has to go that route every year.
“We’re electing to make some strategic decisions in certain years, but we are not — and I emphasis not— moving to a philosophy where we will schedule an FCS opponent every single year. Not doing that,” Castiglione said. “But there are certain years were strategically it might make some sense.”
At this rate, it’s going to make more and more sense for Power 5 teams like OU and OSU to go that route.
The head understands. But the heart aches. You see what is possible, the interesting matchups, the intriguing games, and you want more, not less. You want meat and potatoes, not nothingburgers.