University of North Texas Athletics
Green Gang: Championship Subdivision Games Not Worth It
8/21/2009 12:00:00 AM | Return to Play
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| By Stephen Howard, August 21, 2009 - 1:42 p.m. |
I'm sorry Mean Green fans. My colleague Steven Bartolotta must have gotten a hold of some bad mushrooms in the Champs Cafeteria. He didn't mean that folks, I think ...
I'm here to tell you, playing a Division I-AA opponent is ALWAYS a lose-lose proposition.
I'm glad he mentioned the Nicholls State game in 2002, because that is the last time we played a team from the division now using the churched-up moniker "Football Championship Subdivision", and we will hopefully never dip into those ranks again.
Ask anyone in Ann Arbor, Mich., and they will tell you - Never play a I-AA team. If you win the game, which isn't a guarantee in recent years with the diversity of talent in this country, it won't count towards anything. You don't get any respect for the win (you're supposed to beat a I-AA team afterall), and it doesn't help qualify you for a bowl. Only games against Division I-A opponents count towards bowl eligibility, and North Texas isn't in any position to be tossing games out the window.
If you lose the game, you have just paid a ton of money to an inferior opponent to come into your stadium and make you the laughing stock of college football. Congratulations, welcome to the Sportscenter "Not Top 10 Plays".
Don't kid yourself guys, a bunch of these teams can really play. I don't think anyone will schedule Appalachian State ever again after Michigan and LSU got all they could handle from the Mountaineers. And don't give me that crap about "Michigan was terrible that year". They won the Capital One Bowl over Florida later that season. Appy State was just that good.
And so are a host of other FCS teams. Each year an increasing amount of FCS upsets happen, and I don't care to see my alma-mater be one of them. Teams from much bigger conferences than ours fall every year to FCS squads.
The risk isn't close to worth the reward. No thanks!
