The cash cow is going dry

The days of Jackrabbits sacking Nebraska quarterbacks could be numbered.

If you have been closely watching the tea leaves of college football, I guess you could figure this day was coming.

On Tuesday, Wisconsin athletic director and Rose Bowl football coach moonlighter Barry Alvarez said the Big Ten Conference has decided to stop scheduling FCS football games. Closer to home, North Dakota State athletic director Gene Taylor said he knows not every athletic director in the Big Ten is fully aboard.

A lot of teams have a bunch of FCS games scheduled out for the next five seasons or so. You can check out the Missouri Valley's list on the right side of this page or click here.

With the addition of Maryland and Rutgers and the near inevitability of the conference to go to nine or 10 games of Big Ten play, we should not be surprised by this move.

The games are somewhat beneficial for Big Ten teams because they provide an extra home game and a 98 percent chance of winning. What more do you want, Purdue?

But the reality is that outside of die-hard fans of the Wolverines and Hawkeyes and the fans of the FCS schools playing in the game, nobody cares about these games. Everyone is always complaining about how every SEC team plays an inept SWAC team in early November and it's not because people don't like Alabama State, another great institution of higher education in America. It's because Alabama State sucks. (Tavaris Jackson too.)

At the same time, there is a good reason why the games are played from the FCS end. These games are often times a serious way for schools to fund their athletic programs. Savannah State made $860,000 last year to get its proverbial butts kicked at Florida State and Oklahoma State. That can be worth it, if it pays for tennis, soccer and softball. Missouri State has been known to come out well financially from these games and perennial power Northern Iowa played at Iowa and Wisconsin last year to help the bottomline.

If you win, even better. We all know about Appalachian State because of their ability to knock off Michigan in the Big House to open the 2007 season. North Dakota State has regularly won these games but that's not the norm. SDSU's 13-10 loss at Minnesota in 2009 and 17-3 loss at Nebraska in 2010 represents the good in the recent "money games." They don't celebrate the 55-0 rear kicking at Illinois in 2011 and for good reason.

Plus, the games provide some much needed visibility for recruiting and otherwise. South Dakota has played at Central Florida, Air Force and Northwestern in recent years and those three states -- Florida, Colorado and Illinois -- have high school talent that the Coyotes would love to have. The same can be said for when Montana opened the season at Tennessee in 2011. That's tremendous visibility, both nationally and for local recruits to connect the team on the field with the colorful stationary that pops up in their mailboxes every day.

This post at footballscoop.com raises some pretty good points in favor of FCS but I think there's a chance the lower-level schools benefit some from this. Because there will be no incentive to pay D-II or NAIA schools to come play, it could force teams to play other FCS teams, which can only help for competition and selections come playoff time. For SDSU, it might open up more teams that could come up to Brookings for a September game, much like UC Davis last year.

Speaking of the Jackrabbits, they could get some money out of Minnesota if the Gophers and the Big Ten have to buy out their scheduled opponents past 2016, which is believed to be the start date of this new policy. I would rather see the two teams on the field but I guess that can't be the case.

What I do know is this: The large schools usually get what they want and the SEC has some pull. I could see those teams playing FCS opponents going forward because their conference is so good. The Big Ten doesn't always have that particular luxury. They're going to need better non-conference scheduling to make the new playoff system. In that instance, they can't afford to play the Indiana Teachers Colleges of the world.

If the Big Ten is out, that's bad news for the Missouri Valley Football Conference and more importantly, its school's budgets.

Kriens: The Poll Truth

Editor's Note: Travis Kriens is good friend of Traxler's Take and staff assistant for media relations at Tennessee State University. He is also a voter in the weekly Sports Network Top 25 FCS Poll.

What is the purpose of polls in sports?



In every sport not named Football Bowl Subdivision level college football, a playoff at the end of the regular season decides the eventual champion. FBS is also the only sport that takes the top two teams at the end of the regular season and faces them off to determine that season’s champion. Besides that, what is the reason we rank teams week after week?

In this week’s Football College Subdivision media poll, there are two examples of confusion.



South Dakota State is the first team receiving votes outside of the Top 25 and has a 5-2 record. Indiana State is ranked #15 and has a 6-2 record. These two teams played last month in Terre Haute, Ind., and Jacks soundly defeated the Sycamores, 24-10. Those that have Indiana State ranked over SDSU will argue ISU’s 17-14 win at then #1 North Dakota State is proof the Sycamores are the better team. I would argue the 14 points win for SDSU when the two teams faced each other is the reason why I have SDSU (#20) ranked ahead of Indiana State (#21).



There is a similar situation in the Ohio Valley Conference. #18 Eastern Kentucky is 6-2, while #21 Tennessee State is 7-1. TSU defeated EKU 23-20 less than three weeks ago. How you can have EKU ranked ahead of TSU when the two teams played recently and EKU lost is beyond me.



In a month's time, the regular season will be over and this won’t matter much because the FCS selection committee will take over. They'll select the 20 teams that will qualify for the 2012 playoffs and have a chance at the national championship. The polls at that point are meaningless. There will be a few teams inside the Top 20 that don’t qualify and a few teams outside the Top 20 that will and that's far from unusual.

It should be noted that the weekly coaches' poll is no better when it comes to ranking teams. So what is the purpose of ranking these teams week after week?



"I think the polls capture the national landscape,” said Craig Haley, who is The Sports Network Senior Editor/FCS Executive Director. “I think they are a guide for the members of the FCS playoff committee, but strength of schedule and results are important."



There are 121 universities that play at the FCS level. That’s a lot of teams to keep track of, so if the Top 25 does anything, it is used as a barometer. You may watch one or two FCS games a week from start to finish. How do the voters keep track of them and know that team A is better than team B or better than team C?

"Well, so much information is at the tip of our fingers with the Internet, so it's easy to be informed,” Haley said. “I send out a scoreboard to the voters before they vote. Over time, a team's scores usually reflect what kind of team it is."

That is really the only way to do a national poll the takes into account such a large quantity of teams. However, there is no way to watch the amount of games that you would need in order to make an informed and fair decision. As we know, the box score, the stats and the final score don’t always tell the story.



So who makes up the voting population?


"I hope all the voters are objective because The Sports Network wants a widespread panel reflecting all the FCS conferences,” Haley explained. “We have about 175 voters. Personally, I value the bigger conferences a bit more on my ballot, but I like schools that play a tougher schedule."



"I think the depth of the poll speaks volumes,” Haley continues. “We've been around a long time and the FCS schools respect The Sports Network. But in addition to the media, we have voters who are SIDs (Sports Information Directors). I think that can cause a problem if a voter tries to favor his school and conference. I see the ballots and it's not rampant, but it happens."



In last week’s poll, Georgia State picked up their first win of the season to improve to 1-6. They received 23 points in the poll, which is the same as voting a team third in the country. It’s no coincidence that Georgia Southern is a top ranked team and that whoever put Georgia State third meant to put Georgia Southern. Those are the kind of mistakes that can’t and shouldn’t be made by a voter.

Why do voters punish teams for losing to higher ranked teams? For example, if #15 loses to #1, why is #15 dropped in the polls the next week? Are they any worse of a team because they lost a game everyone expected them too? You, the voter, placed them at #15, which says that you don’t think they are as good as the #1 team or any team above them.



Late in September, #21 Montana lost to #7 Eastern Washington on the road by six points and dropped out of the Top 25 to #28. They dropped seven spots for losing a close game that they were expected to lose.



The most polarizing team early in the season was Northern Iowa. A top 10 team in the preseason poll, the Panthers lost four of their first five games to Big Ten foes Wisconsin (26-21) and Iowa (27-16), #3 ranked Youngstown State (42-35) and then #1 NDSU (33-21). Four games that Northern Iowa was not expected to win, all on the road expect for NDSU. People could not figure out how someone could vote for UNI despite being 1-4. They didn’t lose any games to anyone ranked lower than they were. If you vote with the philosophy of ranking the teams one through 25 based on who you think is better, it’s not that far-fetched to consider the Panthers as a ranked team. They did defeat SDSU this past Saturday 27-6 to knock the Jacks out of the polls.



Polls are most prevalent in college sports but in recent years they have made their way into professional sports.

 I don’t know of many things that are a bigger waste of time than putting together or reading NFL power rankings. They matter about as much as your single vote in the upcoming November elections. At the end of the season, the teams with the most wins make the playoffs. End of discussion.

That is not the case in college sports. With so many teams and a wide variety of schedules, you just can’t go by wins and losses. Recently, it seems like voters don’t even go by that anymore.

2011 MVFC Preview: Northern Iowa

My preview of Missouri Valley Football Conference teams continues with Northern Iowa today. Prior previews can be found on the right side of the page.

I could just start and finish this preview right now by saying that "UNI is really good and is the favorite to win the conference." While the above does pretty much sum up the passerby's view of the Panthers, I wouldn't be doing UNI justice. The Panthers are the conference's defending champions but found themselves on the wrong end of a 14-7 decision in the first round of the FCS playoffs last year at the UNI-Dome. With 18 returning starters, UNI has some unfinished business to take care of if they want to be more than just a footnote in conference history.

UNI quarterback Tirrell Rennie

Offense

Life is not rough for the Panther offense right now, especially since nearly everyone returns from an offense that averaged 382 yards per game last year. Tirrell Rennie starts at quarterback and he is a terrific dual-threat quarterback, rushing for 1,291 yards and 15 touchdowns and passing for 1,526 yards and eight touchdowns in 2010. To show Rennie's importance, UNI ran 760 plays last year and the quarterback either threw it or carried it 400 times. Running back Carlos Anderson helps to form solid duo in the backfield and with four of last year's five offensive linemen returning, both of these players should be effective in moving the UNI ground game. Leading receiver Jarred Herring will likely be the primary target after catching five touchdowns last year.

It should be noted that UNI finished 7-5 last year, so what went wrong? The Panthers were actually pretty bad once they got inside the 20 yard-line. UNI scored on 30 of their 45 trips (67 percent) to the red zone last season, which is fairly low and opponents scored 84 percent of the time last year when inside the 20 against UNI. The Panthers scored touchdowns 17 of 45 red zone possessions in 2010 and UNI will have to be better than that this year.

UNI safety Andre Martin

Defense
UNI loses its leading tackler from 2010, linebacker Jamar Thompson but with the Panthers returning 10 starters, the defense should remain stout. Darren Branch, Ben Boothby, and Will Eilert return to form the defensive line, with Boothby leading the line with 9.5 sacks last year. L.J. Fort had 92 tackles last year and will likely lead the linebacking corps and safety Andre Martin, who had 77 tackles as a freshman last year will do the same in the secondary.

UNI could afford to be a little more consistent on defense. In their two MVFC losses last year, UNI gave up 45 points in an overtime loss to Southern Illinois and lost 30-14 to Western Illinois in the regular season finale. It may be nitpicking when UNI gave up an average of 21 points per game last year but it's not a stretch to say that the best teams will play consistently from week to week.

Outlook
For all that's been said about UNI and how great they could be, there's a decent chance that they start the season at 0-2. The Panthers will head to Ames to take on in-state rival Iowa State, following that up by partaking in a rematch with Stephen F. Austin. The Leathernecks beat UNI, 22-20 in Cedar Falls last year and this will likely be a premier non-conference matchup in the FCS.

The pressure is squarely on UNI to win the conference and they will be the going away preseason favorite when the poll is released. Considering the relative parity in the Valley, I would expect at least one loss for the team that wins the conference, UNI or not. Without question, this team has the potential to do all of that and be in the running late in the year for a national championship. The difference will mean that the Panthers will have to handle crunch time better than last year.

Up Next: Southern Illinois (No South Dakota St. preview. More can be read on the Jackrabbits in the coming weeks.)
All photos by the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier