Interesting football scheduling

[ULou89]

Saw this and thought it was an interesting way for a big name team to schedule other schools in their state. Seems like a win-win for everyone. Wish LSU would do something like this:

Michigan State announces unique FB series
Thursday, August 20, 2009 11:24am

Michigan State has reached an agreement to play four games each against in-state MAC schools, Central Michigan, Eastern Michigan, and Western Michigan over a 10-year period, the school announced today on its official website. The Spartans will travel to each MAC school as part of the agreement.
The Spartans will play it's 3 in-state counterparts as part of a "Celebrate The State" concept in 12 games from 2011-2020.
Michigan State will host Central Michigan in 2011, 2015, and 2018, and travel to Mount Pleasant in 2012.
The Spartans will host Eastern Michigan in 2012, 2014, and 2016, while playing in Ypsilanti in either 2018 or 2020, marking its first trip there since 1899.
Western Michigan will travel to Michigan State in 2013, 2017, and 2019, and host the Spartans in Kalamazoo in 2015 -- for the first time since 1905.

GEAUX CAJUNS!

[bballholic]

From a financial standpoint, it just doesn't make sense for LSU to travel to Monroe, Ruston or Lafayette to play in front of 30,000-40,000 fans when they can sell 90,000+ tickets while hosting the game in Baton Rouge. Most LSU fans that I know would like to have the 10 year series with Tulance cancelled ASAP. Now, I do like the rotation to play in-state schools on a consistent basis. Michigan State has always played second fiddle to Michigan, and I doubt you will see the Wolverines strike a similar deal anytime soon.

[CajunRage]

_ From a financial standpoint, it just doesn't make sense for LSU to travel to Monroe, Ruston or Lafayette to play in front of 30,000-40,000 fans when they can sell 90,000+ tickets while hosting the game in Baton Rouge. Most LSU fans that I know would like to have the 10 year series with Tulance cancelled ASAP. Now, I do like the rotation to play in-state schools on a consistent basis. Michigan State has always played second fiddle to Michigan, and I doubt you will see the Wolverines strike a similar deal anytime soon. _

From a financial standpoint, LSU (a state school) could play their one OOC game in the state and keep the money here (at other state schools), but looking at history, helping state schools other than LSU is against Louisiana policy.

[CajunRage]

_ From a financial standpoint, LSU (a state school) could play their one OOC road game in the state and keep the money here (at other state schools), but looking at history, helping state schools other than LSU is against Louisiana policy. _

meant to hit edit instead of quote... i added "road" game

[bballholic]

_ From a financial standpoint, LSU (a state school) could play their one OOC game in the state and keep the money here (at other state schools), but looking at history, helping state schools other than LSU is against Louisiana policy. _

I don't see Florida going to FAU, Bama going to Troy, UT going to MTSU, UT going to UNT, etc. Sorry, I'd rather make the road trip to Seattle, Tuscon, Temple, Morgantown, Blacksburg, etc. Let's see, open up the 2010 season with UNC in Atlanta or play ULM in Monroe? Travel to Morgantown in 2011 or play in Ruston. In order to schedule series with teams like Arizona, Arizona State, Va Tech, Washington, West Virginia it's imperative that LSU schedule a home and away series with these schools. I'm all for LSU playing in-state schools, but not outside of Baton Rouge or New Orleans.

[zephyr]

_ I don't see Florida going to FAU, Bama going to Troy, UT going to MTSU, UT going to UNT, etc. Sorry, I'd rather make the road trip to Seattle, Tuscon, Temple, Morgantown, Blacksburg, etc. Let's see, open up the 2010 season with UNC in Atlanta or play ULM in Monroe? Travel to Morgantown in 2011 or play in Ruston. In order to schedule series with teams like Arizona, Arizona State, Va Tech, Washington, West Virginia it's imperative that LSU schedule a home and away series with these schools. I'm all for LSU playing in-state schools, but not outside of Baton Rouge or New Orleans. _

He was simply commending MSU on their willingness to get out and travel to some of the other state schools. I doubt it is financially beneficial to them also but they're doing it. I know this is not the norm, but rather the exception, so it doesn't really bother me but I do not know what LSU is receiving to go to Washington to open the season so I won't pretend to make something up but I have to believe its not done for financial reasons.

[bballholic]

I do not know what LSU is receiving to go to Washington to open the season so I won't pretend to make something up but I have to believe its not done for financial reasons. _

Well, I know LSU is receiving a return trip from UW in a couple of years. I also know that former LSU chancellor Mark Emmert (he's now at UW) played a significant role in setting up this home and away series. IF LSU wants to bring in BCS teams like Wash, Va Tech, Arizona, Arizona St, West Virginia, etc then it's a must for LSU to travel to these places as well. In the end, money will obviously be the deciding factor in almost every scheduling decision. But like you said, you do have to give MSU some credit for changing things up a bit.

[CajunT]

_ Well, I know LSU is receiving a return trip from UW in a couple of years. I also know that former LSU chancellor Mark Emmert (he's now at UW) played a significant role in setting up this home and away series. IF LSU wants to bring in BCS teams like Wash, Va Tech, Arizona, Arizona St, West Virginia, etc then it's a must for LSU to travel to these places as well. In the end, money will obviously be the deciding factor in almost every scheduling decision. But like you said, you do have to give MSU some credit for changing things up a bit. _

LSU doesn't benefit from playing non BCS in state programs on the road. No stadium can seat as much as Tiger stadium, so LSU would lose revenue in playing such games. I think its good their playing in state programs on a rotating basis, until it becomes not in the programs financial interest.

The Cajuns haven't sold their 6,000 ticket allotment for the LSU game, so this might become a problem down the road.

[Bunch24]

From a financial standpoint, it just doesn't make sense for LSU to travel to Monroe, Ruston or Lafayette to play in front of 30,000-40,000 fans when they can sell 90,000+ tickets while hosting the game in Baton Rouge. Most LSU fans that I know would like to have the 10 year series with Tulance cancelled ASAP. Now, I do like the rotation to play in-state schools on a consistent basis. Michigan State has always played second fiddle to Michigan, and I doubt you will see the Wolverines strike a similar deal anytime soon.

Michigan doesn't have to "strike a similar deal." They already play Western, Central and Eastern Michigan on a rotational basis. Michigan State is doing it for the publicity and trying to steal some of those area's fans away from Michigan.

Michigan is a weird state in that the mid-major schools have their own fan bases, but those fans also cheer for one of the Big 10 schools. Eastern and Central Michigan fans tend to be fans of Michigan while Western Michigan fans tend to gravitate toward Michigan State.

As far as I know, the thing with Michigan and the other state schools is not in writing, though. It's just one of those gentlemen agreements.

I know there's been talk of Michigan playing games at Ford Field against Central or Eastern Michigan, but nothing ever materialized. I think when you have a stadium like Michigan Stadium (or Tiger Stadium), you don't have many better options.

[bballholic]

_ Michigan doesn't have to "strike a similar deal." I think when you have a stadium like Michigan Stadium (or Tiger Stadium), you don't have many better options. _

Exactly.

[Bunch24]

Exactly.

I gotcha now. I read your post wrong the first time. I thought you were saying Michigan was "above scheduling the directional Michigan schools."

In other scheduling news, what's everyone's thoughts of Notre Dame thinking about scheduling "home" games in New Orleans? Obviously New Orleans is a big Catholic area, but with LSU being as good as they are now, isn't that quite risky for Notre Dame to assume they'd sell out the Superdome against Hawaii or TCU?

Maybe UL could look into a 2-for-1 deal with Notre Dame where they play two at South Bend and one in the Superdome.

[bballholic]

Maybe UL could look into a 2-for-1 deal with Notre Dame where they play two at South Bend and one in the Superdome. _

That would be SWEET! I remember hearing rumblings a few years about ND trying to play a regular season down in N.O. I could be wrong but I could have sworn I heard ND was playing a game in San Antonio this season?