NCAA Football Cheating: Playing 8 Games at Home

by Sportprojections

As I looked at schedules for the remainder of the season, I saw a couple of very disturbing schedules. Some top teams have eight home games this season.

The List:

Rutgers - The Scarlet Knights go on the road only four times: against Syracuse, Connecticut, Army, and Louisville. Since Louisville has fallen on hard times, the schedule seems far too padded for a team ranked #10 in the country and that has an excellent shot at a BCS bowl game.

Kentucky – Fortunately, the Wildcats play in the SEC and must face Florida and LSU at home to prove its value. However, if LSU or Florida were only playing four games on the road, wouldn’t we be calling foul?

Arizona State - The Sun Devils reached the Top 25 this week. It probably helps when you go 4-0 by inviting teams into the desert and kick-off is around 100 degrees.

Michigan – How are the Wolverines #31 in votes in the AP this week? Every college fan has been watching curiously at Michigan’s season. Has anyone noticed the team hasn’t left Ann Arbor yet this year? It only plays away at Northwestern, Illinois, Michigan State, and Wisconsin. No wonder Michigan was ranked in the top 5 in preseason polls.

Isn’t playing eight games at home a form of cheating? Do the pollsters even consider the schedule when they vote for teams during the season? Many teams still play only six games at home. Two extra home games is a huge advantage and may cost other teams millions of dollars when invitations to bowl games are received at the end of the season. I don’t blame teams for wanting more home games, but if we aren’t having a playoff in college football, we need to factor in these schedules and penalize their ranking accordingly.

Chris

SportProjections.com

TylersaltAll-Star

826 days ago

Score 1

teams should be required to play the same number of games at home as everyone else. I'm not sure about as many away games as home games, as there are academics to consider, but there shouldn't be a discrepancy in the number of home games teams play.

Permalink | Reply

WoodsmeisterVarsity Captain

826 days ago

Score 0

It's all about the revenue. If you can get small schools to come into your house and take the money, then why shouldn't you do it. It's clear that there seems to be no penalty for doing so.

Permalink | Reply

KdubdubWaterboy

826 days ago

Score 2

This is just another reason why there should be a playoff system. What if Michigan would have pulled it off against App St. and Dixon got hurt in the first half. They would be #3-5 right now...looking at an undefeated season. Only to run into USC, LSU, or OK and then finally shown to be the pretender they are.

Permalink | Reply

RawbeezeitzMajor Leaguer

826 days ago

Score 1

You could spend a lifetime analyzing the scheduling peculiarities of D-IA teams. Some teams play 2 I-AA schools, some play 1, some play none. Western Kentucky played an NAIA team (West Virginia Tech) and crushed them 87-0.

Then you got the Big Ten. Remember when OSU played Miami for the national title? Imagine if OSU had to play co-champions Iowa that year. Or imagine if OSU had to play Wisconsin last year.

Then you have teams like USC who usually schedule a tough opponent, often on the road, but always after a week off or after a cupcake game.

Then there's the independents who schedule whoever is willing to play with them.

The fact of the matter is, the abundance of home games is about money. The big programs know they can fill their massive stadiums no matter who they play. Michigan will have just under 900,000 fans come through the Big House this year. And for the smaller programs, they usually get a big fat check (Appalachian State got around $400k to play Michigan), and they get some national exposure, and the chance to pull an upset and be on SportsCenter for a week. Hell, how much publicity has Wofford gotten for simply beating Appalachian State, the team that beat Michigan?

To paraphrase some lines in Apocalypse Now: The bullshit piles up so high and so fast in the Bowl Subdivision, you need wings to stay above it.

Is it any wonder it's called the Bowl Subdivision (BS)?

Permalink | Reply