Did you notice of the 74-college football games played opening weekend only 50 of them were listed on the Las Vegas betting board? That is because the first couple weeks of the college football season are full what I call, “Cross Matches” between schools of different NCAA levels. The Las Vegas betting board only lists match-ups between NCAA Division 1A schools. For instance Boise State, a Division 1A member of the Western Athletic Conference played Sacramento State on Thursday, Aug 31st. This game was a non-board game because of Sacramento State’s lower affiliation. Had Boise State been playing a team of its own Division 1A level, the game would have been listed.
Opening week (Aug 31-Sept 4) 24 Major College Division 1A schools locked horns with schools of the lower division NCAA Division 1AA. The major difference has to do with scholarship limits. An NCAA Division 1A school is allowed to have 85 football players on scholarship at one time while an NCAA Division 1AA school is only allowed to have 63 players on scholarship at one time. So you see, there is a significant disadvantage for the 1AA program.
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I am sure you are wondering. Why would a major school want to play a non-major or Division 1AA school anyway? There are several reasons. The biggest or most common reason a big school would play a little school is there aren’t enough big schools to go around. This is especially true now that the NCAA has allowed schedule expansion to 12 games. Another reason is money. The answer to the money scenario is two fold. A big school has to pay another big school a larger split of the pot. And big schools generally want a return home date too. That can also vary depending on the prestige of the individual league. If a major team from the SEC like Tennessee schedules a major team from the Sun Belt Conference you can just about assume the game will be played in Knoxville and there will not be a contract for a return date. In other words, Tennessee might play Florida Atlantic for a warm up but Tennessee would never give FAU a return date. Nor would FAU really want a return date either. Why? Because Tennessee will give FAU a fat check in the quarter to half million-dollar range to visit Knoxville and get its brains beat out. By the way, I am only using FAU as an example. I have no idea who the Owls have on their early schedule but I can guarantee this. They will have at least one opponent scheduled where the school can get paid. These lower level schools must fund their programs and I haven’t seen ESPN giving the Sun Belt any big contracts lately. The final reason a Division 1A school would play a smaller school is the warm up factor. A team can start its season off with a win on most occasions and do any fine-tuning that is required before entering the more difficult conference schedule. It’s also important to pad the won-loss ratio. A major school can count one win against a non-major towards its bowl requirement. A major school needs at least 6 wins to be bowl eligible.
There can be a huge down side to scheduling a non-major team. There is some risk involved. If you have an All-American Quarterback who is on the Heisman-Trophy watch list the last thing a coach needs is that player to break a leg in a game with Montana State. Or lets think about the un-thinkable. What if you are a BCS school from a major conference and you lose that warm-up to Montana State? Unthinkable!
Of the 24 games played between majors and non-majors last week the record was a lopsided 22-2 in the major’s favor as it should be. Losing to a Div 1AA school can cost a coach his job especially if the Major is a BCS major. What is a BCS major? That’s another story I can write describing the difference between a BCS major and a Mid-Major. Actually there is even a Low-Major. It’s just like Nature. Follow the food chain.
