FanPost

Should the NCAA mandate a home-and-home format for OOC play?


I was checking out Rivals.com the other day and read an article about the top ten teams in the AP poll and what their weak spots are.  Pretty standard fare, really.  Nothing special to read there.  But I'll give you the link.  There is something else there you should read.  

Link to Rivals.com article

Scroll down to the bottom of the page and look for the line that reads "Oh, man, I can't stop laughing."  Yeah, it certainly doesn't help make the article look more promising...


 The article is basically a short bit about Boise State's president Bob Kustra and athletic director Gene Bleymaier.  They are both of the mindset that BCS programs dominate the OOC schedules of the rest of college football.

In separate interviews recently, Boise State president Bob Kustra and athletic director Gene Bleymaier said they will ask the NCAA to mandate home-and-home football series.

Seriously. They said that.

In separate interviews with Matt Hayes of the Sporting News and Dennis Dodd of CBSSports.com, Bleymaier was especially outspoken.

"I think we've really dropped the ball as an organization.  The NCAA should mandate this at any time," he told Dodd.

And Kustra, who made news earlier this summer for some disparaging remarks about archrival Idaho's fan base, told Dodd this: "There is a fairly compelling case to be made that the Big Ten, Big 12, SEC and Pac-10 over the years have controlled the scheduling. All the large conferences ... There's an overwhelming number of home games for the big guys but no home-and-home. ... We want to propose to the NCAA a mandated home-and-home scheduling arrangement for I-A non-conference football games. Why should Boise State go to Georgia, but more than likely they're not going to return it?"

Well, you certainly have to admire their chutzpah, but their statements lead me to ask this: How dumb are these guys?

The "big guys," as Kustra calls them, are the big guys because of the free-market system. The Alabamas, Floridas, Ohio States, Oklahomas, Penn States and Texases of the world do control the scheduling, and the reason, Bob and Gene, is because of economics.

Asking the NCAA to force schools of that nature to play at Boise State -- and San Jose State and New Mexico State and Eastern Michigan and Kent State and Louisiana-Monroe and Florida International and ... well, you get the idea -- has about as much chance of happening as Utah changing its mind and moving to the WAC instead of the Pac-10.

Well, its kind of obvious how the author of the article feels about the whole thing.  But how do YOU feel about it?  Certainly I see the merit of scheduling "creampuffs."  The financial gain of selling out a home game, the ease in schedule, and the lack of SoS being a factor in the BCS formula are all known.  But you would have to admit that making this a NCAA mandate would certainly level the playing field between the Floridas and, well, anyone else who actually travels outside of their home state for OOC play.

Fanposts are a section for the fans and do NOT reflect the views of Tomahawk Nation.