Scheduling I-AA Teams

So I was reading this little article/list/countdown on Rivals.com. Basically, it's the 12 biggest cupcake games scheduled by I-A college football programs against I-AA teams. You got Oklahoma against Chattanooga, Auburn against Tennessee-Martin, Florida against the Citadel, and so on.

But why the complaints over scheduling easy I-AA teams? What would be the point of scheduling a good I-AA team? Why don't you ask Lloyd Carr and see what he tells you about scheduling top I-AA programs.



Boston College's joke game against Rhode Island was #5 on the list. This was an intriguing comment:

"If Boston College wants to play a I-AA program based in the Northeast, play Massachusetts or New Hampshire, not Rhode Island."



Well, BC played UMass last year. Why the hell would they play good teams like UMass or UNH? No good can come from those games. If you win against a I-AA team, it's no big deal, even if it's a great I-AA team. If you don't blow them out, it's seen as a loss. And if you do lose, your program suffers monumental embarrassment.

And why complain about teams like Florida and Auburn scheduling easy games? Auburn has a tough SEC schedule AND plays West Virginia IN MORGANTOWN!!! They went out and scheduled a strong BCS opponent on the road! I think they get a pass for scheduling a soft game against UT-Martin, especially since it's the week before playing Georgia.

Then Florida, holy Christ! They play Hawaii, Miami, and Florida State for their non-conference games. Then they play Tennessee (in Knoxville), LSU, Kentucky, and Georgia (in Athens) in the SEC. They DESERVE a game against the Citadel.

How about criticizing UConn, who once again has a schedule constructed simply to make them bowl eligible. Here are there non-conference games: Hofstra, @ Temple, Virginia, Baylor, @ North Carolina. They scheduled 3 BCS teams, but two of them are BCS in name only.

How about Rutgers? Navy, Army, UNC, Fresno State? Come on! Once again, big wins over these opponents will catapult them to the top of the polls before they're exposed AGAIN.

And give props to Hawaii, here's there non-conference schedule: @ Florida, Weber State, @ Oregon State, Washington State, Cincinnati. Not bad for a little WAC team.

Look, teams schedule cupcake games for two reasons: to give their team a quasi off week in the middle of the season, OR to give their team a pre-season game at the start of the season. It's annoying, it's usually boring, and by the 3rd quarter, the 4th stringers are in. But that's just the way it is. It's easy to complain about it now, but once college football starts in August, you'll be so hungry for it, you won't care about Auburn beating UL-Monroe 53-6, or Duke winning a game against James Madison, or Oklahoma demolishing Chattanooga 84-3.



-The Commodore