Around FCS: Milking A New Cash Cow

Nearly every team in FCS loves the pay check that comes from playing an FBS opponent. They may not like the "L" that most often shows up in their ledger afterwards, but they like the resources that come from playing those so-called "money" games.

But what if some of the FCS schools could play high-profile games against other FCS teams and still come away with a nice payday? In the case of Appalachian State, McNeese State and Montana, that was a large part of the thinking when the three perennial FCS powerhouses announced a series of attractive home-and-home dates last week.

ASU and Montana have become the poster children for attendance in FCS, routinely filling Kidd Brewer Stadium and Washington-Grizzly Stadium to the brim for home games.

Appalachian State had a school-record crowd of 30,931 fans for a nationally- televised Halloween game with Wofford last fall and averaged 25,161 fans for eight home games - including two in the playoffs. Montana packed an average of 23,923 fans into its house last season in nine home games to finish first in overall home attendance.

And McNeese State's Cowboy Stadium has always been one of the subdivision's top home venues, even though it is a bit smaller than either ASU or Montana's spiffy digs.

These three FCS heavyweights have scheduled six games with each other beginning in 2012. McNeese State was already slated to travel to North Carolina to rededicate ASU's renovation facilities in September, the first- ever meeting for the two teams.

As part of the deal, a home-and-home arrangement between ASU and McNeese State will be moved back one year to 2014 in Lake Charles, LA. and 2015 in Boone, N.C.

ASU will host Montana on Sept. 1, 2012 and will travel to Missoula, MT. in 2013. Montana will then head to McNeese State on Sept. 3, 2016 and will host the Cowboys on Sept. 2, 2017.

Appalachian State and Montana met just once before in a memorable 2000 playoff game. On the verge of losing, Troy Albea turned a Joe Burchette tunnel screen pass into a fourth-down miracle to set up Mark Wright's game-tying field goal at the end of regulation. But Jimmy Farris hauled in a fade route from 15 yards out in the corner of the end zone to lift the Grizzlies to a 19-16 overtime victory at home.

McNeese State bumped Montana out of the playoffs twice, with a 19-14 victory in the 1997 first round and a 24-20 win in the 2002 quarterfinals, both in Lake Charles, while Montana notched a 30-28 triumph in the 1994 quarterfinals and a 31-6 trouncing in the 2006 first round in Missoula.

Each home team will provide a $100,000 guarantee to the visitors to offset travel and the contracts contain a $250,000 buyout clause.

These games are sure to be sellouts that will generate a tremendous amount of income for the home teams and they could create the same type of buzz that last season's Appalachian State-James Madison encounter was able to build.

"This is good for Appalachian, but it's especially good for all of FCS football," ASU coach Jerry Moore said. "People look forward to games like Ohio State-Texas and Notre Dame-USC on the FBS level, so it's great to give fans of our programs and FCS in general the opportunity to have games of a similar magnitude to look forward to as well. Also, I've always been a believer that to become a good football team, you have to play good football teams and these matchups certainly fit the bill in that regard." Fans from Montana and Appalachian State in particular had long asked their administrators to schedule a home-and-home arrangement with these two powerhouses, but the Grizzlies and Mountaineers managed to come up with something even better by working McNeese State into the package.

"This is an exciting venture for all three programs," said Montana athletic director Jim O'Day, who worked with ASU AD Charlie Cobb last year on the NCAA Football Division I football committee. "I know our coaches, players and Griz fans everywhere think very highly of these two football powers, and it will be great for the FCS to have six non-conference games featuring top-tier schools from different parts of the country. These game should generate a lot of national interest." McNeese State athletic director Tommy McClelland agreed with O'Day's assessment.

"Scheduling quality non-conference opponents is critical to the mission and vision of what we're trying to do," said McClelland. "It's exciting to our fans, our community and to our institution.

This is exciting for FCS football. It has national interest.

Among the three of us there have been 10 national championship appearances and that speaks for itself." Hopefully, this trend won't stop with Appalachian State, McNeese State and Montana. Why can't other premier schools like Northern Iowa, Delaware, Georgia Southern, James Madison, Southern Illinois, Massachusetts, Cal Poly and others also get into this scheduling act? It would definitely be a good thing for building the FCS brand.

AT THE OTHER END OF THE SPECTRUM While most FCS fans can be excited about the ASU-McNeese State-Montana axis, the same type of interest wasn't there when FCS newcomer Georgia State announced that it had signed a contract to play Alabama in its inaugural 2010 campaign.

Hopefully, Curry won't have to watch his former team, Alabama, beat his current one by such a margin in 2010.

But such a game could have as big an impact on Alabama as it might on Georgia State's fragile psyche. With only two scholarship classes in place for Georgia State when the contest is played, the game will not count towards Alabama's bowl eligibility, unless NCAA Football rules are changed.