College Football Season Openers Not What They Used To Be

It's really kind of sad that the start of the college football just ain't what it used to be. With the NCAA adding a 12th game to the schedules back in 2006 athletic administrators were scrambling to fill that extra date, and with little time to do so. Thanks to that, the much-anticipated season kickoff just doesn't measure up to expectations.

Division I schools need every win they can get to keep their post-season hopes alive. Why would they want to schedule a potential loss when there is little reward for doing so? A win is a win, right?

When the scheduling race kicked in there was a tremendous "supply & demand" issue. D-I schools needed a game, and a win, and smaller schools were happy to deliver--at a price. Division I-AA (aka Football Championship Series) and smaller D-I schools (whose conference champ does not get an automatic slot in the post-season Bowl Championship Series) pocket a minimum of $400,000 for filling those dates. That's why we see names roll across the scoreboard that seem pretty foreign to a lot of football fans.

A sampling from I-AA would be the likes of Charleston Southern, Wofford, Liberty, and a whole bunch of directional schools. Just some of the D-I schools supplementing their budgets with the scheduling bonanza are Florida International, Florida Atlantic, Troy, Louisiana-Lafayette, Louisiana-Monroe and more directional schools. These are not household names, but with the pressure on coaches and administrators to deliver a winner, schools like these will continue to dot the early pre-conference schedule for the major schools.

Seeing these "match-ups" (using the term loosely) makes me remember when there were many less bowl games and the bowls were tied to conference champions and a handful of at-large teams with great records. If you didn't win the Big Ten or Pac-8 you didn't go to the Rose Bowl or just about any other bowl. If you didn't win the old Southwest Conference and go to the Cotton Bowl chances were you would be staying home for the holidays. The same goes for the Big 8 and the Orange Bowl.

Unfortunately, at the risk of not getting to a bowl, or not reaching an upper tier/bigger name bowl that will provide for larger pay day and more exposure for their programs, or possibly even playing for the national title, the early season weekends with a full slate of great inter-sectional games has passed. This past weekend there were a handful of head to head early conference clashes and a couple of border or intra-state rivalry games that sparked some interest. But, aside from that all we had was Oklahoma St.-Georgia, Oklahoma-BYU, Alabama-Va Tech, and LSU-Washington with Florida State-Miami yet to come, as of this writing.

Let's take a look at some high profile football programs' schedules over the years--this year and then 5, 10, 20 & 30 years ago. Penn St. has only been in a conference since 1993, so they drop out as the years go further back. See for yourself how the scheduling philosophy, based upon degree of difficulty, has changed (or not) for these teams.

2009

FLORIDA--Charleston Southern, Troy, Florida International, Florida St.

MICHIGAN--W. Michigan, Notre Dame, E. Michigan, Delaware State

PENN ST.--Akron, Syracuse, Temple, E. Illinois

TEXAS--Louisiana-Monroe, Wyoming, UTEP, Central Florida

LSU--Washington, Louisiana-Lafayette, Louisiana Tech, Tulane

USC--San Jose St., Ohio State, Notre Dame

2004

FLORIDA--E. Michigan, Middle Tennessee, Florida St.

MICHIGAN--Miami (OH), Notre Dame, San Diego St.

PENN ST.--Akron, Boston College, Central Florida

TEXAS--North Texas, Rice, Arkansas

LSU--Oregon St., Arkansas State, Troy

USC--Virginia Tech, Colorado St., BYU, Notre Dame

1999

FLORIDA--Western Michigan, Central Florida, Florida St.

MICHIGAN--Notre Dame, Rice, Syracuse

PENN ST.--Arizona, Akron, Pitt, Miami

TEXAS--N.C. State, Stanford, Rutgers, Rice

LSU--San Jose St., North Texas, Houston

USC--Hawaii, San Diego St., Notre Dame, Louisiana Tech

1989

FLORIDA--Louisiana Tech, Memphis, New Mexico, Florida St.

MICHIGAN--Notre Dame, UCLA, Maryland

TEXAS--Colorado, SMU, Penn St.

LSU--Texas A&M, Florida St., Ohio U.

USC--Illinois, Utah St., Ohio St., Notre Dame

1979

FLORIDA--Houston, Ga Tech, Tulsa, Miami

MICHIGAN--Notre Dame, Kansas, California

TEXAS--Iowa St., Missouri, Rice

LSU--Colorado, Rice, USC

USC--Texas Tech, Minnesota, LSU, Notre Dame