[Husker] Colorado Series

[Mike Jaixen]

That "ton of money" needs to finance the entire athletic department; it's one of the few programs in the nation that doesn't require state subsidies.

Nebraska's athletic department counts on seven home football games each season.  With an eight game conference football schedule, Nebraska has four conference home games, which allows for the Huskers to go on the road for one of those non-conference games.  

With a nine-game non-conference schedule, Nebraska will have one fewer non-conference game each season, so those seasons when Nebraska only has four conference home games, all three non-conference games will have to be at home.  Nebraska can have a single "home and home" with another opponent each season, but the other two games will have to be against Sun Belt or 1-AA opponents that won't demand that Nebraska play on the road.

If the B1G goes to 10 conference games a season, Nebraska will have five conference games at home each season, but will have to play both non-conference games at home.  If that happens, Nebraska has no choice but to cancel the contracts with Oklahoma and Colorado, and the non-conference slates moving forward will be exclusively "body bag" games.

Mike Jaixen
http://huskermike.blogspot.com
http://www.cornnation.com

--- On Sun, 2/10/13, Dave Ratchford <ratchfromneb at gmail.com> wrote:

From: Dave Ratchford <ratchfromneb at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Husker] Colorado Series
To: "Agris Taurins" <taurins at gmail.com>
Cc: "Mike Jaixen" <mikejaixen at yahoo.com>, "husker at tssi.com" <husker at tssi.com>
Date: Sunday, February 10, 2013, 5:48 PM

Really good post. I hope you are wrong though that it will force the dept to schedule the remaining 3 non-conference games against the non-recip schools.  What if...the dept looks at the millions and millions of dollars that the program already generates and says " y'know, our program is rich. We make a ton of money already. Maybe we only need to schedule 2 laughable opponents this year, rather than our usual 3."  I know, I know ... fat chance. Money, money, money. 
Dave
On Feb 10, 2013, at 6:13 PM, Agris Taurins <taurins at gmail.com> wrote:

I think you're quite wrong with the statement "...But a 9th conference game means one less opportunity to schedule this junk..."

If we go to a 9-game conference schedule (where there's another game 2 out of 4 years that isn't at home) that will practically force the Athletic Dept to schedule the remaining 3 games with whomever will not require a reciprocating home game.  That will probably mean dropping the "bigger" (and implied, "better") programs that require a home-and-home in favor the Directional State team that will come here for an NU home game for several years running.


I honestly believe that it's all driven by money, and we will never get away from it.  I think that (at some level) NU would schedule the likes of Alabama, Oregon & Florida State every year except that those types of programs are in the same situation as we are.  They need home games for the revenue.


An interesting thing for the the athletic department to research would be (for example) "Would a very high (90% +) number of ticket holders be willing for one non-conference game against a Directional State opponent be willing to pay 150% more (going from somewhere around $50 for the ticket to somewhere in the neighborhood of $150) for a regular game against a "name" opponent."  The additional costs would be in place to offset the second year away game that would be required (covering both ticket & concession revenue lost and additional travel expenses).  Although I suspect the Lincoln business community that also economically benefits from home games wouldn't be all that pleased even if season ticket holders would be ok.




On Sun, Feb 10, 2013 at 4:48 PM, Dave Ratchford <ratchfromneb at gmail.com> wrote:

Yes, i know why they play these games (for the money). And of course these games are not going away. The dept knows we will lap up the tickets regardless of the crummy product on the field.  But a 9th conference game means one less opportunity to schedule this junk.




Agree with you that CO is no prize matchup, but at least they are in a major conference.



Dave



On Feb 10, 2013, at 1:13 PM, Mike Jaixen <mikejaixen at yahoo.com> wrote:



>

> Unfortunately, the "pay to play" games are not going away unless something changes with the successor to the BCS to make it financially beneficial for Nebraska play a good team on the road than play a team because they'll come to Lincoln.


>

> Needless to say, I was very disappointed that Nebraska signed a 4 year deal with Colorado.  Those will be four years of painfully uninspiring non-conference schedules, mostly because unless there are major changes made to the Colorado athletic department, I do not see how they can escape the cellar of the Pac-12.


>

> Mike Jaixen

> http://huskermike.blogspot.com

> http://www.cornnation.com

>

>

> --- On Sat, 2/9/13, Dave Ratchford <ratchfromneb at gmail.com> wrote:

>

> From: Dave Ratchford <ratchfromneb at gmail.com>

> Subject: Re: [Husker] Colorado Series

> To: "Gary Fead" <gwfead at cox.net>

> Cc: "Husker List" <husker at tssi.com>

> Date: Saturday, February 9, 2013, 12:41 PM

>

> Those would all be great games.  Especially if we played more than one per

> season.  I also hope that the conference goes to 9 games.  One less

> opportunity for these lousy "pay-for-play" games.  Three of those a year is

> too much.

>

> Dave

>

>

> On Sat, Feb 9, 2013 at 9:35 AM, Gary Fead <gwfead at cox.net> wrote:

>

> > I for one am very happy that we've set this series up, now I would like to

> > get a few of our other Big 8 brethren on the schedule in future years. Like

> > Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, Missouri (though I doubt this would

> > happen) or Oklahoma State. Oklahoma is on the schedule for 2021 and 2022. I

> > enjoyed making those road trips and would like to do it again "one more

> > time for the good times" (from the song "One More Time" by the Carpenters -

> > I know I'm living in the past). Anyways road trips are much harder in the

> > Big Ten so I won't make them like I used to when we were part of the Big

> > 8/12.

> >

> > Gary Fead

> > Omaha

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