Bennett v. Leech: Round Two in '06?

[MrMustang1965]

By Joey Kirk & Bryan Wendell University Daily

Lubbock, TX (U-WIRE) -- By poring over grade distributions, Texas Tech students can hand pick the friendliest professors and easiest As, making the trek towards a 4.0 less treacherous.

Football programs are no different. Coaches and front office staff can control their team's destiny by choosing three non-conference opponents, causing an interesting dilemma.

If a coach opts for the easy 3-0 start, the team may not be prepared for a difficult conference run. Alternatively, if a 2-1 or 1-2 start against stronger opposition means more preparedness for the conference grind, the nonconference games could reap positive rewards.

Such is the situation resolved by Tech almost a year ago when the football team chose to play three teams who had a combined 18-17 record last season.

"It's gonna give them a chance to play and get some game experience," said Tech Athletic Director Gerald Myers.

The Red Raiders will open against Division I-A newcomer Florida International Sept. 10. The Golden Panthers had a 3-7 record last season and are at or near the bottom of Division I-A in several preseason polls.

This opener will be followed in consecutive weeks by I-AA opponents Sam Houston State and Indiana State.

Tech is the lone school in the Big 12 that plays only one Division I-A nonconference opponent. Colorado, Kansas State, Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas each play three.

Myers said efforts were made to schedule I-A schools Southern Methodist, Texas Christian and New Mexico, but the regional rivals all were unavailable.

Tech played five games at home last season, but needed more this time.

"We scheduled seven because we knew with five we might have to make up for it," he said.

The Raiders see six home games as the ideal number, he said, and chose seven this season to balance out the five from the 2004 season.

When a team travels for a one-time nonconference game, the home team pays the traveling team a negotiable fee. This fee is unnecessary when Tech makes a home-and-home agreement with regional schools such as TCU or SMU.

Myers said a typical fee for these games is $500,000 to $600,000, but Tech's three opponents this season each were paid an average of $300,000 to travel to Lubbock.

Since each home game brings in approximately $500,000 in revenue, Myers said it made financial sense to schedule the three opponents. These two extra games against less-expensive opponents will mean an additional $1 million in revenue for Tech.

The question still remains if the decision makes football sense.

"As players, we don't make the schedule," said starting quarterback Cody Hodges. "That was made a year or two ago. I just think it helps us going into Big 12 play. We could use those first games to kind of gel on offense and defensively, too, just to be in sync with each other."

Hodges said he hopes to go 3-0 to start the season and get into more of a rhythm going into conference play that other Big 12 schools may not have.

Hodges' backup, redshirt freshman Graham Harrell, said the Raiders will make up for a controversial nonconference schedule by playing in one of the nation's toughest conferences.

"It'll be a good chance to get the ball rolling and give us a lot of confidence," he said. "Also, it'll be good to be healthy and not get too beaten up before conference."

As for the 2006 season, Myers said discussions are being made for a home game against SMU and road games against TCU and the University of Texas at El Paso.

"Whatever the schedule, they've gotta go out there and perform," he said.

http://www.collegesports.com/sports/m-f ... 05aar.html

[Stallion]

Once again-the decision to schedule patsies whether that be SMU or the Division 1A wannabes on both SMU's and Tech's schedule was made for financial reasons. THAT REASON IS NOT SUPPORTABLE FOR SMU. SMU can make more money playing a Baylor or Tech before a full house than it can for playing Division 1-A wannabees. Multiply 20,000 empty seats by ticket prices, concessions, parking, home team TV rights etc. The KEY: Tech will make exactly the same by playing a wannabe or SMU!!!! I fact, it will make more playing the wannabe because they have less power to negotiate a fair deal. This direction of SMU playing multiple Division 1AA schools is going to be a disaster financially for SMU and especially embarrassing if one of these teams with about 10 quality Division 1A prospects beats us. Of course, the punishment will be termination of both the Head Coach AND AD.

[huntnfish]

I know we disagree on a few things but you are right on here, and fire Jim Copeland!