AHHH!!! FEAR ME!!! AHHHHHH!
It’s been a somewhat quiet week around BSU-land. We’re focused on Kentucky’s rivalry week here at OTP and the Cardinals have dropped two straight turds in their 09 punchbowl, against the perennial championship contender North Texas, and the dominating University of New Hampshire. In all truthfulness, it would have been fine with me for news coming out of Muncie to be fairly low key and virtually non-existent until the Army thrashing game. Leave it to Doug Zaleski to ruin an otherwise fine morning with this tidbit…
Ball State has a football game scheduled at Iowa next season that coach Stan Parrish doesn’t want to play, and the school will examine whether it can delay the game or get out of the contract.
The Cardinals are still working on their 2010 non-conference schedule. They have scheduled games at home on Sept. 2 against Southeast Missouri State, at Purdue on Sept. 18 and at Iowa on Sept. 25.
Ball State athletic director Tom Collins said he hopes this week to finalize the fourth game, which would be at home on Sept. 11. He would not identify the potential opponent.
Collins said his immediate goal is to wrap up the non-conference schedule, then look at what possibilities might exist to make a change with the Iowa game slot.
“We’ll see if there’s anything we can do at that point,” he said. “I think Stan would prefer not to play (Purdue and Iowa) back to back, but it just hasn’t worked out date-wise (with Iowa).”…
…Purdue will pay Ball State $350,000 for next year’s football game. Ball State and Iowa signed a contract in March of this year to play in Iowa City next season. Iowa will pay Ball State an $800,000 guarantee for the game.
So let me get this straight…we don’t want to play Iowa because we would rather play Purdue? We are going to try to finagle out of an $800,000 game in favor of a $350,000 game? And I wonder why the budget for this athletic department is so screwed.
If the game can be moved, and it’s agreeable to both parties, then fine. That happens on occasion and isn’t a reason to get anyone’s panties in a twist. However, and it’s a sizeable Stephen A. Smith “HOWEVER…”, if this game gets moved to a different season or outright canceled, there is going to be hell to pay. It is beyond my comprehension how a school that operates on a shoestring budget can say to a school with their bags of money, “No… that’s ok. We don’t want your $800,000. We’d prefer to take less than half and play an in-state opponent.” Jesus. Christ. On a triscuit.
This is the kind of thing that worries me about this athletic department and gives at least a little bit of credence to what Jason Whitlock has been espousing on BSUFans… that this is the most horribly mismanaged athletic department in the country. And with a head coach openly saying, essentially, “This game is too tough. We don’t want to play it” along with an AD essentially saying, “We’ll take less money for an easier game” it makes me weep for the future. What’s next? Three FCS opponents and a game against Muncie Central High School? Why stop there? How about we play Northside Elementary. I mean, if we really want to stoop low, let’s just schedule the University of Louisville.
Play Iowa. Take the money. Stop looking like whiny bitches. Ask Boise State. Ask Fresno State. Ask BYU. They got better by scheduling teams far above them. On the road. And yes, Stan and Tom, back to back on occasion. I mean, God forbid those two games, regardless of the outcome, prepare you for the epic powerhouses like Eastern Michigan and Ohio. It’s been said that we have a notoriously cheap athletic department that operates “half-assed”… at best. This certainly makes the case for that argument remarkably stronger.
Filed under: Ball State, Big 10, Straight Cash |
Over The Pylon 
This is INSANE. I hope you guys get through this. Our athletics department had money problems earlier this decade, but our coach never shied away from playing big-time opponents.
The best thing BSU can do right now IMO is go through the BCS gauntlet and get all the $$$ they can get out of it. Especially in these financial times. Schedule some games in Lucas Oil or something like what we do at Soldier Field. Just shooting the dark here.
I agree, Mike. We were pretty shocked to read all this today. Needless to say, our Muncie paper sometimes doesn’t paint an incredibly clear and complete picture with their reporting. There could be more to this, or it simply could be what they say it is. Time will tell, but for right now, we’re very surprised by the news.
WOW WOW WOW! I COMPLETELY agree… I wish we’d take a page outta the “Any team, anywhere” mentality from Boise and Fresno State!!!
“Play Iowa. Take the money. Stop looking like whiny bitches. Ask Boise State. Ask Fresno State. Ask BYU. They got better by scheduling teams far above them. On the road.”
AMEN! It’s games like THAT that set up us almost beating (With a shitty no call on the last play) Michigan in the Big House and getting on the map!