FCS Teams no longer prohibited

[Hawkinole]

Delaney said FCS teams no longer are prohibited from Big Ten Scheduling in years that the Big Ten team has 4-home conference games.

Iowa can schedule UNI again! (Or NDSU, again - ugh!)

[ELA]

Well that was short lived

[Cincydawg]

Some FCS teams obviously are as good as some FBS teams, and in any event, a very good FBS team should demolish either.

[fezzador]

I heard this too.  I honestly don't have a huge problem with this because it's bi-yearly at best.  I just hope that B1G teams are smart enough to schedule bad FCS teams rather than powehouses.  Teams like JMU, NDSU, Jacksonville State, etc. are good enough to embarrass anyone in the country on the right day.

[ELA]

MSU smoked Jacksonville State back in 2014, but what I do remember is their entire starting DL was SEC transfers, so it was very odd that from a size perspective, the trenches didn't look like a mismatch at all.

MSU didn't run the ball well on them at all, but they fared even worse against MSU's defense, and MSU rolled to a 38-0 halftime lead, benched the starters and won 45-7.

But it was how big their linemen were for an FCS team that struck me.

[Brutus Buckeye]

Northern Iowa should have been awarded the CyHawk trophy the season that they beat Iowa st the week before Iowa St beat Iowa.

[TyphonInc]

Why does it have to be an FCS? Why can't it be a MAC school?

[847badgerfan]

Why does it have to be an FCS? Why can't it be a MAC school?

MAC schools were/are demanding a ransom for a one-off game these days. I'm thinking this is designed to lower their demands because you can get an FCS school pretty reasonably.

It's just business.

[fezzador]

MSU smoked Jacksonville State back in 2014, but what I do remember is their entire starting DL was SEC transfers, so it was very odd that from a size perspective, the trenches didn't look like a mismatch at all.

MSU didn't run the ball well on them at all, but they fared even worse against MSU's defense, and MSU rolled to a 38-0 halftime lead, benched the starters and won 45-7.

But it was how big their linemen were for an FCS team that struck me.

Jacksonville State had Auburn on the ropes for most of the game in 2015, before they somehow came back and forced OT.

Granted, Auburn was not particularly good that year, but it still had more talent on that roster than all but maybe 10 or 15 teams in the country.

That said, JSU got absolutely smoked by NDSU in the FCS championship game.  NDSU almost certainly would have beaten Auburn that year.

[Cincydawg]

Georgia was fortunate to beat Nichols State last season.  When your team doesn't demolish such an opponent, it's a sign.

[betarhoalphadelta]

MAC schools were/are demanding a ransom for a one-off game these days. I'm thinking this is designed to lower their demands because you can get an FCS school pretty reasonably.

It's just business.

Didn't the B1G have some sort of a 2-for-1 Home-Home-Away deal going with the MAC? The MAC teams didn't want to sign up for mere payday games, wanting to host a B1G team occasionaly, and the B1G wasn't willing to do 1-for-1...

Or am I mis-remembering this?

[ELA]

Georgia was fortunate to beat Nichols State last season.  When your team doesn't demolish such an opponent, it's a sign.

See MSU 2016 vs. Furman.  Beating ND the following week made it seem like an aberration, when in fact the ND win was.

[847badgerfan]

Didn't the B1G have some sort of a 2-for-1 Home-Home-Away deal going with the MAC? The MAC teams didn't want to sign up for mere payday games, wanting to host a B1G team occasionaly, and the B1G wasn't willing to do 1-for-1...

Or am I mis-remembering this?

It varied by school. NIU (when they were good) would come to your place but wanted a return at a neutral Soldier Field. Iowa and UW did that, and maybe others. I don't recall.

[ELA]

It varied by school. NIU (when they were good) would come to your place but wanted a return at a neutral Soldier Field. Iowa and UW did that, and maybe others. I don't recall.

MSU signed 3 for 1s with all 3 directional Michigan schools.  They were structured as 2 buy games, then a home and home.  So both teams just got their home gate for the home games.  EMU backed out because they'd make more getting paid to go play at Missouri than they would on a home sellout against MSU.

I'm just glad the WMU game wasn't last year.