Nick Saban and Alabama Scheduling

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Baywave1
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Nick Saban and Alabama Scheduling

Post by Baywave1 »

One of these days a big trial lawyer firm will convince some non-P5 schools to file an anti-trust suit over this. There is a pot of contingency gold waiting out there. Oklahoma and Georgia did ok suing the NCAA over the TV contract. I'm just surprised U. Alabama's general counsel doesn't tell Saban to shut up about scheduling only P5 schools, but oh well.


I welcome Rabalais writing lots of articles about this and maybe getting some direct quotes from Alleva and other LSU PTB to support Saban's comments.

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Re: Nick Saban and Alabama Scheduling

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These idiots don’t realize they are writing the opening statements in an eventual antitrust action that just might topple this amateur status sham. Saban doesn’t care because he sleeps on piles of cash but the whole other infrastructure of P5 not named Alabama or Texas better realize that they are setting the stage for their own demise.

He who shall not be named had a chance to nip this in the bud lo those many years ago but didn’t. Now it will take one Curt Flood type yank on the temple pillars to start this whole thing tumbling down.
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Re: Nick Saban and Alabama Scheduling

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TUPF wrote:These idiots don’t realize they are writing the opening statements in an eventual antitrust action that just might topple this amateur status sham. Saban doesn’t care because he sleeps on piles of cash but the whole other infrastructure of P5 not named Alabama or Texas better realize that they are setting the stage for their own demise.

He who shall not be named had a chance to nip this in the bud lo those many years ago but didn’t. Now it will take one Curt Flood type yank on the temple pillars to start this whole thing tumbling down.
Saban’s remarks are an admission of weakness. Every school in the P5 is getting very worried over their attendance issues. The classic season ticket holders are bailing on the weak non-cons. At a big winner this is made up by tailgate alumni on the secondary ticket market but it’s still getting noticed.

All these schools have spent and spent and spent for years. Now they have roided-up infrastructure they have to pay for (with debt service attached in many if not most cases) and the fans are starting to cry uncle. The soft market for soft non-league games is where the wear on the fabric has attracted Saban’s notice. If Saban is noticing, everyone else must be panicking. LSU is. The same guy who wrote the linked story wrote one late last year where he all but said LSU admitted that the last stadium expansion was a big mistake.
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Re: Nick Saban and Alabama Scheduling

Post by GreenieBacker »

reminds me of how Tulane got in trouble with old Tulane Stadium's expansion. Which began with a modest seating capacity but then began to grow and grow as TU saw $$$ being dangled out there by the Sugar Bowl and the Saints. Then came the day that money went away and we wee stuck with an unmaintainable White Elephant.
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Re: Nick Saban and Alabama Scheduling

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GB, good point. In What If game, one can make a great argument that Sugar Bowl paying for all expansions of Tulane stadium (including lights if I recall) from the 1940s on and then Saints paying operating costs for 8 or so seasons ruined Tulane Athletics financing process. Cherry on the cake was receiving basically a free Superdome lease for forty years.


If it had to stand on its own to do these things, I bet we would have seen much different decisions over time like an on campus 45,000 seat stadium and staying in the SEC.


In this case Tulane literally paid for the mistake of having a couple of sugar daddies.

Just mindless speculation on a slow Thursday.
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Re: Nick Saban and Alabama Scheduling

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On the bright side we were included in the halcyon days of good out of conference scheduling
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Re: Nick Saban and Alabama Scheduling

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I think the biggest issue is over expansion of D1 football. We need to get back to around 100 teams (post 1AA pre all the new teams) so that even crappy teams are still name opponents
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Re: Nick Saban and Alabama Scheduling

Post by GreenieBacker »

windy you make a good point. And Baywave I apologize for partially derailing your topic :-)

in the very early 70's we used our transition to being an independent to try and re-build our football program. Back then Independents had no limitations on the number of scholarships they could award. Johnny Majors at Pitt famously awarded 93 scholarships one year(!) on his way to making Pitt a prominent program. Rix Yard also used our Independent status to schedule nationally. From Stanford on the West Coast to Boston College in the East. He wanted to present us as a national (not regional) university with a growing program.

then we made a series of bad coaching hires, we failed to foresee how important Conference affiliation would become and the wheels fell off :-D
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Re: Nick Saban and Alabama Scheduling

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First roided-up Russian Girl Scouts and now roided-up infrastructure. Thanks to you both for giving me hilarious mental images and good laughs during the Dog Days of summer! :mrgreen:
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Re: Nick Saban and Alabama Scheduling

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Here is an idea, fewer and better quality home games. Spending 8 Saturdays over 13 weeks is a bit much for many people. A ton of planning and money goes into getting to the stadium, parking, tailgating and getting home etc.
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Re: Nick Saban and Alabama Scheduling

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Poseidon wrote:Here is an idea, fewer and better quality home games. Spending 8 Saturdays over 13 weeks is a bit much for many people. A ton of planning and money goes into getting to the stadium, parking, tailgating and getting home etc.
I hear ya, but with this being a zero sum game, someone’s winner schedule means someone is playing East Bogalusa State.

Every SEC team wants 10 home games it seems, with the out of conference home games being a name but not a threat. The math fails.
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Re: Nick Saban and Alabama Scheduling

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This seems like something everyone is for until they’re having 6 or 7win seasons instead of 9 win seasons.
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Re: Nick Saban and Alabama Scheduling

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MattK wrote:This seems like something everyone is for until they’re having 6 or 7win seasons instead of 9 win seasons.
It would also K.O. the eight home game schedules and probably some of the seven game ones as well.

A lost home or even two annually matters in generating revenue to pay for the mega-stadiums much less the foregone profits that these football games throw off to the overall department.
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Re: Nick Saban and Alabama Scheduling

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Baywave1 wrote:A lost home or even two annually matters in generating revenue to pay for the mega-stadiums much less the foregone profits that these football games throw off to the overall department.
Those empty seats in college mega football stadiums are starting to remind me of the Dover Speedway’s 140,000 seat stadium. About 10 years ago when we drove past during NASCAR race day it was filled to the top—you could see the crowd from the highway. Now all you can see is mostly empty seats on the upper bowl. The thrill is going away it seems and all of these overbuilt venues are going to be scrambling to meet costs.
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Re: Nick Saban and Alabama Scheduling

Post by MattK »

TUPF wrote:
Baywave1 wrote:A lost home or even two annually matters in generating revenue to pay for the mega-stadiums much less the foregone profits that these football games throw off to the overall department.
Those empty seats in college mega football stadiums are starting to remind me of the Dover Speedway’s 140,000 seat stadium. About 10 years ago when we drove past during NASCAR race day it was filled to the top—you could see the crowd from the highway. Now all you can see is mostly empty seats on the upper bowl. The thrill is going away it seems and all of these overbuilt venues are going to be scrambling to meet costs.
Off topic, but a lot of those massive speedways are already reducing seats.
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Re: Nick Saban and Alabama Scheduling

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windywave wrote:I think the biggest issue is over expansion of D1 football. We need to get back to around 100 teams (post 1AA pre all the new teams) so that even crappy teams are still name opponents
Of course, if you downgrade the "nouveau riche" who have moved up to the so-called "FBS" you are, in essence, doing to them what the "BCS" did to us. To me, that is dishonest and unethical.

What really needs to happen is for the NCAA to establish specific criteria to create a system to tier teams with like opponents. (Similar to the way they divide out Div II and Div III, based upon whether they offer scholarships, etc.). Let the chips fall where they may, as long as the criteria are "fair." (stadium capacity, average attendance, athletic budget, and other similar measures might be considered, but conference membership, winning records, and the like should not). And it is important that membership in any conference should not be considered in assigning a tier. If a member of a Top-tier conference fails to meet the criteria for that tier, they should be forced to leave the conference (of course, I have already gone on record as being totally against conferences, because they greatly distort the way teams get considered).

Then, they should require that all "official" games must be played between members of the same tier. Any games played outside the tier should be ignored as far as rankings are concerned.

Of course those conferences who have rigged the system to give themselves a permanent access to the top prizes will oppose such a plan, and they will generate all sorts of arguments against it. However, I envision that any of the negatives they could articulate would pale in the face of the unfairness of the current system.
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Re: Nick Saban and Alabama Scheduling

Post by windywave »

There needs to be a culling of teams and your plan is so biased towards the P5 I want to dump your vodka drink on your head. An alternative is to reduce scholarships to create more parity, but until the absolute nonsense of monetary distribution is solved there is no solution
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Re: Nick Saban and Alabama Scheduling

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All you have to do is provide equal opportunity. Give real access to all FBS schools to CFP (say with 16 or 24 or even 32 team brackets) and all will prosper. Just look at NCAA MBB. Yes magnate schools still dominate but look at Villanova, Butler, UConn, et al. Schools like WSU have been ranked number one. Plus TV tourney money has exploded. Knockout tourneys drive publicity and fan interest like nothing else. Most recent example: Soccer World Cup Round of 16.


Meanwhile bowls can be incorporated into playoffs by "bidding" on hosting same as occurs now for basketball and the existing four team CFP. You think the New Orleans Bowl might draw more than its historical 25,000 if it hosted say an opening round game between Sunbelt Champ and number four "bubble" team from SEC with winner moving on.

I simply don't get why the monopolists in football just don't look down the hall at basketball and see a bigger pot of gold while massively reducing antitrust risk.
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Re: Nick Saban and Alabama Scheduling

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Baywave1 wrote:All you have to do is provide equal opportunity. Give real access to all FBS schools to CFP (say with 16 or 24 or even 32 team brackets) and all will prosper. Just look at NCAA MBB. Yes magnate schools still dominate but look at Villanova, Butler, UConn, et al. Schools like WSU have been ranked number one. Plus TV tourney money has exploded. Knockout tourneys drive publicity and fan interest like nothing else. Most recent example: Soccer World Cup Round of 16.


Meanwhile bowls can be incorporated into playoffs by "bidding" on hosting same as occurs now for basketball and the existing four team CFP. You think the New Orleans Bowl might draw more than its historical 25,000 if it hosted say an opening round game between Sunbelt Champ and number four "bubble" team from SEC with winner moving on.

I simply don't get why the monopolists in football just don't look down the hall at basketball and see a bigger pot of gold while massively reducing antitrust risk.
Bingo!

But it’s like the line from the bad Keanu Reeves movie (as apposed to the original) The Day the Earth Stood Still: civilizations seldom change until faced with extinction. Paraphrasing long green, it might take several years of overbuilt college stadiums with lots of empty seats before the monopolists recognize the right answer when shown.
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Re: Nick Saban and Alabama Scheduling

Post by Fan Since '54 »

TUPF wrote:
Poseidon wrote:Here is an idea, fewer and better quality home games. Spending 8 Saturdays over 13 weeks is a bit much for many people. A ton of planning and money goes into getting to the stadium, parking, tailgating and getting home etc.
I hear ya, but with this being a zero sum game, someone’s winner schedule means someone is playing East Bogalusa State.

Every SEC team wants 10 home games it seems, with the out of conference home games being a name but not a threat. The math fails.
And what does EBS call their team? I forgot, but I do seem to remember their first letter was not capatalized. :roll:

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