This season the University of Texas at Austin’s football team is scheduled or has already played against such athletic powerhouses as the University of Louisiana-Monroe (59-20), the University of Texas-El Paso (64-7), and the University of Central Florida (on November 7).
Most other top-flight teams are also scheduled against Division I schools that they are likely to wallop. Why? Very simple — a team must win six games to qualify for a post-season game; and scheduling a few teams that are nearly certain to be beaten makes the post-season minimum requirement easily attainable.
We ease ourselves into qualifying for the post-season; athletic programs at the smaller schools make substantial sums of money playing against a top-level team; and their fans probably enjoy seeing the big-name team play against their men. How about UT fans? Seeing their team destroy another, while not desirable in every game, probably makes UT fans happy if it occurs a few times each season. This schedule may represent a Pareto improvement with every agent better off.
(Hat tip: M.F.)
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Don’t the small schools “love” these games they’ll get killed in because they get a share of the TV revenue?
I presume you mean “the smaller schools” in a sense restricted to football, since the University of Central Florida is actually bigger than UT by enrollment, according to the Wikipedia (caveat lector). Indeed it is listed as the third largest university in the nation, compared to UT’s sixth place.
This argument assumes that the top-flight Division I school is “likely to wallop” their opponent. If the lesser opponent wins (think Michigan/Appalachian St.), the top-flight school may not be better off.
Given that the fans invest time, money, and emotion into these events, I don’t see how you can say all parties win.
“What if one of these players on one of these smaller, clearly overmatched teams, gets hurt going against players they have no business being on the same field as?”
Who says they have no business being on the same field? Tell that to Dubner’s Appalachian State, who beat #5 Michigan 34-32 a couple of years ago.
Or how about South Florida, a school most people would have guessed didn’t have a football program that has now gotten national recognition (and been ranked as high as #2 in Week 7 of 2007, missing #1 by a fairly slim margin) and is pulling in recruits they need to actually build a respectable program?
And these are just a few of the standouts. There are MANY instances of “smaller” teams beating “bigger” teams year in and year out. Take William & Mary over Virginia in the first week this year as yet another example.
The better response to, “IS every agent better off?” is that it’s a MUCH more downside for the “bigger” team than the “smaller.” If the “smaller” team loses, they still get a large chunk of change to improve facilities and do better recruiting. The “bigger” team isn’t actually padding it’s resume because we all know they have these cupcakes, so there’s nothing but risk with these games for them.
As for UT and the Big 12, they’re not alone. Florida trounced Charleston Southern and Troy to start the season. They have the mighty Florida International as their penultimate game. That’s 25% of their schedule. Same thing with Alabama (Florida International, North Texas, and Chattanooga). And this is coming from an SEC fan!
Every big name team has its cupcakes, whether in or out of conference, so it’s pointless to point fingers about it.
This is about having home games, not about winning six games. These lesser teams agree to play @ Texas without Texas traveling to play them the next year in exchange for a fee. The fee likely represents more than these lesser teams would make from a home game, and less than Texas would make. So, each team gets a deal.
I assume the answer you’re looking for is more sophisticated than “to see if they’ll cover the spread.”
While the Appalachian State win was great, has anyone calculated the percentage of these wins? Even if it is low, maybe it’s part of another benefit to the smaller school.