When the NCAA decided college football could add a 12th regular-season game beginning in 2006, many said it was all about the money.

Now schools are having trouble scheduling 12 games because, well, it’s still all about the money.

‘Unfortunately it’s something that puts a black eye on college athletics when schools are pulling out of contractual agreements,’ West Virginia Deputy Athletic Director Mike Parsons said.

The addition of another regular season game has accentuated the trend of smaller schools taking bigger payouts to play games elsewhere, which has made scheduling in the Big East, including Syracuse, more challenging than before.

‘It’s an open market system,’ Big East Associate Commissioner Nick Carparelli said. ‘Like anything else, if you’re willing to pay more money, you’re going to have an easier time finding teams to play a football game.

‘It’s hard finding non-conference games, period.’

When it comes to non-conference scheduling, the Big East is already at a disadvantage. With eight football members, each school has an unbalanced conference schedule every year – four home games one year and three the next.

So while the Michigans, Virginia Techs and Floridas will always have seven home games a year, Big East programs will have to alternate between six and seven home gates per season.

This is the reality some Big East schools have realized the hard way.

Buffalo, a Metro Athletic Conference member, is expected to back out of existing deals with both West Virginia and Rutgers because the MAC signed a more lucrative deal with the Big 10 Conference.

Published sources have projected Buffalo’s payouts against Wisconsin and Auburn around at least $750,000 to perhaps $1 million each.

Parsons estimated the typical WVU payout normally hovers around $300,000 to $350,000, which appears to be the average for Big East schools. Mark Jackson, Syracuse’s executive senior associate athletic director, said SU payouts fall in a range of $200,000 with a high end of $400,000 in extreme cases.

‘Ultimately you’ll have to increase the payouts,’ Parsons said. ‘But we’re not in the position to payout like the (Southeastern Conference) does.’

East Carolina, the 12th school Syracuse was scheduled to play in 2006, backed out of a long-term scheduling agreement, which according to Jackson, dates back to 1986.

‘We can’t compete if they supersede the agreement by playing at big ACC or SEC schools,’ Jackson said. ‘The 12th game forced a lot of last minute cancellations all around the nation.’

Without a 12th game until last week, Syracuse scheduled Mountain West member Wyoming.

‘We had to consider a I-AA opponent,’ Jackson said. ‘In a perfect world we didn’t want to, but we had to explore it.’

Other Big East schools did more than exploration.

Rutgers, one of four Big East bowl teams in 2005, scheduled Division I-AA Howard to fill its final hole. Rutgers typically schedules a I-AA school, but wanted to stray away from it in 2006. Pending Buffalo’s decision, Rutgers may have to add another.

Big East regular season runner-up South Florida has I-AA McNeese State and Sun Belt Conference member Florida International on its schedule.

Pittsburgh, which played I-AA regional rival Youngstown State in 2005, will play I-AA The Citadel in 2006. Connecticut scheduled I-AA Rhode Island on a Thursday night in August and Cincinnati, while having the strongest non-conference schedule, still snuck in Eastern Kentucky, another I-AA program.

Buffalo has 14 games contracted for 2006; West Virginia and Rutgers are expected to get the ax.

So instead of playing at 60,000-seat Mountaineer Field and 41,000-seat Rutgers Stadium, Buffalo could play in Wiscon sin, capacity 80,321, and at Auburn’s Jordan-Hare Stadium, which seats 87,451.

According to Parsons, Buffalo has not submitted any writing to WVU documenting the breech of their contract. At this point, it is an unofficial certainty.

Buffalo officials declined comment for this story.

A sold-out game at Mountaineer Field typically generates around $1.5 million in revenue. Penn State, for example, could make as much as $3.5 million from an extra home game. Beaver Stadium holds 107,282.

Sheer numbers put the Big East at a disadvantage that seems insurmountable without drastic measures. Pittsburgh and WVU are the only two Big East schools with attendance capabilities reaching more than 60,000.

‘I’m not sure the Big East can compete financially,’ Parsons said. ‘It is something that the Big East schools just don’t have the caliber to offer.’

That leaves the reigning Sugar Bowl champion and preseason favorite Mountaineers with a probable home date against a Division I-AA opponent – for the second year in a row.

Last year, UCF made a late decision to forgo its road game at Morgantown, forcing WVU to add Wofford, a 35-7 Mountaineer victory. Under former NCAA rules, WVU would not be able to count a win against a I-AA school in 2006, but because of the addition of the 12th game, the NCAA approved legislation which allows I-A programs to count wins against I-AA schools towards bowl eligibility every year.

‘It puts schools in a hard place, especially when it’s done in the 11th hour,’ Parsons said. ‘We’ve had this happen to us for the last two years. It puts a lot of strain and pressure on the athletic department.’

Kevin MacConnell, Rutgers’ deputy director of athletics, sees the 12th game as just another opportunity for Rutgers to get its name out nationally.

‘The revenue is the most important thing coming from another game,’ MacConnell said. ‘The 12th game is also another chance to get on television.’

No word yet on which ESPN station will be carrying the Sept. 23 Rutgers-Howard contest.

Jackson believes scheduling Wyoming is an example of the benefits a 12th game can add for SU.

‘Another game gives us some flexibility to get some attractive opponents from the West Coast,’ Jackson said. ‘We have a strong alumni base on the West, and it can be a tremendous recruiting tool.’

Jackson thinks – believe it or not – Wyoming could be the gateway to scheduling national powerhouses.

‘We’re talking about scheduling a USC,’ said Jackson, a former member of the USC athletic department. ‘Even maybe someone like a UCLA sooner than you think.’

Pittsburgh Athletic Director Jeff Long recently raised the idea in a published report of adding a ninth football-only member to the Big East in order to balance the conference schedule and make non-conference scheduling easier.

‘I think we’re in a position where we are always re-evaluating our membership,’ Carparelli said. ‘If someone presents themselves as a potential member, we would look into it. We’re not looking to add schools just for the sake of adding schools to assist in scheduling.’

Big East member schools are in charge of scheduling non-conference games on their own, with some assistance from the conference. After the non-conference schedule is finalized, Carparelli reviews potential matchups with its television partners and then fills in the rest of the conference schedule.

Parsons said the Big East is definitely considering a scheduling alliance similar to the MAC-Big 10 agreement, but on a smaller scale.

Right now, the only guidance Carparelli can offer to his member schools is to draw up stricter and tighter contracts when it schedules non-conference games.

‘In the future we will encourage our schools to have larger payouts and escalating buyout clauses to deter teams from breaking off agreements,’ Carparelli said.

How large? The Big East must leave it up to the Buffaloes of the world to decide.

Published on March 26, 2006 at 12:00 pm