Not A Victory for You

Last week, the powers that be decided that the 2011 schedule needed to be a little tougher. Enter the Midshipmen. The sailors from Annapolis are coming to Columbia on September 17, 2011 and they are bringing football’s version of the Harlem Globetrotter offense with them. But that is not the worst of it – they were invited.

Carolina fans will recall playing Navy Lite twice already this decade - the Wofford Terriers. This is like asking the guy that just beat you by sixty pins in bowling to go double or nothing - and then giving him a million dollars to do it. Most fans will recall that the Gamecocks were a tipped pitch and a fourth and one from losing to Wofford in those two games. Now they have invited a team that runs the same offense with better athletes.

The athletic department said that it was hard to find someone that fit the schedule and that many schools wanted more than the $950,000.00 that Carolina is paying Navy. My question is: Were any of these schools bad at football? If so, pay them the money. The athletic department is further quoted as saying that “it’s going to be a good game.” Personally, I am more interested in winning.

“But we need to schedule somebody good.” This is what I hear from Carolina fans when it comes to scheduling. “Why don’t we try to get a home and home with Southern Cal or Oklahoma?” Why not schedule the Rams while we are at it? Look, I am all for big time match-ups with the great powers of college football, but as a Carolina fan, I would prefer they occur in a bowl game in early January. What really puzzles me is a schedule that features games with Florida, Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, Auburn, Clemson, etc. is not enough star power for these people. How many top ten teams do we have to play?

The bottom line is that college football seasons are judged by six criteria: national championship, conference championship, division championship, victories against rivals, number of wins, and bowl game. There is no NCAA tournament to get to, no College World Series or Sweet Sixteen. For most teams the evaluation comes down to how many wins and did the team go to bowl. Adding Navy to a schedule that features eight SEC teams and Clemson does nothing to meet that end.

As an example, look at Mississippi State last year. The Bulldogs went 3-5 in conference – same as Carolina. However, the Bulldogs stayed home for the holidays because of their 5-7 record overall. On the other hand, Carolina went on to play in a January bowl game after finishing 7-5. The difference was the non-conference schedule. Carolina went 4-0 with the Bulldogs finishing 2-2. Mississippi State caved to the “why can’t we play anybody good” pressure and scheduled Georgia Tech and Houston in their non-conference. Fans got what they asked for – somebody good and two losses. Carolina fans need only look to Orangeland and ask the Tigers how it felt to pay TCU one million dollars to beat them last year.

Look, if Carolina was in the Mountain West and going undefeated every year only to get shut out of the BCS, I would be the first to say bring on the Longhorns. But when you battle in the SEC for eight games and you have to look at Clemson at the end of the year every year, you need to take all the opportunities that you can to find opponents you can handle. Additionally, the Newberry’s and Presbyterian’s of the world come a lot cheaper. Oh well, I will be there regardless – sweating through a game where Carolina has nothing to gain and everything to lose. I wonder what Boise State would cost?