By Chadd Cripe
ccripe@idahostatesman.com
© 2009 Idaho Statesman
RUSTON, La. — Boise State athletic director Gene Bleymaier is frustrated with the response he’s getting from Bowl Championship Series-conference teams as he searches for a 2011 season-opening football game.
Several BCS teams have turned down a home game against the Broncos for that season, Bleymaier said Friday night. Earlier in the week, WAC commissioner Karl Benson said it’s close to 10 teams.
ESPN is helping the Broncos find an opponent, Bleymaier and Benson said.
Bleymaier has heard the criticism from the media and BCS teams that the Broncos don’t play a difficult enough schedule.
“That is frustrating when schools say that and then turn around and won’t play you,” Bleymaier said. “And it’s frustrating when commentators and others say we don’t play anybody. Well, we played (No. 8) Oregon this year and we beat them.”
Bleymaier wants a big-money road game for Sept. 3, 2011, to complete that schedule. The Broncos have home games against Utah, Tulsa and Wyoming and a road game against Toledo scheduled for 2011.
He’s looking for a paycheck in the neighborhood of $1 million. The Broncos are getting $1.25 million to play Virginia Tech next year in Landover, Md.
The schools haven’t given Bleymaier a reason for turning him down, but they haven’t even discussed specifics, he said.
“In some cases, it appeared that the date was open but they weren’t interested in playing,” Bleymaier said.
The publicity generated this week by the scheduling problem might help.
“I’m hopeful once we get the word out more we can find somebody,” Bleymaier said.
Bleymaier would like to play a big-money road game most years, he said. That’s a change in scheduling philosophy.
The Broncos have played just two of those games since the start of 2003 — a 2005 game at Georgia and 2007 game at Washington, both losses.
The Broncos’ status as a perennial Top 25 team and their budget situation convinced Bleymaier to change his approach, he said.
“I think we’re ready and able to do that and we could use the revenue,” he said.
Bleymaier on other topics:
The debate whether Oregon should be ranked ahead of Boise State: “Last time I checked, the Yankees are the best team in baseball. I don’t think people are saying that the Phillies are the best team in baseball. Usually, the team that wins is declared the best team.”
On the WAC hiring Boise-based public-relations firm Scott Peyron & Associates to help build a case for the Broncos’ inclusion in the BCS: “It make sense. I think it’s great. We appreciate the conference doing that.”
On coach Chris Petersen’s refusal to lobby for the Broncos: “I think our coach is willing to lobby when the season is over. We have five games to play. Everybody wants to talk about it. If we lose tonight, what are we going to say? Hey, in four weeks if we’re undefeated, we’ll lobby. You’re darn right we’ll lobby.”
•••
ESPN had several conversations with Boise State this week about bringing its College GameDay show to the Nov. 14 Boise State-Idaho game at Bronco Stadium, sports information director Max Corbet said.
The Broncos likely need Ohio State to lose to Penn State or Iowa to lose to Northwestern on Saturday. If both teams win, GameDay likely will go to the Iowa-Ohio State game, which could decide the Big Ten title.
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Obama
Being Obama likes to bail everybody out, maybe Obama could bail us out and force someone to play us, hahahahahahahahahahaha!
No but, seriously, all the self proclaimed "big name" programs refusing to play us, all they are is a bunch of hypocrites!!!!! They bizzatch about us playng crappy teams but then they refuse to play ball because they are yellow bellied cowards. I guesss they are the ones that just want to play crappy teams.
Furthermore, by them not playing us, it proves beyond all doubt that we are far superior. Because all they want to do is play a crappy team and being we are not a crappy team we will never play.
I think you mean
Henry Paulson. He started this bail out craze.
Some Congressional hearings looking into anti-trust violations may be in order. We need to break the cartel of the BCS.
Skip the BCS, it's the NCAA that allows this crap. Sue THEM.
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There is no life in Idaho...it is a mirror site on god's server. You were dreaming but it is over. Go to your residence and await our commands and THEN we will restore control...
Now that's a bit "off the
Now that's a bit "off the deep end" there bum of the slopes!!!
Colorado
Obviously not an "elite" team, but it would have been nice to see BSU play Colorado while Hawkins was there. Not sure why that never materialized, but it would have been a better name than some of the other non-conference opponents. I don't think we have played a Big 12 team during the regular season. Hawk probably won't be at CU after this season.
I had that same thought!!!!
It would have been fun!!!
It's time to start naming names!
I'm sick of listening to Craig James and Mark May and their "body of work" argument. Who did you try to schedule, Mr. Bleymaier? Chuck the political correctness and tell us who turned us down! We are buying the tickets - we have a right to know.
Probably wont because he's
Probably wont because he's full of s***. You're only hearing 1 side of the story. There's always 3 sides of a story, his side/their side and the truth. There must be something they're leaving out.
Maybe he's asking more than the $1 million and nobody wants to pay that much. I wonder if he lowered the asking price if he'd get some takers.
Comfort Zone
Any team that refuses to accept a game to play the Broncos should be announced publicly do we can get past the media's and big college's empty statements. Saying the Broncos have a weak schedule means absolutely nothing, strength of schedule means absolutely nothing! The so-called big teams do not want to leave their "comfort zone" and try the Broncos on for a reason. The rational behind it is TRADITION, the tradition of scalping the fortunes to be made year in year out from the millions that college football brings in. Not to mention they DO NOT want to join Oklahoma in the Broncos loss column. At least Oregon had the guts to play and LOSE 2 consecutive games (2008 & 2009) which the media continually fails to mention.
Oh come on...
To BSU's credit they are a top 10 team, so why on earth would a BCS team PAY 1 million bones or more to play against a top ten team who they stand a good chance of losing too? Seems like it should be the other way around....
Seems like Bleymaier is trying to play the victim card when he's the one with the excessive demands. You aren't a pillow team like UC Davis, Miami of Ohio, or even my Vandals of last year....you don't play like one, so don't expect to be paid like one. If anything, BSU should be the ones paying, because these games benefit BSU way more than they do any other team. Am I that far off base here? You guys usually win these games, so why in the hell would they pay you guys for this!? I really mean this as a compliment to your team's strength and ranking, and a dig to your athletic director trying to play the victim card here.
Pay
That's how these games work. The BCS teams make a ton of money off home games. They pay the other team to play them -- right now, about $900,000 to $1 million. And they usually pay good teams more money. FCS teams get paid much less than FBS teams.
Thanks for the info...I
Thanks for the info...I actually didn't know better teams get paid more money in these games. I suppose that makes sense considering the marketing/advertising/ticket sales these games can draw. I was just thinking more from BSU's angle. It seems like a small investment for the Broncos to take a pay cut or not get paid at all for the sake of boosting their BCS bowl game argument and ensuring they're picked over other nonAQ teams like TCU. The multi-million dollar payoff from a BCS bowl game would seem like a well spent investment for the pay cut BSU takes in trying to arrange these games.
And I agree its unfair, but look at whats going on right now between BSU and TCU. If the broncos had just one more high profile BCS team on their schedule, even if it meant taking a big pay cut from that team, they wouldn't be worried about TCU leapfrogging them like they did this year. So that pay cut is chump change vs. the BCS bowl game payoff they might lose out on.
Yes, you are that far off base...
The way it works in sports is that the home team "pays" the visiting team. Sometimes it's a percentage of the gate receipts, sometimes a guaranteed flat rate. The bigger "name" a team is, the more they can get from a home team, because they will bring in more receipts for that team. Sometimes that's in ticket sales because they'll get a bigger crowd, but these days it's usually TV rights. When Channel 7 televises a game, they don't pay BSU as much as ESPN does. So it makes financial sense to schedule games that will be on ESPN--for any teams.
BSU would not stand a chance
BSU would not stand a chance against the bigger teams...not one. Stay in the WAC and enjoy the success instead of getting an a** whoopin week in and week out!
Wait, does that mean
that Oregon and Oklahoma are not "bigger" teams?
There's this thing called "evidence". Please look at it before making inane statements.
Don't forget Oregon State.
We've beaten them in the last few years, and they tend to be in the upper half of the Pac-10.
Well, Stanford did thoroughly spank them. Not immortal...
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There is no life in Idaho...it is a mirror site on god's server. You were dreaming but it is over. Go to your residence and await our commands and THEN we will restore control...
lamesched, please tell us
which teams would destroy us. ohio state? sc? ucla? nebraska? oklahoma? florida state? notre dame? michigan? we could hold our own and likely beat all of the above. lsu, alabama, florida & texas. they may beat our tail. byu wiped bama last year when they were not favored. who know?
Utah
You mean Utah "wiped bama" last year. And after that display, people go right on talking about how the non-AQ schools are just not as good as the "big boys". Makes NO sense.
Correct and Alabama, one of the Floridas is in SEC title game.
Florida State?
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There is no life in Idaho...it is a mirror site on god's server. You were dreaming but it is over. Go to your residence and await our commands and THEN we will restore control...
bduck, honestly, what do you think?
are we over our head?
Anti BCS Rant
If you hate the BCS as much as I do, you should check out the latest edition of the "Coaches Hot Seat" blog. He really hates the hypocrisy of the BCS,ESPN, etc., etc. What is especially interesting this week is a scenario for a 16 team playoff if they were to start now. For example, LSU would be coming to Boise because BSU would be the WAC champs and LSU would be one of the wild card teams. I know, I know, it's all hypothetical but it would be much fairer.
http://coacheshotseat.com/coacheshotseatblog/
Time for a new name Lamesched
I vote for lamebrain, If you watched college gameday and actually base your information on some facts, instead of obvious stupidity, you would see that BSU has played and beaten one of the top teams in the nation. I love the excuse that we played them early and they were not ready. Since when do not all the games played matter and you have to show up every week. Have you happened to notice that teams seems to bring out their A game against BSU except for Oregon who apparently looked past our match up and suffered the consequences.
What the heck is a sister of the poor?
Dan Wetzel wrote an article on BSU's scheduling woes. Bleymeier is quoted as saying "If coaches had their druthers they’d play sisters of the poor 11 times.”
http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/news?slug=dw-boise110709&prov=yhoo&type=lgns
Yahoo is the land of the clueless and damned, Lilly
All the users, me included, sit there and tell them as well.
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There is no life in Idaho...it is a mirror site on god's server. You were dreaming but it is over. Go to your residence and await our commands and THEN we will restore control...
Hey all you ignorant Duck fans that like to insult BSU(BDuck)
Have you checked the scoreboard? Even though it supposedly helps BSU if you win, I can't help but think that you looked past another opponent? What's Standford ranked, oh thats right they are not! Way to go coach Harbaugh Congrats from The Bronco Nation!!!
Yeah way to go Stanford! You
Yeah way to go Stanford! You just destroyed our 1 signature win. Thanks for giving our SOS a nice hit. All Oregon has to do is win out and they'll still be in the Rose Bowl as the Pac-10 rep. BSU needs Oregon to keep winning to get into the BCS you dope. TCU destroys its sub-par team while BSU struggles again against a crappy team. Say adios to the BCS BSU fans
Poor Mark Mays
Poor Mr know it all Mark Mays. What's he gonna say now that Oregon lost. He will probably still try to move them up in the polls. He will probably insist it must have been the "New" Coach's 1st year blues of something. We are all waiting to hear him spit out his next bunch of B*S* He is a clown without a circus and a very poor act!
U of O or USC
Will a two loss U of O be ranked higher than a two loss USC because of head to head comparison? Or does USC have a better overall "body of work"? hmm.....I've heard th..
Head 2 Head
means nothing anymore! It's all about what conference you're in and SOS. Least that's what MM was saying on ESPN. Holz needs to paddle Marky.
Wow, that was searing commentary.
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There is no life in Idaho...it is a mirror site on god's server. You were dreaming but it is over. Go to your residence and await our commands and THEN we will restore control...
Anyone????
How does LSU lose and move up in the polls. Even the coaches moved them up. And how does a two loss USC jump to 9 WAY ahead of a team that stomped them? Loads and piles of crap!!!! They are moving USC up so they can take the "at large" spot, even though they don't even come close to earning it. USC using the secret hand shake to fill some coffers even though the team looks bad.
How can that surprize you?
USC and The Fighting Irish are the same. They don't have to win and they get a BCS Bowl.... Don't you guys watch college Football?