Overscheduling 101

JohnnySwoop '85 · Post by **JohnnySwoop '85** » Wed Oct 04, 2006 4:24 pm

I'm sitting on the fence.

Does the original post have some merit, yeah actually I think it does. Net the payday if it wasn't a "down Route 23" trip and where are you...airplane, hotel rooms, food, lots of food. I am no genius at athletic budgeting but there's got to be some costs that net to less than the Big Check.

We'd be in better shape if we could get 3-5k more butts in seats per game, and have 6 HOME games and a conf championship. And the only way you are going to do that is be a contender for your conference, be a "winning program" and maybe get to a Bowlon a frequent basis (which we have done since the era of having 27 bowls got ushered in.)

and to get to a bowl, you have to be Bowl eligible...and scheduling a consistent Top 10 National program puts you at somewhat cross-purposes.

Great, we get a decent payday, but it cost us a potential W for bowl eligibility, it increases odds that somebody crucial to the team gets injured as you do enter a critical stretch of games because they are mostly MAC games and we need to win those more than an OOC game.

So I think there are some good points raised, but you should consider it in the context of any given year for BG just not what this current year is reflecting.

'87...I get the comment about those games being important, humor was noted.

kdog27 · Post by **kdog27** » Wed Oct 04, 2006 4:31 pm

JohnnySwoop '85 wrote: it increases odds that somebody crucial to the team gets injured as you do enter a critical stretch of games

I don't get these statements. Injuries can happen anywhere. I also do not think playing a great team makes it any more likely for an injury to occur.

PGY Tiercel · Post by **PGY Tiercel** » Wed Oct 04, 2006 4:33 pm

kdog27 wrote:
JohnnySwoop '85 wrote: it increases odds that somebody crucial to the team gets injured as you do enter a critical stretch of games
I don't get these statements. Injuries can happen anywhere. I also do not think playing a great team makes it any more likely for an injury to occur.

Agreed. UK lost 2 starters for the season last year playing a 1-AA.

Jacobs4Heisman · Post by **Jacobs4Heisman** » Wed Oct 04, 2006 4:34 pm

kdog27 wrote:
JohnnySwoop '85 wrote: it increases odds that somebody crucial to the team gets injured as you do enter a critical stretch of games
I don't get these statements. Injuries can happen anywhere. I also do not think playing a great team makes it any more likely for an injury to occur.

I don't think it's a ton more likely, but the physics gurus among us would probably tell you that due to OSU players being, in general, bigger and faster than MAC players, in general, the collisions will be fiercer in this game than against, say, EMU. It's not a world of difference, but it is a difference.

Of course, by my calculations, our players are 237 times more likely to be choked in this game than in any other.

kdog27 · Post by **kdog27** » Wed Oct 04, 2006 4:42 pm

Jacobs4Heisman wrote:
kdog27 wrote:
JohnnySwoop '85 wrote: it increases odds that somebody crucial to the team gets injured as you do enter a critical stretch of games
I don't get these statements. Injuries can happen anywhere. I also do not think playing a great team makes it any more likely for an injury to occur.

I don't think it's a ton more likely, but the physics gurus among us would probably tell you that due to OSU players being, in general, bigger and faster than MAC players, in general, the collisions will be fiercer in this game than against, say, EMU. It's not a world of difference, but it is a difference.

Of course, by my calculations, our players are 237 times more likely to be choked in this game than in any other.

If it were really a big difference OSU's offense would be worried about injuries when they play Texas, Notre Dame, and Michigan. It's not like it is a division V high school football team going up against St. Ignatious. The difference is not very substantial.

Falcons4Life · Post by **Falcons4Life** » Wed Oct 04, 2006 6:45 pm

This is an amusing way to pass time that i should be using to analyse Russian foreign policy!!!!

Peregrinner · Post by **Peregrinner** » Wed Oct 04, 2006 6:52 pm

Jacobs4Heisman wrote:I don't think it's a ton more likely, but the physics gurus among us would probably tell you that due to OSU players being, in general, bigger and faster than MAC players, in general, the collisions will be fiercer in this game than against, say, EMU. It's not a world of difference, but it is a difference.

Of course, by my calculations, our players are 237 times more likely to be choked in this game than in any other.

I have seen this argument multiple times, and I have to say I still don't see it. If injuries at the hands of NC contenders and Big11 teams were an issue year after year, we wouldn't have scheduled Purdue, Northwestern, Wisconsin, Oklahoma and OSU as many times as we have in the last half dozen seasons.

Is the potential for injury there? Sure, but I think it's probably no more likely than injuries due to an auto accident on the way to one of these games.

Jacobs4Heisman · Post by **Jacobs4Heisman** » Wed Oct 04, 2006 7:14 pm

The collisions thing was just a setup to jab in the choking joke.

I don't agree with it either for the record. S#1t happens, no matter who is lined up across the way. Having said that, I would prefer not to send a recovering Turner into the fray too much in this game. If we want to run the QB, just put in Freddie. The Bucks will know exactly what's coming most of the time anyway.

Peregrinner · Post by **Peregrinner** » Wed Oct 04, 2006 7:21 pm

Jacobs4Heisman wrote:I would prefer not to send a recovering Turner into the fray too much in this game. If we want to run the QB, just put in Freddie. The Bucks will know exactly what's coming most of the time anyway.

This I can agree with. Not necessarily because of any real or percieved size difference, but because he's already been banged up and with a defense as fast as OSU's it will be tough to make them miss.

Warthog · Post by **Warthog** » Wed Oct 04, 2006 8:55 pm

We've lost more players to season ending injuries (three that I can think of), then we have in actual games (0). I don't buy the injury thing either. You get hurt by bigger, faster, stronger players only if you play tentatively. When you try to 'protect yourself' is when that injury occurs.

h2oville rocket · Post by **h2oville rocket** » Wed Oct 04, 2006 9:24 pm

No one asked me but as usual, I don't care. I agree with Joe. You come off a bad game and beat a supposedly resurgent OU team on the road. Then, instead of carrying that momentum into your next conference game you take the (potentially) huge smackdown from osu (for the undeniably huge payout) and then have to face the rest of your conference season.

I am all for the (probably impossible) scheduling of all conference games consecutively. Even as a fan its hard to stay into the conference enthusiasm mode when the schedule jogs back and forth. Play your OOC games as a tuneup and to get your traditional OOC rivalries (ala Miami-Cinci) out of the way. Then start beating each other's brains out.

cowboyjoe · Post by **cowboyjoe** » Wed Oct 04, 2006 10:06 pm

Forget about the "thrashing" or loss that we had at the hands of Kent. They got their you know what handed to them by Minnesota 44-0 in the first game of the year and nobody talks about that. Minnesota is not that great this year--so does that mean that Minnesota would beat BG by over 70 points? Come on now... We've played the top teams in the country very well in the last few years. Keep scheduling them and take the $$ We will get one of them one of these years!

Strouse · Post by **Strouse** » Thu Oct 05, 2006 12:21 am

First thing I thought of when I say the title of this Topic was the FMB Schedule. Every single chance we get, Dr. Hayward has us going to a High school band contest show to perform!
Then I actually read the first post and realized that the post was made sort of in the way the "Buckeye Planet's BGSU Game Preview" was made in. It's mostly sarcastic. Don't get your panties all up in a bunch over this.

bgsufalcon24 · Post by **bgsufalcon24** » Thu Oct 05, 2006 2:04 am

cowboyjoe wrote:Forget about the "thrashing" or loss that we had at the hands of Kent. They got their you know what handed to them by Minnesota 44-0 in the first game of the year and nobody talks about that. Minnesota is not that great this year--so does that mean that Minnesota would beat BG by over 70 points? Come on now... We've played the top teams in the country very well in the last few years. Keep scheduling them and take the $$ We will get one of them one of these years!

Minnesota 44 - Kent 0
Kent QB Julian Edelman did not play in this game

Kent 38 - BG 3
BG QB Anthony Turner did not play in this game

These two games summed up in a nutshell. The point: If Devon Parks sacks and injures Troy Smith on the first play from scrimmage, we have a greatly improved chance of winning this one.

JoeFalcon · Post by **JoeFalcon** » Thu Oct 05, 2006 9:17 am

h2oville rocket wrote:No one asked me but as usual, I don't care. I agree with Joe. You come off a bad game and beat a supposedly resurgent OU team on the road. Then, instead of carrying that momentum into your next conference game you take the (potentially) huge smackdown from osu (for the undeniably huge payout) and then have to face the rest of your conference season.

I am all for the (probably impossible) scheduling of all conference games consecutively. Even as a fan its hard to stay into the conference enthusiasm mode when the schedule jogs back and forth. Play your OOC games as a tuneup and to get your traditional OOC rivalries (ala Miami-Cinci) out of the way. Then start beating each other's brains out.

That's the argument right there. Definitely chime in more often!

Rapid-fire responses to the criticisms that go beyond calling the post stupid:

1) You usually can't forsee who's up and who's down years in advance, but the Ohio State game was not scheduled years in advance.

2) Kent was indeed devastating, but the sting had to wear off a little once it became apparent they're not a fluke in addition to the Turner factor cited in another post. You don't want to keep drawing water from that well.

3) The Eastern and Central games are absolutely critical and dictate whether the Miami and Toledo games will be for simple pride or for a championship. By now, we should realize that no conference opponent can be taken lightly.

4) Few things would please me more than to see BG play and defeat Ohio State. Accomplishing this requires a set of circumstances and dynamics that I don't believe exist this particular year. You've got to pick and choose your battles wisely.

5) For what it's worth, in reading Greg Christopher's comments about getting more home games at the Doyt, these out of place guarantee/momentum-killing games in the middle of the season might be a thing of the past.