JaguarNation99 said:
I see the point you're trying to make, but how is it any different for the I-AA playoffs? I-AA is a small fish in a big pond, for the most part people don't give it much attention. As was stated earlier, few people could name most of the teams that were in the playoffs this year. It's not like the I-AA champion will be on the front page of papers across the country either.
In another post, I said that the I-AA playoffs do not provide an instantaneous result. You're all right. The attendance at the games isn't great. The interest, compared to I-A ball, isn't in the same league. And the money isn't that good.
Let me tell you what Alabama State running back Keldrick Williams said about it. I think he put it best. "(The playoffs) show people that you're a legitimate team. People see us beat other conference schools or see that we're 8-1 or whatever but they don't know anything about us. On this level, your test is the playoffs. We don't have bowl games. Nobody cares about polls. You get in the playoffs and show people what you can do."
What he's saying, and what I've been trying to say, is that the playoffs show the rest of the country that you all have legitimate football programs in this conference. There's no other test for it.
All of the arguments that I've heard for not going deal with the short term. In the short term, you're not losing anything. Granted, you might not gain much either, but think about the long term. Think about what happens when some of your teams have successful playoff runs for several years. It opens up an entire new world to you.
Every year, numerous games are scheduled between I-A, big-time programs and I-AA schools. How do you suppose that happens? I can assure you that it's not luck. It's because those I-AA programs made a name for themselves with several solid performances in the playoffs. Once that starts happening, money starts being made at a staggering rate. The folks at Georgia Southern said this year's game with Georgia will pay its operating costs for more than half the season. HALF. Whatever else they make is money in their pockets. Oh, and did I mention that the Georgia-Georgia State game wasn't televised? So, that's just gate money.
Allow me to direct your attention to basketball for a minute. In the last few years, Alabama State has made a couple of trips to the NCAA Tournament. While they didn't bring home an earth-shattering amount of money, they added a level of legitimacy to their program. And the big payoff comes next Tuesday, when they HOST the University of Alabama. Do you think that happens if ASU plays a SWAC schedule, goes to the conference tournament and then goes home? Of course not. It happened because they got out there and took the only test that matters -- the NCAA Tournament.
And STC, I, and I would imagine the NCAA and every other I-AA school, wouldn't lose any sleep over the SWAC not going to the playoffs. As a matter of fact, most of the I-AA schools don't want you all there because it means one or two less spots for them.
You're acting as if I'm telling you that after a few years in the playoffs you're going to bump Notre Dame from its TV contract with NBC. You're always, no matter how good you are or what you do, going to be in the second and less publicized tier of the NCAA. But that's no reason not to get all you can.
Face it, the SWAC has several schools operating on a shoe-string budget. Pine Bluff, for example, just had to cancel its track team's season due to budget shortfalls. Prairie View isn't in great financial shape. A couple of years ago, Grambling was talking about shutting down. (Yes, I know it was it all talk and a bunch of scare tactics and there was never any real threat of GSU shutting down.) Now, is going to the playoffs going to solve those problems? No. Not even if one of your teams win the whole thing. But in the long run, it's going to help. A lot more than the SWAC championship game.
And why did you list all of those games? No one is talking about not playing the Bayou Classic or the Magic City Classic or any of the other profitable games between SWAC teams. The playoffs are in addition to those games. And why would you care if your school went to the playoffs and took a bunch of fans? Because the PWC that your team would be playing would benefit too? I hate to point out the obvious, but if the PWC team is making money, so is the HBCU team.
The I-AA Playoffs are the highest NCAA football championship. All NCAA Championships are run the same way but you single out football. Are you saying the SWAC should opt out of the NCAA altogether?
