Is it impossible for us to get a BCS conference opponent and not do a home and home? I sure do hate having another away game. I do understand the importance of SOS, we were very lucky in 03 and 07, AU did not have that same luck. We have such a well funded program, it seems like we should be able to buy somebody off to play in Tiger Stadium, (other that North Texas, etc.).
It just isn't going to work that way, and that is the reason we have trouble getting decent OOC games. I, for one, am tired of LSU claiming they can't get good teams to play in Tiger Stadium. That's BS. They can't, however, get good teams to play in Tiger Stadium without a return visit. Have they stopped to consider that the fans might like to journey outside of the SEC for a road game?
I know ya'll don't want to hear it but it really is about the $$ in the sense that Football pays for itself, and every other sport's budget on campus except Men's basketball and Baseball. If they don't have enough home games, it really puts them in a bind. They were really hurting in 05 when we lost the extra game here. It's the price of having great equipment, coaches, facilities... etc to bring in the best athletes. And then you can factor in that sometimes it is about the schedules and not wanting to chance losing a big game out of conference when there is a 99% chance of having at least 1 loss in conference. I think its they really have one of two options, raise ticket prices even more and then do now and have home and home series' with other BCS schools or leave the ticket prices being raised at the current rate and bite the bullet on not having other BCS schools on their schedule every year. And on top of it now, the smaller schools want more money now for coming in here (or any big school) because they know the bigger schools are desperate to fill their schedules. In the end it's all about the flow of $$ and how to best satisfy fans while still being able to put successful product on the fields throughout the athletic department.
I predict that by 2010 West Virginia will be cellar dwellars and everyone will criticize LSU for scheduling cupcake OOC games.
