BOWLING GREEN — The Bowling Green football team will play at Georgia Tech on Saturday for the same reason it just played at the Big House.
To stay out of the poor house.
But what if too many of these games leave it more beaten up than the hooligans in Road House?
Is the slaughter worth the squeeze?
While we all know the deal — many schools need the paydays to keep the lights on — it’s fair to wonder.
The Falcons are a worthy case study.
They stacked games at No. 2 Michigan and Georgia Tech on the back half of their nonconference schedule, and kindly left an open date in between for the Mid-American Conference to slot in mighty Ohio.
It has not gone well.
BG lost everything but its lunch pail in Ann Arbor, its prideful effort in a 31-6 defeat coming at a great cost.
By the end, the Falcons were down more than a half-dozen starters, playing a third-string quarterback who had never taken a college snap (ailing starter Connor Bazelak did not play), and so bruised that — even with Ohio on deck — they called off practice the following Monday.
“We were beat to hell,” coach Scot Loeffler said.
No, that’s no excuse for what came next.
“No way,” Loeffler said.
BG’s 38-7 home loss to Ohio was a disaster wrapped inside of a debacle, with three Falcons players ejected, including two for receiving multiple unsportsmanlike conduct penalties.
Five years into the Loeffler era, that inconsistency is indefensible.
Still … the schedule is not immaterial.
At best, it does Bowling Green no favors. At worst, it’s downright nuts.
“I think it’s preposterous, to be honest with you,” Loeffler said.
Either way, it makes for an interesting debate.
The gauntlet perfectly underscores the fine line schools in the MAC — and other Group of Five conferences — must navigate in balancing the interests of their football program and the financial concerns of their athletic department.
To me, BG is on the wrong side of the equation, but let’s begin with the obvious: It’s hardly alone.
The Falcons — who also played at Liberty to open the season — are one of six MAC teams who will play three road nonconference road games this season, a helmet-in-hand group that includes the most shameless annual offender of them all, Kent State. (Last year, Kent’s student-pinatas played at Washington, Oklahoma, and Georgia, in exchange for a cool $5.2 million.)
BG will get $2.6 million to play at Michigan and Georgia Tech. When it spent just $6.9 million on football last year — a meager budget that ranks ahead of only three of 133 FBS schools (Akron, Jacksonville State, and Louisiana-Monroe) — that’s no small chunk of change.
Remember, too, it’s not all about the money.
Think BG’s players don’t love playing at Michigan, Ohio State, and Notre Dame? They do, just as their fans enjoy visiting the cathedrals of the sport. Besides, you never know. MAC-vs-Goliath upsets are a rite of autumn.
“Let's say that money isn’t on the table and there’s no guarantee,” BG athletic director Derek van der Merwe said. “What decision would I make in regards to what I think is really important for the student-athlete experience? I’m a former football player and having the chance to play a major program that has history and tradition … is really important. I will still fight for that opportunity for our student-athletes.”
But he appreciates you can have too much of a good thing.
And a clumsily scheduled second power-conference game at Georgia Tech — sandwiched right between the Falcons’ two toughest opponents in the MAC East (Ohio and Miami) — fits the bill.
Big picture, van der Merwe’s hope is to increase the program’s resources and decrease its scheduling burden. (If BG continues to chase money games to barely support a Division I program, what’s the point of any of this?)
While schedules are built years in advance — the Falcons play at Penn State and Texas A&M next season (good luck!) — van der Merwe wants BG to evolve from its recent model of two power-conference road games to one in line with its top rivals.
Toledo and Ohio, for instance, are the league standards in nonconference scheduling, typically playing one big-time road game and always at least two home contests.
“That’s what I’m pushing for,” van der Merwe said.
Now, will that better position BG for more MAC wins?
Logic suggests fewer early sledgehammer-type games will produce a fresher and healthier team, though maybe that’s overstated.
“From a health and safety standpoint, you're going to play another group of 18 to 22-year-old people that train just like you do,” Toledo’s Jason Candle said, speaking generally. “The perception that you go play Alabama, all your players are going to run into a brick wall and we’ll see if they can still stand up afterward, I don’t think that’s real. … Football is football. This is a collision sport. This is Division I. Everybody has scholarships.”
True. Also true: Some bigger, faster, stronger players had more scholarship offers than others.
As physical as MAC teams are, Loeffler suggested the average league game might feature five “unbelievable hits,” compared to 20 in a battle against Michigan or Ohio State.
He thinks back to 2014, when he was the offensive coordinator at Virginia Tech, and the Hokies — a power-conference team themselves — stunned the eventual national champion Buckeyes. It was the hardest-hitting game of the season.
“We beat Ohio State,” he said, “and it cost us three games.”
Will these Falcons experience similar reverberations?
Or is that just an excuse where none exist?
Loeffler insists it’s the latter, saying, “At the end of the day, [injuries] happen to a lot of teams.”
But if asked about the state of the slate, he will be honest.
“I don’t like how our schedule was set up whatsoever,” Loeffler said. “It is what it is.”
Yeah, kind of preposterous.
First Published September 27, 2023, 7:38 p.m.
