BOL Round Table

I think Alabama A&m might beat *U this year...

like those pitches to Ibanez tonight (g)

I understand why we play these games but I'm giving a heads up right now - I'll have 4 tickets for sale!

And you don't think the same thing would happen if we were playing Duke, Northwestern, or Boston College, whom we would blow out nearly as bad?

I love these types of games because I love to see Alec Morris get some meaningful snaps handing off to Altee Tenpenny next year. Like it or not, we NEED games like these on the schedule. Most of the "low majors" are going to want a home and home(ie Duke). But most teams like GaState will take the exposure and the check along with a chance to possibly win the game, as slim as that chance might be. It give our guys a chance to stay sharp while also sort of getting a breather at the same time.

Also, games like this allow me to be able to afford to take my entire family....not that this matters much.

I'm not saying you have to schedule all "tough teams" but a team in it's first year of 1-A ball is not fair to fans that pay the season tickets IMO. If you have to stoop to that level at least schedule Jacksonville, UAB or South Alabama and keep the money in state. Otherwise at least schedule a team the fans don't mind paying $50 a ticket for.

I've actually heard quite a few Barner's saying this same thing. Several of them have seen A&M play and truly believe that they could beat them.

People who make posts like these just don't understand how scheduling works. It's not as simple as picking up the phone and telling some other school to come play us next year. Schools from BCS conferences would expect a home and home series, and what good would it do for Alabama to travel up to Boston College or Northwestern? They both have very weak recruiting bases.
Also keep in mind that most schools schedule their non conference games at least 3-4 years in advance, and just like Alabama, they prefer NOT to have more than one big name opponent on their non conference schedule. In 2013, Boston College is already scheduled to play USC. Northwestern's non conference schedule is already filled with the likes of California, Vandy, Syracuse, so we couldn't play them even if we wanted to.

Nick Saban has mentioned this several times in the past but it is difficult to get respectable teams to play Alabama anymore, unless it's a one time deal on a neutral field. The rest have to be home games since our athletic department requires us to play 7 home games every year, so that means we have to resort to buying off Sun Belt teams and/or FCS schools to come play us. You may not like it, but this is just the cold hard truth of scheduling as it exists today.

Ownage...

You're exactly right, but many just don't get it. We even had airharper break down the financials. I give up. I'm going back to posting gifs.