Always nice to see a BCS team visit a MAC stadium.

Well, you guys don't understand that Bowling Green is a major metropolitan area. MAJOR.

Throw out the record books when you can get Austin Peay, North Texas, and Marshall to your home turf....

I wish I was joking people...I really was.

That's 2013's home slate...but wait, WE NEED MORE TIME TO DEVELOP A WINNER.

By 2045, we should be playing NC State in Peden after 34 more years of dog-crap.

Just unacceptable for anyone with a brain. Acceptable for the rest of you nudniks.

I too love the series with Marshall, but I also feel very strongly that we should be working to bring a BCS school into Athens or a pretty regular basis.  I would rather see a bad Indiana over a good North Texas....Why?  Because beating North Texas brings you no headlines or credibility, while beating a bad Big10 team will bring you headlines and a spot on ESPN, and make the alumni get a little chubby.  Take our beating of Illinois, they were a BAD football team, but that win got play!  How about beating Pitt?  Great win, Pitt had a losing record and finished towards the bottom of a bad conference.  We didn't care, we all got excited and alumni all over the country stuck their chest out, and in fact some still hang their hat on that win.

Rather than read another tired potshot, Monroe, I'd love to hear you explain why it is that BGSU is able to schedule a home-and-home with Maryland and we cannot.  In earlier threads you argued that we simply could not get the type of deal that BGSU just scored with a BCS opponent.  I fail to see what BGSU offers that we could not match:

• Recruiting isn't the answer, because Maryland has signed only one Ohio player in the last 5 years, indicating that the wind-swept plains of NW Ohio aren't really prime, target recruiting territory for the Terps;
   
• Proximity to a major media market doesn't explain it, as BGSU doesn't get any real attention in Detroit or Columbus, and Maryland wouldn't schedule a game just in the hopes of making the Toledo nightly news;
   
• Transportation convenience isn't an answer either, as BGSU is just as far from Detroit International Airport as OU is from Columbus.  In fact, OU would actually be much more convenient for any Maryland fans tempted to make a drive across the mountains to follow their team;
   
• Finally, from a competition point of view, while BGSU has certainly been stronger than we have been traditionally, over the last 4-5 years the programs have been pretty even in terms of success (with BGSU stronger some years, us in others).

Nor does the budget situation offer a reasonable explanation, as in a home-and-home deal neither team typically pays the other much more than its travel costs, making a series with Maryland actually less expensive than our identical deals with North Texas, Idaho, and Louisiana-Lafayette.  In fact, given that a home game against Maryland would likely sell more tickets than those three, such a series would actually probably be better for us from a budgetary perspective (and that is before we take into consideration a possible increase in donations should we beat Maryland, or the benefits of playing a road game close to DC-area alumni).

Therefore, I fail to understand why it is that we should be content with BGSU scoring a home-and-home series with Maryland, while we have zero home games scheduled with BCS schools over the next 5 years.  The only apparent explanation for this situation is organizational scheduling philosophy.  If that is the case, then I think that the Love is right on the money that we should be more vocal in demanding better home games from the Athletic Department.  While the existing schedules may have been justifiable in the early years of a rebuilding program, they really aren't what we should be content with in years 6-12 of the Solich regime. 

I completely agree with both JWC and Flomo.  Why does BGSU get a home and home with Maryland?  The points made by Flomo in his post are spot-on.  Actually, I went to the Maryland game in the Grobe years (we won), and there was a very large contingent of OUr fans in the stands.  Bottom line is that it makes as much economic sense to try and schedule middle-low BCS teams to a home and home, instead of teams from the WAC, Sun Belt, etc.  As many have posted already, try some of the lesser B-10, ACC, Big East or SEC teams.  Some of these teams are a lot closer to Athens, and I feel would generate more "buzz" than ULL, North Texas or Idaho.  In my opinion, people want to see BCS teams and will take a bad BCS team over a very good non-BCS team.  Further, a win over a BCS team gets more press than whipping ULL, North Texas or Idaho.  Finally, the three largest crowds in Peden history, and the only time we had at least 24K or more in the stands were all BCS teams, the same being Iowa State, Pitt and UConn.

GO BOBCATS!

We didn't exactly whip North Texas (2009: 31-30 in double OT), ULL (31-23, but trailing going into the 4th), or Wyoming (0-2 in the recent home and home). Just saying...

Mine and Flomo's point exactly, you are going to make news by beating an ACC team, you are going to make no noise beating a non-BCS team.  And NO game is a given, none!  So to schedule NTSU and ULL just don't make sense when some other games are out there.

Heard that Maryland student body not happy with the scheduling of lesser opponent and that some fella named Terrapin Love is organzing a walk out or sit in of some sort!

Look, I hope we 'schedule up' also.

But first we need to blow out a ton of W's on the schedule we do have.  That's the first step in developing an avid, raucOUs OHIO following.  Do it well enough and some lesser names will drop/bigger names will appear.

I can't see us exciting the faithful merely by scheduling big names.  For the more casual (than those here) fan, W's are more immediately more important than name opponents.  Will a mediocre record agains 'name' opponents fire up the OHIO?  No, it won't.

As we win it, they will come.

You left off North Texas?  Why?


Seriously though what I am finding amusing is that several here are expecting a big time season and if that happens you are going to be severely disappointed when we go to a trash Bowl game and don't sniff a Top 25.  Also look at the MAC historically, teams in our league have 5 year windows of dominance and it cycles back.

I really would love for us to play BCS teams in Peden, but as stated we won't see it till 2015 or later. The question now is, why can't we try to schedule those years now. By the time they are ready to play us in Peden some of these teams might be pretty hot and either want to remove us from the schedule (either we are too good or they want to play another BCS team). Either way, good exposure or good money I am happy either way in that situation. I think we should be pressing the Athletic Department to play 2 BCS teams a year, and every 3rd year one of them should be at Peden.

Because I had some time to kill this morning, I went ahead and compiled a list of all BCS home games for MAC schools from 2005 into the foreseeable future (i.e., announced future games).  The list is below.  Notably, we are the only MAC team to have announced nearly complete schedules up to 2015.  Most MAC schools have only announced a handful of future games, giving them plenty of opportunity to add to this list.

Overall, we are the only MAC school that has not announced a future home game with a BCS opponent.  In terms of games from 2005-2009, only 4 MAC schools have hosted fewer BCS opponents than we did during that stretch (while 3 others are tied at 2 BCS home games)

Akron

2008 - Cincinnati
2009 - Indiana
2010 - Syracuse

Ball State

2006 - Indiana
2011 - Indiana
2012 - USF

Bowling Green

2008 - Minnesota
2009 - Boise State (not BCS, but still a marquee game)
2014 - Indiana
2016 - Maryland

Buffalo

2005 - Rutgers
2007 - Baylor
2009 - Pitt
2011 - UConn
2012 - Pitt
2013 - Uconn
2014 - Baylor

CMU

2005 - Indiana
2006 - Boston College
2012 - Michigan State
2014 - NC State

EMU

2007 - Northwestern (@ Ford Field)
2018 or 2020 - Michigan State

Kent

2006 - Minnesota
2009 - Iowa State
2019 - Iowa State

Miami

2005 - Cincinnati
2006 - Northwestern
2007 - Cincinnati
2007 - Syracuse
2008 - Vanderbilt
2009 - Cincinnati
2011 - Cincinnati
2012 - Missouri
2013 - Cincinnati
2014 - Minnesota

NIU

2012 - Kansas

Ohio

2005 - Pitt
2009 - UConn

Temple

2005 - Maryland (not yet an official member of MAC)
2005 - Miami (FL) (not yet an official member of MAC)
2006 - Louisville (not yet an official member of MAC)
2007 - Penn State
2008 - UConn
2010 - UConn
2011 - Penn State
2012 - Maryland
2014 - Maryland
2014 - Vanderbilt
2016 - Rutgers
2018 - Rutgers


Toledo

2006 - Kansas
2007 - Purdue
2007 - Iowa State
2009 - Colorado
2010 - Arizona
2011 - Boise State (not BCS, but still a marquee game)
2014 - Missouri
2015 - Miami (FL)
2015 - Iowa State


WMU

2007 - Indiana
2015 - Michigan State