Appalachian State, Marshall upsets could have been avoided
COLLEGE STATION, Texas (BVM) 鈥� Fifteen years ago, Michigan paid Appalachian State $400,000 to play them. The Mountaineers pulled off the win in one of the most historic upsets in the history of college football.
This time around, Texas A&M paid Appalachian State $1.5 million to play them this weekend.
History repeated itself.
Once again, Appalachian State pulled off a shocking win against the No. 6 team in the country.
But the Aggies were not the only program in this situation on Saturday, as Notre Dame paid Marshall $1.25 million in its 26-21 defeat.
For Notre Dame, its playoff chances are pretty much out the window with two losses already in 2022. For Texas A&M, they would likely have to win out to have a shot. And their remaining schedule has five ranked opponents in the latest AP poll.
Not only did these games hurt the Fighting Irish financially, but they also killed their season with both programs having playoff aspirations in 2022.
The Sun Belt has emerged as arguably the best Group of 5 conference, with Appalachian State and Marshall off to big starts. Georgia Southern also defeated Nebraska on Saturday, leading to the firing of head coach Scott Frost.
So why schedule them?
It has become an annual event at the beginning of the college football season where a big college is upset, then the amount that they paid makes its rounds on social media.
While the sum of these payouts seems large, money is no object to most of these powerhouse programs.
In December 2021, a study by GoBankingRates and Forbes determined that Texas A&M has an annual value of $147 million.
These are the Top 25 most valuable programs in college football 馃挵馃張
Which school is the most surprising?
— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX)
For the Aggie program, the loss itself is likely the bigger detriment rather than the financials. With that being said, this just comes down to poor scheduling.
When Appalachian State played Michigan in 2007, the Mountaineer program was not near the caliber of its current status.
Appalachian State joined the Sun Belt in 2014 and has been one of the conference’s most consistent programs. There have been only three seasons since they became an FBS school where they did not have double–digit wins. In two of those three seasons, they finished with nine wins.聽
When adding a non-conference game such as Appalachian State, you know you will get a tough, experienced and just overall good football team.
While it is necessary to schedule these early games to be fully prepared for conference play, it is all about mitigating risk. Scheduling a team as good as Appalachian State to get ready for the bulk of the season is not mitigating whatsoever.
A lot of these types of games are somewhat hard to judge the risk factor with them being scheduled years in advance, but that is not the case here with the Mountaineers being a well-oiled machine for their level for close to a decade now.
While many teams have tough out-of-conference games early on against ranked opponents, a decent amount of those matchups are at neutral site locations where both teams will make sizable profits.
For Texas A&M on Saturday, it was a double whammy.
This should be a valuable lesson for not only the Aggies but all big college football programs.
The price tag will always be a laughing point for rival fanbases, but that is not the biggest problem here. It all comes down to smarter scheduling.
It is not worth the risk this early in the year to put your season potentially on the line with a bad loss.聽
Texas A&M and Notre Dame will have to deal with the consequences of that in 2022.
