Alabama Mismatch

[WorkHorse]

Alabama played (yawn) Georgia State last night, and, while the mismatch of the century had its interesting storylines, there had to be more attractive scheduling opportunties available. Bama paid the first year program $400,000 for the visit plus an extra $35,000 for agreeing to play the game on Thursday rather than Saturday. What grinds my gears about a scrimmage game like this one is there are in-state schools who would have been a more attractive (UAB, Troy, Jacksonville State) opponent and would keep the money in Alabama were it is needed. Keeping that payout within state boundaries might also fill the stadium, which appeared to be a tough task last night.

[HoulihansTX]

They did it as a favor to Georgia St., and Bill Curry, a former coach of Alabama.

Georgia St. is a program in its first year, and needs the money.


A program like Alabama could careless who they play out-conference. They will only be playing a team that has no chance, and they will have to pay the team a substantial amount of money to come to Alabama.


I agree the match-up was like Mike Tyson in his prime, choosing somebody in the stands to fight instead of his scheduled opponent.

[bdavies26]

^What Houlihans said. Alabama did GSU a favor, much like they did with Duke this year (Cutcliffe went to Bama if I'm not mistaken). I agree with keeping the money in-state though, I like that when South Carolina plays a I-AA cupcake, they rotate through the numerous in-state I-AA schools (Citadel, Charleston Southern, Wofford, Furman, SC State, etc.) in order to keep the money in-state.

Also re: attendance, it's a well-known fact that Thursday night games almost always have lower attendance because people have work/school the next day, are working during the game, etc. which doesn't usually happen on Saturdays. At schools like Bama where the people from all over the state come to T-Town for the game, those factors hurt attendance. That's why UGA refuses to play Thursday games.