Verge said he is close to getting something in place for next year and is in talks with some BCS schools. I posted the article on this thread yesterday or the day before if you want to check it out.
Tell pollsters that, because Auburn not playing in the big game had ZERO to do with schedule strength. It had to do with them not being able to jump the team No. 2 in the polls, because pollsters don't hop anyone unless they lose, typically. It's really, really hard to get an "a-level" school to play you unless it's scheduled long in advance. Hence LSU scheduling with Oklahoma some 5-6 years prior to when the game will actually play. And in the sense of a TTech and a Baylor or a "C-Level" program, they don't want to play LSU, either, because with the rise of garbage programs like Kansas and S. Florida, etc..., it's getting more and more like the NFL in that anyone can have a shot in any given season, so why ruin that in the 1st game of the season? So it is hard to schedule someone at LSU, no doubt.
No, but they're probably better than a lot/most other I-A teams from non-BCS conferences.... I don't like scheduling I-AA teams either, but when you are despirate to find an opponent, it could have been a lot worse.
And it could've been better too, the Athletic Admin. just wanted to screw TTech. Last week's events make me doubt if they're really looking hard into playing a good team in 2009.
My take on it--- We were ALREADY gonna play ASU...in '09. Big deal! We move it up to '08...which actually works BETTER...since they just won the I-AA 'ship, and we won the BCS 'ship...sp there's a selling point. Plus the win over Meeeeechigan is still gonna be fresh in people's minds. We get them the first game of the season, which is when they beat Meeeeechigan last season. I guess those that are complaining about the poor home schedule next year aren't taking into account that if we were playing a better team...we might not even be playing a home game at all in this slot.
Auburn was just unlucky that year. Going undefeated was not going to be enough to jump the preseason #1 and #2. The SEC doesn't have to worry about that anymore after Florida proving to be better than UM in 06 and us being better than UGA, VT, and USC last year. I can't see an Auburn fiasco happening again.
I see nothing wrong with playing in the battle of the national champs. App state is not the worst team on the schedule by far and with their defeat of michigan last year, the have gained plenty of respect, enough respect that a lot of big school do not consider them as a warm up game. IMO, this will be a good game and if we win big, it's one more blow against the big 10
