October 25, 2010

Report: Penn State to host Eastern Michigan in 2013

The Eastern Michigan Eagles will play at Penn State in 2013, according to an article by David Jesse at AnnArbor.com. Jesse reported that EMU AD Derrick Gragg spoke at last weeks's EMU Board of Regents meeting, discussing the financial benefit from playing big-time opponents away from Ypsilanti. Going through what Jesse wrote, I stumbled upon this little tidbit:
In the 2013 season, Eastern will get
• $150,000 to travel to Army.
• $850,000 to travel to Rutgers
$425,000 to travel to Penn State University.

Penn State's Jeff Nelson wouldn't confirm what Jesse reported, that the Nittany Lions would host the Eagles in 2013. The only thing Jeff would say is that Penn State has two open dates in '13 left to fill, and that he couldn't speak to the payout, as Penn State doesn't divulge that kind of information. But really, did I expect him to say much about? Not exactly.

Maybe this changes before 2013 rolls around. Things like that happen. Teams back out of games, make changes, all the time. A game between Penn State and EMU is currently scheduled for 2011, so we know these two programs have already dealt with each other about football scheduling.

So, it's not an Alabama, Oregon State, or TCU (remember that rumor a few years ago?). But at least it's not a damn FCS (I-AA) team.

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8 comments:

  1. As I stated in my post this morning (in which I link here for the HT) I would think that this game slides between Syracuse (Aug. 31) and Virginia (Sep. 14). Just a guess though.

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  2. Another stern test!

    This team plays too many cupcakes, when they venture out to play a good noncon team they generally get their asses handed to them.

    WE ARE MEDIOCRE!

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  3. If the administration keeps scheduling games like this they better not expect a sell out for season tickets with the price increase coming, if they do they will be in for a very big surprise.

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  4. I keep hearing that we schedule too many cupcakes but I rarely see any journalists list school by school examples to substantiate these claims. I know Florida and others play cupcakes i.e. The Citadel and Eastern Michigan, Youngstown State, Appalachian State (remember that one). Wisconsin plays Peay State-ever heard of them? I bet the posts above haven't done any homework to backup the negative comments about our lack of schedule strength-or have they? We'll see if they repost here. PSU doesn't do anything every other FBS school does.

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  5. @Jay DeMurth - the argument here isn't how does Penn State's schedule stack up against other schools, I don't care what other schools do I care about what Penn State does and if they are going to institute a HEFTY cost increase for season tickets like they are next season they better make it worth my money. Currently they are NOT doing that, there's no way I'm paying premium price to watch teams like Michigan. You get what you pay for and Penn State is simply not putting a product out there that makes it worth paying the money to see. I'll either be proven right or wrong in the next couple years, if they sell out the season tickets I'll admit I'm wrong if they don't sell out (which I suspect is going to happen) then I'll be proven right. The administration thinks they can charge whatever they want and there will be enough blind sheep* to fill the stadium and I bet they are dead wrong especially in the current economic climate.

    *I'm not trying to be derogatory here I mean they think for every person that drops season tickets there are 3 waiting in the wings to buy. The noise I'm hearing around town is a LOT of people simply won't pay it and are turning in their tickets and I'm talking people that have had them for decades.

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  6. While I agree with Galen (for the most part), I also think that people overreact to how Penn State has been scheduling games. There is so much negative blowback to every non-BCS program that gets on the schedule, but you don't hear any real substantial positive feedback from scheduling good teams.

    Here's one argument: You pay a lot of money for season tickets next year. Ok, and what's the problem here? In case anyone forgot, next year, Alabama, Nebraska and Iowa all come to Penn State, all probably ranked in the top 10 or higher. How much do you think those tickets cost on the open market? The Alabama game is surely to garner upwards of $1K per ticket; the Nebraska game, too. So for all the bitching about how much money you're forking out for the whole season, you're actually saving hundreds of dollars on the big ticket games. So really it all evens out. Penn State fans have been getting a deal-and-a-half for decades now.

    Do I like it? No. But I'm being realistic here.

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  7. Kevin: You are correct.

    EMU's media guide lists this game as 9/7/2013.

    That $425,000 payment is well below the current going rate. Look for EMU to either renegotiate for something significantly higher or cancel the game; they can almost certainly get a much higher payout from another school. For example, the weekend after that (9/14/2013), Rutgers is paying the Eagles $850,000 -- yes, double what Penn State is paying.

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  8. easterneagles, but does playing Penn State and the better exposure (Big Ten Network at the very least) compensate EMU for monetary difference? I certainly would think getting your program exposed to possible new recruits would be worth something.

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