Southern Illinois traveled to Evanston last season, knocked off Northwestern and collected a $550,000 payday. (Photo by SIUSalukis.com)
By Dan Verdun
Early season road games at FBS opponents continue to be a driving force for athletic budgets, according to Illinois FCS athletic directors.
Prairie State Pigskin interviewed the four ADs and heard a similar message.
“Obviously, it’s a big part of our budget,” Southern Illinois athletic director Tim Leonard said.
“Certainly the financial (aspect) is the biggest factor in that we need those,” said Tom Michael of Eastern Illinois. “We play guarantee games in basketball as well, so it’s not just not specifically unique to football. The potential money that you get from playing these games starts to be pretty substantial.”
Those paydays will continue this fall. SIU, for example, will receive $375,000 to play at Northern Illinois, an FBS member of the Mid-American Conference. This comes off a $550,000 check from Northwestern – a game in which the Salukis won – last season.
Western Illinois, under the direction of athletic director Paul Bubb, will travel to New Mexico State and get $360,000. Michael’s EIU Panthers play at Bowling Green for $350,000.
In a rare instance, Illinois State will not play an FBS foe this fall.
“We were supposed to have Oklahoma this year, and they requested to move that to (2025),” ISU interim athletic director Jeri Beggs said. “It was too late for us to fill in. We’re booked through ‘28 or ‘29. You can’t just all of the sudden book one of those at the last minute. You have to have those on your schedule all the way out.”
According to a 2019 story on FBSchedules.com, Oklahoma was to pay Illinois State a $625,000 guarantee.
Doubling down
In another rare occurrence, EIU will play two guarantee games next season. Michael confirmed last week that the Panthers will face both Northwestern and Illinois of the Big Ten Conference in 2024.
Eastern was originally only scheduled to play in Champaign.
“It’s the first time this has opened up to where the Northwestern piece was there,” said Michael, now in his ninth year at EIU. “We had an opening and with some of the scheduling things that are going on with the (Ohio Valley Conference), and as our membership has evolved, this became possible.
“When I sat down and talked to (EIU head coach) Chris (Wilkerson), it just made a lot of sense for us to add it. This is not something that we would typically do.”
Michael said the two games will bring in “just under a million dollars combined” and keep EIU’s travel quite manageable.
Beyond the financials
Each of the athletic directors was asked about the benefits outside of the guarantee money the programs receive.
“Well, until just a couple months ago, I was just a fan,” said Beggs, who has served ISU in various academic and athletic roles for over 20 years before stepping in as interim AD this spring.
“The fans love it,” she said. “The fans love the opportunity to travel to a Wisconsin, like we did last year, and experience that big-time atmosphere. I think the same thing for our student-athletes. You get to play in front of 50,000 to 70,000 fans. It’s a really interesting opportunity for them. We all enjoy it. And there’s just the possibility that we might win one of those, right?”
Like Southern Illinois last season, Illinois State owns a victory at Northwestern. The Redbirds slipped past NU, 9-7, on a last-second field goal in 2016.
“We beat Northern (Illinois) many years ago,” Beggs said. “We’ve given a few teams at least a scare. It’s exciting to go do those things.”
Bubb noted, “For the past 16 years, there has been at least one win by an FCS over an FBS. That means a lot to us.”
Those games were a hot topic at the recent summer meetings that brought FCS athletic directors from around the country together.
“A lot of people remember Appalachian State, when they were FCS, going in and upsetting Michigan (in 2014),” Bubb said. “Those wins happen more regularly than people think. Not on that large of a stage, but still they happen.”
Bubb used SIU’s win in Evanston as an example.
“There’s a Missouri Valley Football Conference school going in and winning against the Big Ten. Those games are big to us, not only the fact they do represent a payday, but also the notoriety that comes from knocking off the FBS if you’re fortunate enough to do that,” he said.
The pitfalls
In playing guarantee games, there can be a downside.
“You have to be careful with how many you play,” Leonard said. “They (FBS teams) have 22 more scholarships than we do. Depth matters. It isn’t just about hey, we can go play these teams close and sometimes we can win like we did last year. Anything can happen.
“But if you start playing three of those a year, that can decimate your depth. It’s hard enough at this level to have any kind of depth. That’s kind of the risk-reward you have to pay attention to.”
Case in point: On the opening kickoff of the 2006 season, Eastern All-American linebacker Clint Sellers separated the brachial plexus bundle in his right shoulder against Illinois in Champaign. The injury was so severe that Sellers – the 2005 OVC Defensive Player of the Year – later lost his right arm from the resulting damage.
Big school boycott?
There is also growing concern that FBS schools may cut out their lower level Division I brethren.
In the high stakes world of haves and have nots that makes up today’s collegiate athletics, rumors continue to circulate of what the power brokers may choose to do.
“It’s really hard to look at those schedules (now) and see where the opportunities are going to be. The non-conference schedules, especially the FBS ones, we schedule out years and years in advance,” Beggs said.
Ten years ago, it was widely reported that the Big Ten would stop scheduling FCS opponents. Though the conference later backed off from its intentions, the proposal sent shock waves through college football.
One of the leaders of the charge was Wisconsin athletic director and former football coach Barry Alvarez. During a radio interview, Alvarez said, “The non-conference schedule in our league is ridiculous. It’s not very appealing …So we’ve made an agreement that our future games will all be Division I schools. It will not be FCS schools.”
It should be noted that both FBS and FCS are Division I.
Michael has ties to the Big Ten. He was a former Illini basketball player who began his administrative career in Champaign.
“We had some conversations as colleagues from my time at Illinois . . . obviously those games are important to FCS institutions,” Michael said. “My comment was that if they’re (FBS) not going to play these games, that impacts us (FCS) in a significant way. And it’s not good for the sport of football. That’s what I at least tried to point out in conversations.
“I know what you’re (as the Big Ten) trying to do with your league, but if you look at the bigger picture of the sport of football, it’s not healthy. I was glad that they pulled that back, and we’ve got three Big Ten teams – we played Indiana a couple of years ago – on our schedule.”
Given the geography, it makes sense and best practice for the four Illinois FCS programs to seek games with the Big Ten.
“When you’re in the Big Ten footprint and you don’t have to get on a plane, that helps the financial piece quite a bit. When you can go to Evanston or Champaign or Bloomington, Ind., those are good games for us to play since we keep expenses at a minimum,” Michael said.
To its credit, Northern Illinois of the MAC has welcomed games against Illinois FCS teams.
The Huskies hosted Eastern Illinois last season and will play SIU in DeKalb this fall. NIU has future home games planned against Western Illinois in 2024 and Illinois State in 2026.
Going forward
For now, the Illinois FCS programs will continue to seek out guarantee games.
“I certainly think one game a year is always going to be in our plans,” Leonard said.
Beggs said, “As a fan and now as the AD, I would love to see a big game on our schedule every year.”
“It’s a critical component of what we have to do,” Michael said. “I wish that there were other (financial) solutions, but that’s the biggest driver in that, for sure.”
Upcoming FBS games
(Source: fbschedules.com)
ISU
2023–no game
2024 at Iowa
2025 at Oklahoma
2026 at Northern Illinois
2027 at Missouri
2028 at Illinois
EIU
2023 at Bowling Green ($350,000)
2024 at Northwestern, at Illinois
2025 at Alabama
2026 at Minnesota
2028 at Kentucky
SIU
2023 at Northern Illinois ($375,000)
2024 at BYU
2026 at Illinois
2027 at Wisconsin
WIU
2023 at New Mexico State ($360,000)
2024 at Northern Illinois
2026 at Wisconsin
2027 at Oklahoma State
2028 at Purdue
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