Sept. 21, 2005

When the subject of football at the University of Dayton comes up, the focus of many questions asked involve scheduling. Fans hoping to see the Flyers visit their area or bring a certain team to Welcome Stadium might ask about the teams they do or do not see on our schedule and why.

To answer some of those questions, here are the X's and O's of our football scheduling process:

There are 617 colleges or universities that have NCAA-sanctioned football programs - here is the breakdown...

117 in NCAA Division I-A (Can give up to 85 scholarships) 116 in NCAA Division I-AA (Can give up to 63 scholarships) 153 in NCAA Division II (Can give up to 36 scholarships 231 in NCAA Division III (Can't give athletic scholarships) This does not include the approximately 80 schools playing under the jurisdiction of the NAIA.

UD's football program is one of those 116 in Division I-AA even though other Flyer teams play at the Division I level overall. Although a majority of the I-AA programs give scholarships, we are among the handful of programs that do not.

For example, last year's I-AA national championship game featured James Madison and Montana, who both gave the maximum 63 scholarships. At the other extreme are UD and the other teams in the Pioneer Football League, who give none. In fact, whether or not a young man plays football has no bearing on his financial aid package at a I-AA non-scholarship school.

Including PFL members, there are currently 22 non-scholarship programs in Division I-AA. Over the last few years this number has decreased. Both Evansville and Canisius are two teams we have played recently which dropped their football programs. Austin Peay is in the process of adding football scholarships and rejoining the Ohio Valley Conference. This leaves us with a small number of scheduling possibilities in Division I against similar programs. "...we would like to schedule two quality games of local interest and two games that are against Division I-AA opponents in cities that are populated with alumni and students." Tim Wabler, UD Associate Vice President for Athletics

Even though the scheduling "pool" has been shrinking, PFL schools have just recently taken steps to make their scheduling a whole lot easier. With all league members agreeing to participate in a round-robin format, seven games are now locked in the schedule as conference games. With 11 being the maximum number of games in the regular season that a team is allowed to play, that leaves four game opportunities to schedule out-of-conference.

Of the four games, we would like to schedule two quality games of local interest and two games that are against Division I-AA opponents in cities that are populated with alumni and students.

That said, the following items are considered when scheduling the four non-conference games which prepare us for conference play:

1. Local Interest: Games with Wittenberg, Ohio Northern and Tiffin, for example, all provide a level of local interest that ensures a strong fan base and a quality game atmosphere.

2. Travel to Alumni and Student Cities: Pittsburgh, the New York City area and Washington, DC are all locales that provide an opportunity for exposure with alumni. Although none of the current members of the PFL are in these cities, we have or are planning to play schools such as Fordham, Duquesne and Robert Morris.

3. Competition: Besides playing the other most-successful non-conference Division I-AA programs, our goal is to schedule scholarship I-AA and Division II programs when the games help prepare the Flyers for conference play.

We and the PFL are also interested in pursuing opportunities for post-season competition. Although we are eligible for the I-AA playoffs, the sixteen spots are currently filled with eight automatic qualifiers and eight at-large berths. It's not realistic for us to think that we will qualify for the playoff's because most of the top-seeded programs provide the 63 maximum scholarships and PFL members are simply not competing at the same level of football.

Post-season competition could look like a championship game between the PFL champion and a similar conference (i.e. MAAC). It could also consist of a four-team playoff including Division I-AA and Division II non-scholarship or partial-scholarship programs. Either way we are interested in a post-season opportunity for our student-athletes.

So, to answer the question why we don't play certain teams - some simply don't make sense. For example, we will not play schools whose I-A or I-AA scholarship programs that are so well-funded and well-established that the size and speed difference between the players on their team make it likely that the game could result in a competitive disadvantage resulting in injury . Although injuries are part of the game, putting our team in a situation where injuries are likely, rather than possible, is not in the best interest of our team from a competitive standpoint or for our student-athletes personal welfare.

As for the ones that do make sense, we need to keep in mind that both teams have to show interest in playing the game. In other circumstances, an open date can not be arranged.

Each season we are committed to putting together a schedule which will combine teams of local interest, alumni interest, and strong competition. With that in mind, a post-season opportunity could make scheduling even more critical.