UCLA will play Alabama State (SWAC) in 2022 and NC-Central (MEAC) in 2023 in the Rose Bowl stadium.

These are the first-ever games vs HBCUs for UCLA. They will also be the first games vs FCS ever for UCLA, which has never played an FCS team since the 1978 divisional split.

IIRC, this leaves Notre Dame as the only FBS school never to schedule an FCS team, though they and USC have never yet played one. Personally, I'd like to see Notre Dame schedule an HBCU as well.


https://fbschedules.com/ucla-to-host-ala...l-in-2023/

Makes no sense to me. Just another way to schedule a home game, easy win and not pay much while appearing nice to HBCU's.

(02-24-2021 03:22 PM)TOPSTRAIGHT Wrote:  Makes no sense to me. Just another way to schedule a home game, easy win and not pay much while appearing nice to HBCU's.

Welcome to virtue signalling of "progressive" California.

(02-24-2021 03:22 PM)TOPSTRAIGHT Wrote:  Makes no sense to me. Just another way to schedule a home game, easy win and not pay much while appearing nice to HBCU's.

And giving money to those universities. Cincinnati played Alabama A&M a couple years ago and someone asked the A&M coach what did you take out of the matchup. Instead of saying something like getting a game on TV or a chance to play a school that has been ranked in the Top 25 he honestly answered “The only thing we get out of it is $500,000.”

(02-24-2021 03:23 PM)Stugray2 Wrote:  

(02-24-2021 03:22 PM)TOPSTRAIGHT Wrote:  Makes no sense to me. Just another way to schedule a home game, easy win and not pay much while appearing nice to HBCU's.

Welcome to virtue signalling of "progressive" California.

(02-24-2021 03:42 PM)CliftonAve Wrote:  

(02-24-2021 03:22 PM)TOPSTRAIGHT Wrote:  Makes no sense to me. Just another way to schedule a home game, easy win and not pay much while appearing nice to HBCU's.

And giving money to those universities. Cincinnati played Alabama A&M a couple years ago and someone asked the A&M coach what did you take out of the matchup. Instead of saying something like getting a game on TV or a chance to play a school that has been ranked in the Top 25 he honestly answered “The only thing we get out of it is $500,000.”

How ungrateful. If you can only operate a football program by playing rent-a-victim body bag games then maybe you shouldn’t field an FCS football team. Even the FCS patsies know they are there to play the role of the Washington Generals. These sporting events aren’t games—they’re exhibitions where the outcome is already pre-determined.

(02-24-2021 03:48 PM)Fighting Muskie Wrote:  

(02-24-2021 03:42 PM)CliftonAve Wrote:  

(02-24-2021 03:22 PM)TOPSTRAIGHT Wrote:  Makes no sense to me. Just another way to schedule a home game, easy win and not pay much while appearing nice to HBCU's.

And giving money to those universities. Cincinnati played Alabama A&M a couple years ago and someone asked the A&M coach what did you take out of the matchup. Instead of saying something like getting a game on TV or a chance to play a school that has been ranked in the Top 25 he honestly answered “The only thing we get out of it is $500,000.”

How ungrateful. If you can only operate a football program by playing rent-a-victim body bag games then maybe you shouldn’t field an FCS football team. Even the FCS patsies know they are there to play the role of the Washington Generals. These sporting events aren’t games—they’re exhibitions where the outcome is already pre-determined.

If you eliminate the schools that can play FCS full scholarship football without playing FBS teams to balance the books you would be down to like four programs.

Are over 100 FCS football schools really necessary though? Is there really a point to sponsoring scholarship football at that level if you’re attracting 3K or less in attendance like some FCS schools do?

IMHO a good chunk of FCS as well as several non-football schools are better suited for D2 but are effectively grandfathered in because they joined a D1 conference by a magic date.

AGREED.

(02-24-2021 04:17 PM)ccd494 Wrote:  

(02-24-2021 03:48 PM)Fighting Muskie Wrote:  

(02-24-2021 03:42 PM)CliftonAve Wrote:  

(02-24-2021 03:22 PM)TOPSTRAIGHT Wrote:  Makes no sense to me. Just another way to schedule a home game, easy win and not pay much while appearing nice to HBCU's.

And giving money to those universities. Cincinnati played Alabama A&M a couple years ago and someone asked the A&M coach what did you take out of the matchup. Instead of saying something like getting a game on TV or a chance to play a school that has been ranked in the Top 25 he honestly answered “The only thing we get out of it is $500,000.”

How ungrateful. If you can only operate a football program by playing rent-a-victim body bag games then maybe you shouldn’t field an FCS football team. Even the FCS patsies know they are there to play the role of the Washington Generals. These sporting events aren’t games—they’re exhibitions where the outcome is already pre-determined.

If you eliminate the schools that can play FCS full scholarship football without playing FBS teams to balance the books you would be down to like four programs.

No FCS athletic departments are even close to balancing revenue and expenses. Alabama State, for example, has about $2 million of real revenue in an annual budget of over $13 million, per the USA Today database. There is only one FCS athletic department that has less than 40 percent of its budget covered by university funds -- North Dakota State, which is at about 30% subsidy. All but about five FCS programs have 60 to 90 percent of their annual budget paid by university funds, meaning their actual revenue covers only 10 to 40 percent of expenses.

$500,000 from a money game doesn't even come close to balancing the books when the difference between expenses and revenues is between $10 million and $20 million per year.

(02-24-2021 03:22 PM)TOPSTRAIGHT Wrote:  Makes no sense to me. Just another way to schedule a home game, easy win and not pay much while appearing nice to HBCU's.

Rutgers used to schedule a HBCU ever year for its FCS game and they usually brought their marching band. That's certainly better than most FCS teams offer.

(02-24-2021 03:23 PM)Stugray2 Wrote:  

(02-24-2021 03:22 PM)TOPSTRAIGHT Wrote:  Makes no sense to me. Just another way to schedule a home game, easy win and not pay much while appearing nice to HBCU's.

Welcome to virtue signalling of "progressive" California.

Is your issue with UCLA playing an FCS game or an FCS game with HBCU?

Advertising it as doing a solid for HBCUs is what trips me up. They're treating the games as if its a completely different situation than scheduling Southern Utah or Northern Colorado - which is not. I'm all for HBCUs getting higher profile games. I want to see that group of schools succeed at the highest levels. However, this is really UCLA trying to save face for substituting their games with Michigan with FCS schools and I can't blame them.

(02-24-2021 05:18 PM)BePcr07 Wrote:  Advertising it as doing a solid for HBCUs is what trips me up. They're treating the games as if its a completely different situation than scheduling Southern Utah or Northern Colorado - which is not. I'm all for HBCUs getting higher profile games. I want to see that group of schools succeed at the highest levels. However, this is really UCLA trying to save face for substituting their games with Michigan with FCS schools and I can't blame them.

Michigan cancelled that series and left UCLA in a bad spot, not only because they had to replace those games but because it's impossible to replace the game-day revenue they would have gotten from one home game vs. Michigan.

The real issue with playing FCS teams is this: Whether UCLA plays an HBCU at home, or Southern Utah, or Northern Colorado, or, Utah State or Colorado State, the issue, from the accounting point of view, is that paying a G5 team to play there costs twice as much as paying an FCS team, while generating about the same amount of game-day revenue.

It would be nice if these decisions could be made without regard to money, but that's not the world in which college football exists.

Has an HBCU football team played in SoCal? I'm guessing there might have been a Classic of some sort in L.A. once upon a time but I'm struggling to recall it. But tapping into the Black population who may have watched HBCU games on TV and band performances and step shows on YouTube but never actually seen it in person has some potential, I'd think. Sort of like Notre Dame playing in Ireland.

(02-24-2021 05:36 PM)Cyniclone Wrote:  Has an HBCU football team played in SoCal? I'm guessing there might have been a Classic of some sort in L.A. once upon a time but I'm struggling to recall it. But tapping into the Black population who may have watched HBCU games on TV and band performances and step shows on YouTube but never actually seen it in person has some potential, I'd think. Sort of like Notre Dame playing in Ireland.

Prairie View played NC A&T in the Coliseum in 2007.
The linked LA Times article mentions games played there as "classics" prior to 2007 in addition to games played against Cal State LA and Fullerton in the 70's.

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-...story.html

(02-24-2021 05:54 PM)Renandpat Wrote:  

(02-24-2021 05:36 PM)Cyniclone Wrote:  Has an HBCU football team played in SoCal? I'm guessing there might have been a Classic of some sort in L.A. once upon a time but I'm struggling to recall it. But tapping into the Black population who may have watched HBCU games on TV and band performances and step shows on YouTube but never actually seen it in person has some potential, I'd think. Sort of like Notre Dame playing in Ireland.

Prairie View played NC A&T in the Coliseum in 2007.
The linked LA Times article mentions games played there as "classics" prior to 2007 in addition to games played against Cal State LA and Fullerton in the 70's.

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-...story.html

Good find. Sounds like there's definitely a market for it, and would be a better draw for UCLA than a typical FCS opponent.

(02-24-2021 04:17 PM)ccd494 Wrote:  If you eliminate the schools that can play FCS full scholarship football without playing FBS teams to balance the books you would be down to like four programs.

You know, some people might look at that statement and consider it to be an argument that most FCS football budgets are too high.

(02-24-2021 04:59 PM)UpStreamRedTeam Wrote:  

(02-24-2021 03:23 PM)Stugray2 Wrote:  

(02-24-2021 03:22 PM)TOPSTRAIGHT Wrote:  Makes no sense to me. Just another way to schedule a home game, easy win and not pay much while appearing nice to HBCU's.

Welcome to virtue signalling of "progressive" California.

Is your issue with UCLA playing an FCS game or an FCS game with HBCU?

just making a joke.

(02-24-2021 05:36 PM)Cyniclone Wrote:  Has an HBCU football team played in SoCal? I'm guessing there might have been a Classic of some sort in L.A. once upon a time but I'm struggling to recall it. But tapping into the Black population who may have watched HBCU games on TV and band performances and step shows on YouTube but never actually seen it in person has some potential, I'd think. Sort of like Notre Dame playing in Ireland.

Except that SoCal's black population is pretty small. And a huge percentage of them would rather watch futbol than football.

Greater L.A. is about 18 million people, but only about 1.2 million are black, and less than 900,000 are native born African Americans.

The HBCU's would be better off playing in Detroit or Philly.