The Football Championship Subdivision title game will no doubt continue to be held in Chattanooga, Tenn., at least four more times after recent word from the NCAA eliminated Missoula, Spokane, Wash., and Little Rock, Ark., from consideration.
That left Frisco, Texas, and Chattanooga as finalists for a three-year bid, which will be announced in February. Frisco, which is located 25 miles from Dallas, is home to the Southland Conference offices, and, like Spokane, an FCS school is located nearby but not actually in the city.
It is doubtful that the powers-that-be would choose to move the championship game from Chattanooga, where it has been located since moving from Huntington, W.V. in 1997, given the city’s track record.
University of Montana Athletics Director Jim O’Day, a member of the playoff selection committee which chooses the site, although not allowed to participate in the actual selection, said Missoula’s bid of $210,000 lent credibility to how seriously the city was about hosting the championship. But the four other applicants placed three-year bids, while the Missoula application was for a single year, thus forcing the NCAA to redo the exhaustive process next year if they awarded the game to Missoula.
How much more difficult would it have been to attract more financial commitment to bring the chipper to Missoula than it was to convince a small group of people to quickly stand behind the effort with their pocketbooks, especially given tough financial times?
If 20 or so was the number of backers who made a commitment, how many of those folks would have guaranteed 50 percent more and encouraged others to join the process? While committee Chairman Gary Hughes said they did not want the community to potentially foot that bill, I ask why not? It is a backing guarantee that if attendance is not forthcoming, the community will stand behind the guarantee.
The state would support this game and if it is positioned correctly – like making the game part of the season ticket package – attendance would be virtually guaranteed, thus eliminating the risk to backers.
That would have forced the committee and the NCAA to come west with the championship game or admit, since the majority of FCS schools are located east of the Mississippi River, it had no intention of coming to the hinterlands with the championship.
I am disappointed Missoula was eliminated because, although O’Day said there would be another attempt in 2011, I think the attempt to attract the game was ill-advised at best if it was known other cities were going to submit three-year bids.
And I am not convinced that powerhouse programs like Montana, Richmond, James Madison and Appalachian State will be playing in what is now known as FCS-level football in 2012.
On another front, the same committee that eliminated Missoula as a championship host site saw fit to choose the Grizzlies as this year’s No. 1 seed.
While Montana is a traditionally top-five team, it is just the fourth time in school history the Grizzlies have received a No. 1 seeding. What I will never understand, or agree with, is the regional seeding of opponents that traditionally brings a top-10 or so team to Missoula in the first round.
If the No. 1 seed is meant to be a reward for the best season, the NCAA needs to earmark money from its “cash cow” – the men’s NCAA basketball tournament – and do true post-season seeding, which pits 1 v. 16, 2 v. 15, and so on.
It’s the only fair thing to do.