Tell them before considering this request...that they first request back the million dollars they paid FSU to take them off the schedule in the late 90's...who the **** pays to get someone OFF the schedule.......S.E.****...S.E.****...S.E.****...S.E.****
It happens. I don't recall other exact instances, but I've heard of it. It's kind of a penalty for breaking a contract to have a game. Teams like to schedule as far in advance as possible, so they have certainty in their scheduling. I think UM might have even paid a fee for breaking some game agreements, but I can't remember when. I do know we once had a very longterm contract negotiated by Sam Jankovich to play San Diego State for 20 years running. He wanted us to get more west coast exposure and SDSU was the only team I guess willing to schedule us that often. I think we backed out after we moved into the Big East, which filled the scheduling void we had as an independent in the '80's. Don't forget, a lot of teams wanted to stop playing us: UF, South Carolina, and a bit later, Notre Dame.
In the case of SEC teams, I can see why they don't want to play FSU. Most teams try to fill up their out of conference schedule with cupcakes. I don't follow FSU's schedule much, but how often do they play an SEC team outside of Florida?
By the way, one of the main reasons Sam wanted to schedule out in the west was he noticed how we suffered in the polls and in things like Outland and Heisman voting by west coast voters. I remember the breakdown in voting for some of the big awards. I think Jerome Brown lost out on the Outland or Lombardi because he lost western voters. I think one of those guys from Air Force won that year, maybe Chad Henning. I remember Sam commented publicly on that. Also, Sam was a former Pac-10 guy, from Washington State. So, this is a longwinded explanation of why teams sometimes do things you don't understand, like maybe why they schedule the way they do. Now, the U has far less flexibility--and perhaps fewer headaches--in scheduling. When we were independent, scheduling was sometimes a nightmare for our ADs.
