Not that I follow the EMU football team too closely (I wasn’t even aware they played last night, and at home no less!), but they had a very convincing 52-0 win against Indiana State yesterday. You can read the official story here, and/or you can read the local blogger take on it at from Johnny Action Space Punk of the Ypsi City Desk here.
Donate!
Recent Comments
- Huron Hal on At least we don’t have bedbugs, right?
- Another Alum on EMU Memes is pretty awesome
- ang on EMU Memes is pretty awesome
- Mark Higbee on “Duncan, Biden talk affordability”
- Kevin S. Devine on “Duncan, Biden talk affordability”
- Geoff Larcom on EMU Memes is pretty awesome
- sitedad on EMU Memes is pretty awesome
- cmadler on EMU Memes is pretty awesome
- cmadler on EMU Memes is pretty awesome
- Jamin on “Faculty Labor Divorce”
- Mark Higbee on Budget cut woes in Pennsylvania and Kentucky
- Mark Higbee on “Duncan, Biden talk affordability”
- Sherry on “Julea Ward, Christian Counseling Student Expelled For Gay And Lesbian Views, To Argue Discrimination Case In Court”
- Rimshot on “Julea Ward, Christian Counseling Student Expelled For Gay And Lesbian Views, To Argue Discrimination Case In Court”
- dypo on “Duncan, Biden talk affordability”
- salty dog on “Duncan, Biden talk affordability”
- Carl on “Faculty Labor Divorce”
- grady on “Faculty Labor Divorce”
- licorice on “Faculty Labor Divorce”
- sitedad on “Duncan, Biden talk affordability”
EMU Bloggers
EMU Links
Higher Education News
In the Local Media
Ypsi-Arbor Bloggers
We went after the second half. It was a beautiful night and there were A LOT of fans. Many students showed up and they were noisy too! Usually, over the years, this is when the football team laid an egg and most of these students never came back again. Last night was DIFFERENT. I honestly do not remember EMU beating up on another team and not letting them score!!! It was great to see and it was a great start. Next week at MSU we will find out how good this team can be. No doubt about it, a good run can do wonders for school pride and DONATIONS…You know where I stand…I think the school will be better off without a FB team:-)
Very convincing win last night. More impressive were the butts in seats. For a game that took place before residents are on campus and school has started, there were a lot of people there.
Mind you, I still think we spend too much money on football and I would very much prefer that EMU play in the next division down/the same one that both Wayne State and Grand Valley State play in, etc., etc. But it’s good to see a win and an enthusiastic crowd regardless.
GVSU and Wayne State are not the next division down. They are Division II. Division 1-AA is the next division. Schools such as Indiana State Univ., Youngstown and Appalachian State are in Division I-AA. You would be surprised that little money would be saved by dropping to the next division. Actually, we have the smallest athletic budget in the MAC.
The paid attendance was 17, 494.
When we plan Arkansas in 2009 or 10 we receive nearly $1,000,000.
For those who are on Facebook and want to follow a D 1-A school, check here:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Eastern-Michigan-University-EMU-Football/23705325827?ref=ts
Sitedad, GVSU and Wayne State are TWO levels below EMU in football. They are Division II. They play schools like Tiffin, Findlay, and Hillsdale. EMU plays schools like Michigan State, Maryland, and Army. Inidiana State is one level below EMU.
I stand corrected– tells you how much I understand/follow college football.
I guess what I mean though is that I think EMU would be more competitive if we played at whatever the level it is that the Indiana States of the world play at. Frankly, I think the same can be said for all the MAC teams. Like I said, I don’t know much about college football, but I don’t see how an EMU (or a Central or a Western or a Toledo, etc., etc.) can every be truly competitive with any school in the Big Ten, the Pac 10, the SEC, etc. The kind of “big time” football programs battling it out for the national title regularly are quite a bit different than schools/program like EMU, and I think it would make sense if we were literally in a different league.
Heh, and UofM blows their home opener again! First time since 51-52 they’ve lost consecutive home openers!
Don’t get too excited. Indiana State did not win a single game last year, and was playing without the predicted starter (suspended a game for violating the proverbial but never specified team rules).
Two things: I know months back I posted a comment questioning the whole point of having a football team at EMU. I’ll be happy to eat crow if they play like this all year; even better if they vie for the MAC title.
Two: sitedad: it’s about money. EMU plays MSU, U of M, and these other Big 10 schools for $$$$. Don’t know how much, but it’s usually schools like EMU’s role to serve as warm bodies to play against before the heavier parts of the Big Ten schools’ schedules. Michigan and MSU want to try new schemes on defense and offense, run new plays to eliminate the bugs so that they can use them against Penn State or Indiana the following week. It’s a glorified scrimmage, pretty much, with every once in a while a team like Applachian State up-ending U of M like they did last year.
It’s a business, plain and simple.
Yes, but consider the example of Appalachian State: they play in Division I-AA, the same division that Army, U of Delaware, U of Mass., and U of Northern Iowa play in. I thought that this is what Wayne and GVSU were playing in too, but never mind.
If EMU and the MAC in general dropped down to that category, I am pretty sure we’d still have the opportunity to get trounced by MSU, U of M, Arkansas, etc., etc. But EMU might have a better chance at being competitive within its own league.
And if this is the business plan, it’s a pretty bad one since it’s pretty well documented that football programs don’t generally make money. Even when they do have the opportunity to get beaten up by programs that do make money.
Hi
Kudos to the team for a great game. I hope the fans will continune to show up!
For the record, the EMU athletic dept budget is at least at the middle of the MAC – recall the Regents gave them a big boost in budget to do just that last year.
Second, the $$$ the football team brings in by playing these big teams is substantial, however it goes directly into a special (designated) fund, yet I believe the expenses for getting the players to these games comes out of the general athletic budget.
JP
EMU will receive around a $1,000,000 to play Arkansas. U of M paid EMU $465,000 last year. Future contracts will be in the neigborhood of one million to play Michigan and State. Michigan also paid Appalachian St. $465,000. We paid Howard $250,000 to come and play and bring their band last year.
From FY 2004 to FY 2008 the Athletic Department Budget was cut $1.2 million. With the boost given by the Regents the loss was cut to around $600,000.
I hear EMU is going to play Army this year, at West Point. I don’t follow football but i am curious to know how this game was arranged. Not against it at all, just curious. Any info to share?
I’m not sure how the contract came about, but Army seems to be scheduling more MAC teams. It appears that we have a long term contract with them as they come here next Sept. 5th and we have a return engagement after that. I don’t know how long the contract runs.
I think all games outside the conference are arranged by contract. What I “know” about these contracts I’ve never researched myself, only my former roommate who was more into college football than me said it schools sign a multi-game contract over the span of several years. I believe for some reason as it was relayed to me, but I may be off, that the contractual monies a school gets actually diminishes, which in some cases means schools like Michigan can buy EMU out of its last contract and not play them until a new deal has been agreed to. It’s free money, so why not take it?
I don’t think that just because a school or a conference drops to a lower NCAA rank automatically means it becomes less “good” and competitive. It only means that they will have a much harder time recruiting the high school star players and have schedules that are much less viewed at by professional scouts, meaning less opportunity for students to continue their playing after college.
I also believe this conversation was big last year about this time, and if I recall correctly, it was discovered that if one of the main teams (basketball or football) was moved down a notch within NCAA, the other sports (the ones that continue to reign the MAC year after year) would have to be cut down as well.
ET, almost no college players at any school move on to play professional sports. Not even 1% of them, if I recall correctly; a tiny fraction, even at the schools with the strongest teams. So the possibility of fewer EMU athletes being able to have pro careers if we change divisions isn’t the strongest argument against dropping down a division or two or three……For each of the very few EMU athletes who wind up with a career in the pros, we have hundreds whose “careers” end at EMU — unless they have prepared for real careers by being good students.
I think it’s great we’re going to play Army. Maybe I’ll go to the game.
But the athletic conferences’ rules are set by the schools – the ADs and presidents – in the conferences. And they are biased toward subsidizing the most expensive sports.
Future Non-Conference Schedule (2009-2012)
While all the non-conference games have not been finalized, here is a list of future opponents for EMU. This list is taken from the last page of the following portion of the EMU Football Media Guide. EMU will see a lot of Army over the next five seasons as there are four games scheduled between the two schools. See link:
http://www.emueagles.com/sports/football/2008/2-Players.pdf
(Home games are capitalized)
2009:
September 5th – ARMY
October 10th – at Northwestern
October 31st – at Arkansas
2010:
September 11 – at Army
October 10 – VANDERBILT
October 30th – at Ohio State
2011:
September 1st – at Michigan
2012:
September 1 – at Michigan State
October 20th – ARMY