After enduring two of the most highly publicized and meaningless blowouts in the history of college football during the first two weeks of the season, Savannah State is ready to move on and figure out what it was worth to be steamrolled by Oklahoma State and Florida State and hounded by the national sports media.
In the same span that the Tigers were losing to the Cowboys and Seminoles by a combined score of 139-0 in roughly seven quarters of play, there were 14 other games between Football Bowl Subdivision teams and Football Championship Subdivision teams decided by a margin of more than 40 points. Fellow Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference member Florida A&M was humbled 69-13 by Oklahoma last Saturday, and MEAC member South Carolina State’s next two games are certain defeats at Arizona and Texas A&M.
But none of the other FCS scrimmages for hire headlined ESPN Gameday or commanded the allegedly largest point spread in college football history. When FBS programs around the country were bullying their FCS little brothers, what made Savannah State’s beatings such a compelling story?
“My assessment is that (ESPN) was trying to manufacture a story where there was no story,” said Savannah State athletic director Sterling Steward, who said he was cheered in airports around the
country during the past two weeks while wearing a Savannah State shirt.
“We are a relative no name that was able to schedule two games against top opponents, and they thought we were going to get decapitated and we were purely doing it for the money. The truth is we didn’t do anything differently than any other school in our position that is trying to build a program, and, quite frankly, we couldn’t pay for the kind of exposure ESPN and (ESPN.com reporter Gene Wojciechowski) gave to Savannah State University.”
The $860,000 Savannah State received from Oklahoma State and Florida State to be an early season punching bag is in line with the amount other FCS teams are paid to be sacrificial lambs. Georgia Southern was paid $400,000 last year to play a November game against Alabama, and the Eagles will receive $475,000 to play Georgia on Nov. 17 in Athens.
Steward said the school did have to buy out an existing contract with Northern Iowa for $200,000 in order to be able to schedule the Florida State game, but he said Savannah State earned more than $600,000 after expenses from the first two games of the season. Steward said the entire athletic department will receive funds as a result of playing the two games, but football program will receive the most funding and has already benefitted by adding two assistant coaches and a graduate assistant that the school wouldn’t have been able to afford.
Steward also said Savannah State is negotiating with FBS programs to schedule games for upcoming seasons and the publicity generated by these two games has not deterred any team during those discussions. Contrary to the widespread speculation regarding Savannah State’s players being injured against upper-tier opponents, Steward said the Tigers suffered only two mild concussions during the games against Oklahoma State and Florida State.
“I don’t really get caught up in watching all of the other scores or teams from around the country and all of that, because you can only deal with your reality and work to make your reality better,” said Savannah State coach Steve Davenport, whose team begins its conference schedule on Sept. 22 at home against North Carolina Central.
“I have no idea (why Savannah State got so much attention), but maybe it’s because we had two in a row? I know we played two really, really good programs, and I told our kids all summer that once you get through these two we won’t see any better.”
In addition to hiring additional coaches, Steward believes the exposure generated by the national ruckus created by ESPN’s coverage will familiarize more people with the Savannah State brand and become a recruiting advantage for the Tigers. The money has also enabled the school to purchase a branded inflatable tunnel and smoke machine that will be used during pregame ceremonies at home games.
“What I would ask is what did we do to get all that coverage? Why pick on us?” Steward said. “I have lost a lot of respect for ESPN, because I thought the majority of what they did was fact-based, but now I know it’s mostly opinion-based and often the people offering the opinions don’t know much about what the specific situations they are talking about. What (ESPN) did was make Savannah State a national name at no cost to Savannah State.”