In light of the news that NDSU will have to trim over $400,000 out of its athletic budget in each of the next two years, thought it was fitting to re-post this blog with the available Power 5 teams looking for games in 2018. Athletic director Matt Larsen told me yesterday: “You never want to turn down 400,500, 600 thousand dollar guarantee. Because that’s a reason a lot of FCS schools play one or two of those games. It’s a huge support of your budget, not having one next year certainly hurts, with budget reductions there’s definetly a greater emphasis of having those games in the future.”
As we know NDSU has just one game on the books for 2018, the season opener at home September 1st against Delaware. The Missouri Valley opener is slated for September 29th at the Dome against SDSU.
So here are the teams that originally had open dates in 2018, just looking at the ACC, SEC, Pac-12 and Big-12 since the Big 10 is out. I have not looked at the Group of Five because I don’t think NDSU would get a call back from those schools. Thanks to FBSchedules.com for the assist on this.
- Florida State (9/8, 9/15 or 9/22)
- Georgia Tech (9/15 or 9/22)
- Miami (9/8)
Syracuse (9/8 or 9/15)Scheduled an FCS opponent in Wagner- Oklahoma (9/15)
- Oklahoma State (9/22)
- TCU (9/8 or 9/22)
Arizona (9/15 or 9/22)Scheduled Southern Utah for 9/15Arizona State (9/22)Already has 3 non-conference games, PAC-12 plays 9 league games- Arkansas (9/8 or 9/22)
- Florida (9/8 or 9/22)
Georgia (9/8 or 9/22)Scheduled an FCS opponent in Murray State- Ole Miss (9/8, 9/15)
- South Carolina (9/8 or 9/22)
Texas A&M (9/15)Scheduled an FCS opponent in Northwestern State
I will do some research on the Group of Five schools, but know this. NDSU isn’t getting 650K from a MAC or Sun Belt team, like they will from Oregon. But options are dwindling with the Big Boys.