Big bucks thanks to Buckeyes

When Youngstown State football coach Jon Heacock made out his Christmas wish list this year one of the items on it was to have the Penguins play all 11 games next year at Stambaugh Stadium.
YSU athletic director Ron Strollo took that wish seriously and tried his best, but all he could come up with was seven home games for next season.
The schedule isn't official as yet as Strollo is still waiting on a couple of contracts to be returned, but basically it is completed and should provide another exciting season of football.
Everybody knows that the Penguins are going to open the season at Ohio State next year and in 2008 also which is going to add some 650,000 to the Penguins' athletic budget each year.
Stony Brook is newopponent for 2007
Strollo just completed his second season on the NCAA Division I Football Championship Series Athletic Directors Executive Committee and through that committee developed some ties with Stony Brook University, which will also appear on next season's football slate.
Stony Brook is a Division I-AA non-scholarship team, but will also count toward the Penguins allotment of I-AA opponents next season. Three other new faces are expected on next year's schedule, one a possible future Gateway Conference member in South Dakota State.
Another new face will be Southern Utah, which like South Dakota State, is a member of the Great West Football Conference that also includes North Dakota State, UC Davis and Cal Poly.
The final new face will be the traditional Division II opponent. This year that appears to be Lock Haven, whose head coach is former YSU assistant coach and Chaney High grad John Klacic.
Four of the first five games will all be played at Stambaugh. The Ohio State game is on the road.
With the withdrawal of Western Kentucky from the Gateway, the conference is now down to seven teams and will be divided into three home and three away contests next year.
The Gateway breakdownof home and away games
The Penguins will play Missouri State, Illinois State and Western Illinois at home, while they will travel to Northern Iowa, Indiana State and Southern Illinois.
The South Dakota State and Southern Utah games are home-and-home contests, which means in 2008 the Penguins will be traveling to Utah and South Dakota.
In February the Gateway Conference will hold its annual meeting, of which Youngstown State president Dr. David Sweet will be the chairman, and the league is expected to vote on admitting two new teams.
South Dakota State and North Dakota State are the two teams that have applied for membership into the conference. And, although the vote is not expected to be unanimous, it is expected that both teams will be admitted.
Again Strollo is one step ahead of the game since he already has South Dakota State on the schedule for the next two years. The two new schools would probably start competing in the Gateway Conference in 2008.
Strollo also indicated that at the NCAA convention this January he expects another vote to be taken on permitting FCS teams to play a 12th game on an annual basis.
Calendar determinesallowance of 12th game
Right now these teams, including YSU, can only play 12 games when the calendar year falls just right and there is an extra Saturday between Labor Day and Thanksgiving.
That will happen in 2008, but won't happen again until 2014.
The 12th game in 2008 will allow Strollo to schedule a sixth home game, since the Penguins already will be at Ohio State, South Dakota State and Southern Utah along with the three Gateway games.
The Penguins' 2006 schedule was one of the toughest in all of Division I Football Championship Series and while the 2007 slate may not be just as difficult it still will provide the Penguins a chance at repeating into the postseason.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all Penguin faithful.
Pete Mollica covers YSU athletics for The Vindicator. Write to him at mollica@vindy.com and check out his blogs at vindy.com.