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Penguins to face Samford on ESPN
Matchup kicks off 2019 FCS season
By Brian Dzenis
YOUNGSTOWN
Youngstown State’s football team will be on national television 2019.
The university announced on Tuesday that the Penguins will play Samford on Aug. 24 in Montgomery, Ala., in the 2019 Guardian Credit Union FCS Kickoff, which will be broadcast on ESPN.
“It’s exciting for our kids. It’s exciting for our program, our university and our city. To think of the exposure that we’re going to be able to get — possibly being the only college football game that day,” YSU athletic director Ron Strollo said. “Every restaurant and bar will have the game on and that gives us a three-hour infomercial about our program, our city and university.”
Strollo said the university has had conversations with ESPN for several years about getting into such a game. What’s kept the Penguins out is being committed to a contest with an FBS opponent along with two other FCS games. In 2019, the Penguins had a rare opening. For the first time since 2002, YSU will have a non-conference schedule that does not feature an FBS opponent and will join North Dakota State as the only Missouri Valley Football Conference teams without such an opponent next year.
Samford should provide a decent opponent. The 1-3 Bulldogs have received top-25 votes in this week’s FCS Top 25 and their season has been highlighted by scaring Florida State in a 36-26 defeat.
Where YSU may be missing out is with money. YSU takes a paycheck to play the underdog role for an FBS team. This year, the university took in $500,000 to play West Virginia in a 52-17 loss.
“We’re not going to make out monetarily like we have in the past, but the exposure we can take home is probably something we can’t buy with money,” Strollo said.
The AD’s job isn’t done yet as the Penguins have two non-conference vacancies for 2020 and Strollo said it is difficult to find FBS games. Ideally, the Penguins would take one FBS game with two FCS games that are a step down from league opponents — which is a standard practice with their MVFC peers. Every team beside YSU in the MVFC has an FBS opponent scheduled for 2020.
Some of the difficulties YSU faces include historically being one of the better teams in FCS, having an experienced coach in Bo Pelini who’s recently taken Pitt to overtime in 2017 and other teams becoming more appealing.
“I would say they’re just not interested,” Strollo said. “You have to carry so many scholarships to count for a team’s bowl eligibility and schools like Robert Morris or Duquesne have increased their scholarships to make their games count. There’s more schools out there searching for games.”
At Tuesday’s press conference, Pelini joked the early game would cut into his golf season, but approves of the contest.
“That will be a good matchup. We played them in the playoffs and they’re a good football team,” Pelini said. “It will be a good game to be a part of and I’m excited we made the deal. I know Ron and the powers that be were working really hard to get us a good game for the opener next year.”