In College Football, Two Losses in One Day Can Be a Sweet Deal

Having been in football locker rooms after a devastating loss, I can understand the frustrations and disappointments that come from suffering defeat.

But how does a college football team deal with two losses in one day?

Perhaps after losing two games in one day, you’d expect a team to take hours to board the bus to the hotel. Maybe the impact of two defeats in a day would cause a group of competitive 18- to 22-year-olds to resort back to youthful tears.

But for Delaware State, two losses in one day meant a John-and-Kate-sized payday—enough to possibly counter the defeats.

The FCS (formerly Division I-AA) Hornets collected $550,000 to travel to Ann Arbor and take a beating the size of Lake Michigan at the hands of the Michigan Wolverines—picking up their first loss of the day in the form of a 63-6 shellacking at The Big House Saturday afternoon.

That’s a whopping $91,666 per Delaware State point—to go along with the $8,730 per point they allowed the Wolverines.

The Hornets’ second loss of the day came by way of forfeit, as they had simply cancelled a game with conference foe North Carolina A&T in order to go collect the Michigan check instead.

A conference foe!

Can you imagine this happening at the Division I level? How about a phone call between Texas coach Mack Brown and Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops?

“Hey Mack, the Sooners and I are really looking forward to taking on you and the Longhorns.”

“Yeah, Bob, about that.”

“You know Mack…”

“Wait, you’re really going to hate me Bob. You see, Florida A&M Technical International Center for Educational Research and Design has invited us to play at their place this Saturday. So I think we’re going to take them up on that.”

“Uh… eh… um…”

Are things so bad at some of these universities that they have to cancel conference games in order to collect a big check?

Can’t some former Delaware State players who have played in the NFL throw some cash the Hornets’ way?

Darnerien McCants (Baltimore Ravens), Shaheer McBride (Philadelphia Eagles), where are you guys?

I mean, one day, two losses.

That’s $275,000 per loss.

I thought two losses in one day only happened in baseball and horseshoes.

Allow me to break down some other financials from the Delaware State beatdown.

The 106,304 fans that headed to The Big House for Saturday’s game had to have been the largest crowd that Delaware State has played in front of.

That’s a Michigan expense of $5.17 per fan in attendance.

You think Delaware State cares about giving up a staggering 727 yards of total offense to Michigan? I think all they cared about were the $756.53 they got per yard given up–$1,193.05 per rushing yard (461) and $2,067.66 per passing yard (266).

Michigan running back Vincent Smith, who hadn’t rushed for more than 23 yards in any one of the Wolverines previous six games, rattled off for 166 yards and one touchdown in the win.

Smith had only 35 total yards in his career before the Delaware State game. His breakout game Saturday cost the Wolverines $3,313.25 per rushing yard.

Delaware State gained 14 yards on their first four drives of the game—combined.

But a poor start is easy to handle when you figure that’s $39,285.71 per yard, and $137,500 per drive.

The Michigan 57-point win marked the second-largest margin of victory for the Wolverines in the last 59 years.

That’s $9,322.03 per year.

Sure, the Hornets converted just 1-of-15 third down conversions. But that one conversion was worth half-a-million bucks.

Michigan, not very surprisingly, racked up 34 first downs–$16,176.47 per first down.

I don’t blame the Hornets though. Nor do I blame Division II football.

As long as the NCAA allows Division I teams to “buy” wins, these types of transactions are going to continue.

And why shouldn’t the Division II teams continue to take a beating in exchange for a check?

After all, most of their locker rooms don’t have big screen plasma TV’s. Most of their stadiums don’t seat 15,000 people, much less 100,000. They play in a league of A&T’s, A&M’s, Internationals, Industrials… and the list goes on.

So, of course a team like Delaware State gets higher than Colorado’s balloon boy when presented with a lucrative beatdown offer.

For the Hornets, $550,000 can go a long way in nest improvement.