Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2009

Morris: Money, exposure help pay for mismatches

UNDERSTAND, THE FOLKS in Las Vegas do not normally make betting lines on college football games involving Football Championship Subdivision teams. So it came as a surprise a week ago when a point spread for Florida’s game against Charleston Southern was posted by Danny Sheridan in USA Today.

Even more surprising was the spread: 73 points. Now, I do not gamble on sporting events, but I like to keep an eye on the point spreads as a matter of reference to see who is favored and by how many points. In nearly four decades of following the betting lines, I do not recall ever seeing such a point spread.

Essentially, Sheridan is saying that once game officials gather team captains from Charleston Southern and Florida at midfield on Sept. 5 in Gainesville, Fla., the following conversation could take place.

Head official: “OK, captains, in order to level this playing field, we are going to award the boys from Charleston Southern 10 touchdowns, 10 extra points and a field goal. ... Now, let’s flip the coin and play ball.”

Charleston Southern is a Big South Conference school that plays its home games in 4,000-seat CSU Stadium. That stadium would fit into a tiny corner of the north end zone in The Swamp, where 88,548 fans support their beloved Gators every home game. Heck, there will be more than 4,000 Florida fans across the street from The Swamp at the Gator City Sports Grill.

Since Charleston Southern is an FCS member, it generally does not play games in front of large crowds. Two years ago, the Buccaneers played before 37,000 fans at Hawaii, then before 48,000 fans at Miami in 2008. Otherwise, a gathering of 10,000 for a Charleston Southern game is a big crowd.

On top of that, this is not expected to be a particularly good Charleston Southern team. It managed a 7-5 record last season and returns 14 starters. But the experts have slotted Charleston Southern for a fifth-place finish in the seven-team league.

Then there is Florida, the defending national champion and pre-season No. 1 team in the land. The Gators feature quarterback Tim Tebow, who has won every conceivable award the past three seasons. The only hardware missing from his trophy case is a second Heisman and a third national title.

To better understand this enormous point spread, consider Charleston Southern’s two previous forays into the land of Football Bowl Subdivision opponents. In 2007, No. 19 Hawaii pasted the Buccaneers 66-10. A year ago, unranked Miami rolled to a 52-7 win.

On the other side, Florida’s last three FCS opponents were wiped away by scores of 70-19 (The Citadel in 2008), 49-3 (Western Kentucky in 2007) and 62-0 (Western Carolina in 2006).

None of that seems to matter to Charleston Southern and its coach, Jay Mills. He says his team’s trip to sunny Gainesville is not about winning or losing, or even making a respectable showing.

“Our pursuit has always been on things you can control, and that’s on excellence,” Mills says. “So, we’ll pursue excellence to the best of our ability in practice, in the weight room, on and off the field, at Florida and the next week at Wofford and throughout the rest of the year. In the pursuit of that, we feel like good things will happen for us.”

The good things to happen to Charleston Southern — other than maybe covering the point spread — will be the tremendous national exposure it gets and the $450,000 check it will receive from Florida.

Leading up to the game and all day Sept. 5, Charleston Southern’s name will be displayed on ESPN. No school, particularly one with an enrollment of 3,201 students, can afford to purchase that kind of publicity.

With the $450,000, Charleston Southern plans to add a field house at CSU Stadium. It will include an academic resource center for athletes and enough locker room space so its teams no longer must share lockers. For the first time, physical education locker rooms will be available for Charleston Southern students.

“The stage continues to get larger and larger,” Mills says. “I don’t know if the stage can get any larger, unless we have an NFL exhibition game. I think we’ve peaked out right here. There’s not going to be one larger than this. It’s the largest, most-visible athletic event in school history.”

On that stage, Mills says his football team can spread the mission of the university.

“As our program has grown, it has paralleled the growth in a lot of ways of our university and its mission, which is to become nationally recognized as a school that integrates faith with leading, learning and serving,” Mills says. “There’s a lot of parallels you can use with regard to faith, and for us to be in this position is an act of God, first and foremost. So, when we open each day in prayer, we are thankful to be where we’re at. We’re exactly where God wants us to be and we’ll be there on Sept. 5 as well, too.”

Even if that means feeding the Christians to the lions.

Listen to Morris Tuesdays from 4-5 p.m. on ESPN Radio 93.1 FM.

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