FSU coach Jimbo Fisher is standing up for the little guy … and it isn’t just because he wants a game.
Fisher addressed the ACC’s consideration of either an eight-game schedule (with two other games against a Power Five conference) or a nine-game schedule with one. Fisher opposes the idea, saying eliminating games against FCS conferences would take money away from smaller programs.
“How do they make their budget?” Fisher said to the Tallahassee Democrat. “Playing a big school. How do the Division II’s make their budget? Playing the FCS. When you start taking the budget away from the lower games, where are all the high school players going to go? Why are they going to keep playing football?
“What you’re doing, you’re killing the sports from an ego (standpoint). All of the sudden, guys ain’t going to play football no more because there ain’t enough schools out there to give scholarships. That’s not about playing the FCS. It’s about the game of football and filtering it all down so there are scholarships in Division II.”
The ACC has played an eight-game conference schedule since 1992. Schools such as FSU, Clemson, Georgia Tech and Louisville, favor the eight-plus-two format. Other schools, such as Virginia, North Carolina and N.C. State, favor the nine-plus-one.
Conversation on the matter was tabled Friday.
Fisher pushed for a commissioner of college football to set rules all schools must abide by.
“We’re the only sport in America that doesn’t’ have the same set of rules for everyone who plays,” Fisher said.
