Q-and-A with Southland Conference Commissioner Tom Burnett
Southland Conference
Q-and-A with Southland Conference Commissioner Tom Burnett
Now in his 14th year as Southland commissioner, Tom Burnett shared a few thoughts about the league’s interest in adding a 12th regular-season game to Division I FCS football. While FCS programs can play a 12th game when the calendar provides 13 weekends between Labor Day weekend and the weekend before Thanksgiving, there will only be four opportunities in the next 15 football seasons when the calendar allows this. In the other 11 years, FCS teams are limited to a maximum of 11 regular-season games under current rule.
Q: The Southland and Ohio Valley conferences have announced a plan to co-author legislation that would add a permanent 12th game to the FCS regular season. What’s the reasoning behind this?
TB: While the Southland has expressed an interest in permissively playing a 12th game for a few years, there hasn’t been much vocal support from the other FCS leagues until the OVC recently stated its interest for the concept. The reasons are numerous. In Division I football, 12 regular season games has become the standard, as 11 games did a few decades ago. In the rare occurrences when the calendar naturally allows FCS to play 12 games, programs seem to manage the expanded schedules without much heartburn, but they can also permissively choose to play less than 12. The same would apply in a permanent 12th game scenario. Also, the Southland has made a decision to play nine league games, a choice we made partly because conference realignment led to us expanding our membership and adding more football programs. Nine league games help us better determine a truer Southland champion, but 11 overall games restrict us with limited exposure against outside competition. We’d like to have more opportunities to play more non-conference FCS programs, as well as expand our chances to possibly play more FBS competition, and a 12th date allows that. The extra game should also allow for more robust FCS vs. FCS competition that can provide a 12th data point to the NCAA Football Committee when determining postseason bracketing and seeding. And how much fun would an early weekend of strong FCS matchups on television be? A final point would be adding greater chances for FCS programs to schedule six home games in a 12-game season. This is an item of growing interest to our athletic directors. Ultimately, we see a 12th game as very beneficial to the long term health of FCS football.
Q: If the proposed 12th game requires starting the season a weekend earlier in most years, does that mean all FCS programs have to start camp a week earlier in the summer?
TB: No. Remember, this is permissive so not everyone may choose to do this. And, if a program does play a 12th game, the start of preseason football practice is not set by an advance number of calendar dates, but instead by a total number of practice units counting backward from the first playing dates. We’d estimate that there would be a 3-4 day earlier start with practices continue to start in August. When Sam Houston State played in the inaugural FCS Kickoff game, the Bearkats started practicing earlier, but not a full week earlier.
Q: Some may also criticize such a proposal due to the possibility of teams playing as many as 16 or 17 total games if they advance through the playoffs to FCS Championship game. Is this too many games for FCS teams to play?
TB: When FCS had a 16-team bracket, the two championship game teams were always going to play four postseason games. Since the playoff brackets expanded, first to 20 teams in 2010 and 24 in 2013, there have been 132 teams in the FCS postseason. None of those teams have played the possible maximum of five games in an FCS postseason bracket. Obviously, the six pairs of championship game teams have played four playoff games while advancing to Frisco. However, in those same six seasons, only four other teams starting in the first round have played four playoff games – Sam Houston State in 2014 and 2015, New Hampshire in 2013 and Georgia Southern in 2010. Beyond that, since 2010, only five other teams have played as many as three total postseason games when starting in the first round. Since bracket expansion, four additional teams out of the remaining 120 playoff squads have also played four games. Does a permissive 12th regular season game place an additional burden on the current system? We don’t believe the numbers indicate such.
Q: Are there concerns related to increasing the time demands of football student-athletes?
TB: I think we’re all concerned about time demand issues for student-athletes, but that’s not restricted to football, nor do our coaches and administrators see a permissive 12th football game in conflict with ensuring the time demands of our student-athletes remain a priority. Further, there has been nothing nationally in the time demands discussion that proposes rolling back schedules in any sport.
Q: What has been the reaction so far from the other FCS conferences?
TB: The discussion has been interesting, and the opinions vary, but I’d leave it to the other commissioners to speak on behalf of their members. Like us, I’m sure the other FCS leagues are having thorough conversations about this with football coaches, athletic directors and presidents. We really appreciate the OVC, with great leadership from Commissioner Beth DeBauche, seeing the value in such a proposal.
Q: What’s the likelihood of this legislation passing or not?
TB: At this point, I wouldn’t guess an ultimate outcome. Every FCS league will get a chance to voice its position. But I heard enough during the June commissioners’ meeting and in some follow-up conversations since then to keep the concept alive. We have another FCS commissioners’ meeting in August followed by a September 1 deadline to submit the legislation if we still believe the idea has a chance with the FCS members of the NCAA Council in the coming year. Regardless, it’s appropriate to get this on the table and determine where FCS stands.
Q: If the legislation is permissive, why would a conference vote against it? Any chance that a few conferences could choose to do this without the other leagues?
TB: Again, everyone has to speak for themselves, so I’ll leave that to others that may be against this. Those of us in the Southland believe 12 is an appropriate number for regular season football games for the reasons listed. Regarding the ability to do this or not, the entire group of FCS conferences would need to approve this for any of us to move forward with a 12-game schedule. Otherwise, we’ll look forward to our natural 12-game schedules in 2019, 2024, 2025 and 2030.