FCS trend continues for Tennessee

KNOXVILLE – Jacksonville State may have put a scare into Auburn by taking the Tigers into overtime last week, but Football Championship Subdivision opponents are usually low-risk, low-cost options for Southeastern Conference powers.

Tennessee hosted an FCS team for the sixth straight season when the Volunteers played Western Carolina for the first time Saturday night at Neyland Stadium.

The Southern Conference’s Catamounts took home a $500,000 paycheck as well as a beating from Tennessee.

That’s less than what the Vols paid Bowling Green ($1.2 million) and will pay North Texas ($750,000).

What attendance concerns there were for the game against a lower-level opponent following last week’s disheartening loss to Oklahoma never transpired as Tennessee announced a crowd of 102,136.

Games against FCS opponents may be unappealing to fans, but the paychecks are necessary for those programs.

“Our players don’t get the opportunity a lot to play in front of 102,000,” Catamounts coach Mark Speir said this past week. “It’s a great opportunity, and that’s how we look at it. Our guys get up for that.”

Tennessee outscored its five previous FCS opponents 233-39, or by an average score of 47-8.

Those five games cost the Vols a combined $2.25 million, according to figures Tennessee released to the Times Free Press this week in response to a records request.

Tennessee opened the 2010 season against UT-Martin, which took home $350,000 and a 50-0 blanking, and Austin Peay received $450,000 to endure a 45-0 loss in the 2013 opener.

Montana and Georgia State each cost the Vols $500,000. The Vols notched a 42-16 win against the Grizzlies, a traditional FCS power, in 2011 and blasted Georgia State 51-13 in 2012, the Panthers’ final season as an FCS program.

UT-Chattanooga received $450,000 last season. Tennessee paid Utah State and Arkansas State, its other nonconference foes, $950,000 and $1 million, respectively. The Vols beat UTC’s Mocs 45-10 in the first meeting between the programs since 1969.

Western Carolina played at Alabama in 2012 and 2014 and at Auburn in 2013. The Catamounts visit Texas A&M in November. The program is 0-50 all-time against FBS opponents and 0-17 against the SEC.

“We’ve played the SEC before,” Speir said, “so we’re not a stranger to that.”

The FCS trend will continue for Tennessee, which is scheduled to host Tennessee Tech in 2016, Indiana State in 2017 and East Tennessee State in 2018.

Contact Patrick Brown at pbrown@timesfreepress.com