Old Dominion turned down a chance to play at Alabama even though it would have resulted in a nice pay day totaling over $1 million for the school. A full schedule already lined up for the Monarchs is the reason according to a report quoting Old Dominion Athletics Director Wood Selig.
“We’ve already got 12 games,” Selig said to The Virginian Pilot. “I’d certainly touch base with (head coach) Bobby Wilder on this, but I don’t think playing a game against Alabama would be an advisable move given the infancy of our program.”
Old Dominion is just five years old, and is working their way up to being able to play a program of Alabama’s caliber without getting embarrassed in the process. Turning down a sure-money game is quite admirable for Old Dominion. According to the report, Old Dominion was contacted by Alabama and ESPN to work out a potential game in Tuscaloosa. Alabama has two schedule vacancies to fill in the non-conference schedule in 2015.
Old Dominion has games scheduled against Eastern Michigan, Norfolk State, North Carolina State and Appalachian State in 2015. Despite having the full schedule, Selig says sometimes a call will come anyway in hopes of convincing a school to make a scheduling change.
“They are constantly trying to move people around in order to set up attractive games to broadcast,” Selig said of ESPN. “If they know you’ve got an open week or can handle another game, sometimes they will contact you. They often say, if you do that, we’ll consider you down the line for some type of television broadcast or help you get a home and home with a certain school.”