Florida State's "Play Anyone, Anywhere" Mentality going by the wayside?

According to a recent Orlando Sentinel Blog Post Florida State will soon be eschewing it's more difficult Out Of Conference (OOC) foes for smaller/"easier" schools.  Having built our program on "Anyone, Anywhere" scheduling FSU is definitely gonna take some heat for this, and even though the competitive football fan in me doesn’t like it, I agree with it for three reasons:

1) I’m a season ticket holder and this past season only got 5 home games.  Plainly put, that was shit.  I want more games, even if it is Tennessee-Chattanooga.  In the end when I've got another Saturday In The South of 75 degrees, summer dresses in September and a fifth of Jack in the pocket what could go wrong?  I'll also get to see EJ Manuel, Jermaine Thomas, Jeff Luc, Greg Reid and all the boys pad their stats against a few cupcakes.

2) UF, Texas, USC, Ohio State, Penn State, etc… have long had a history of playing cupcake schools OOC and yet nobody says a word.  When we win 12 games, the ACC Championship and the Orange Bowl and finish 4^th in the BCS no one is going to complaing about us beating Marshall instead of BYU (just like UF hasn’t gone out of state since 1994 for an OOC game.  Hello FIU once again!!)  Maybe if the team is that successful and EJ's had a few games to pad his stats, we might actually have some Heisman talk around Tallahassee once again.

3) Having worked in the business side of the sports world and understanding the influx of cash a home game has I am in full support of the university wanting to “cash in” on that influx more often.  The financial hardships of the economy have relaxed a bit over the past year or so but make no mistake they are still very prevalent.  As written in this article FSU has taken recommendations from the Board of Trustees to cut longstanding colleges from its academic offerings and take federal stimulus to get through these hard times.

A more in depth look at the recommendations follows:

Over the past 18 months, administrators at Florida State have cut enrollment, frozen positions and hiring, reduced travel, cut utility usage, reduced supplies and severely reduced the president's and six vice presidents' budgets. In addition to millions of dollars in cuts in administrative functions, the new plan recommends various changes in academic programs.
For example, these recommendations include:

• In the College of Arts & Sciences, the geology department would be suspended as a separate department but could be merged with meteorology and oceanography into a new Earth & Atmospheric Sciences unit.
• In the College of Business, The Dedman School of Hospitality and the Golf Management Program would come under separate accreditation from the college so they could be open to more students and become self-supporting.
• The colleges of Communication and Information have merged into one, the College of Communication and Information.
• The College of Social Work is exploring the possibility of merging with another college.
• The College of Visual Arts, Theatre & Dance would restructure into three schools: Theatre, Dance and Art Design. The college would suspend its lighting program, scenic design, and Art Education B.S. degree.
• FSU-Panama City will become self-supporting in three years. Its budget would be cut by 25 percent (although it would receive federal stimulus funds). It would suspend its Information Studies and resident MBA program except online and is developing a plan with Gulf Coast Community College to accept freshman and sophomore students, pending Board of Governors approval. Florida State will encourage students who are not admitted to the main campus to begin their studies at the Panama City campus, Florida State's "Campus on the Coast." Military personnel with honorable discharges or currently serving will be admitted to select undergraduate and graduate programs at Panama City.
• The Ringling Cultural Center would be self-supporting in three years.
• The Asolo MFA acting program also would become self-supporting.
• The colleges of Education, Human Sciences, Music, Nursing and Social Sciences also would suspend or restructure some programs.

  With an extra 1, 2 or even 3 home games there’s an extra 5-10 million that could be made that just might allow us to save the School of Hospitality next time around.

Combine all three of those aspects: More games for fans to enjoy, a return to national prominence, and better financial standing for the school we all love, I doubt many FSU fans will complain about Jimbo's decision to lighten the load.