This is Polk's schedule; however you will see more one and one and more road games in Cohen's future.
Many schools are now not signing anything other then one home game-one away game contracts. The reason is simple - less class time missed and no hotel expenditure, if you bus to and back day of game.
This is the first year of a new four-year contract with Southern Miss. Corky had wanted to play one and one forever and Polk told him no. Southern had to give in since MSU is a big money game to them. Now, this year it is a one and one split. Polk gave in this go around since he knew he would not be here to see the entire contract play out.
Last year began a new deal with Memphis....same thing with them. Memphis would no longer play us under the two games here and two games the next year there format. In 2008, MSU and Memphis played in Starkville and AutoZone, just like they do this year.</p>
Years ago, MSU had all the barganing power in these relationships. Now, as the program has slipped a little bit and the smaller schools have had more success, more shots can be called by the lower schools.</p>
So look for more of this insane one home game and one home game there scheduling. That is what most schools like to do so they dont have to pay for that Tuesday night hotel expenditure on the road.</p>
This year, MSU has 31 home games and two additional games in Pearl. By the time you add the 15 conference road games, you only have 8 playing dates to play with. So there is not really much room to up the number of home games. You will still have to go to Southern Miss every other year (Pearl and Starkville one year; Pearl and H'burg the next) and you will still have to go every year to Memphis, UAB and South Alabama because those are long term contracts. So in the end you have about 3 or 4 playing dates to play with.</p>