Rams see profit in heading west

WSSU expects to net $35,000 from California trip

By: By John Dell | JOURNAL REPORTER
Published: October 14, 2009

Winston-Salem State has its reasons for this week's cross-country trip to California, not the least of which is money.

The Rams will be paid $75,000 to be the homecoming opponent for California Davis on Saturday (kickoff will be at 9 p.m. EDT). Chico Caldwell, WSSU's former athletics director, completed the deal last year.

The trip will cost about $40,000, leaving the athletics department with about $35,000.

UC Davis, with more than 30,000 students, is a member of the Great West Conference and has played in Division I, in the Football Championship Subdivision, since 2007. It is believed to be the biggest school that WSSU will have played against in football.

UC Davis has just four conference games, and because of that, Athletics Director Greg Warzecka has to line up seven nonconference games a season.

"It's a struggle for FCS teams to find nonconference games, so we reached out to Winston-Salem State early in the process and just sort of stayed in touch," Warzecka said.

Warzecka said that a few alarms went off when he found out that WSSU was stopping its move to Division I, but he added: "They are Division I this year."

Warzecka said that UC Davis ends up playing many of the same opponents from year to year, so he was glad the deal worked out with WSSU.

"This is kind of nice for our fans, to see a new school to come here to play and it's a school that's from a different part of the country," he said.

Coach Kermit Blount of WSSU, who took teams to San Diego in 1998 and '99 to play Grambling State, said that UC Davis called last year while trying to fill out its schedule.

"We needed to find a game outside of the (MEAC), and it was a chance to make a little money, and the date worked out," Blount said. "The kids get a chance to go out to California for the game, so it's a good trip for us."

The Aggies are 2-3 overall this season and 1-0 in the Great West after last week's 24-23 win over South Dakota. The also have a win over Western Oregon (29-13) and losses to No. 5-ranked Boise State (34-16) of the bowl subdivision and Montana (17-10) and Fresno State (51-0).

jdell@wsjournal.com.

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