Utah State will play at Georgetown

Perhaps the most interesting news to come across our google reader yesterday day was Matt Norlander's look into why Stew Morrill decided to play a one-and-done road game at Georgetown in early December.

Utah State might very well be the most underrated program in the country, but due to Morrill's stubbornness when it comes to scheduling, the Aggies never play a non-conference game without getting a home game in return. Rare is the major conference foe willing to give a mid-major a home-and-home, especially when dealing with Utah State. Morrill should consider it an honor, actually -- the big boys don't want to risk taking the loss. Who can blame them? Utah State has one of the best home courts in the country.

So why did Morrill take the game? He believed he owed it to the seniors on his roster:

The game was scheduled in late August, when both teams needed to fill a game, and he said he owed a game of this caliber to the seniors.

"I always try to keep a game date in hopes of getting a BCS conferences school on a home-and-home basis," Morrill said. "In the past, throughout my career, we have not played guaranteed games, have not played 2-for-1 games, but this was a unique situation where we needed a game, and they are not returning." ...

"[Georgetown] is trying to get a buy-in game late, too," he said. "You have to be careful, scheduling-wise. Scheduling has gotten to be more complex, or just as complex, as recruiting. We'll play anybody that will play home-and-home. I didn’t feel like we had to play this game. We had one spot open on our schedule, but we also get extra games because we play at Hawaii and get an extra game because we host our own exempt event. I could have not played this game and had one more game that most teams have."

So there you have it.

I'll be the first to put it out there -- thank you Stew. Utah State is legit. Now they have a chance to prove it against one of the country's best. I know I'll certainly be watching.