Creighton a financial win for underdog SE

OMAHA, Neb. -- For anybody who wonders if Southeast Missouri State University basketball coach Gary Garner was nuts for scheduling a game with national powerhouse Creighton, there are extenuating circumstances.

The main reason the Indians will play unbeaten and 18th-ranked Creighton today is money. Every year, Southeast schedules two opponents willing to pay a guaranteed sum in order for the Indians to visit their campus. Southeast's football team did the same thing this season when the Division I-AA Indians played two Division I-A teams.

In the case of both basketball and football, the revenue generated from those guaranteed-money games does not go to the specific sport but to Southeast's general athletic department coffers.

"In tough economic times, it's just something we have to do to help out our athletic department," Garner said.

The basketball Indians began the season by playing at Arkansas State, which paid Southeast $35,000. Southeast lost 83-71.

Creighton will pay Southeast $40,000 and pay for the Indians' trip to Omaha, including airfare, ground transportation, meals and Saturday night's loding.

"That's a pretty good deal," Garner said. "We're basically clearing $40,000 for the game."

Scheduling is never easy, Garner pointed out, and what helped make the Creighton game easy to work out is that the Bluejays were not only looking for an opponent to complete their schedule in the offseason, but Garner also is a good friend of Creighton coach Dana Altman.

"He called me and said they needed a game. We have to play two games for money and they really offered us a good deal," Garner said.

Creighton has been strong the past few years and would have been heavily favored to beat the Indians anyway. But few expected the Bluejays to be quite this good: They're 9-0 and nationally ranked for the first time since 1975.

"We knew they were going to be good based on what they had coming back, but I don't know if anybody thought they'd be quite this good," Garner said. He then added with a laugh, "If we had known they were going to be one of the best teams in the country, we might have scheduled somebody else."