Saluki Stadium opens tonight

NCAA Football Betting Lines

09/02/2010 - Carbondale, IL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Football Championship Subdivision's newest stadium will debut tonight when Southern Illinois christens $25.3 million Saluki Stadium against NAIA program Quincy University.

Saluki Stadium, which sits 15,000, is the newest FCS stadium built since Campbell opened up Barker-Lane Stadium in 2008. Kickoff is 7 p.m. CT.

"We are all honored and privileged to call this beautiful place home," senior wide receiver Joe Allaria said. "We're grateful to all the players that have gone before us, that have laid the foundation for us to build on. Without them, we wouldn't be here today."

Saluki Stadium replaces McAndrew Stadium, which was 73 years old. The new stadium has a 20-by-40-foot scoreboard with video replay capabilities and a two-story press box with 12 club suites, a 2,500-square-foot VIP Club Room, along with traditional booths for radio, television, coach and the print media. The playing surface is FieldTurf.

SIU, which won the Missouri Valley Football Conference and finished 11-2 last season, was ranked fifth in The Sportsbook Betting Lines/Fathead.com FCS Preseason Top 25. The Salukis return five players who made The Sportsbook Betting Lines/Fathead.com FCS Preseason All-America Team: cornerback Korey Lindsey on the first team; junior fullback John Goode and junior tackle David Pickard on the second team; and senior safety Mike McElroy and senior place-kicker Kyle Dougherty on the third team.

"I want that place full every home game that we're playing," SIU head coach Dale Lennon said. "I just think that there's so many things that we've done with the design of that stadium that the fans are going to enjoy the overall game experience and, hopefully, that will translate into sellouts. That's number one. Number two, I want the fans to feel like they have an influence on the outcome of the game. And that's where, hopefully, the noise factor can become a strong element. And then number three, I hope our current players understand and realize the privilege of playing in a new stadium that's been a long time coming. A lot of people have done a lot of work to get us to this point. There's a responsibility there also."

SIU has defeated Quincy in their two prior meetings.

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FOOTBALL BETTING : Crabtree's base deal: six years, $32 million

Football Betting

In the wake of the news that the 49ers have signed receiver Michael Crabtree after an extended holdout, there has been not a hint of the dollars to be paid to Crabtree.

And since this means that his agent hasn't leaked the numbers, it means that his agent feels no specific motivation to do so.

Possibly because his agent isn't all that thrilled to have his name on the deal.

So the numbers will come from sources other than Crabtree's agent. And we've gotten our mitts into them.

Per a league source, Crabtree has signed a six-year, $32 million contract. (The total includes guaranteed money, base salaries, and the one-time incentive based on achieving minimum playing time.)

The deal also includes $17 million in guaranteed money.

As reported elsewhere, the deal can void to five years based on performance triggers, wiping out a final year base salary of $4 million. But they won't be easily reached.

The source tells us that, in his first four seasons (including 2009), Crabtree must either qualify for two Pro Bowls, or he must qualify for one Pro Bowl in one year and he must participate in 80 percent of the offensive snaps in a separate year in which the team makes the playoffs.

In other words, if in 2010 he qualifies for the Pro Bowl and the team makes the playoffs and he participates in 80 percent of the snaps, he'll still need to make it to the Pro Bowl or achieve the 80-percent/playoffs in another season.

Since the chances of Crabtree making the Pro Bowl or participating in 80 percent of the offensive snaps this year is roughly zero percent, he'll have three years to get it done.

And it won't be easy. Frankly, he'll be hard pressed to make it to one Pro Bowl in three years with the likes of Larry Fitzgerald, Calvin Johnson, Anquan Boldin, Steve Smith, the other Steve Smith, Hakeem Nicks, DeSean Jackson, Johnny Knox, Percy Harvin, Greg Jennings, Roddy White, T.J. Houshmandzadeh in the same conference for sportsbook betting.

So, by all appearances, it's a six-year deal. And at $17 million in guaranteed money, the per-year guarantee is a tepid $2.83 million per year.

There's another problem with the deal -- it has no mid-tier incentive package. Instead, the additional $8 million that Crabtree can earn (pushing the max value to six years, $40 million) requires the kind of unrealistic, mega-star performances that no rookie is likely to ever achieve.

So while the contract paid to Packers defensive tackle B.J. Raji covers five years and pays $22.5 million, he has the ability (if he's a solid player) to make up the difference between his base deal and Crabtree's five-year, $28 million haul via the mid-tier incentive package in Raji's deal.

And unless Crabtree meets the performance thresholds necessary to void the sixth year, he'll be stuck under contract for another year at a base salary of only $4 million.

There's one other area of concern with the deal. Crabtree, per the source, received no option bonus. Instead, he has significant money tied to a fairly new device known as a "discretionary salary advance," which unlike an opition bonus is subject to forfeiture if Crabtree decides in a year or two that he wants to hold out for a better deal. (We're also told that the 49ers have included language that would make certain escalators subject to forfeiture, too.)

Meanwhile, the deal falls well short of the mark for which Crabtree and agent Eugene Parker were aiming -- the five-year, $38.25 million contract paid by the Raiders to receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey, the seventh overall pick in the draft.

Even if Crabtree successfully voids the final year, he'll make more than $2 million per year less on average than Heyward-Bey.

Thus, as we explained earlier in the day, this is a deal that Crabtree could have done in July, which would have given him a much better chance of making a contribution to the 49ers during his rookie year.

So while the final outcome can be described as win-win, the broader view suggests that it's really a lose-lose situation.

NFL Betting Lines

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