Purdue Coach Joe Tiller Not Happy Playing at Hawaii
The first sign that Joe Tiller might have been a little peeved was the color of his shirt. The Purdue coach usually wears black or gold -- the school's colors -- with a Purdue insignia to his weekly news conference. But Tuesday, while he was previewing tonight's game at No. 25 Hawaii, Tiller wore a blue golf shirt. No sign of Purdue was evident.
"Wouldn't it be nice if we had our (team) banquet tonight?" Tiller asked rhetorically. "Wouldn't it be nice if we were packing up all our gear and getting ready to go recruiting? "But we're not in that situation. We're going to go play 112,000 miles away from here against a very good football team."
Tiller noted Purdue entered into a contract for the game in 1994, two years before he arrived. It originally was scheduled for 2002, but Hawaii officials agreed to a Purdue request to reschedule it because of a 12-game schedule that year caused by a quirk in the NCAA calendar.
Ironically, the 12-game schedule became mandatory for Division I teams before this season -- meaning Purdue is playing 13 consecutive weeks this season.
But that's just one reason Tiller doesn't like the game. Hawaii officials are paying some travel expenses, but the Purdue athletic department still might lose money on the trip, he said.
"From a financial standpoint," he said, "this is a valueless game for Purdue University." On the field, Tiller said Purdue has nothing to gain. The game also prevented players from going home for Thanksgiving.
He also noted Big Ten teams have had trouble with officiating in games in Hawaii. Last spring, two former coaches advised colleagues not to play there, he said. Tiller said he asked athletic director Morgan Burke to opt out of the contract as late as January of this year. "It would have been more palatable if we would have been like Notre Dame and we had a bye in the (seventh) week of the season," Tiller said. "It would have been more palatable if we would have a big payday at the end of the rainbow."
Burke, who was the athletic director when Purdue made the agreement, said he likely would not have agreed to play the game if he had known about the permanent 12-game schedule. But Burke said he did not want to ask out of the contract, especially when school officials there made additional financial concessions and agreed to use an officiating crew from the Pac-10 Conference instead of the Western Athletic Conference. Hawaii belongs to the WAC.
"At the end of the day, Purdue stands behind contracts," Burke said. "I expect other people to stand behind contracts to us." Burke said Purdue asked to play the game this season when it learned the men's basketball team would also be playing in the Maui Invitational, which concluded earlier this week.
"We have 3,000 fans here," Burke said in a phone interview from Hawaii. "Our kids will have a great experience. Joe realizes that and knows it's the honorable thing to do."
Officials at Michigan State say their trip was memorable -- but not for reasons they hoped.
Michigan State was scheduled to play at Hawaii next season, but informed the school in January it wouldn't do so, associate athletic director John Lewandowski said.
"At the time we entered into the agreement, there wasn't a 12th game," Lewandowski said. "Our administration doesn't think it's in the student interests to play (an extra) game."
Lewandowski said Michigan State honored a home-and-home deal with Hawaii in 2004 and '05. Michigan State lost 41-38 at Hawaii in '04 and was called for 16 penalties for 119 yards. Hawaii was called for five penalties for 35 yards by the WAC crew.
"There's a huge misnomer there is an award for the players," Lewandowski said. "It's not. There isn't any free time."
Tiller said he won't allow his disappointment in having to play the game rub off on his team.
"This happens to be one of the great Hawaii teams,'' he said. ". . . It's a heck of a challenge. You take that approach with your guys.''
The first sign that Joe Tiller might have been a little peeved was the color of his shirt. The Purdue coach usually wears black or gold -- the school's colors -- with a Purdue insignia to his weekly news conference. But Tuesday, while he was previewing tonight's game at No. 25 Hawaii, Tiller wore a blue golf shirt. No sign of Purdue was evident.
"Wouldn't it be nice if we had our (team) banquet tonight?" Tiller asked rhetorically. "Wouldn't it be nice if we were packing up all our gear and getting ready to go recruiting? "But we're not in that situation. We're going to go play 112,000 miles away from here against a very good football team."
Tiller noted Purdue entered into a contract for the game in 1994, two years before he arrived. It originally was scheduled for 2002, but Hawaii officials agreed to a Purdue request to reschedule it because of a 12-game schedule that year caused by a quirk in the NCAA calendar.
Ironically, the 12-game schedule became mandatory for Division I teams before this season -- meaning Purdue is playing 13 consecutive weeks this season.
But that's just one reason Tiller doesn't like the game. Hawaii officials are paying some travel expenses, but the Purdue athletic department still might lose money on the trip, he said.
"From a financial standpoint," he said, "this is a valueless game for Purdue University." On the field, Tiller said Purdue has nothing to gain. The game also prevented players from going home for Thanksgiving.
He also noted Big Ten teams have had trouble with officiating in games in Hawaii. Last spring, two former coaches advised colleagues not to play there, he said. Tiller said he asked athletic director Morgan Burke to opt out of the contract as late as January of this year. "It would have been more palatable if we would have been like Notre Dame and we had a bye in the (seventh) week of the season," Tiller said. "It would have been more palatable if we would have a big payday at the end of the rainbow."
Burke, who was the athletic director when Purdue made the agreement, said he likely would not have agreed to play the game if he had known about the permanent 12-game schedule. But Burke said he did not want to ask out of the contract, especially when school officials there made additional financial concessions and agreed to use an officiating crew from the Pac-10 Conference instead of the Western Athletic Conference. Hawaii belongs to the WAC.
"At the end of the day, Purdue stands behind contracts," Burke said. "I expect other people to stand behind contracts to us." Burke said Purdue asked to play the game this season when it learned the men's basketball team would also be playing in the Maui Invitational, which concluded earlier this week.
"We have 3,000 fans here," Burke said in a phone interview from Hawaii. "Our kids will have a great experience. Joe realizes that and knows it's the honorable thing to do."
Officials at Michigan State say their trip was memorable -- but not for reasons they hoped.
Michigan State was scheduled to play at Hawaii next season, but informed the school in January it wouldn't do so, associate athletic director John Lewandowski said.
"At the time we entered into the agreement, there wasn't a 12th game," Lewandowski said. "Our administration doesn't think it's in the student interests to play (an extra) game."
Lewandowski said Michigan State honored a home-and-home deal with Hawaii in 2004 and '05. Michigan State lost 41-38 at Hawaii in '04 and was called for 16 penalties for 119 yards. Hawaii was called for five penalties for 35 yards by the WAC crew.
"There's a huge misnomer there is an award for the players," Lewandowski said. "It's not. There isn't any free time."
Tiller said he won't allow his disappointment in having to play the game rub off on his team.
"This happens to be one of the great Hawaii teams,'' he said. ". . . It's a heck of a challenge. You take that approach with your guys.''
