How two radical basketball scheduling ideas could help USF football

[BrassBulls12]

" C-USA teams will play 14 league games, then divide into tiers. The top five teams will play each other for the final four games of the season. The middle five teams will play amongst themselves, and so will the bottom four teams.

The Sun Belt announced its non-conference schedules will include two dates (one home, one away) "to play against peer conference opponents."

The league didn't specify what those peer conferences are, but it doesn't matter for these purposes. In football, the AAC's peer conferences would be the other Group of Five leagues.

The Sun Belt didn't say much else, other than calling it a "first step for improving non-conference scheduling." The logical way to interpret that: Have your top teams play the top teams from comparable leagues.

Now we're getting somewhere. Set aside a weekend in November for flex non-conference football games. Use the standings through the first two months as a rough guide, and pick the matchups accordingly based on whatever criteria you want. Last year, that could have meant UCF and USF playing teams like Boise State, Florida Atlantic or Troy. It's a lot like the bracket busters idea proposed by SB Nation's Bill Connelly.

Again, there's no guarantee that another top-40 win would have put the Knights in the playoff, but it would help. It'd make sense for the other leagues, too; last year UCF was in contention, but this year it might be Boise or Lane Kiffin's Owls.

The plans aren't perfect, and they pose logistical challenges in football that are easier to solve in basketball. But if USF and UCF want to boost their schedules, they need to get creative — like C-USA and the Sun Belt."

http://www.tampabay.com/sports/usf-bulls/2018/06/07/how-two-radical-basketball-scheduling-ideas-could-help-usf-ucf-football/

Edited June 7, 2018 by BrassBulls12

[BullyPulpit]

40 minutes ago, BrassBulls12 said:

" C-USA teams will play 14 league games, then divide into tiers. The top five teams will play each other for the final four games of the season. The middle five teams will play amongst themselves, and so will the bottom four teams.

The Sun Belt announced its non-conference schedules will include two dates (one home, one away) "to play against peer conference opponents."

The league didn't specify what those peer conferences are, but it doesn't matter for these purposes. In football, the AAC's peer conferences would be the other Group of Five leagues.

The Sun Belt didn't say much else, other than calling it a "first step for improving non-conference scheduling." The logical way to interpret that: Have your top teams play the top teams from comparable leagues.

Now we're getting somewhere. Set aside a weekend in November for flex non-conference football games. Use the standings through the first two months as a rough guide, and pick the matchups accordingly based on whatever criteria you want. Last year, that could have meant UCF and USF playing teams like Boise State, Florida Atlantic or Troy. It's a lot like the bracket busters idea proposed by SB Nation's Bill Connelly.

Again, there's no guarantee that another top-40 win would have put the Knights in the playoff, but it would help. It'd make sense for the other leagues, too; last year UCF was in contention, but this year it might be Boise or Lane Kiffin's Owls.

The plans aren't perfect, and they pose logistical challenges in football that are easier to solve in basketball. But if USF and UCF want to boost their schedules, they need to get creative — like C-USA and the Sun Belt."

http://www.tampabay.com/sports/usf-bulls/2018/06/07/how-two-radical-basketball-scheduling-ideas-could-help-usf-ucf-football/

While this is an interesting idea in theory, what it will essentially could become is a play-in game between the MWC and the AAC to see which conference gets the NY6 bid. I don't think a UCF win over BSU would have been enough to get them anywhere near the top 4. UCF was ranked #12 in the final CFP rankings. They were behind 5 two loss and 1 three loss team. Even assuming they would have passed all of those teams with a "good" OOC win, they would have finished 6th in the final CFP rankings. This might be a better idea if the CFP expands to 8 teams and they don't guarantee a spot to the top G5 conference champion. 

[Apis Bull]

1 hour ago, BrassBulls12 said:

" C-USA teams will play 14 league games, then divide into tiers. The top five teams will play each other for the final four games of the season. The middle five teams will play amongst themselves, and so will the bottom four teams.

The Sun Belt announced its non-conference schedules will include two dates (one home, one away) "to play against peer conference opponents."

The league didn't specify what those peer conferences are, but it doesn't matter for these purposes. In football, the AAC's peer conferences would be the other Group of Five leagues.

The Sun Belt didn't say much else, other than calling it a "first step for improving non-conference scheduling." The logical way to interpret that: Have your top teams play the top teams from comparable leagues.

Now we're getting somewhere. Set aside a weekend in November for flex non-conference football games. Use the standings through the first two months as a rough guide, and pick the matchups accordingly based on whatever criteria you want. Last year, that could have meant UCF and USF playing teams like Boise State, Florida Atlantic or Troy. It's a lot like the bracket busters idea proposed by SB Nation's Bill Connelly.

Again, there's no guarantee that another top-40 win would have put the Knights in the playoff, but it would help. It'd make sense for the other leagues, too; last year UCF was in contention, but this year it might be Boise or Lane Kiffin's Owls.

The plans aren't perfect, and they pose logistical challenges in football that are easier to solve in basketball. But if USF and UCF want to boost their schedules, they need to get creative — like C-USA and the Sun Belt."

http://www.tampabay.com/sports/usf-bulls/2018/06/07/how-two-radical-basketball-scheduling-ideas-could-help-usf-ucf-football/

Two big problems with this.  The first one is logistics, it takes a whole lot more for football to go to an away game.  The second is that we are trying to distance ourselves from the other G5 conferences.  UCF's would not have made the top 4 if they had beaten Boise State.  If they lose to Boise State, then they would have lost their chance for a NY6 bowl.  This is really a no-win situation for the AAC.