First three games of schedule has handicapped program

[Matt]

UCF isnt going to help our schedule.

i wouldnt mind playing a conference game early in the year (1st or 2nd game)  kinda like Cincy vs Rutgers did.

[ABullAboveAnyOther]

Correct me if I'm wrong, did we not drop a bad big 10 team in Indiana for a trip up to Tally next weekend?  Also we only had one 2A school on our schedule, but Rutgers decided to snipe one of our division one schools.  Unfortunately we are a southern school and most schools with any Name recognition in the south never leave their campus until conference games start.  At this point we deserve a home and home deal with just about any school we negotiate with.  Our schedule is just fine, we have two traditional powers one at home one on the road. Plus a conference schedule that has done nothing but test us year in and year out.  I don’t hear Florida fan complaining when the wheel Charleston Southern and Troy out for their annual slaughters.  FSU fan complains, but only because their cupcakes are leading with 35 seconds to play. 

[MikeG]

some fans think we lose respect by playing nobodies-- despite the fact that most teams have to do this since they expanded the schedule to 12 games.

some do it more than others. But for smazza to whine that we schedule like KSU is crazy. KSU doesn't put FSU and Miami or UF and Miami on their OOC schedule. So what if we have  a handful of lowball teams? Yeah-- it isn't appealing to the fans-- I agree there. But if we were to have nothing but awesome opponents all year long, our team would get chewed to pieces in that meat grinder of a schedule. I just wish we could have moved them around a little. THe way UF does it is pretty good-- they always stick one of the patsy games the week before they play FSU. Sometimes it is a 1-AA, this year it is FIU (same difference to them).

So yeah-- getting someone to go to a CSU or Wofford contest can be a challenge-- (I ate 3 tickets for Wofford and probably will eat one for CSU)-- and the games are a bit of a snooze competition wise. It is nice to see us score a bunch of times and all- and with any luck, these glorified scrimmages are getting us ready with minimum injury impact for the first tough one- FSU. We'll see who has more injuries going into that game--  FSU playing Miami and BYU or USF vs the powderpuff squads.

bottom line-- it is tough filling out these 5 game scheduling needs every year. Make that 4 a year with the 5 year series with Miami. THrow in another annual game (I will not say that team to our east) and the chore becomes pretty easy. Sure--we'll throw a 1-AA team in there to get things started for the next few years--- and who knows, eventually we might be able to just have fully qualified 1-As. It's just not happening anytime soon folks. We've known this was happening since 2001 -- and we don't have a solution. Hell- even those years where we could schedule 12 games, we still only played 11.

[Triple B]

What's funny is that probably the ones complaining about our early season schedules are ones downplaying UM's early schedule of 2 freaking Top 20 teams by saying who knows good those teams they beat really are .... Honestly, you can't win with some fans.

[bull2saintleo]

Just to say something, here are the BCS Conference Schools that DO NOT play I-AA teams in 2009:

- Alabama

- Colorado

- LSU

- Nebraska

- Ohio State

- Oregon

- Purdue

- Stanford

- South Carolina

- Tennessee

- Texas

- Texas A&M

- UCLA

- Southern Cal

- VA Tech

- Washington State

That's 16 out of 65 BCS teams that don't play 1-AA schools in '09.

[smazza]

Just to say something, here are the BCS Conference Schools that DO NOT play I-AA teams in 2009:

- Alabama

- Colorado

- LSU

- Nebraska

- Ohio State

- Oregon

- Purdue

- Stanford

- South Carolina

- Tennessee

- Texas

- Texas A&M

- UCLA

- Southern Cal

- VA Tech

- Washington State

That's 16 out of 65 BCS teams that don't play 1-AA schools in '09.

usfshould ply these guys

[smazza]

UCF isnt going to help our schedule.

i wouldnt mind playing a conference game early in the year (1st or 2nd game)  kinda like Cincy vs Rutgers did.

ftu/ou.oc is a great game for usf for many reasons

[ABullAboveAnyOther]

ftu/ou.oc is a great game for usf for many reasons

[MikeG]

ftu/ou.oc is a great game for usf for many reasons

Other than ease of travel for the fan base, name another.

[BullyPulpit]

I think that if we are going to keep this scheduling philosophy we should schedule the I-AA to open and then backload one of the non-BCS games in the middle of our conference schedule. A few teams do this around game 7 or 8 and I think it presents the opportunity to rest guys and prepare for the final stretch in conference.