Future Non-Conference UConn Football Schedules

With the AAC expanding to 11 football members this year and then adding Navy as the 12th football school in 2015, it seems like the AAC will be playing eight conference games annually. In all likelihood there will be two divisions with six teams each. Each year, every member will play the other five schools in its division as well as half the teams from the other division. That leaves UConn will four non-conference spots to fill per year, one fewer than they had from 2010-2012. So what types of schools will UConn look to schedule? Here are UConn’s non-conference opponents from the past four seasons:

2010: at Michigan, Texas Southern (FBS), at Temple, Buffalo, Vanderbilt
2011: Fordham (FBS), at Vanderbilt, Iowa State, at Buffalo, Western Michigan
2012: UMass (FBS), NC State, at Maryland, at Western Michigan, Buffalo
2013: Towson (FBS), Maryland, Michigan, at Buffalo

As we can see, from 2010-2012 UConn’s approach was to play one FBS team (at home)- usually the first game of the season- two teams from power conferences (one home and one away), and two teams from mid-major conferences (one home and one away). In 2013 they had to make some changes because they had one more conference game to play, meaning they had to reduce their non-conference schedule by one game. The Huskies chose to cut one of the mid-major games. 2013 was also a unique year because they were able to play both power conference opponents at home. So what does this mean for future UConn football schedules? Let’s look at this year’s non-conference schedule:

2014: BYU, Stony Brook (FBS), Boise State, Army (at Yankee Stadium)

The 2014 schedule has both similarities and differences when compared to the 2013 schedule. While the 2014 schedule doesn’t have a single power conference opponent, both Boise State and BYU have boasted strong football teams on a consistent basis in the recent past. If we look at those two matchups as the power conference games, the schedule starts to look very familiar. Per usual, there is one FBS opponent (Stony Brook) as well as one mid-major opponent (Army). And so, from UConn’s recent football schedules, it seems like we can tell what the general approach is going to be going forward: one FBS team, one mid-major team, and two power conference/good mid-major teams. Now let’s look at the teams UConn has on the schedule after this upcoming season:

2015: Villanova, Army, at BYU
2016: Virginia
2017: at Virginia
2018: at Boise State
2019: Illinois, at Indiana
2020: at Illinois, Indiana
TBD: a home-and-home series with Tennessee

Based on UConn’s recent scheduling history, we can make an educated guess that Warde Manuel is probably looking to fill the last non-conference opening on the 2015 schedule with a power conference/good mid-major team. That team was supposed to be Tennessee but the Volunteers asked UConn to postpone the series due to a scheduling conflict, and the Huskies agreed to do so. Both schools agreed to have the new dates set by September 26th, 2015.

The schedule for 2016 and after is wide open. It’s noteworthy that all the currently scheduled 2018-2020 games are in areas where UConn does not usually recruit. That would suggest that for those years Mr.Manuel will probably look for mid-major schools that are in locations UConn does recruit. In other words, it’s more likely that the Huskies will end up playing, say,  Buffalo than Western Michigan.

Of course, there’s one thing that would completely alter UConn’s non-conference scheduling philosophy: a change in conference affiliation. Is the current round of conference re-alignment over? Maybe, maybe not. But even then, who knows when the next round will begin? Until and unless that happens though, it seems like UConn’s scheduling philosophy is clear: one FBS team, one mid-major team, and two power conference/good mid-major teams.

by