Drew
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http://www.tulsaworld.com/sportsext...cle_be415367-8d4c-5ad7-a7a1-6165cbe3e86c.html
Looking at the schedules for upcoming seasons of University of Tulsa football, some heavy hitters are on the horizon.
The next six years feature nonconference games against Oklahoma State, Texas, Arkansas, Michigan State, Ohio State and Ole Miss — opponents from the premier Southeastern, Big Ten and Big 12 conferences.
Although the Hurricane already was working to play a Power 5 team on an annual basis, the American Athletic Conference recently encouraged its members to upgrade their schedules in an attempt to bolster its Power 6 argument.
“Our schedules need to match that,” TU athletic director Derrick Gragg said. “We wanted to upgrade on our end. Obviously there’s an economic component to it as well. Playing those teams and being very competitive and winning some of those games is very important.”
Coming off a successful 10-win season in Philip Montgomery’s second year, TU continues to face difficulty in persuading teams to visit H.A. Chapman Stadium, where the Hurricane went undefeated in 2016.
“It’s not a secret that we have a very good football program,” Gragg said. “Ten wins and everybody saw what we did in the bowl game (a 55-10 win against Central Michigan). It’s hard to get on the phone with opposing programs now and get them to agree to come here.”
In-state opponents are seemingly the only teams willing to play at TU as part of a two-for-one deal. While OSU athletic director Mike Holder has proposed annual series in football and men’s basketball, Gragg does not appear ready to sign up for that.
“I don’t think you ever want to lock yourself into anything indefinitely because it’s hard to predict what’s going to happen down the road,” he said. “Obviously OSU and OU are very attractive opponents for us, especially if we can get them to come here, but you also want to be responsive to the fans and what they want, too. Sometimes they want to see different opponents.”
Pretty dumb of Tulsa to not lock up the Oklahoma State series on an annual basis if that was really offered IMO. But this outlines the difficulty that some teams can face in getting P5 type opponents to come to their home stadiums and further notes the good job done by Warde and AD David Benedict in scheduling to get teams like Missouri, BYU, Illinois, Indiana, BC, etc on the schedule for home and home games.
Looking at the schedules for upcoming seasons of University of Tulsa football, some heavy hitters are on the horizon.
The next six years feature nonconference games against Oklahoma State, Texas, Arkansas, Michigan State, Ohio State and Ole Miss — opponents from the premier Southeastern, Big Ten and Big 12 conferences.
Although the Hurricane already was working to play a Power 5 team on an annual basis, the American Athletic Conference recently encouraged its members to upgrade their schedules in an attempt to bolster its Power 6 argument.
“Our schedules need to match that,” TU athletic director Derrick Gragg said. “We wanted to upgrade on our end. Obviously there’s an economic component to it as well. Playing those teams and being very competitive and winning some of those games is very important.”
Coming off a successful 10-win season in Philip Montgomery’s second year, TU continues to face difficulty in persuading teams to visit H.A. Chapman Stadium, where the Hurricane went undefeated in 2016.
“It’s not a secret that we have a very good football program,” Gragg said. “Ten wins and everybody saw what we did in the bowl game (a 55-10 win against Central Michigan). It’s hard to get on the phone with opposing programs now and get them to agree to come here.”
In-state opponents are seemingly the only teams willing to play at TU as part of a two-for-one deal. While OSU athletic director Mike Holder has proposed annual series in football and men’s basketball, Gragg does not appear ready to sign up for that.
“I don’t think you ever want to lock yourself into anything indefinitely because it’s hard to predict what’s going to happen down the road,” he said. “Obviously OSU and OU are very attractive opponents for us, especially if we can get them to come here, but you also want to be responsive to the fans and what they want, too. Sometimes they want to see different opponents.”
Pretty dumb of Tulsa to not lock up the Oklahoma State series on an annual basis if that was really offered IMO. But this outlines the difficulty that some teams can face in getting P5 type opponents to come to their home stadiums and further notes the good job done by Warde and AD David Benedict in scheduling to get teams like Missouri, BYU, Illinois, Indiana, BC, etc on the schedule for home and home games.
