Our scheduling philosophy going forward as an independent

[Jetskies]

Thats true of 90% of all bowl games and nobody ever liked playing against the G5 qualifier or Big East rep..

agree with you in these NIL times. prior to a couple years ago, i'd say your 90% would be way off. a bowl was always a reward for everyone except maybe the top teams who didn't make it to the BCS or CFP. For everyone else, game 13 was a treat. That was all prior to kids getting paid (out in the open).

now I only see it as a matter of time before bowls themselves are gone, cuz no one worth watching, will play in them unless there is an incentive to do so, or at last, a stinkin' contract that obligates them to honor their duty to the school that paid them last offseason.

If we're gonna pay these kids, there HAVE to be penalties for being a flake as well as rewards for performance.
By penalties, i don't mean punishment per se, just losing out on cash if you decide to abandon the team. Kid loses out on previously promised NIL income & if dictated in the contract, faces a fine for defecting early, which will probably just be paid by the next school on the kid's behalf.

blegh

 

[HuskyHawk]

Anyone who says we should schedule more P4s isn't worth listening to.

I want to play all P4 teams. But I also want to win 9-10 of those games. I want us to be that good. That's what I want.

Reality is different and we have to acknowledge it. Hopefully a P4 sends us a lifeline. Until then, winning will be helpful.

 

[ZooCougar]

I want to play all P4 teams. But I also want to win 9-10 of those games. I want us to be that good. That's what I want.

Reality is different and we have to acknowledge it. Hopefully a P4 sends us a lifeline. Until then, winning will be helpful.

We should schedule along the lines of other top G6 programs, 2-3 P4 in the schedule tops.

 

[SubbaBub]

2 gimmes, 5 G5, 5 P4. 6 or 7 home games a year, if 6 then the 7th road game should be a big time payday road game.

Say and doing in this environment are different things. The P4 are really the P2, and they have a lot more options for NC scheduling now since the death of the P12 and bloated P4 conferences.

Why play UConn H/H when you can play Purdue, Nebraska, Maryland, Michigan State or any of the new P4 bottom feeders. The 15th place teams is now G5 squads with better name recognition.

 

[Jetskies]

2 gimmes, 5 G5, 5 P4. 6 or 7 home games a year, if 6 then the 7th road game should be a big time payday road game.

a lot of folks here agree that payday games do us no favors at this time.
I'd align with them that we should probably avoid them. a 2M check is not worth the bad optics of losing 59-0 to Ohio State or someone like that.

 

[Hskies4Ever]

If we’re serious about being in a power conference, we can’t be scheduling a ton of cupcakes every year. The schedules for the next few years look pretty good with four power teams and mostly upper level G6 teams. Especially if we can win 9 games again this year, we should really look at 5 power games each year and keep scaling.

Pac will have more scheduling opportunities than most other conferences, so that will be a good opportunity as well. I believe at the moment they’re only slated for 7 conference games, so they’ll need to fill 5 dates per team, per season. That’s probably an appropriate level of competition for where we are at the moment.

 

[HuskyHawk]

We should schedule along the lines of other top G6 programs, 2-3 P4 in the schedule tops.

Schools that schedule like G6 remain G6. I get that we need to win, but we also need to try to stand above the G6. We need to be "Notre Dame Light" now that BYU isn't that anymore. We aren't going to recruit P4 caliber players unless the schedule is better than most G6 schools play.

It's a difficult balance for Benedict and Mora.

 

[Hskies4Ever]

Schools that schedule like G6 remain G6. I get that we need to win, but we also need to try to stand above the G6. We need to be "Notre Dame Light" now that BYU isn't that anymore. We aren't going to recruit P4 caliber players unless the schedule is better than most G6 schools play.

It's a difficult balance for Benedict and Mora.

This. Ideally we’d be scheduling 4-5 P4 teams with one of them being a stretch team, and we fill the rest of the schedule out with upper level AAC and PAC teams. Maybe the likes of JMU or Liberty. UMass too, for the rivalry.

 

[ZooCougar]

Schools that schedule like G6 remain G6. I get that we need to win, but we also need to try to stand above the G6. We need to be "Notre Dame Light" now that BYU isn't that anymore. We aren't going to recruit P4 caliber players unless the schedule is better than most G6 schools play.

It's a difficult balance for Benedict and Mora.

What are you talking about? Do you think all the schools that recently moved up scheduled like P5s?

Look it up yourself.

 

[Duncan Idaho]

Four P4 teams tops for competitive scheduling because you are not in a top G5 conference that will have one or possibly two teams in the top 25.

 

[Jetskies]

Schools that schedule like G6 remain G6. I get that we need to win, but we also need to try to stand above the G6. We need to be "Notre Dame Light" now that BYU isn't that anymore. We aren't going to recruit P4 caliber players unless the schedule is better than most G6 schools play.

It's a difficult balance for Benedict and Mora.

i may be too conservative here, totally open to pushback from others.
But, I just don't think we're stable enough as a program yet, to be thinking about upping the competition aggressively.
JM has done a remarkable job so far, but I don't think we're fully out of the shadow of our horrible 2010's decade and up to 2021.

I think, and this is just me, but maybe we need another season or 2 of excellent (8-0, 7-1) performance against mediocre and pretty-good G5 competition, along with finally a couple upsets of those pesky ACC teams, to convince the CFB world that we are forevermore not the same uconn that was getting blasted by meh programs like MTSU and Army.

 

[HuskyHawk]

What are you talking about? Do you think all the schools that recently moved up scheduled like P5s?

Look it up yourself.

This. Ideally we’d be scheduling 4-5 P4 teams with one of them being a stretch team, and we fill the rest of the schedule out with upper level AAC and PAC teams. Maybe the likes of JMU or Liberty. UMass too, for the rivalry.

Fine, fine. I'm impatient. I don't like seeing UConn slumming it in any sport. I'd rather be a good FCS program than that. It's a reputational thing. I agree with @Jetskies that we probably aren't there yet. Hopefully it's not far off.

 

[Hskies4Ever]

Fine, fine. I'm impatient. I don't like seeing UConn slumming it in any sport. I'd rather be a good FCS program than that. It's a reputational thing. I agree with @Jetskies that we probably aren't there yet. Hopefully it's not far off.

Honestly, I like your aggressive mindset more than the folks who think we should only schedule terrible teams.

 

[ZooCougar]

Fine, fine. I'm impatient. I don't like seeing UConn slumming it in any sport. I'd rather be a good FCS program than that. It's a reputational thing. I agree with @Jetskies that we probably aren't there yet. Hopefully it's not far off.

We’re not slumming it. We’re actually competitive against peer programs.

Let’s walk before we run. We have zero business scheduling a preponderance of P4s. The Boises of the world don’t do it. Why should we?

 

[ZooCougar]

Honestly, I like your aggressive mindset more than the folks who think we should only schedule terrible teams.

Nobody is saying we should schedule bad teams. We are scheduling other G6 programs. We are a G6 program.

You can’t fake it till you make it. To build a winning a track record you have to win.

In 2022 we went 6-7 and then we dropped back to 3-9. Let’s be realistic. We need to build up some wins.

 

[Jetskies]

Nobody is saying we should schedule bad teams. We are scheduling other G6 programs. We are a G6 program.

You can’t fake it till you make it. To build a winning a track record you have to win.

In 2022 we went 6-7 and then we dropped back to 3-9. Let’s be realistic. We need to build up some wins.

agreed. "terrible" would be if our entire schedule was exclusively teams like akron, kent state, kennesaw, Jacksonville State, Sam Houston, and FAU (yes i know DID play FAU in real life).

Essentially if we purposely stuck to the bottom half of MAC, CUSA, and AAC.
eeeeeeek.

Thankfully that's not the case.

 

[Hskies4Ever]

Nobody is saying we should schedule bad teams. We are scheduling other G6 programs. We are a G6 program.

You can’t fake it till you make it. To build a winning a track record you have to win.

In 2022 we went 6-7 and then we dropped back to 3-9. Let’s be realistic. We need to build up some wins.

There are people on this board advocating for us to only schedule bottom of the barrel teams. I stand by my statement.

 

[ZooCougar]

There are people on this board advocating for us to only schedule bottom of the barrel teams. I stand by my statement.

Haven't seen that.

 

[freescooter]

There are people on this board advocating for us to only schedule bottom of the barrel teams. I stand by my statement.

Nobody has said that.

 

[freescooter]

Schools that schedule like G6 remain G6. I get that we need to win, but we also need to try to stand above the G6. We need to be "Notre Dame Light" now that BYU isn't that anymore. We aren't going to recruit P4 caliber players unless the schedule is better than most G6 schools play.

It's a difficult balance for Benedict and Mora.

That sounds great. It isn’t true but let’s not let facts get in the way.

Houston’s 2021 non-conference schedule: Texas Tech, Rice, Grambling, UConn. 22: Rice, Texas Teck , Texas Tech, Kansas.

Cincinnati 2021: Notre Dame, Indiana, Murray State, Miami-Ohio
2022: Arkansas, Kennesaw St, Miami-Ohio, Indiana.

And those were typical if you go back. 2 P4 teams and 1 G5, 1 FCS.

UCF 21- Bethune-Cookman, UConn, Louisville, Boise St
UCF 22: SC State, FAU, Louisville Georgia Tech.

SMU: 2023 LA Tech, Prairie View, Oklahoma, TCU
2022: North Texas, Lamar, TCUMaryland

All 4 played 2 P5 Games, not 5 or 6 or even 4. When they got to more than 2 it was due to a bowl matchup. And they ended up in Power leagues. They mostly played 1 FCS and 1 G6. You know what the real difference was? Those schools made football a priority. They had big wins and competed for conference titles and had consistent winning records. Had we done the same, we’d be in a power conference We didn’t. We hired bad coaches and scrimped on support systems.

BYU did play 5-6 but I would argue they are a different situation. They chose to go independent in hopes of upgrading their schedule and because they thought they could make it work. They had a good pedigree including a national championship and relationships with the PAC and other “national” teams. Despite that, they mostly played 5 P5 games, occasionally 6, mostly against the original PAC 12. BYU fans complained that they were mostly front loaded schedules.

 

[ZooCougar]

That sounds great. It isn’t true but let’s not let facts get in the way.

Houston’s 2021 non-conference schedule: Texas Tech, Rice, Grambling, UConn. 22: Rice, Texas Teck , Texas Tech, Kansas.

Cincinnati 2021: Notre Dame, Indiana, Murray State, Miami-Ohio
2022: Arkansas, Kennesaw St, Miami-Ohio, Indiana.

And those were typical if you go back. 2 P4 teams and 1 G5, 1 FCS.

UCF 21- Bethune-Cookman, UConn, Louisville, Boise St
UCF 22: SC State, FAU, Louisville Georgia Tech.

SMU: 2023 LA Tech, Prairie View, Oklahoma, TCU
2022: North Texas, Lamar, TCUMaryland

All 4 played 2 P5 Games, not 5 or 6 or even 4. When they got to more than 2 it was due to a bowl matchup. And they ended up in Power leagues. They mostly played 1 FCS and 1 G6. You know what the real difference was? Those schools made football a priority. They had big wins and competed for conference titles and had consistent winning records. Had we done the same, we’d be in a power conference We didn’t. We hired bad coaches and scrimped on support systems.

BYU did play 5-6 but I would argue they are a different situation. They chose to go independent in hopes of upgrading their schedule and because they thought they could make it work. They had a good pedigree including a national championship and relationships with the PAC and other “national” teams. Despite that, they mostly played 5 P5 games, occasionally 6, mostly against the original PAC 12. BYU fans complained that they were mostly front loaded schedules.

If BYU were still Indy then without the massive power conference TV money they would have to make their schedule go on a diet too.

 

[Fishy]

Schools that schedule like G6 remain G6. I get that we need to win, but we also need to try to stand above the G6. We need to be "Notre Dame Light" now that BYU isn't that anymore. We aren't going to recruit P4 caliber players unless the schedule is better than most G6 schools play.

It's a difficult balance for Benedict and Mora.

The sooner that people realize that we’re not auditioning for anything, the better off they’ll be.

 

[Drew]

The sooner that people realize that we’re not auditioning for anything, the better off they’ll be.

The last ship sailing into the night left in August 2023 and we were on it until they threw us overboard at the last minute

If the PAC had survived, we would’ve been in the Big 12. Makes me sick thinking about it.

 

[HuskyHawk]

The sooner that people realize that we’re not auditioning for anything, the better off they’ll be.

Ah yes, the killer of hope, killing hope. I don't think non-P4 FBS is going to viable for much longer. For any school.

 

[Fishy]

Ah yes, the killer of hope, killing hope. I don't think non-P4 FBS is going to viable for much longer. For any school.

We’ve had chances, but circumstances have conspired against us in the wildest of ways at every turn. Any future promotion from the G6 to the P4 - for anyone - is akin to completing a Hail Mary where the quarterback and receiver are both blindfolded.