(12-13-2011 03:52 PM)Melky Cabrera Wrote:  

(12-13-2011 02:27 PM)piratefan1975 Wrote:  We need to schedule down and schedule 10+ wins a year for a couple of years. We need to win our bowl games. That's not for the Big East, that's for our fans. Our fans will appreciate some very successful seasons.

Scheduling top 12 teams South Carolina and VT to open the season; followed by North Carolina, who was getting votes; on top of that add Houston and Southern Miss, who both finished ranked makes for a very strong schedule. Navy is always a difficult opponent. It's not easy getting 10 wins that way.

With proper scheduling, we could have Boise State numbers in a 60,000 seat stadium. But, a Big East invitation wouldn't be best for us. We have nothing in common with urban schools in the Big East. It would be a temporary AQ solution at best if the AQ still exists then.

Scheduling down would certainly be one strategy. Notre Dame tried that a few years ago & then abandoned it. Fresno State tried the opposite approach with their "play anyone anytime anywhere" initiative. That worked for them for a while, but then the schedule became too difficult. It's debatable which is the better way to go. A middle road is probably best. A team needs a high profile win on the schedule if a weak schedule is to be overcome. That one high profile win can then sustain credibility if a school runs the table.

I don't think that it's a simple as just scheduling down, however. When the Utah program took off under Urban Meyer, they were beating a couple of "name" schools from AQ conferences every year. They didn't get respect just for beating a bunch of East Podunks.

TCU began & ended the 2005 season with wins over the Big XII (Oklahoma & Iowa State). That's probably when people began taking them seriously even though they'd had 3 seasons of 10 wins or more in the previous 5 years. They had a couple of "name" schools from AQ conferences on the schedule every year after that & won those games often enough to establish their credibility.

Utah & TCU were in the Mountain West. Playing each other + BYU gave them a couple of in conference games each year that were considered to be legitimate challenges. Boise State had a much bigger problem since their rise started when they were playing in the Big West. Even the move to the WAC didn't help much because they had a name team on the schedule every year but they always lost that game. It took the undefeated season in 2006 with the shocking & dramatic upset of Oklahoma in Fiesta Bowl after beginning the season with a defeat of a 10-win Oregon State team to establish their program. This was after 6 season of 10 wins or more in 8 years before that including 3 of 12 wins or more. Since then Boise has been winning its battles with most of the name teams on their schedules year in & year out to sustain the respect they had gained.

Houston is going through the same process right now. Despite having it's third 10+ wins season in the past 6 years & despite a win over a name team on their schedule for the 2nd time in 3 years, Houston was getting no respect even while going undefeated during the regular season. After losing to Southern Mississippi in the CCG, they dropped like a stone. They really need a bowl win over Penn State to get back on track. Why? Because other than 2009 & this year's win over UCLA, they have no history of beating teams from the name (AQ) conferences.

Scheduling down is nice for the win column, but unless it includes some wins over name teams over a sustained number of years, a team will get no respect.

Problem is we saw in 08 what beating name programs will do for you, but if you follow that up with losses you are no farther ahead than you were before. We've beaten plenty of name programs in our history, that isn't the problem. Houston beat 3 name programs in 09, but because they lost to 3 C-USA programs it didn't matter. This year they beat I guess you could say one "name" program in UCLA, and then didn't beat a whole lot else and was in position to make a BCS game had USM not kicked their teeth in. We have to find a way to get the schedule weak enough we can start putting together high win totals, but make sure it still keeps fans interested enough to buy our ever increasingly priced season tickets.