I'm not talking about division realignment or conference realignment. I just want to know who you would want your school to play on a yearly basis if everyone went indy.

Here's mine:
SYRACUSE
BC
Pitt
WVU
PSU
UMD
ND
VT
RU
[]_[]
Army/Navy
UCONN/UMASS/Temple/SUNY Buffalo (2-1) or Colgate/Cornell (1-0)
Northwestern/Tulane

REASONS:
1. BC - Both schools have played a lot, we are very similar academically and athletically, SU recruits students out of urban centers like Boston, and this is a rivalry game.
2. Pitt - (see BC) Also, western PA is good for recruiting.
3. WVU - This is a rivalry game and the schools have very similar athletic strengths. We also have a TON of history laying each other. Also, western PA is good for recruiting.
4. PSU - This is a rivalry game with a lot of history, both schools are close to each other, both schools have similar academic strengths (at least on paper), and PSU is a big-time program.
5. UMD - Both schools have a ton of history and similar academic strengths. SU also has a ton of alums living in DC and that area is good for recruiting.
6. ND - ND has a NYC focus and excellent academics. I also think that ND likes playing SU (albeit MUCH more so in other sports). Regardless, ND gives SU some Midwestern exposure (esp. in Chicago), and adds an big-time game to the schedule.
7. VT - VT is a good school in Virginia with a strong presence in DC. It's a fairly big name on the schedule tat's good for recruiting, and good for our alums in DC.
8. RU - RU has good academics and is great for all our NYC fans/alums.
9. Miami - Miami has great academics, a strong attachment to NY, a great program, and is located in an elite recruiting area. Also, it would give many of our Florida fans a chance to see the Orange in person.
10. Army/Navy - These are regional games that are PR GOLD and easy wins. It's also a chance to let our alums in NYC/DC see the Orange play.
11a. UCONN/UMASS/SUNY at Buffalo/Temple - These regional games are easy wins against good academic institutions. Games against Buffalo would help build a Syracuse fan base in western NY. Games against Temple would allow our Philly alums and prospective students to see the Orange play, which is important because we are an urban school. Finally games against UCONN and UMASS keep us in the news in New England and NYC. That's important to our academic recruiting and our fund raising efforts.
11b. Colgate/Cornell - Both are fantastic academic institutions in CNY (45 minutes from campus), and both have a TON of history playing the Orange (both were heated rivalry games at one point in time).
12. NW/Tulane - Both of these schools have history playing SU an similar academics (i.e. "the prose bowl"). Beyond that Both are located in cities. Games against NW give us Midwestern exposure (esp. in Chicago), and games against Tulane give us exposure in New Orleans, which is one of the most fertile recruiting areas in the country. But beyond that, I think that a lot of SU alums have soft spots for 'Nola.

Pitt:
1. Penn State-Obvious
2. West Virginia-Second biggest rival
3. Notre Dame-Third biggest rival
4. Syracuse-Fourth biggest rival
5. Virginia Tech-was developing into a rivalry before Big East split up
6. Navy-a lot of history with Navy, beautiful and close road trip for a game.
7. Miami-Pitt actually has a lot of history with them and good for recruiting.
8. Temple-to play in Eastern PA
9. BC/UConn/Rutgers: Rotate games through northeastern opponents
10. Louisville/Cincinnati: Rotate through midwestern opponents Pitt's had history with
11. Power program: OSU, Texas, Nebraska etc.
12. MAC/close FCS opponent

Challenging but fun schedule with opponents that fans and players care about.

1) Clarke County Correctional

(gap)

2) Clemson

(gap)

3) Notre Dame

(HUGE gap)

4) North Carolina
5) Duke
6) Virginia
7) Auburn

(gap)

8) Vanderbilt
9) Tulane
10) Miami
11) Pittsburgh
12) SEC Potluck (TN, Ole Miss, Miss St, FL, USC-East)

This is my ideal schedule for Pitt, not the school's, though I disagree with little in MK's except UConn nor really do I have much desire to schedule Cincy.

1. PSU - primary rival 1a
2. Hoopie High - primary rival 1b
3. ND - non-mutual primary rival 1c
4. Syracuse - every year since 1955
5. Miami - most played FL team, Pitt alumni helped to found
6. Virginia Tech - former Big East foe with great games
7. Navy - traditional opponent, great location
8. Georgia Tech - similar programs, Heisman vs Warner, ATL
9. FSU - big draw, paired w/ Miami to get game in FL each year
10. Rutgers - traditional NE opponent, NJ recruiting
11. BC - traditional NE opponent
12. Temple - in-state patsy...eh, possibly replace with alternative if they sink to low.

Alternative: West Coast out of a group of USC, UCLA, Cal, Stanford, or Washington or Michigan, Texas, or Texas A&M.

1. Rice- Great Academics and peer institution.
2. Michigan St- Long history and I actually like the playing them.
3. Pitt Good history and our games are usually great.
Georgia Tech- Good history also and access to a good market
Virginia Tech- Can't wait to play them for the first time(Unbelievably).
4. FSU Good history(Not long history) and great access to Florida
5. Texas/Oklahoma -Texas exposure and recruiting. Play Okie in Jerry Dome?
6. Stanford One west coast game a year and great academics.
7. USC - Favorite rival and will never leave.
8. Wake Forest- Good friendship between the schools.
9. Duke- See above
10. Navy They'll never leave no matter how much I wish they would. I respect the game but hate our injury report afterwords.
11. Miami- Exciting history and Florida recruiting
12. Western,Eastern,Northen,Southern,Northwest,Southwest Michigan University. No comment.

Conference games of : UVA, UNC, Duke and Maryland away to get the close by schools and Clemson, GT, FSU and Miami at home to get the southern schools.

Mix that up with OOC games of 1 Marquee P5 OOC opponent, 1 non Marquee P5 opponent (As it looks like VT's future scheduling philosophy is to have 2 B1G or WVU opponents every year plus ND mixed in there), 1 FCS preferably Virginia school, and finally 1 mid major (Over the last 20 plus years that's been ECU but they are being replaced by ODU).

Syracuse for me:
1-Boston College
2-Penn State
3-Notre Dame
4-Miami
5-Virginia Tech
6-West Virginia
7-Michigan
8-Northwestern/Illinois
9-Pittsburgh
10-FIU or USF
11- rotation of p5 schools such as Stanford/USC/Washington/Tennessee/Clemson/Georgia Tech
12-rotation of army and colgate

1. W Virginia (or Maryland)
2. Pittsburgh
3. Miami
4. Tennessee (or Ohio State)
5. Ga Tech
6. Clemson
7. Florida State
8. NC State
9. UNC
10. Syracuse
11. Boston College
12. Virginia

(BTW, great thread!)

Like this idea.

Week 1: Start the season with a very winnable home game and give everyone a chance to gel. 1-AA or MAC team.

Week 2: A home game, but instead of having it in Columbus, put it in Cincinnati/Cleveland on a rotating basis. This can either be a MAC team or a set of regional teams. Since we are assuming independence in this, teams like Purdue, Kentucky, Indiana, might fit here.

Week 3: Big home and home with a big name school (Notre Dame/Texas/USC/Alabama/etc)

Week 4: Illinois (Illibuck trophy is our only trophy game)

Weeks 5-11 (or 12/13 depending on byes):A rotation of the other current Big Ten teams. No set order to this. Play them all about equally. Maybe occasionally put in another big Midwestern school here (Missouri/Kansas).

Week 12 (or 13/14) Michigan. Ideally this would be the week before Thanksgiving, but Thanksgiving weekend or the weekend afterward work too.

1. South Carolina
2. Georgia
3. Georgia Tech
4. FSU
5. Auburn
6. Tennessee
7. One of the NC schools so we can get exposure and take one of their top recruits for the umpteenth year. Doesn't really matter who.
8. Virginia Tech
9. Texas A&M
10. Penn State
11. Texas A&M
12. In state FCS

(12-21-2013 10:58 PM)Kaplony Wrote:  1. South Carolina
2. Georgia
3. Georgia Tech
4. FSU
5. Auburn
6. Tennessee
7. One of the NC schools so we can get exposure and take one of their top recruits for the umpteenth year. Doesn't really matter who.
8. Virginia Tech
9. Texas A&M
10. Penn State
11. Texas A&M
12. In state FCS

A&M is listed as #9 and #11.

(12-21-2013 11:07 PM)nzmorange Wrote:  

(12-21-2013 10:58 PM)Kaplony Wrote:  1. South Carolina
2. Georgia
3. Georgia Tech
4. FSU
5. Auburn
6. Tennessee
7. One of the NC schools so we can get exposure and take one of their top recruits for the umpteenth year. Doesn't really matter who.
8. Virginia Tech
9. Texas A&M
10. Penn State
11. Texas A&M
12. In state FCS

A&M is listed as #9 and #11.

Play 'em twice

Put Miss St/LSU in #11 then. Like-minded school in a great recruiting area.

I think this would be fun to see.

1. NC State
2. UNC
3. Duke
4. Stanford
5. Notre Dame
6. Miami
7. Tulane
8. Northwestern
9. BC
10. Vanderbilt
11. Rice (or one of the other Texas private schools)
12. Syracuse

VIRGINIA TECH
1. West Virginia
2. North Carolina State
3. Tennessee
4. Miami
5. Pittsburgh
6. Penn State
7. Clemson
8. Florida State
9. Syracuse
10. Notre Dame
11. Maryland
12. Virginia

1. Florida State
2. Notre Dame
3. Florida
4. Pittsburgh
5. Boston College
6. Georgia Tech
7. Syracuse
8. Ohio State
9. North Carolina
10. Clemson
11. Nebraska
12. Virginia Tech

(12-21-2013 06:14 PM)georgia_tech_swagger Wrote:  1) Clarke County Correctional

(gap)

2) Clemson

(gap)

3) Notre Dame

(HUGE gap)

4) North Carolina
5) Duke
6) Virginia
7) Auburn

(gap)

8) Vanderbilt
9) Tulane
10) Miami
11) Pittsburgh
12) SEC Potluck (TN, Ole Miss, Miss St, FL, USC-East)

Updated after further pondering.

1. I'm noticing that Va Tech and Ga Tech are not showing up on each other's ideal lists

2. As good as those games have been, I tend to agree with that. Once every so often is probably good enough.

I'm also agreeing with PhiladelphiaVT that NC State would be preferred over UNC. To me, with its engineering school, I just think NC State has more in common with Va Tech.

Home
Colgate (Historic rival, body bag game.)

Home and away
Army (In-state game. Nice away venue. Easy opponent.)
Boston College (End of season game.)
Louisville (Budding rivalry.)
Maryland (Short lived companion, played frequently historically.)
Miami (Big opponent, former and now current companion.)
Penn State (Historic rivalry, now just a big opponent.)
Pitt (Respectful rivalry game.)
Rutgers (Became a rivalry at the end of our companionship.)
Virginia Tech (Big opponent, former and now current companion.)
West Virginia (Rivalry, and SU's only trophy game.)

Begrudgingly home, away, away
Notre Dame (Big opponent. Has been a good series for 'Cuse.)

Louisville
Miami
FSU
Pitt
Syracuse
Kentucky
Cincinnati
Ohio State
Indiana
North Carolina
WVU
Tennessee
Virginia Tech

These are schools I would like to see Louisville schedule if they were to go back to Indy status for we have played most of them back in the day, and some of them not so much. I am very thankful as a fan of college football that Louisville is getting the opportunity to play most of these schools starting next year in the ACC. I hope Louisville never sees the light of day trying to fulfill a Indy schedule again for its just to hard IMO to satisfy everyones needs.

In no particular order

Conference
Syracuse - Rival
Pitt - Former BE rival
Duke - Like their hoops team
VT - Rival
Clemson - Trophy game
Miami - Former BE rival
Wake
GT

OOC
ND - Catholic rivalry
UMass/UConn - local bodybag game
Holy Cross - old rivalry/body bag game
Random Pac-12/B1G - Don't care which one it is