http://www.niuhuskies.com/sports/m-footb...14aaa.html

DeKALB, Ill. - With a nod to Lollapalooza and its line-up of music acts set to get underway in Chicago beginning this Friday, NIU Athletics will hold "Huskie Football SchedulePalooza" this week.

Beginning Tuesday (July 29th),NIU will announce one future home-and-home football series every day this week. In addition, future series will be announced as they are finalized in August. The announcements are the result of nearly a year of work by Associate Vice-President and Director of Athletics Sean T. Frazier and his staff, and may include games between 2015 and 2023.

"We have entered a new era with the evolution of the College Football Playoff, and scheduling plays an even more important role for every FBS team," Frazier said. "The opponents we will announce this week will put NIU in the best possible position to contend for a spot in the College Football Playoff while bringing name teams and quality opponents to Huskie Stadium."

In addition to the announcements, which will be made official each day on NIUHuskies.com, fans can get clues about that day's featured series every morning on the Huskies' social media platforms. Throughout the morning, at least one clue to that day's future opponent will be provided on Twitter (@NIUAthletics), Instagram (niu huskies) and Facebook (NIU Huskies).

"I'm ready for SchedulePalooza!" Frazier said. "Huskie fans have been looking forward to finding out about these future series, and this will be a great week of announcements leading up to the start of this year's football preseason camp on Saturday."

http://www.niuhuskies.com/genrel/072814aab.html

Hello Huskies!

Scheduling, scheduling, scheduling! If I had a dime for every time a Huskie fan or a member of the media has mentioned that topic to me since my arrival at NIU a year ago, there would be a lot of new shoes in the Frazier house!

That's why I'm so happy to kick off this week's "Huskie Football SchedulePalooza" with this special Frazier's Corner. Beginning tomorrow, we will be announcing one new home-and-home series every day this week (click here for the release). SchedulePalooza is more than just a catchy name. It's the result of a year of nose-to-the-grindstone work.

Throughout the past year, I kept assuring everyone that scheduling for football was foremost in my mind. That wasn't lip service. Since I arrived on campus last August, Deputy Athletics Director Christian Spears and I have met, discussed, made countless calls and worked on our future football schedules on a weekly - if not daily - basis!

Conservatively speaking, we have probably reached out to 50 different schools from every FBS league in the country. And that doesn't even count the schools I've called out on Twitter! (@SeanTFrazier)

In this new era of the College Football Playoff, when one (1) team from what has been dubbed the "Group of 5" will receive access to one of the host bowls each year, scheduling has become even more critical. We have had two primary goals in mind while putting together the series' that we will announce this week:

• Arranging home-and-home games against national programs in order to bring quality opponents to Huskie Stadium.
• Putting NIU in the best position to succeed in the new College Football Playoff system.

We want to play the best teams from our fellow Group of 5 leagues - that includes the Mountain West, the American Athletic Conference and Conference USA. Going forward, we must have a quality non-conference schedule to be attractive to the College Football Playoff Committee.

In addition to the Group of 5 opponents, we have aggressively pursued series with teams in the "Power 5" leagues. Some of those teams have taken our calls, some have not, and that's OK. I assure you, there are national names and Power 5 teams involved in this week's SchedulePalooza.

One more note - SchedulePalooza does not signal the end of our scheduling efforts. The process is ongoing. There are more contracts to be inked and dates to be filled as we move forward. As more series are finalized, you will hear about them!

Some people have used our non-conference schedule as an excuse not to buy season tickets. I believe SchedulePalooza, and future scheduling announcements, should make those excuses a thing of the past. I am excited about our direction and about Huskie Football.

Now is the time to get on board and support this program. There is no reason to wait until 2016 or 2018 or 2021 when we play ... whoever. The time is now. Commit2NIU!

See you this Friday for Movie Night and the season ticket holder appreciation at Huskie Stadium and on August 28th when we kick off the 2014 season at home versus Presbyterian. Go Huskies!

So it seems like we COULD have big home games in 16/18/21 that will be announced this week.

Excellent news!

Quote:We have entered a new era with the evolution of the College Football Playoff, and scheduling plays an even more important role for every FBS team," Frazier said. "The opponents we will announce this week will put NIU in the best possible position to contend for a spot in the College Football Playoff while bringing name teams and quality opponents to Huskie Stadium."

"Some people have used our non-conference schedule as an excuse not to buy season tickets. I believe SchedulePalooza, and future scheduling announcements, should make those excuses a thing of the past. I am excited about our direction and about Huskie Football."

Even a jab at Maddawgz02!

Great news!

I said this in the other thread, you have to save the announcing of the best opponent for last.

Thursday has to be the worst opponent.

I say tomorrow is the second best opponent just to get people excited.

Kind of telling that Frazier left out the Sun Belt in his statement.

(07-28-2014 04:30 PM)PrideinthePack Wrote:  I said this in the other thread, you have to save the announcing of the best opponent for last.

Thursday has to be the worst opponent.

I say tomorrow is the second best opponent just to get people excited.

Yep...gotta start strong.

This is amazing news!!!! So happy

Posted from my mobile device using the CSNbbs App

Agreed that Friday has to be the cream of the crop. Hope tomorrow's announcement is at least decent!

Who is the biggest "GO5" team that we as a program could play for the best OVERALL National TV/Recruiting/Home Attendance?

BYU
Boise St
USF
UCF
Houston
UC
Fresno St
SD St

Am I missing anyone?

I think any others would be in a second tier GO5 opponents specifically vs our program.

Boise no doubt and then BYU

I wonder if they save the Friday announcement for the Season ticket holder appreciation/Movie night event.

(07-28-2014 04:53 PM)HuskiePride12 Wrote:  Boise no doubt and then BYU

Boise St would be a Friday night game at their place...so MACtion level TV exposure but unless we move our game also to Friday then I doubt we get anything better than ESPNU...and that is only if Boise St is still good now that they dont have Chris Peterson.

BYU would have a bigger TV following and their fans would take over our stadium at the same level if not better than UC fans. They would also have our game on a Friday night and if we dont move ours then the best TV we could get is ESPNU.

I think between those two BYU would be better for us overall.

"It is my pleasure to announce NIU has established a home and away with the raging Idaho Vandals for the 2016-2017 season" - Sean Frazier

My guesses...

USF - Announced Tuesday
Home 2016
Away 2017

FIU - Announced Wednesday
Home 2018
Away 2019

SD St - Announced Thursday
Home 2018
Away 2019

K St - Announced Friday
Away 2020
Home 2021


Also announced is the 2019 game at Neb will be moved to TBD.

Boise and BYU for everything but recruiting. Two most notable opponents and would be solid games.

As for recruiting obviously establishing the Florida teams and the likes of smu, Houston, and the CUSA bunch of like texas state and ut San Antonio would be good. Also, I'm selfish and want as many texas opponents as possible. Preferably smu because it's 10 minutes away, and the Dallas area is now be recruited by NIU.

Call 9-1-1 MD just ____________. I do hope he bought his season tickets first.