Imagine, if you will, you have been hired as your school's AD. You are allowed to fill out the schedule as you wish. Regardless of conference or any other restrictions. What would your 12 game (13 if you are playing Hawaii) look like?

Army

Fordham (New York City connections)
Syracuse (Regional)
UCONN (Regional)
Boston College (Regional, among most played opponents)
Eastern Michigan (Easy win)
Rotating Sun Belt team (Recruiting)
Hawaii (Reward for the players)
SMU (Recruiting for the Southwest)
Rutgers (Big 10 team, plus they are among our most played opponents)
Kansas (Big 12 and easier team to beat)
Notre Dame (Historic)
Air Force (Honeyman told us we are rivals)
Navy (Supposedly, intelligence is telling us we are rivals.)

Just missed the cut:

PSU. (I grew up near PSU, so Army playing PSU would have been awesome for me.)
Tulane (Might be rotated with Vandy)
Vandy
Northwestern
Temple
VMI
The Citadel
Wake Forest
UTSA

Never Happening:

Yale. Just Yale.
Harvard (The Ivies choose to leave big time football.)
SEC teams outside of Vanderbilt. (You know why)


It was slightly difficult to make a dream schedule for Army without a pre-set template. Unlike many migrants or teams who no longer play old time rivals, we simply don't have a history with many teams. A glance at our most played opponents reveals this: (Not in order)

Navy
Air Force
Boston College
Colgate
Harvard
Notre Dame
Rutgers
Penn State
Yale
Pittsburgh

There are some reasons for this. Army's independence has meant we have never consistently been forced or required to play teams yearly. Second, Army in the early days of college football would recruit 4 year veterans at other schools for football. Thus, some players would play 7 years of CFB. Daly (Harvard), Cagle (Southwestern Louisiana), Oliphant (Purdue), Light Horse Wilson (Penn State) and the praying guard in my signature (Washington & Jefferson) were all stars at their first schools before joining the Cadets. While this practice led to great success for the Academy, other schools grew tired of the routine and refused to play Army. In fact, even Navy discontinued playing us in the late 1920's because of it. Navy also got FDR to place/support a ban on our methods. (Any other reason outside of failed policies, I dislike FDR) So if any of the AAC teams would like to send us your seniors, it would be much appreciated.

This lack of historical ties has given me greater freedom and imagination in designing a schedule. I am not required to listen or obey the anguished cries of ghosts. It also shows you how barren our schedule feels outside of Navy and Air Force. Most of the teams outside the top played opponents are Ivy League schools or Colgate or Tuffs. Our schedule really needs Notre Dame back. Rockne would be upset that the rivalry was allowed to evaporate.

Congratulations on 1000. This is 441 for me.

ECU...easy.

NC State (In State)
UNC (In State)
Va Tech (Play them often - 18x and Regional)
Navy (Regional)
Army (8-0 )
UCF (Recruiting / Rival blah blah blah)
Southern Miss (Most Played Team 38x, Miss them)
West Virginia (Play them often - 21x and Regional)
Memphis (Play them often - 21x and we beat them often )
South Carolina (Regional)
Cincinnati (Rival / Play them often)

12th Game Rotation Between
Duke
Wake
a school from Texas like SMU or Houston
a school from the west coast like Boise, BYU, Washington, UCLA, Cal, Arizona, ASU

Florida
Georgia
South Carolina
Missouri
Kentucky
Tennessee
Vanderbilt
Auburn
NC State OOC
West Virginia OOC
Virginia Tech OOC
Clemson OOC

(02-21-2015 05:40 PM)Danger in Carolina Wrote:  Congratulations on 1000. This is 441 for me.

ECU...easy.

NC State (In State)
UNC (In State)
Va Tech (Play them often - 18x and Regional)
Navy (Regional)
Army (8-0 )
UCF (Recruiting / Rival blah blah blah)
Southern Miss (Most Played Team 38x, Miss them)
West Virginia (Play them often - 21x and Regional)
Memphis (Play them often - 21x and we beat them often )
South Carolina (Regional)
Cincinnati (Rival / Play them often)

12th Game Rotation Between
Duke
Wake
a school from Texas like SMU or Houston
a school from the west coast like Boise, BYU, Washington, UCLA, Cal, Arizona, ASU

Thank you!

Eventually, we will beat ECU, besides we have the Heisman Trophies and National Championships.

That is a good schedule. A nice balance of regional and variety, unfortunately the relevant demise of the independent has killed those schedules.

I'm looking forward to my 7,000th post, but that's going to take me another three years or so. I don't post on NCAAbbs nearly as often as I once did.

(02-21-2015 06:09 PM)ECUPirated Wrote:  Florida
Georgia
South Carolina
Missouri
Kentucky
Tennessee
Vanderbilt
Auburn
NC State OOC
West Virginia OOC
Virginia Tech OOC
Clemson OOC

SEC bound?