(09-09-2015 10:20 AM)pilot172000 Wrote:  

(09-09-2015 10:06 AM)Greenroom Wrote:  

(09-09-2015 09:58 AM)pilot172000 Wrote:  I think not playing MWC teams has hurt us. We are just as competitive as them and need more OOC games with them to prove it.

Well UTSA plays Colorado State this year.. I think in three weeks. So lets hope UTSA and CUSA can get the W.

I hope you kick their teeth in!

UTSA's scheduling has been money. After this year we start settling into a nice

FCS, B12, Pac12, MW rotation.

Add the occasional SEC body bag game (Texas A&M 2016/19) to pay the bills and boom.

(09-09-2015 01:25 PM)SApuro Wrote:  

(09-09-2015 10:20 AM)pilot172000 Wrote:  

(09-09-2015 10:06 AM)Greenroom Wrote:  

(09-09-2015 09:58 AM)pilot172000 Wrote:  I think not playing MWC teams has hurt us. We are just as competitive as them and need more OOC games with them to prove it.

Well UTSA plays Colorado State this year.. I think in three weeks. So lets hope UTSA and CUSA can get the W.

I hope you kick their teeth in!

UTSA's scheduling has been money. After this year we start settling into a nice

FCS, B12, Pac12, MW rotation.

Add the occasional SEC body bag game (Texas A&M 2016/19) to pay the bills and boom.

Welcome to G5 football where successful scheduling equals success all around.

Unless you are winning 5 or more conference games each year your ooc schedule needs to have a sure win, another where you are given the points, one 40-60 or 50-50 and one game that pays the bills and if you win...you move the needle

While USTA has a very good OOC schedule...my opinion it's not good for wins. In the end getting wins become more important than the name of the team you are playing.

(09-09-2015 01:36 PM)WKUYG Wrote:  Unless you are winning 5 or more conference games each year your ooc schedule needs to have a sure win, another where you are given the points, one 40-60 or 50-50 and one game that pays the bills and if you win...you move the needle

While USTA has a very good OOC schedule...my opinion it's not good for wins. In the end getting wins become more important than the name of the team you are playing.

UTSA is about to get put on the map after we beat Kansas St.

I'm a fan of playing big schools as long as you have a punchers chance.

Temple caught Penn St. on a down year...Rice is about to do the same to Texas.

Now ask me again how I feel about tough OOC schedules if we're 0-4 and headed to El Paso.

The formula that works best form us is this:

1. G5 game (Sunbelt, MAC, AAC MWC)
2. Local FCS school that could bring a few fans into Ruston (Southern, Northwestern, Southeastern)
3. Money game against a Upper P5 (Only these teams will pay the big money to play us)
4. Lower Tier P5 (WE have won these games against UVA, ILL, Ole Piss but stumbled against KU and Miss State)

That gives you a 2 winnable, 1 marginal and 1 unwinnable. If you are good you end up with 3 wins OOC and a shot at a decent season. 2 Wins will put you still in the hunt with 4 conference wins.

(09-09-2015 01:25 PM)SApuro Wrote:  UTSA's scheduling has been money. After this year we start settling into a nice
FCS, B12, Pac12, MW rotation.
Add the occasional SEC body bag game (Texas A&M 2016/19) to pay the bills and boom.

We had TAMU beat a few years ago at their place....needless to say they bought out the return trip.

Instead of linking I will just copy and paste a article on Western's scheduling..from our AD and how Western wants...a pay check but sometimes that comes with a very winnable game.


By ZACH GREENWELL zgreenwell@bgdailynews.com

Western Kentucky's current nonconference football scheduling strategy was born out of a bad experience lobbying for a bowl game in 2011.

The Hilltoppers went 7-5 that season under Willie Taggart, won seven of their last eight games and got nothing to show for it.

"We called all these bowls, and there was just no interest," WKU athletic director Todd Stewart said.

Stewart was the athletic department's No. 2 official at the time under AD Ross Bjork, and Stewart said he remembers being in Bjork's office while the latter placed a call to the Military Bowl.

WKU "tried to buy our way" into the Military Bowl by offering to purchase far more seats than the program could realistically sell, Stewart said.

The school offered to buy $10,000 tickets at $50 each – a $500,000 upfront investment before selling some of those tickets back. That effort was still futile, and the bowl chose Toledo to face Air Force.

"I felt terrible for our players and our coaches," Stewart said. "Then you think about, 'What can we do so this doesn't happen anymore?' "

When Stewart became athletic director in 2012, the first part of raising WKU's football profile was the move to Conference USA.

The next mission was to make the program more appealing to bowls and potential fans with better nonconference results. WKU went 7-1 in Sun Belt Conference play in 2011, but 0-4 in nonconference games. Another problem for WKU in the 2011 bowl scene was bowls couldn't project how the program's fans would travel, Stewart said.

"I think it was obvious that we really had to look at our nonconference scheduling strategy," he said. "We had to grow our football program, but we also had to grow our fan base. What we've tried to do is be smart, but have a good, reasonable nonconference schedule with games that fans can go to."

So began a concerted effort to schedule regional nonconference opponents, including many from the Power 5 conferences.

One of those series began Thursday night, as WKU knocked off SEC opponent Vanderbilt 14-12 in Nashville.

It was the program's first win against an SEC foe other than Kentucky. The Tops are 3-1 in their last four outings against the league, with the win over Vandy and two over the Wildcats.

The difference in Thursday night's victory was that WKU was a 2 1/2-point favorite on the road entering the game.

"I'm a glass half full person," Stewart said. "I'm optimistic. I always believe. But back in 2010, if you'd have told me five years from now we'd be playing an SEC team on the road and be favored, I would not have believed that."

Thursday started a three-game series for WKU with Vanderbilt. The Commodores will be the first SEC team to ever visit Bowling Green in 2016 and will then host the Tops for a guaranteed money game in 2017 worth $750,000 for WKU, according to a source.

Vanderbilt athletic director David Williams told the Tennessean last week that scheduling WKU is "something we should do," and that "if I was at Western Kentucky or (Middle Tennessee), I would want Vanderbilt to agree to play us some time."

The Commodores knew what they were getting into with the series: A high-quality opponent with the potential for regional interest.

It's the same reason WKU played five games against Kentucky from 2008-13, winning the final two. It's also the reason the Tops have Indiana, Illinois, Miami (Ohio) and Ball State on current and future schedules.
"Playing the games presents an opportunity, and then to capitalize on the opportunity is just a huge step forward for us," Stewart said.

WKU's infancy at the Football Bowl Subdivision level still requires some flexibility with scheduling, Stewart said.

The Hilltoppers have just five home games and one home nonconference game this year, because moving pieces required it be that way to start the series with Vanderbilt.

But Stewart said the 2016 and '17 slates are the "perfect way" to set up his ideal schedule.
WKU must play a guaranteed money game each season "from a budget standpoint," Stewart said.
In 2016, that will be a trip to Alabama worth $1.3 million, according to a source. In 2017, it'll be a trip to Illinois worth $925,000 – the second of two games in Champaign, Ill., packaged for $1.8 million.

WKU will get $975,000 for a trip to LSU this season. In 2019, it'll get $1 million for a visit to Indiana, starting a three-game series that concludes with a WKU home game in 2021.

The ideal situation is to balance those financially motivated challenges by hosting an FCS-level team each season. WKU welcomes Houston Baptist in 2016 and Eastern Kentucky in 2017.

The remaining vacancies are prime for the regional foes. Of course, that plan only works if WKU is competitive with and beats some of the opponents, which was a major issue until the first win over Kentucky in 2012.

Before that, including the bowl debacle of 2011, Stewart said it was like just stepping into an airplane.
"For three years, we really couldn't get off the runway," he said.

WKU "got off the ground a bit" by beating Kentucky twice, said Stewart, who thinks the Tops have continued to elevate since.

He said WKU had an identity in men's basketball outside the region in 2011, but that the football team was virtually unknown outside of southcentral Kentucky.

That's why those early phone calls to potential bowls – desperate enough to shoulder a heavier financial burden – weren't well-received.

Defeating Kentucky and Vanderbilt, winning last year at No. 19 Marshall, making two bowl games and claiming the Bahamas Bowl last year have since changed that.

"I think those games are giving us an identity outside of our region, and that's good, because that's what we need to do to build the program," Stewart said.

You really shouldn't copy/paste a whole article. CSNBBS can get into copyright trouble that way.

(09-09-2015 11:42 AM)pilot172000 Wrote:  I think we have been scheduling solid games but I never see SMU or UH coming back to Ruston.

We did a recent h/h with Arkansas State

(09-09-2015 02:48 PM)mturn017 Wrote:  You really shouldn't copy/paste a whole article. CSNBBS can get into copyright trouble that way.

Since I received the whole article that I copied and paste in a email from Western...without the link. I think it's OK for me to paste it without breaking laws

(09-09-2015 08:14 AM)MUHERD76 Wrote:  Here are the G5 rankings after week 1 per the Orlando Sentinal.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/sports/co...-post.html

1. MWC...10-2 overall.
2. CUSA...8-4 overall.
3. American...9-3 overall.
4. MAC...5-6 overall.
5. Sunbelt...2-9 overall

All G5 conferences picking up where they left off. We have work to do if we hope to catch the MWC.

Hopefully we can continue this trend.

No hopefully we can move past MWC..not continue the trend.

CUSA has some very winnable games vs P5 school in the next couple weeks..we need to beat those bottom feeders

(09-09-2015 03:09 PM)WKUYG Wrote:  No hopefully we can move past MWC..not continue the trend.

CUSA has some very winnable games vs P5 school in the next couple weeks..we need to beat those bottom feeders

I wouldnt call them P5's bottom feeders but I totally agree we need to get some wins out of those. Texas and K-State both get good athletes. As does Indiana.

Challenging week.

MWC plays at Utah, Ohio St, Ole Miss, Cal and BYU while hosting UCLA, Arizona & Minnesota.

CUSA plays at Texas Tech, Alabama, Texas, Indiana while hosting Kansas St & Miami.

American plays at Florida State, Louisville, Georgia Tech, Florida, Stanford & Kansas.

(09-09-2015 04:28 PM)CougarRed Wrote:  Challenging week.

MWC plays at Utah, Ohio St, Ole Miss, Cal and BYU while hosting UCLA, Arizona & Minnesota.

CUSA plays at Texas Tech, Alabama, Texas, Indiana while hosting Kansas St & Miami.

American plays at Florida State, Louisville, Georgia Tech, Florida, Stanford & Kansas.

Kansas hahaha

We need three wins this weekend, meaning two upsets if we want to keep our momentum

(09-09-2015 10:19 AM)pilot172000 Wrote:  I wish like hell we had SMU, UH, Fresno and Nevada on our schedules the next couple of years. Beating MAC and Sunbelt teams aren't going to push us past the MWC.

Great post. I really miss hatin on Fresno St. That was a very good rivalry for LA Tech.