As the thread title suggests, this is just an idea, not something I think will happen. But hey, what are message boards for?

With the ranks of independents going up to six starting next year (ND, Army, BYU, UMass, NMSU, and Liberty), it seems that survival at least as a G5 independent is more possible than it may have been a few years ago. Independents can, at least in part, schedule each other in late October through November.

With that in mind, I think that most schools' best interests are to be in a conference. For G5 schools, there's at least access to CFP revenue and the chance at the access bowl. Conferences provide a schedule and a layer of security. But Independence provides... freedom to schedule how you want, as best as you can. For Rice, who arguably has endured the worst downside in conference affiliation over the past 20+ years (70+ years in the SWC to the mega-WAC to a badly weakened WAC to C-USA 2.0 to a C-USA with no historic rivals at all), independence could have some merit.

Rice is now the only private school in a 14 team league. They know the SWC will never get back together, but they like playing old SWC foes out of conference. They also like playing other elite academic schools, like Stanford this year.

I can imagine Rice alumni being much happier with a 12 game slate featuring a mix of former SWC teams, other independents, other private schools, and other schools from Texas and surrounding states.

I don't think it would be as hard for Rice as it would be for most G5 schools to find 10 schools a year (plus one FCS and one payday game) who would be willing to do home-and-home series with Rice.

An ideal Rice independent schedule would have a few from each of these:
- 8 former SWC schools
- Independents
- Elite private schools/military academies: Duke, Wake Forest, Boston College, Northwestern, Stanford, Vanderbilt, Tulane, Tulsa, Navy, Air Force
- Other schools in Texas: UTEP, North Texas, UTSA, Texas State
- FCS game
- Payday game against an Ohio State or other big spender
- A few others from across the country to fill it out

Rice obviously would need to join the Missouri Valley, Horizon, WAC, or some other league for Olympic sports.

I'm curious if anyone thinks this could make sense or if I'm just wacky.

Hope all of you affected by Harvey and Irma are safe and recovering well.