(03-20-2017 12:39 PM)OKIcat Wrote:  I agree with much of your analysis, however football independence just isn't viable except for programs with a national following (ND, BYU, service academies maybe). Scheduling becomes nearly impossible and this would be the death knell for UCONN football. Maybe they prefer that; who knows.

This gets tossed around a lot, but I'm not totally convinced that it's true. UMass and Liberty would sign up for annual series yesterday, and you should be able to get something on a recurring basis with Army too (maybe at Yankee Stadium in November every year - they did that a few years ago and it worked really well). If you could get a two-home, two-away scheduling arrangement with any one of the MAC/SBC/CUSA those seven plus your FCS game gives you a reliable 8 games every year and then you're just scheduling four "OOC" games every year, which isn't that much different than what you're doing now. Hell, maybe BYU agrees to an annual series in November that alternates between Provo and one of the NYC baseball stadiums just to get the New York games. Four CUSA teams, Army/UMass/Liberty/BYU, an FCS opponent, and three low-level P5 opponents is doable.