(05-11-2021 03:31 PM)WRCisforgotten79 Wrote:  

(05-11-2021 01:49 PM)Ourland Wrote:  UTSA, North Texas, Texas State, ULL, Louisiana Tech, Southern Mississippi, UTEP, and Arkansas State are the schools I'd target for a new conference. U of H may feel like it's too good for us, but they've shown a willingness to schedule Rice consistently nonetheless. The FCS schools like HBU, Lamar, and TSU will always be ready and willing to play us whenever we want, so they make perfect local opponents to fill out a schedule, and they have enough fans to help both schools make money. In football, I'd schedule two local powerhouses every season, like Texas, LSU, or Oklahoma. We have relations with them. They'd put us on their schedule.

Seriously?
Texas
In the past 8 full seasons (2012-19), Texas has played Rice only twice. Going forward, Rice and Texas have just 2 games scheduled (2021, 2023), with both games in Austin.
LSU
Although we were unlucky to miss the LSU game at NRG this past season, they are on the future schedule just once (2024), in Baton Rouge.
Oklahoma
From 1980-present (40 full seasons), Rice has played Oklahoma just once (2000).
Going forward, there are no home (NRG) games on the schedule that would draw the crowds that those schools would. The only ones with marginal interest are:
2024 - Army
2025 - BYU
2026 - Army
2027 - Boise State
2029 - Northwestern

My understanding is that we have been ducking them at the request of our coaches, in particularly David when he was here.

If I were AD, I'd tell the football coach, "Look, you came up with a list of things you wanted that amounts to a one-time investment of $1 million, and thereafter about $1 million/year. Those are all reasonable requests, but the only way to pay for them is to play moneybag games."