UMass has managed to make it work, I don't see why UConn can't. Huskies are in a slightly better position football wise, and can probably offer some basketball games in return (Like do a dual sport H&H)

2021 isn't as bad as 2020, but it's not pretty.

15 FBS schools with open spots (not counting open spots that will be filled with an FCS game) Including 2 UCF spots--Civil CONNFLict lives!

Something to consider- AAC schools looking to fill their new openings contact UMass, Liberty, and New Mexico State and offer money games.

For what it's worth, SNY's president went on record at the Big East presser today as being willing to bid on UConn football if they went independent. Obviously dollar amounts weren't discussed, but knowing that they'll have a TV deal for all their home games is helpful.

(06-27-2019 03:38 PM)Bogg Wrote:  For what it's worth, SNY's president went on record at the Big East presser today as being willing to bid on UConn football if they went independent. Obviously dollar amounts weren't discussed, but knowing that they'll have a TV deal for all their home games is helpful.

I imagine UConn will get a respectable amount, certainly more so than Umass/NMSU/Liberty

Liberty has three home games UMASS, Illinois and Wagoner. They are at Indiana. So they need 8 games and probably two more home games. One of the two will likely be another FCS at home.

Liberty has two FCS games in 2020, it would be simple for them to move an FCS game for another FBS schedule game. I even think, if Liberty was willing to play at UCONN in 2020 they probably could get two future visits from UCONN. Not like the don't have money to burn.

NMSU can add another home in 2020 for going to Hawaii. So there is another deal that could be cut. UCLA also has this option. Work a Week 0 and Week 1 deal out west.

Teams needing games in 2020
FIU
ODU
UAB
Southern Miss
Coastal Carolina
ULM
ULL
VT
UCF

Getting road games is easy. What UConn most needs for 2020, if they don't just ask for a waiver, is 4 home games vs. FBS teams plus at least one other home game that could have either an FBS or FCS opponent. Their AD's starting point is finding at least 4 FBS teams to play at UConn in 2020.

(06-27-2019 07:16 PM)msm96wolf Wrote:  Liberty has three home games UMASS, Illinois and Wagoner. They are at Indiana. So they need 8 games and probably two more home games. One of the two will likely be another FCS at home.

Liberty has two FCS games in 2020, it would be simple for them to move an FCS game for another FBS schedule game. I even think, if Liberty was willing to play at UCONN in 2020 they probably could get two future visits from UCONN. Not like the don't have money to burn.

NMSU can add another home in 2020 for going to Hawaii. So there is another deal that could be cut. UCLA also has this option. Work a Week 0 and Week 1 deal out west.

Teams needing games in 2020
FIU
ODU
UAB
Southern Miss
Coastal Carolina
ULM
ULL
VT
UCF

2020 schedule with this list is doable providing the date work out. If there are holes fill in with FCS games for 1 season. New BE conference mate Villanova has openings that it can schedule around.

(06-27-2019 08:59 PM)Wedge Wrote:  Getting road games is easy. What UConn most needs for 2020, if they don't just ask for a waiver, is 4 home games vs. FBS teams plus at least one other home game that could have either an FBS or FCS opponent. Their AD's starting point is finding at least 4 FBS teams to play at UConn in 2020.

And they already have two - UMass and Indiana

(06-26-2019 12:20 PM)dbackjon Wrote:  2020 will be a challenge.

NMSU is full
Liberty is full
BYU is full

Army needs one game

Liberty is full, but they have a game @Syracuse on 10/17. They could swap that game for one @Connecticut on their open date of 10/31. In exchange, UConn could then play Syracuse in place of Liberty.

Army already has 6 home games booked, and could play their as yet unscheduled 12th game @UConn on 11/7 following their bye week on 10/31.

That would give UConn 5 home games: UMass, Maine, Indiana, Liberty and Army. Their 2 away opponents are Illinois and Syracuse.

UMass could help UConn by moving their game from 9/3 to 12/5, with a view toward making that an annual contest on Thanksgiving week. It would be easier for UConn to find an opponent for 9/3. Potentially they could find an FBS school that has two FCS opponents on their schedule and could move one of them to a year in the future.

If SEC teams are still scheduling cupcakes the week before their rivalry games with the ACC, maybe UConn could replace one of them for an all-important November date. I would also petition the NCAA to allow them to play a Zero week game in 2020 to give them better options than November to find an FBS team that still has an OOC game to schedule.

Initially 2020 seemed daunting. But these moves would give them a pretty good head start.

(06-28-2019 07:49 AM)ken d Wrote:  If SEC teams are still scheduling cupcakes the week before their rivalry games with the ACC, maybe UConn could replace one of them for an all-important November date. I would also petition the NCAA to allow them to play a Zero week game in 2020 to give them better options than November to find an FBS team that still has an OOC game to schedule.

Initially 2020 seemed daunting. But these moves would give them a pretty good head start.

If the NCAA ends up moving up the calendar and allowing two bye weeks, I think we'll see those November FCS matchups mostly go away. This year, for example, Florida and South Carolina both have bye weeks the week before rivalry week. UGA is playing TAMU. Alabama, Auburn, UK, Vandy, and Miss St do have FCS opponents though.

(06-28-2019 08:21 AM)Gamecock Wrote:  

(06-28-2019 07:49 AM)ken d Wrote:  If SEC teams are still scheduling cupcakes the week before their rivalry games with the ACC, maybe UConn could replace one of them for an all-important November date. I would also petition the NCAA to allow them to play a Zero week game in 2020 to give them better options than November to find an FBS team that still has an OOC game to schedule.

Initially 2020 seemed daunting. But these moves would give them a pretty good head start.

If the NCAA ends up moving up the calendar and allowing two bye weeks, I think we'll see those November FCS matchups mostly go away. This year, for example, Florida and South Carolina both have bye weeks the week before rivalry week. UGA is playing TAMU. Alabama, Auburn, UK, Vandy, and Miss St do have FCS opponents though.

In 2020, Florida hosts New Mexico State on 11/21. NMSU has an open date on 11/28. Florida could host UConn instead, and NMSU go travel to UConn on the 28th. Looking at which FBS schools have an open OOC date to fill in 2020, I came up with the following potential schedule for UConn.

Those three G5 away games could be the first of a home and home series with the return games giving a head start to future schedules for UConn.

8/29 @ Louisiana
9/5 @ Coastal Carolina
9/12 @ Illinois
9/19 Maine
9/26 Indiana
10/3 @ SMU
10/10 Bye
10/17 @ Syracuse
10/24 Bye
10/31 Liberty
11/7 Army
11/14 Bye
11/21 @ Florida
11/28 New Mexico State
12/5 Massachusetts

That gives them 6 home and 6 away, with only one FCS game. They would have 4 P5 opponents (1 home, 3 away), 3 G5s (all away), 4 Indies (all home) and 1 FCS (home). If they couldn't get a waiver to play Louisiana in Week Zero they could potentially move that to 10/10 or play host to a second FCS opponent.

I bet they could live with that schedule.

(06-28-2019 09:12 AM)ken d Wrote:  

(06-28-2019 08:21 AM)Gamecock Wrote:  

(06-28-2019 07:49 AM)ken d Wrote:  If SEC teams are still scheduling cupcakes the week before their rivalry games with the ACC, maybe UConn could replace one of them for an all-important November date. I would also petition the NCAA to allow them to play a Zero week game in 2020 to give them better options than November to find an FBS team that still has an OOC game to schedule.

Initially 2020 seemed daunting. But these moves would give them a pretty good head start.

If the NCAA ends up moving up the calendar and allowing two bye weeks, I think we'll see those November FCS matchups mostly go away. This year, for example, Florida and South Carolina both have bye weeks the week before rivalry week. UGA is playing TAMU. Alabama, Auburn, UK, Vandy, and Miss St do have FCS opponents though.

In 2020, Florida hosts New Mexico State on 11/21. NMSU has an open date on 11/28. Florida could host UConn instead, and NMSU go travel to UConn on the 28th. Looking at which FBS schools have an open OOC date to fill in 2020, I came up with the following potential schedule for UConn.

Those three G5 away games could be the first of a home and home series with the return games giving a head start to future schedules for UConn.

8/29 @ Louisiana
9/5 @ Coastal Carolina
9/12 @ Illinois
9/19 Maine
9/26 Indiana
10/3 @ SMU
10/10 Bye
10/17 @ Syracuse
10/24 Bye
10/31 Liberty
11/7 Army
11/14 Bye
11/21 @ Florida
11/28 New Mexico State
12/5 Massachusetts

That gives them 6 home and 6 away, with only one FCS game. They would have 4 P5 opponents (1 home, 3 away), 3 G5s (all away), 4 Indies (all home) and 1 FCS (home). If they couldn't get a waiver to play Louisiana in Week Zero they could potentially move that to 10/10 or play host to a second FCS opponent.

I bet they could live with that schedule.

Flip dates for Syracuse and Liberty. If they agree to rework their deal, with their pretty much schedule set, Liberty will need a replacement game for 10/17. The ACC schedule has not been set, so Syracuse still has flexibility.

(06-28-2019 09:12 AM)ken d Wrote:  

(06-28-2019 08:21 AM)Gamecock Wrote:  

(06-28-2019 07:49 AM)ken d Wrote:  If SEC teams are still scheduling cupcakes the week before their rivalry games with the ACC, maybe UConn could replace one of them for an all-important November date. I would also petition the NCAA to allow them to play a Zero week game in 2020 to give them better options than November to find an FBS team that still has an OOC game to schedule.

Initially 2020 seemed daunting. But these moves would give them a pretty good head start.

If the NCAA ends up moving up the calendar and allowing two bye weeks, I think we'll see those November FCS matchups mostly go away. This year, for example, Florida and South Carolina both have bye weeks the week before rivalry week. UGA is playing TAMU. Alabama, Auburn, UK, Vandy, and Miss St do have FCS opponents though.

In 2020, Florida hosts New Mexico State on 11/21. NMSU has an open date on 11/28. Florida could host UConn instead, and NMSU go travel to UConn on the 28th. Looking at which FBS schools have an open OOC date to fill in 2020, I came up with the following potential schedule for UConn.

Those three G5 away games could be the first of a home and home series with the return games giving a head start to future schedules for UConn.

8/29 @ Louisiana
9/5 @ Coastal Carolina
9/12 @ Illinois
9/19 Maine
9/26 Indiana
10/3 @ SMU
10/10 Bye
10/17 @ Syracuse
10/24 Bye
10/31 Liberty
11/7 Army
11/14 Bye
11/21 @ Florida
11/28 New Mexico State
12/5 Massachusetts

That gives them 6 home and 6 away, with only one FCS game. They would have 4 P5 opponents (1 home, 3 away), 3 G5s (all away), 4 Indies (all home) and 1 FCS (home). If they couldn't get a waiver to play Louisiana in Week Zero they could potentially move that to 10/10 or play host to a second FCS opponent.

I bet they could live with that schedule.

Yea, I'd take that today and call it a wrap on 2020 if given the option without a second thought.

(06-28-2019 12:15 PM)orangefan Wrote:  

(06-28-2019 09:12 AM)ken d Wrote:  

(06-28-2019 08:21 AM)Gamecock Wrote:  

(06-28-2019 07:49 AM)ken d Wrote:  If SEC teams are still scheduling cupcakes the week before their rivalry games with the ACC, maybe UConn could replace one of them for an all-important November date. I would also petition the NCAA to allow them to play a Zero week game in 2020 to give them better options than November to find an FBS team that still has an OOC game to schedule.

Initially 2020 seemed daunting. But these moves would give them a pretty good head start.

If the NCAA ends up moving up the calendar and allowing two bye weeks, I think we'll see those November FCS matchups mostly go away. This year, for example, Florida and South Carolina both have bye weeks the week before rivalry week. UGA is playing TAMU. Alabama, Auburn, UK, Vandy, and Miss St do have FCS opponents though.

In 2020, Florida hosts New Mexico State on 11/21. NMSU has an open date on 11/28. Florida could host UConn instead, and NMSU go travel to UConn on the 28th. Looking at which FBS schools have an open OOC date to fill in 2020, I came up with the following potential schedule for UConn.

Those three G5 away games could be the first of a home and home series with the return games giving a head start to future schedules for UConn.

8/29 @ Louisiana
9/5 @ Coastal Carolina
9/12 @ Illinois
9/19 Maine
9/26 Indiana
10/3 @ SMU
10/10 Bye
10/17 @ Syracuse
10/24 Bye
10/31 Liberty
11/7 Army
11/14 Bye
11/21 @ Florida
11/28 New Mexico State
12/5 Massachusetts

That gives them 6 home and 6 away, with only one FCS game. They would have 4 P5 opponents (1 home, 3 away), 3 G5s (all away), 4 Indies (all home) and 1 FCS (home). If they couldn't get a waiver to play Louisiana in Week Zero they could potentially move that to 10/10 or play host to a second FCS opponent.

I bet they could live with that schedule.

Flip dates for Syracuse and Liberty. If they agree to rework their deal, with their pretty much schedule set, Liberty will need a replacement game for 10/17. The ACC schedule has not been set, so Syracuse still has flexibility.

The beauty of that move is that Liberty doesn't need a replacement game. Or more precisely, UConn is the replacement, on 10/31. Liberty still has 12 games after the switch.

there are other factors one (lightly mentioned already I believe) is if the AAC adds a team then that team will have a bunch of games they need to dump and UConn can pick most of them up

also if the AAC does not add a team and they go to more conference games I would believe that it will not be as simple as it seems all the more so if the divisional requirement stays in place for the CCG and there is no waiver

you are looking at one division of teams that will need more games relative to the other, you have the unbalanced issue, and then you have to start making it work with dates already scheduled

once you have to deal with all of that I doubt that there will not be a need to ditch at least a couple of OOC games for the conference as a whole and maybe more than a couple.....those OOC teams are going to have little to no interest in trying to shift their schedules to keep the game when they already have their schedule pretty much set and especially not without some payoff even if small.....it might be easier for a couple of teams in the AAC to simply back out of an OOC game here and there and get the schedule to work for the whole conference and then fill back in

they will probably try and dump D1-AA games first because of the lower buyout and the lack of the "pissed off that D1-A team" factor, but at some point I think it might be easier to have a couple of teams call a couple of their OOC opponents and mention that UConn is available and needs games (and has been really bad recently) how would you like to play them instead of us and see what happens

(06-27-2019 11:27 AM)johnbragg Wrote:  2021 isn't as bad as 2020, but it's not pretty.

15 FBS schools with open spots (not counting open spots that will be filled with an FCS game) Including 2 UCF spots--Civil CONNFLict lives!

Using similar strategies for 2021 as I used for 2020, I came up with this potential schedule for UConn.

9/2 Holy Cross
9/11 Purdue
9/18 @ Wake Forest
9/25 Miami (FL)
10/2 @ East Carolina
10/9 @ UMass
10/16 Bye
10/23 @ New Mexico State
10/20 UMass
11/6 Army
11/13 @ Clemson
11/20 Louisiana
11/27 Bye
12/4 @ Liberty

Note I have UMass and UConn playing each other home and home. In 2021 UMass currently only has 10 games scheduled, 6 of which are home games. They could give UConn its sixth home game in this way.

I should mention that it took me less than an hour to put together each of these two schedules. That suggests to me independent scheduling might not be as hard for UConn as some might make it out to be.

(06-26-2019 01:06 PM)Cyniclone Wrote:  

(06-26-2019 01:02 PM)NotANewbie Wrote:  What hasn't been talked about is that if the AAC does not add a new member, they could still play the AAC teams that they would have played as in conference games.

Also, NMSU plays at Hawaii in 2020, so they have room to add UConn easily, as long as a date can be agreed upon.

That might be the most expedient solution of all: UConn maintains their conference schedule for 2020 as a phantom member, but it's an OOC game for all parties. That gives UConn a chance to focus on building a legitimate indy schedule or finding a conference home, and if the AAC wants a 12th team, it gives them another year to figure out their next move.

EDIT: No clue if this is doable, but you could theoretically have UConn games still count in conference standings for AAC teams while not UConn is still an independent. It may not even permissible by NCAA rules, but the AAC is going to need a waiver of some sort for that season anyway, so they might consider floating this one by to see if they bite. Not sure if UConn wants to act like an AAC football member without getting the money for it, but perhaps a reduced payment can be negotiated and if nothing else, filling a schedule with eight games spoken for beats the piss out of trying to create one from whole cloth at this late date.

I don't even see how this would work. It is not like the AAC is dropping to seven conference games. They will still play 8 conference games. There are no open slots for UConn to fill

(06-28-2019 12:33 PM)TodgeRodge Wrote:  there are other factors one (lightly mentioned already I believe) is if the AAC adds a team then that team will have a bunch of games they need to dump and UConn can pick most of them up

Only if that team is an independent. Otherwise, there are no games to dump.

(06-28-2019 02:22 PM)adcorbett Wrote:  

(06-28-2019 12:33 PM)TodgeRodge Wrote:  there are other factors one (lightly mentioned already I believe) is if the AAC adds a team then that team will have a bunch of games they need to dump and UConn can pick most of them up

Only if that team is an independent. Otherwise, there are no games to dump.

if ODU was to leave CUSA then 6 teams in their division would have a hole in their schedule

you can't (well you could, but it would be stupid) just have those teams just play each other because they are already scheduled to play each other

plus two teams in the other division would have holes in their schedule

even if you have two of the six from ODUs division play the two from the other division that still leaves four teams from ODUs division that need a game

and unless you have them play each other those games are going to come from outside the conference