A Sea Of Red

Looking at 24,25,26 schedules and bumping LU schedule up a notch - MD has openings. Drop the FCS and doing a 1-2 ( even if one of the road games gets bumped out ) might make sense with MD. - recruiting that area isn’t shabby for us. In coming years If we feel like not having an FCS opponent and since ODU is cash poor - no problem doing consistent 2-1 with them and giving them extra $ , simply for consistent footprint in that area code. BC regular series home and home and giving up more $ just makes a lot of sense to me - like a 10 year deal and making it a rivalry game. Not so much for recruiting - just the private religious school angle. - our “ND “if you will....UCONN might fill that non P5 regular game from their viewpoint however - but I would love to see us angle for it.

BC wants to schedule wins. MD has been on a downslope lately. How does either explain a loss to Liberty?

I get wanting to recruit the DMV. But don’t you think MD sees that! Why should MD allow us the opportunity for that foothold? Why let another recruiting competitor into your territory?

The 2025 and 2026 schedules need to be filled out. 2026 greatly concerns me and I hope McCaw is listening. We finish like this..

James Madison
at UMass
OPEN DATE - need a game
New Mexico State
Army

If we schedule UCONN or some weak team, we could end up with 4 or even 5 bad games to end the season. That Nov 14th game needs to be a tough opponent or it could be a dreadful, boring stretch to end the season.

As far as 2025, 2026, 2027...here are some teams with the most open schedules:

AAC - SMU, Memphis, UCF
Big 12 - TCU, Oklahoma State
ACC - Pittsburgh, Miami, Florida State
Big 10 - Northwestern, Rutgers
SEC - LSU, Tennessee
Mountain West - Nevada, Utah State
PAC 12 - Washington State, Stanford
Conference USA - UAB
Sun Belt - App. State
Independent - BYU

November 8th needs to be a tough game in 2025. You can't have UMass, another weak team, followed by UConn.

One other thing. I can't stand when we schedule UConn, UMass, and New Mexico State in the same year. Two should be the maximum. And yes, get rid of the FCS game if we stay Independent. We cannot afford it if we want a shot at the playoff.

I’m still in the camp that say LU/BYU needs to happen every year. It has so much upside for both universities it’s crazy not to

At Jerry's world in Dallas!!!????

Purple Haize wrote: ↑July 17th, 2021, 7:11 am I’m still in the camp that say LU/BYU needs to happen every year. It has so much upside for both universities it’s crazy not to

As long as we're independent I would love this. I would rather it not be at a neutral site every year though. We could use a big home game every other year.

Ill flame wrote: ↑July 17th, 2021, 10:12 am

Purple Haize wrote: ↑July 17th, 2021, 7:11 am I’m still in the camp that say LU/BYU needs to happen every year. It has so much upside for both universities it’s crazy not to

As long as we're independent I would love this. I would rather it not be at a neutral site every year though. We could use a big home game every other year.

I would pitch to them we annually play Friday night the weekend all P5 teams are playing Conference Championship games. There are some issues with that plan ( such as a small tier Bowl Game might be less than a week later ) but that game would have a lot of eyeballs on it.

Th eobvious reason why we and nearly other indy has not booked up '25 moving forward is because of potential realignment as the Grant of Rights and media contracts roll over in '23 & '24. Why book up contracts that potentially would have to be broken. I am not sweating those schedules yet.

Sly Fox wrote: ↑July 17th, 2021, 10:54 am Th eobvious reason why we and nearly other indy has not booked up '25 moving forward is because of potential realignment as the Grant of Rights and media contracts roll over in '23 & '24. Why book up contracts that potentially would have to be broken. I am not sweating those schedules yet.

Fair point. I will only panic if McCaw fills those two 2025 and 2026 slots with weak teams.

McCaw implied with his interview with Damian this week that those schedules were done. I'd assume what Sly has said is the reason we and our opponents haven't announced them yet.

Purple Haize wrote: ↑July 17th, 2021, 7:11 am I’m still in the camp that say LU/BYU needs to happen every year. It has so much upside for both universities it’s crazy not to

We should be trying to schedule BYU in every sport possible, even Quiz Bowl. But football and MBB should definitely make it a priority to schedule them. Heck, I still think it was mistake not to bail them and UVA out last year with a game.

Ill flame wrote: ↑July 17th, 2021, 10:12 am

Purple Haize wrote: ↑July 17th, 2021, 7:11 am I’m still in the camp that say LU/BYU needs to happen every year. It has so much upside for both universities it’s crazy not to

As long as we're independent I would love this. I would rather it not be at a neutral site every year though. We could use a big home game every other year.

I say play them regardless The incredible upside is the same regardless of affiliation.
And no @thepostman not at Jerry World. Unless they are gonna rename Williams Stadium that!

Another reason to get rid of the FCS game is if we want a TV contract with ESPN or CBS to show all our homes games (Like BYU, Army), Campbell or North Alabama is not exactly attractive to them.

Sounds like our ESPN contract has changed/improved some, according to McCaw's interview with Damian last week. I guess we'll hear something in the next couple of weeks.

LUOrange wrote: ↑July 19th, 2021, 3:43 pm Sounds like our ESPN contract has changed/improved some, according to McCaw's interview with Damian last week. I guess we'll hear something in the next couple of weeks.

I'm curious how much it could've improved considering we aren't much of a draw yet based on the tv ratings we got last year.

Purple Haize wrote: ↑July 17th, 2021, 2:56 pm

Ill flame wrote: ↑July 17th, 2021, 10:12 am

Purple Haize wrote: ↑July 17th, 2021, 7:11 am I’m still in the camp that say LU/BYU needs to happen every year. It has so much upside for both universities it’s crazy not to

As long as we're independent I would love this. I would rather it not be at a neutral site every year though. We could use a big home game every other year.

I say play them regardless The incredible upside is the same regardless of affiliation.
And no @thepostman not at Jerry World. Unless they are gonna rename Williams Stadium that!

Just for you PH I floated BYU Liberty in Dallas week of Conference Champ games on their board. Initial responses were a hard no until my logic seeped in...and the last few responses are for it..

https://www.cougarboard.com/board/messa ... d=26497556

It’s not a bad idea for a couple years. Still hard to predict if both teams will be good enough for it to actually draw a crowd or watchers on a level interesting to TV. Maybe.

Why not just do a late-season home-home?

Ill flame wrote: ↑July 19th, 2021, 11:03 pm

LUOrange wrote: ↑July 19th, 2021, 3:43 pm Sounds like our ESPN contract has changed/improved some, according to McCaw's interview with Damian last week. I guess we'll hear something in the next couple of weeks.

I'm curious how much it could've improved considering we aren't much of a draw yet based on the tv ratings we got last year.

I’m curious too. Was the statement made regarding football specifically? Or all sports?

JK37 wrote: ↑July 20th, 2021, 12:18 pm It’s not a bad idea for a couple years. Still hard to predict if both teams will be good enough for it to actually draw a crowd or watchers on a level interesting to TV. Maybe.

Why not just do a late-season home-home?

Home & home is preferable for LU but again I don’t see BYU committing to that annually. So, what is next best that both teams can max out benefit, exposure and recruiting DFW annually and be part of Championship weekend when Playoff Committee is watching every game - some years “meaningless” other years “huge” for a playoff spot, but even off years it has recruiting, tradition and rivalry aspects for LU.

tyndal23 wrote: ↑July 20th, 2021, 12:52 pm

JK37 wrote: ↑July 20th, 2021, 12:18 pm It’s not a bad idea for a couple years. Still hard to predict if both teams will be good enough for it to actually draw a crowd or watchers on a level interesting to TV. Maybe.

Why not just do a late-season home-home?

Home & home is preferable for LU but again I don’t see BYU committing to that annually. So, what is next best that both teams can max out benefit, exposure and recruiting DFW annually and be part of Championship weekend when Playoff Committee is watching every game - some years “meaningless” other years “huge” for a playoff spot, but even off years it has recruiting, tradition and rivalry aspects for LU.

And If too many empty seats is that big of a concern concern - Play it at TCU - i am sure they wouldn’t mind leasing it out.

I think playing a home and home with BYU 6 out of 10 years is reasonable. They may not want it every single season but this is a game that should be played the majority of the time.

@tyndal23 now whose being short-sighted? Why doesn’t BYU want it annually? They’re in the same indy boat as we are. If we’re calling ourselves equal to them, why couldn’t we insist on an annual game, and it being home-home.

Both teams can still recruit DFW all they want. We are overstating the impact of a game played there on recruiting.

JK37 wrote: ↑July 20th, 2021, 4:13 pm @tyndal23 now whose being short-sighted? Why doesn’t BYU want it annually? They’re in the same indy boat as we are. If we’re calling ourselves equal to them, why couldn’t we insist on an annual game, and it being home-home.

Both teams can still recruit DFW all they want. We are overstating the impact of a game played there on recruiting.

Well according to their fans, they want no part of home and home - but maybe their AD doesn’t mind it. They rarely play any Independents - they are past the need for them to fill their schedule - none this year and only LU in 22. We will see soon enough when our next game is scheduled. They don’t have their future schedules completed too far out like some schools. Maybe Ian has something cooking with them.

I wouldn't care if we played BYU (or anyone else for that matter) in the DFW (or any neutral site) as long as it's THEIR homegame. We're not in a position to lose home games for a neutral site. And to be honest, unless it's a Bowl or playoff game, I think neutral site games are stupid and they screw your fanbase out of home games.

Imo regular season neutral site games should only be reserved for regional rivalry games played at a pro stadium between the two schools.

Texas v Oklahoma @ Dallas
Army v Navy @ Philadelphia
Illinois v Missouri @ St Louis
Colorado v Colorado st @ Denver
Georgia v Florida @ Jacksonville

Having each team travel almost a thousand miles for a regular season game just doesn't make sense to me.