[BJWilliams]

I actually was inspired by the folks over at Coastalfans (shoutouts to bodoyle, Randy and the other Chants who come over here from time to time) for this one, but give it some thought

Imagine youre the AD. You are the one who makes the calls to other ADs and works out schedules, and you have 6 games to schedule for football (with Kennesaw State moving into the conference in 2015 of course). If you could schedule any 6 teams in the non-conference for Liberty (3 home 3 away), who would be on your Rolodex to make a game happen? As you think about that, here are a few qualifiers

1) Division I-AA/FCS only (Obviously we don't want any D2 or lower teams on the schedule)
2) No geographic restrictions (I know a lot of times schools schedule in areas they tend to recruit heavily and have good alumni presence...take those sorts of things out of the equation)

For me here is who I would have in my pool of numbers:

Cal Poly
Eastern Washington
UC Davis
Weber State
Southern Utah
Northern Colorado
Northern Arizona
Abilene Christian
Incarnate Word
Sam Houston State
Southern Illinois
Illinois State
Missouri State
Bethune-Cookman
North Carolina A&T
Towson
Delaware
Villanova
Fordham
Lehigh
New Hampshire

[jbock13]

Montreat

[BJWilliams]

Montreat

1) I don't think they offer football
2) Either your reading comprehension skills are severely lacking or you are just being stupid on purpose because I clearly said:

Division I-AA/FCS only (Obviously we don't want any D2 or lower teams on the schedule

[bluejacket]

I know a lot of times schools schedule in areas they tend to recruit heavily and have good alumni presence...take those sorts of things out of the equation

Recruiting and alumni are important things to consider, so I will admit that this played a role in formulating my hypothetical scenario.

Abilene Christian
Albany
Austin Peay
Bethune-Cookman
Bucknell
Cal Poly
Chattanooga
The Citadel
Colgate
Delaware
Eastern Illinois
Eastern Kentucky
Eastern Washington
Elon
FAMU
Fordham
Furman
Hampton
Holy Cross
Houston Baptist
Jacksonville State
James Madison
Lafayette
Lamar
Lehigh
Maine
McNeese St.
Mercer
Morgan St.
Montana
Montana St.
New Hampshire
Norfolk St.
North Carolina A&T
North Carolina Central
North Dakota St.
Northern Iowa
Northwestern St.
Portland St.
Richmond
Sam Houston St.
Samford
South Carolina St.
South Dakota St.
Southern Illinois
Stephen F. Austin
Stony Brook
Tennessee St.
Towson
Villanova
VMI
Western Carolina
William & Mary
Wofford
Youngstown St.

[BJWilliams]

That's a pretty deep pool bluejacket.

Here is an example group for both a 11 game and a 12 game schedule

11 game

@ Cal Poly
Vs. Towson
@Jacksonville State
Vs. Mercer
Vs. Eastern Kentucky

12 game

Vs. William & Mary
@ Sam Houston State
Vs. Southern Illinois
@ Weber State
Vs. Tennessee State
@ Furman

[bluejacket]

You have to have a deep pool if you want flexibility for scheduling purposes and in order to maximize the benefits for yourselves.

Any particular reason for liking Weber St.? You mentioned them in two of your posts.

[BJWilliams]

For me it was a combination of:

1) winnable game. This is a game that we can pick up a solid win outside of our usual footprint (Utah) and maybe get us some inroads in an area that is more in another conference's footprint which leads to...
2) conference RPI upgrade. The Big Sky is one of the top conferences in FCS. We already have Montana coming to Williams next year, but I think the Wildcats would work as well because we would get a solid win to boost our RPI because of the quality of the Big Sky over the Big South.
3) new recruiting ground. I think the western states are an untapped resource for talent. With us taking so many recruiting losses in places like Florida and Texas, we could do well getting games out west and tapping into areas like Utah and Colorado and even Washington and Nevada.

[-army56mike-]

Mine is all based on 5 things: 1) Hot Recruiting Areas, 2) Larger Markets, 3) National Presence, 4) Regional Dominance, 5) Playing close to where I can go see a game.

2015
@ Florida A&M
@ EKU
@ Houston Baptist
Villanova
Norfolk St.
Cal Poly
2016
@ Sacramento St.
@ Stetson
@ Incarnate Word
Robert Morris
Hampton
Tennessee St.
2017
@ Villanova
@ Norfolk St.
@ Cal Poly
Florida A&M
EKU
Houston Baptist
2018
@ Robert Morris
@ Hampton
@ Tennessee St.
Sacramento St.
Stetson
Incarnate Word


KY & TN
Morehead St., EKU, Murray St., Austin Peay, Tennessee St., Chattanooga
PA & OH
Youngstown St., Dayton, Robert Morris, Villanova, Lehigh
VA & DC
G'town, Howard, Hampton, Norfolk St., W&M, Richmond, JMU
NY
Columbia, Fordham
FL
Bethune-Cookman, Florida A&M, Jacksonville, Stetson, Florida Gulf Coast
TX
Sam Houston St., Abilene Christian, Houston Baptist, Incarnate Word
CA
Cal Poly, Sacramento St., San Diego
The South
Southern U., Mercer, McNeese St., Alabama St., Alabama A&M, Jacksonville St., Samford, NC A&T, W. Carolina

[BJWilliams]

Mine is all based on 5 things: 1) Hot Recruiting Areas, 2) Larger Markets, 3) National Presence, 4) Regional Dominance, 5) Playing close to where I can go see a game.

2015
@ Florida A&M
@ EKU
@ Houston Baptist
Villanova
Norfolk St.
Cal Poly
2016
@ Sacramento St.
@ Stetson
@ Incarnate Word
Robert Morris
Hampton
Tennessee St.
2017
@ Villanova
@ Norfolk St.
@ Cal Poly
Florida A&M
EKU
Houston Baptist
2018
@ Robert Morris
@ Hampton
@ Tennessee St.
Sacramento St.
Stetson
Incarnate Word


KY & TN
Morehead St., EKU, Murray St., Austin Peay, Tennessee St., Chattanooga
PA & OH
Youngstown St., Dayton, Robert Morris, Villanova, Lehigh
VA & DC
G'town, Howard, Hampton, Norfolk St., W&M, Richmond, JMU
NY
Columbia, Fordham
FL
Bethune-Cookman, Florida A&M, Jacksonville, Stetson, Florida Gulf Coast
TX
Sam Houston St., Abilene Christian, Houston Baptist, Incarnate Word
CA
Cal Poly, Sacramento St., San Diego
The South
Southern U., Mercer, McNeese St., Alabama St., Alabama A&M, Jacksonville St., Samford, NC A&T, W. Carolina

That's a good pool Mike...bear in mind though, that there will be years we only have 11 games and with the Big South getting a sixth conference game in 2015, we will only have 5 games we can schedule in the non-conference

[PAmedic]

PENN STATE
RUTGERS
VILLANOVA
LEHIGH
LAFAYETTE
PENN STATE
PENN STATE

(I traded Presby and CSU to get to the right number BEEJAY)

[olldflame]

The Coz is not happy with your list Medic.

[BJWilliams]

You do know you have Penn State listed three times right shorty? I would trade Delaware for one of them, Towson for one of them and then switch out Rutgers and replace them with say CCSU (although your Pennsylvania passion is properly appreciated)

[thepostman]

I doubt he noticed beej and I am sure that he will be forever greatful that you pointed it out.

[PAmedic]

The Coz is not happy with your list Medic.

yeah temple fb blows

i dont think i could sit thru that

when Al Golden was there they were on the right track tho

[PAmedic]

You do know you have Penn State listed three times right shorty? I would trade Delaware for one of them, Towson for one of them and then switch out Rutgers and replace them with say CCSU (although your Pennsylvania passion is properly appreciated)

good pickup...

this is far better:

PENN STATE
PENN STATE
VILLANOVA
LEHIGH
LAFAYETTE
PENN STATE
PENN STATE

I agree with you that Rutgers is over-rated

[JakeP50]

Maryland, Towson, Bucknell, Delaware, Villanova. Sure it's only one very small region of the country but, look at the list: national exposure(BTN most likely), recruiting hot bed+ CAA, easy win, strong alumni/potential student presence+CAA, Recruiting hot bed+ alumni presence+ CAA. That's a bit of a rough schedule when you look at it, but Bucknell is an easy win, UD and Nova would be close and Towson could either be a blowout or we get really lucky. And Maryland is no different than the UNC game this year.

[bluejacket]

For me it was a combination of:

1) winnable game. This is a game that we can pick up a solid win outside of our usual footprint (Utah) and maybe get us some inroads in an area that is more in another conference's footprint which leads to...
2) conference RPI upgrade. The Big Sky is one of the top conferences in FCS. We already have Montana coming to Williams next year, but I think the Wildcats would work as well because we would get a solid win to boost our RPI because of the quality of the Big Sky over the Big South.
3) new recruiting ground. I think the western states are an untapped resource for talent. With us taking so many recruiting losses in places like Florida and Texas, we could do well getting games out west and tapping into areas like Utah and Colorado and even Washington and Nevada.

The West is extremely difficult to recruit. There are fewer college football teams at all levels, but there are also a lot fewer players to pick from. That means you have to go against FBS teams or powerful FCS teams on their own turf. The Mountain West/Great Plains in particular are very tough and, in my opinion, not worth the time/travel/expense to recruit. We need to hit the mid-Atlantic, Deep South, and Texas more.

Just curious since you seem to like them in particular. Weber St. was ranked 228 out of 252 D-I teams in the final 2013-14 Saragin.

[Sly Fox]

I think he was looking for an easy win over Mormons.

PS - More games in Texas

[BJWilliams]

I didn't say that there wouldn't be difficulty recruiting that area, just that it wouldn't hurt to extend out that way with as many losses as we have taken on the trail in our usual haunts. That said, I don't think we should bag on them entirely. since we are headed for 11 game schedules after this year here is another possible tray or two for the OOC:

Option 1:

@ McNeese State
Vs. Incarnate Word
@ Chattanooga
Vs. Youngstown State
@ Illinois State

Option 2:

Vs. The Citadel
@ Southeastern Louisiana
Vs. Elon
@ Fordham
Vs. Tennessee Tech

Option 3:

Vs. Bucknell
@ Eastern Illinois
Vs. Montana State
@ UC Davis
Vs. VMI

[bluejacket]

I think he was looking for an easy win over Mormons.

PS - More games in Texas

You don't get credit for beating bad teams, whether they are in VA or MT or whether they play in the Big South or Big Sky. Or if they are Mormons.

[-army56mike-]

@ Illinois State
@ Eastern Illinois

Why so much Illinois? What good comes from Illinois?

[BJWilliams]

Eastern Illinois was the top team from the OVC (although I think about 90% of that was Garoppolo) and Illinois State is another MVC team and that would boost our conference RPI (and NDSU wouldn't want to be caught dead in Lynchburg)