Data on OOC scheduling by week of the season

[jay santos]

week ooc games
1 66
2 52
3 52
4 39
5 24
6 12
7 12
8 8
9 10
10 9
11 5
12 8
13 7
14 2

This is from last season. Week 1, there were 66 games where D1 teams played OOC game. BYU-Arizona game counts as one. Reason why it is more than .5 * 120 is that some teams are playing non-D1A school.

So week 9, there were 10 games and 20 of the 119 D1 teams playing an OOC game.


week ooc games
1 66 Pac 10
2 52 non D1A
3 52 Pac 10
4 39 Big XII
5 24 eastern BCS school
6 12 Boise St
7 12 bye
8 8 Army/Navy
9 10 Notre Dame
10 9 Wyoming/UNLV/SDSU
11 5 Utah State
12 8 bye
13 7 Utah
14 2 ASU/AZ/Hawaii

Absolutely no problem scheduling like this.

[RockyBalboa]

BYU's schedule would be littered with Eastern Washington types...especially the 2nd half of the season, if they chose to go Independent.

People think the schedule sucks now. They've yet to see the level suckiness it would plummet to if that happened.

[Indy Coug]

There's a lot of underestimating of the difficulty of putting together a schedule and a lot of overestimating BYU's cachet the value it has in getting reputable teams to make openings for them after mid-October.

[RockyBalboa]

Originally Posted by Indy Coug

There's a lot of underestimating of the difficulty of putting together a schedule and a lot of overestimating BYU's cachet the value it has in getting reputable teams to make openings for them after mid-October.

It's interesting the mindset those have of thinking that other programs are just gonna automatically go..."Well hey...BYU's an independent....let's automatically schedule them". They assume any team will just say..."Hey okay."

Scheduling is a lot more difficult than many realize.

[creekster]

I like the idea of creating a 'rivalry' with, oh, say, Arizona. DO we have any sense that they care or are interested? How many years in a row can we schedule them? I find the analysis to be rather surprising as to just how few late season slots are available. I think the 2nd half of the season would be very tough to schedule, especially over time and especially if we have even moderate success.

[jay santos]

Let's break it down. 14 week season.

Any problems scheduling six games over the first six weeks? I think that's agreed this would be no problem.

So then we need six games over an eight week time period early/mid October to first week in Dec. Any problems with any of these options? Choose 6 out of this 11.

1. Utah

2. Utah State

3. Hawaii--they're desperate to get us on the schedule and they juggle their late season schedule around a lot

4,5,6. Can we schedule one or a few out of Wyoming, SDSU, UNLV, CSU, UNM, Nevada for second half of season? Remember Notre Dame has played USC, Stanford, BYU, Tennessee, UCLA, North Carolina, BC, Pitt during this time period recently. If they can get all these schools to drop their conference schedule to play them, can't we do the same for a certain group. i.e. is BYU to Wyoming/Nevada a similar prestige ratio as Notre Dame to Stanford/Tennessee/UCLA?

7,8. BCS schools play some non-rivalry non-traditional OOC games last half of season. Could we get at least one or two per year?

9. Army or Navy

10. Notre Dame

11. Non D1AA

[Indy Coug]

Originally Posted by jay santos

Let's break it down. 14 week season.

Any problems scheduling six games over the first six weeks? I think that's agreed this would be no problem.

So then we need six games over an eight week time period early/mid October to first week in Dec. Any problems with any of these options? Choose 6 out of this 11.

1. Utah

2. Utah State

3. Hawaii--they're desperate to get us on the schedule and they juggle their late season schedule around a lot

4,5,6. Can we schedule one or a few out of Wyoming, SDSU, UNLV, CSU, UNM, Nevada for second half of season? Remember Notre Dame has played USC, Stanford, BYU, Tennessee, UCLA, North Carolina, BC, Pitt during this time period recently. If they can get all these schools to drop their conference schedule to play them, can't we do the same for a certain group. i.e. is BYU to Wyoming/Nevada a similar prestige ratio as Notre Dame to Stanford/Tennessee/UCLA?

7,8. BCS schools play some non-rivalry non-traditional OOC games last half of season. Could we get at least one or two per year?

9. Army or Navy

10. Notre Dame

11. Non D1AA

Has BYU71 given your plan his enthusiastic endorsement?

[BYU71]

Originally Posted by Indy Coug

Has BYU71 given your plan his enthusiastic endorsement?

No!! Since you and I are on the same side of this one and you can call up facts and figures better than I, I am letter you carry the water on this argument.

Besides, I was stupid enough to buy options this morning for the first time in 9 months. I fell off the wagon and am presently getting my ass kicked.

[DJRoss]

They are stating without any proof that nobody would schedule BYU and that the schedule would be weakened. They are stating without any real weight to their argument that because they on a personal level would feel scorned if one of the best teams in their conference left, that that somehow equates to none of the remaining conference teams will have anything to do with the miscreant.

This is not a sound basis for arguing against why BYU going Indy is a bad idea. You are making assumptions without any evidence to the contrary.

First of all, it has been stated several times by AD's including ours that the scheduling window has dropped to two years due to the addition of a 12th game. What makes this harder is that non BCS conferences have recently been avoiding one and done body bag games for money OOC so that they can take advantage of the changes in the BCS rankings systems which favor wins over SOS. This has lead to a recent increase in the number of Div IAA opponents that BCS teams have been forced to schedule.

Comments saying the Navy Schedule is terrible due to Ball State, North Texas, Delaware (they play them almost every year, kind of like a border war) are silly. I also see on their schedule 5 BCS teams. I don't know about you, but if BYU could schedule 5 BCS teams a year I don't think there would be too many complaints from the peanut gallery. I looked at Navy's schedules back through 1995, and they had only one season with 2 BCS opponents, and they fluxed between 4 and 6 depending on the year and if they went bowling which Navy did quite often as of late.

Santos showed the number of OOC games per week which means that Indy vs Indy matches are late season focus. Which gives BYU 6 weeks of OOC scheduling that would be as difficult as it currently is now. So that leaves basically three games a year to schedule under the more difficult circumstances of finding teams that have empty slots at current dates. Yes that means having occasional seasons of two Div IAA opponents coming to Provo to get bashed, but honestly does it really matter if your first six weeks are loaded with 4 to 5 BCS teams? Does it matter if Notre Dame is coming to Provo or you are playing in South Bend? Sure that will take a while to phase in like ND phasing Army into their schedule, but seriously while this is a challenge, it is not as prohibitive as many of you make it out to be.

BYU has to do what is best for BYU, not for the MWC and certainly not for a small group of fans. BYU is one of only 10 schools that run profitable Athletic Departments. Yes even with all that BCS money and booster endowments galore, only 10 schools have been able to avoid the red ink. Now if BYU can according to Locke secure a couple local/regional TV contracts with options to sell rights to ESPN if they desire a certain game, than the few million that it would be worth would far offset any issues of risking the horrors of "weak scheduling"

I don't know how many of you have had the privilege of talking to AD's from schools other than BYU. I have and when scheduling issues have been brought up, with one exception that I have experienced, they have been clear that they would love to schedule match ups with BYU, but conflicts are related to previous scheduling, and when the opportunity arises, BYU has already locked up dates with another school or vice versa. This back and forth hit and miss iterative scheduling process is not related to schools like Notre Dame lacking interest. It is because one program's weeks do not necessarily jive with another's weeks.

Someone else mentioned sarcastically that BYU games would not be visible in was it Canton Ohio or some other Ohio Valley city. First of all, BYUTV is on Cable and Satellite, so that is not true, so if BYU were playing at home against Cincinnati, the Bearcat fans would have no problem watching the game. Secondly if the game were airing under a local or regional contract and were of considerable interest, it isn't that hard for KSL for example to contact WXIX Fox-19 in Cincinnati regarding buying rights to air the game.

Yes it would require more work, yes it would be a risk, but to dismiss it so readily without looking into how these challenges can be met is a bit silly.

What I hear are reactionary statements not based in a desire to actually dig for the real answers to the questions such a transition would demand.

I ask those who are quick to toss this idea to the curb a couple of questions.

1. If BYU could increase revenues to a bona fide level of 5 million a year by going Indy and there was a clear strategy to implement this transition, would you support it?

2. If BYU as an Indy could maintain at least two key match ups with former MWC teams per year while scheduling no fewer than 4 BCS conference teams each season, even if that means the occasional season with two Div IAA teams, would you support it?

3. If BYU as an Indy were extended at minimum the same terms that apply to NBCS conferences regarding access to a BCS bowl would you support it?

4. If BYU as an Indy were available on local and regional coverage for home games would you support it?

5. If BYU as an Indy were able to contract with the WAC, Big West, West Coast or Big Sky conferences all other sports if all of the above questions were doable, would you support it?

The issue is actually getting off your duff and finding out if these are possible or not.

[Indy Coug]

Let's make this real simple and avoid the 2,500 word posts:

If BYU were to go independent next year, they would suddenly need to get 8 additional "OOC" games.

Given that schools have their schedules in place often years ahead of time, how many schools next year have open OOC spots to fill?

How many have open OOC slots to fill that they are willing to schedule as their away games? Do you really think there are 4 or 5 of them?

I hope we can adequately replace our defensive backfield next year because Delaware has already shown they can throw for over 400 yards on Navy.