CU to play two FCS teams (one in 2012 and one in 2013)

[Quattro]

UAB has 5 home and 7 away. Their OOC home game is Mississippi State. They have a home and away with MSU, Troy, Navy.

North Texas has 6 home, 6 away. In OOC they play Houston and Indiana at home.

Florida International has 6 home and 6 away. In OOC, they play UCF and Duke at home.

The athletic directors from these "C" schools have pressure to play ideally 6 home games, which means they are going to have to schedule some home and away series each year. They typically have four OOC to schedule. It's unlikely any of them to agree to book all four as one-and-done against BCS schools. They might go for one or two "money" games, but that's about it.

The dance card for these one-and-done schools fills up fast. You are fooling yourself if you believe Bohn can dial up a one-and-done at will. He's going to either have to offer up big money or agree to a home-and-home.

Okay I was mistaken then.

Play a big-boy out of conference a few times a decade (ON A ONE FOR ONE BASIS) (pretty much any SEC school, Michigan, tOSU, PSU, etc.).

That's got to be a few years out at this point but when we have our feet back under us and have won 8 games for a few years in a row, we can branch out.

 

[Deleted member 807]

Okay I was mistaken then.

That's got to be a few years out at this point but when we have our feet back under us and have won 8 games for a few years in a row, we can branch out.

No later than Embree year 5 (2015). And we keep the Hawaii series. It's unacceptable to spend more than 4 years in a rebuilding mode.

 

[azbuff]

Okay I was mistaken then.

That's got to be a few years out at this point but when we have our feet back under us and have won 8 games for a few years in a row, we can branch out.

The problem is that you have to schedule these teams a few years out. So if we wait until we're decent again to schedule them, we could suck again by the time they are up on the schedule. (It cuts both ways actually. UNM sucks donkey dick right now, but what if they're BSU South in a couple years?).

 

[SJBuff]

I'm not happy about the creampuff non-conf schedule but I understand it. I'm not saying that I want this year's death march for our schedule every year but I just think that it would be good for the program and fun for the fans to schedule a big name BCS non-conf game every 2-3 years. Think about how much of our favorite buff memories, like the game in Michigan, would not have happened if we weren't willing to take on some big boys in non-conf every once in a while. It's part of our Buff identity.

 

[CUBUFF80]

I'm not happy about the creampuff non-conf schedule but I understand it. I'm not saying that I want this year's death march for our schedule every year but I just think that it would be good for the program and fun for the fans to schedule a big name BCS non-conf game every 2-3 years. Think about how much of our favorite buff memories, like the game in Michigan, would not have happened if we weren't willing to take on some big boys in non-conf every once in a while. It's part of our Buff identity.

I don't think anybody is advocating an entire non-con schedule of FCS schools, but adding one is not gonna hurt anything. I venture to say that every BCS champion has had at least one "cream-Puff" on their schedules.

 

[cu3x]

I dream of games where we can bring in the second team because we're winning by so much.

maybe part of the late game folds, is too few players playing too many plays. Wearing out.

 

[manhattanbuff]

Our lack of depth is terrible. That'll take 2-3 years to build up some solid depth across the board.

The best teams I've seen this year are Alabama and LSU. As someone else has pointed out, they play cupcakes to get sharp for their conference season because their conference is brutal. They build their depth by giving future stars extended practice at game speed.

Our conference is also brutal, especially with the emergence of more excellent QB play up and down the west coast as a basis of recruiting. If we continue to play little brother and one-two games against softer competition, that is not a bad thing to help build the depth we need to compete when it comes around to playing a brutal PAC-12 schedule year in and year out.

I know that is not our history. But, the landscape of college football has changed. We need to build confidence and get wins. We also need to avoid injury (to the body and the ego).

 

[JRK1212]

I'd rather play crappy FBS schools like Idaho or UNLV but i'm happy that Bohn has finally come to his senses. We should play an easy OOC schedule every year especially since we now have 9 guaranteed games against BCS conference teams whereas in the past it was 8. I still want to know why Bohn made the schedule so tough this year. He didn't have to schedule Cal and Ohio St. and even with the payout for the OSU game I think overall that caused more harm to the program then it did good.

 

[MtnBuff]

Picking up an easy win could make the difference between us getting to a bowl game or not. Add to that extra preparation and less strain on a thin roster and we could get another win or two out of it.

The sooner we get back into a bowl game, even a lousy one, the easier recruiting becomes.

 

[Deleted member 807]

The best teams I've seen this year are Alabama and LSU. As someone else has pointed out, they play cupcakes to get sharp for their conference season because their conference is brutal. They build their depth by giving future stars extended practice at game speed.

Our conference is also brutal, especially with the emergence of more excellent QB play up and down the west coast as a basis of recruiting. If we continue to play little brother and one-two games against softer competition, that is not a bad thing to help build the depth we need to compete when it comes around to playing a brutal PAC-12 schedule year in and year out.

I know that is not our history. But, the landscape of college football has changed. We need to build confidence and get wins. We also need to avoid injury (to the body and the ego).

Alabama played Penn State in OOC this year and
LSU played Oregon.

 

[CVilleBuff]

My favorite Buff memories involve CU going better than 3-9 or 2-11 due in large part to getting obliterated early on in OOC. It's no coincidence that the last time we were in a bowl game our OOC had Miami (OH) on it. Practically every BCS school has drastically changed their scheduling philosophy from 15 years ago, and I'm glad we've finally recognized the need for this. I'd like to see a big game here and there on the schedule in the future too, but we've got to give ourselves a chance to make a bowl game at some point within the next 5 years.

Bottom line: 6-6 + a bowl game looks a hell of a lot better to recruits than 3-9 or 4-8. They don't care that our OOC SOS will be ranked 42nd by Phil Steele instead of 8th, they care that we don't seemingly suck ass year after year. The extra month of practice bowl games provide to young, rebuilding teams is pretty damn crucial as well, not to mention that bowl games often provide an intriguing OOC matchup..

 

[Cal84]

The extra month of practice bowl games provide to young, rebuilding teams is pretty damn crucial as well

+1. You simply have to have this. Moreover for most schools, over half that extra month of practice time occurs when there are no classes. Your players can focus 100% on football and they are on campus where your coaching staff can keep somewhat of an eye on them. Without going to a bowl your players disperse and some of them are likely to spend their time beating up their girlfriends, driving cars at 120 mph, stealing laptops or otherwise acting as if they were on the Oregon football team. You gotta get to six wins...

 

[Dark Bohner]

+1. You simply have to have this. Moreover for most schools, over half that extra month of practice time occurs when there are no classes. Your players can focus 100% on football and they are on campus where your coaching staff can keep somewhat of an eye on them. Without going to a bowl your players disperse and some of them are likely to spend their time beating up their girlfriends, driving cars at 120 mph, stealing laptops or otherwise acting as if they were on the Oregon football team. You gotta get to six wins...

The irony being that all of these behaviors mentioned have been hallmarks of players from very big progams that were always in bowl games.

 

[SJBuff]

I understand the need for a softer scheduled right now as we rebuild, but if 5 years from now our schedule is still two cream-puffs, CSU and the P12 I'm going to be pissed. Good teams who play nothing but pussy nonconference schedules are douche bags. When we are good, it's okay to have a FCS team on the schedule but if we are playing nothing but FCS and non BCS schools I think it's panzy assed. When we are good we need at least one BCS team in the line up, hopefully a legit contender for the MNC.

 

[Deleted member 807]

I don't think anybody is advocating an entire non-con schedule of FCS schools, but adding one is not gonna hurt anything. I venture to say that every BCS champion has had at least one "cream-Puff" on their schedules.

Tini is advocating a C-C-C or B-C-C OOC. So you are right.

Seems to me we want to get a Home-Home with an FCS as soon as possible and play the first game away. This would help get the road monkey off of our back.

 

[bigbang]

Finally common sense coming through. Use the first 3 games like pre-season games and get some wins under the belt to build confidence.

 

[somebody]

I think FCS teams are okay occasionally, and sometimes necessary to fill an unexpected open date, but in general should be avoided. This doesn't matter now, but eventually we'll care about the BCS formula and want to have a stronger OOC schedule.

 

[Deleted member 807]

Finally common sense coming through. Use the first 3 games like pre-season games and get some wins under the belt to build confidence.

It's like taking away the baby bottle and giving the Buffs a sippycup. The team just isn't ready to sit at the Big Boy OOC table yet.

Nothing builds confidence like a sippycup!