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Knudson: On the Horns of a Scheduling Dilemma


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By Mark Knudson, The Mtn. Insider
January 24, 2011

The bloom is still on the Roses in Fort Worth, but already school officials are working against the clock trying to get ready for the 2011 season.

Sure, the first kickoff is still roughly eight months away, but the TCU athletic department is busy trying to work out their football schedule for this fall. These things are normally done at least a couple years (and sometimes more) in advance, but because of conference realignments and all the shuffling that’s gone on, what was in place a year ago at this time is only useful for lining the bird cage about now.

TCU was recently informed that Texas Tech won’t be coming to Fort Worth to meet the Horned Frogs in September as previously planned. Tech claims that they had to drop TCU to make room for a ninth Big 12 conference game – a game that became a requirement when that conference lost Nebraska and Colorado last summer and opted to go to a 10-team league with a full round robin schedule. All this sounds well and good, except that the Red Raiders seemingly had the option to drop games with New Mexico or Nevada as well, and chose to dodge err cancel their game with TCU.

Maybe they watched the Rose Bowl and had second thoughts.

That leaves TCU with another hole in their non-conference slate. It actually totals three. The Frogs and Baylor will open the season on September 3, and TCU will host SMU on October 1. So what are the chances of finding a BCS-conference opponent to replace the one that canceled on them at this late date? The Horned Frogs still have three open dates to fill in non-conference play. And when they are finally able to find those three schools, who will agree to play them? Chances are they will be schools like Texas State, and the national media will begin criticizing them for not playing anybody.

Each MWC team will have to play five non-conference games next fall. Most have already completed their non-conference schedules, each having convinced at least one BCS conference team to have a play date.

Boise State has another marquee national opener next fall, when they meet Georgia in Atlanta on September 3. The Broncos were also able to keep previously scheduled games against former - and future - conference rivals Fresno State and Nevada and added games against Tulsa and Toledo. Not that is will matter to the naysayers, but all five of Boise State’s non-conference opponents next fall will have played in bowl games in 2010.

Colorado State plays Colorado on Sept. 17 in Denver, but otherwise the Rams meet non-BCS teams before conference play starts.

Wyoming, pulverized by a brutal non-conference slate last season, has only one BCS biggie next season when they host Nebraska at the end of September.

Air Force has its traditional (non BCS) rival games with Army and Navy plus a biggie with Notre Dame.

UNLV will open the season with back-to-back BCS conference games at Wisconsin and at Washington State, and New Mexico has a pair of BCS tilts as well - against Arkansas and the aforementioned game with Texas Tech.

And in what will now be a very emotional battle, San Diego State will travel to Ann Arbor, Michigan where Brady Hoke’s Aztec recruits will battle Hoke’s new team, the Michigan Wolverines, the week after SDSU hosts Washington State.

So there will be some non-conference drama.

The MWC conference schedule has had to be altered significantly as well, with Utah and BYU no longer part of the league. Losing two and adding one is why the schools were forced to find an extra out of conference opponent for 2011. And even that task can come with a little angst involved. Word is that Boise State hopes to move its conference game against TCU home to the blue turf instead of playing in Fort Worth, as was the original plan. It’s the only time the two non-AQ powers will meet as Conference foes before the Frogs move to the Big East. Playing in Boise State would actually seem to be sort of fair, since next fall’s game will be the fourth between the two in the past nine seasons and they’ve already played twice on neutral turf and once in the Fort Worth Bowl.

The scrambling is not done, of course. What was previously set up for 2012 is also old newsprint now, with three teams entering the MWC for football the year after next and TCU leaving.

Those schedule makers are going to stay plenty busy.

See all of Mark Knudson's blog entries HERE.
ALL TIMES MOUNTAIN

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