Future Schedules?

[alpinegopher]

Anyone have better info than Gophersports.com on upcoming non-conference tilts?

I hope Syracuse is returning the trip for next year is my first question, nothing I can find on a return trip.

Air Force cancelled the return trip for next years game??? Is this right?

How bout the game in Vegas? On the UNLV site this game has been moved back until 2012. I remember talking about this game at the Colorado St game in Fort Collins, which seems like 5 years ago. Who keeps bumping this game back? How bout playing that game after the big ten season, like Thanksgiving weekend. I know I'd like to spend Thanksgiving in Vegas(or any weekend for that matter)

Maybe a home and home with San Diego St, game here in Sept and their home game end of November in the future?

As for the strength of schedule people have been talking about. The 1-AA's the last couple of years you can't really complain about. When the NCAA added a 12th game for everyone 2 years ago all the schedules were done, schools had the scramble. Most teams had to fill with them.

It would help to have an out of conference type of rival. Iowa St would be great but it doesn't seem like they want anything to do with it. Pretty tough to play 2 Big Ten teams OOC and the Big 12 right now. Plus their schedule is completely full until 2017, little different than ours.

Iowa, Illinois, Mich, Mich St, Purdue all fall into this.

Who else do people want out of conference?

 

[Gold Rush]

It is too bad that Air Force dropped our game out there - it would have been a fun road trip. Note, I do not have any problem dropping their home game with us, but I have huge problems with teams like Baylor taking the home game, then canceling from coming up to play here!!

I think we should continue to play 2 games against MAC type opponents which are getting to be some good games and not really cupcakes anymore. I would like to play 2 BCS teams and as we continue to improve, we can play some tougher teams. I do not see the wisdom in playing a team that is head and shoulders above us, but I would like to play some teams that could go either way and will be tough matchups.

Future opponents I would like to see:
New Mexico -- Albuquerque is a great town and would make a fun road trip.

Arizona -- Tucson would be another fun road trip against an up and coming team, just like the Gophers.

Iowa St. -- I would love to play them every year and it is an easy road trip to make. It is the only D1 non-conference team that is nearby. It wasn't the Gophers that canceled this series!!

Kansas/Kansas St. -- Not too hard to get to and would provide the tough game that could go either way scenario I was talking about.

I love traveling west, so any team in the Mountain West would make a fun game. Utah/BYU would be a good game and UNLV/SDSU or Colorado St. would make good travel desinations.

Brewster likes to use the recruiting angle, so it would depend on which area he wants to go after. If he wants to recruit Texas, why not go after TCU or one of the Conf USA schools in Texas such as Rice or Houston? If you want to hit Florida and make your presence felt, UCF or South Florida might be good games for us.

Finally, I look at the Big East and I see a lot of good matchups for us. We are playing Syracuse next year, but Pittsburgh or West Virginia would be outstanding matchups as we get a little better. I think when you look at all the teams playing D1 football, there are many good teams out there that would be fun football games for fans to enjoy. It sounds like we will be getting to see some new teams out here and I bet there are some teams that wouldnt mind doing a home and home series with us....

 

[Ski U Mah Gopher]

Non Conference Games vs FBS opponents

Nebraska - 51 games, last game in 1990
Iowa St - 25 games, last game in 1997
Washington - 17 games, last game in 1977
Pittsburgh - 12 games, last game in 1992
Ohio - 10 games, last in 2003

Those are the only 5 team that we have played double digit times. Contrast that with some entire BCS conferences.

ACC - 5 times, only once not in a bowl (Wake Forest in 1968)
SEC - 8 times, 5 non-bowl (vs Ole Miss in 1932 & 4 games vs Vandy from 1924-1959)

Source:

Eric Thrall's Gopher history site - All-Time Record's vs. All Opponents

 

[grunkiejr]

I would really like to see a home/home with Texas Tech. They are obviously having their best season ever this year but for the past 5-10 years we have both been middle of the conference teams and we are competing for recruits (Keanon Cooper decommitted to sign with us, Stephens decommitted to sign with them).

Here is what I would like to see by conference, ordered by priority within conference:
Big 12: (Colorado already scheduled) Tx. Tech, Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, Missouri, Oklahoma State, Nebraska
SEC: Ole Miss, MSU, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas
Pac 10: (Wash St. & Oregon St. scheduled + Cal), Washington, Arizona, ASU, Oregon--not excited about USC, Stanford and could go either way on UCLA
ACC: Boston College, Virginia, North Carolina, NC State, Wake Forest
Big East: Pitt, South Florida, Louisville, Rutgers, West Virginia, UConn
Non-BCS: Notre Dame, Fresno State, TCU, Utah, Boise State, Hawaii, San Diego State, Ball State, Central Michigan, Buffalo (they're much better now that Turner Gill is there)

In general I would like to see 2 BCS opponents (1 middle of the pack to better like Cal and one middle of the pack or worse like Syracuse), 1 decent non-BCS opponent, and I'm fine having one crap non-BCS opponent but I'd rather have this be a team from the bottom half of the MAC, bottom half of Conference USA (SMU, UAB, UCF), bottom half of the WAC, or bottom half of the MWC or any Sun Belt school than taking a D-IAA school. It was one thing to play NDSU at home in the dome when we were not selling out every game but playing SDSU at the new stadium which should be sold out does absolutely nothing for the program.

 

[grunkiejr]

Air Force

Anyone have better info than Gophersports.com on upcoming non-conference tilts?

I hope Syracuse is returning the trip for next year is my first question, nothing I can find on a return trip.

Air Force cancelled the return trip for next years game??? Is this right?

How bout the game in Vegas? On the UNLV site this game has been moved back until 2012. I remember talking about this game at the Colorado St game in Fort Collins, which seems like 5 years ago. Who keeps bumping this game back? How bout playing that game after the big ten season, like Thanksgiving weekend. I know I'd like to spend Thanksgiving in Vegas(or any weekend for that matter)

Maybe a home and home with San Diego St, game here in Sept and their home game end of November in the future?

As for the strength of schedule people have been talking about. The 1-AA's the last couple of years you can't really complain about. When the NCAA added a 12th game for everyone 2 years ago all the schedules were done, schools had the scramble. Most teams had to fill with them.

It would help to have an out of conference type of rival. Iowa St would be great but it doesn't seem like they want anything to do with it. Pretty tough to play 2 Big Ten teams OOC and the Big 12 right now. Plus their schedule is completely full until 2017, little different than ours.

Iowa, Illinois, Mich, Mich St, Purdue all fall into this.

Who else do people want out of conference?

Where are you getting that Air Force cancelled? I don't see a press release or anything. If you are just assuming they cancelled because you don't see it on the 2010 schedule it is because it was set up for a home game in 2009 and in Colorado Springs in 2012. According to the Gophers website the UNLV match up is not in back to back years either (there in 2010 and here in 2013). Although the UNLV web lists Wisconsin in 2010/2011 and Minnesota in 2012/2013 so I'm not sure what to believe. Wisconsin was just there a couple years ago so my guess is that our schedule is right. UNLV was orginally supposed to play here in 2010 but the date would have interfered with parking for the state fair so Minnesota asked to move the game back to 2013 to accommodate parking.

The Syracuse set up was a home/home but for some reason the game in Minneapolis is not listed in the future schedules. The Star Tribune reported that the game was at Syracuse in 2009 and at home on Sept. 22, 2012. http://www.startribune.com/sports/gophers/34309249.html

 

[dlw4gophers]

For you fans that want to schedule BCS teams, but want to schedule lower or middle BCS teams. What is your formula for figuring this out. Most programs are up and down and these games get scheduled 4-8 years out. When we put Cal. on the schedule they were not a good team. I would have liked to play Tenn. early this season, might have won that one.

 

[Schnoodler]

I would like to see one legit cupcake, regional would be best. I'm fine with a rotation of N.Dak,Sdak, montana... but for the first game only, I like the MAC, and think they are a perfect NC game as if you play like crap they will beat you. Other than that set up a rotation with a mid tier SEC, a florida team, a texas team and a Pac10 team for the other two games. They don't even have to be the same teams. That gets us into every area we want to recruit in every two years at least.

 

[grunkiejr]

Estimating top half BCS vs. bottom half

For you fans that want to schedule BCS teams, but want to schedule lower or middle BCS teams. What is your formula for figuring this out. Most programs are up and down and these games get scheduled 4-8 years out. When we put Cal. on the schedule they were not a good team. I would have liked to play Tenn. early this season, might have won that one.

Since this is largely a reflection of my wish list I'll approach this. Obviously you set up schedules well in advance and although we are playing Oregon State in 2016 we have no idea if they will compete for the Pac 10 title or be the next Washington. But if you watch NCAA religiously it shouldn't be that hard to know who runs a good program and competes every year and who isn't usually very good. The way that I would try to set it up is by looking at the record and average place of conference finish over the last ten years.

For simplicity I will use an example breaking down the Big Ten conference because everybody on this board knows the conference. The average order of finish for the Big Ten over the last 10 years is approximately 1. Ohio State 2. Michigan 3. Iowa 4. Penn State 5. Wisconsin 6. Purdue 7. Minnesota 8. Michigan State 9. Illinois 10. Northwestern 11. Indiana

Obviously it varies by year and we're not ready to try to set up a traditional top 10 opponent so if we were targeting a top half of conference opponent I would look at 3-6 (Iowa, PSU, Wisc, Pur) and if I were targeting a bottom half I would target 7-11 (Minn, MSU, Ill, NW, Ind). Now the question is how would that have looked this year? PSU was much better than forecast, MSU & NW moved from bottom half to top, Purdue fell from the median position to bottom half, and the others (Iowa, Wisc, Minn, Ill, Ind) were all positioned in the correct half that was forecast. That isn't a bad forecast.

For scheduling non-conference games I would apply that methodology to other conferences. Which means the teams you avoid are: ACC: Miami, Virginia Tech, maybe FSU B12: Texas and Oklahoma Big East: WV has been the best but I wouldn't avoid them Pac 10: USC, maybe Oregon but we're 1-1 against them in bowls so I wouldn't avoid them SEC: Florida, LSU, Georgia, maybe Alabama (with Saban they're going to be much better)

 

[alpinegopher]

Louiville would be a good game in my mind. Not a bad road trip. Seems like a solid city. Church Hill Downs is within walking distance of the stadium, which is fairly new. Horse racing and college football all in one day. Endless tailgating at Lville also.

We'll play in the Rose Bowl before we get an SEC team to come to MN.

I don't like the away MAC games. Wouldn't the U make more money at home instead of getting paid to go there with the new stadium now?

 

[Schnoodler]

I don't like the away MAC games. Wouldn't the U make more money at home instead of getting paid to go there with the new stadium now?

Yeah, that's just the way it works though. You make an agreement for home and away. The level of the team dictates what the ratio is. I think MAC is 2 home 1 away. A lesser team is 3 home one away. A D2 is home only. Not a rule but it's the way it works, unless you're just filling a hole in the schedule.

 

[Goldmember]

I am in love with next season's schedule. I think it is perfect; and I hope they all look like it in the future.

In addition to some of the great games already scheduled: Kansas, Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Arizona, Arizona State, Vanderbilt, Kentucky, Arkansas, Kansas State, Washington, Army, Navy, Idaho, Wyoming, Notre Dame, Marshall, Tulane, Wake Forest, Boston College, South Florida, Connecticut, Pitt, Louisville

For D1-C: South Dakota, Northern Iowa, Montana, Maine, Massachusetts

I hope they quit scheduling MAC games. No one really ever seemed to get excited by them. I think it would be good to have an East/ West mix each year like they are doing in 2009 Cal/Syracuse/Air Force.

I like the idea of taking Thanksgiving week off and playing a warm-weather game in early December like Wisconsin is doing next year. It seems like good practice for a bowl game. Arizona, Arizona State and South Florida may bring out the snowbirds.

Do I have this right?: Georgia Tech played 2 games against D1-C teams, and Washington State is playing 13 games this year.

 

[DaveC]

I like the idea of taking Thanksgiving week off and playing a warm-weather game in early December like Wisconsin is doing next year. It seems like good practice for a bowl game. Arizona, Arizona State and South Florida may bring out the snowbirds.

Yes, they will have to be creative to get really good non-conference games. Another idea to attract a marquee team is to agree to play at a neutral site – say one game with Notre Dame in Chicago. Yes, it would be a home game for them, for the most part, but I just don't see us getting a home-and-home with them anytime soon.