Football Scheduling Philosophy - Now in a regional conference

[More Frogs the Better]

I like the idea of at least one "national" game each year against challenging team from SEC, Big 10, or PAC. It allows us to further differentiate ourselves from the Techs and Baylors who only play cupcakes, continue to build our brand, and offer recruits the opportunity to play big games at TCU. Kind of the way OU does it. If we have to give up some games in the SMU series to get an appropriate number of tune-up or player development games, well you can't always have everything.

 

[GuardianFrog]

I like the idea of doing exactly what we are doing next year with our ooc games, SMU plus the FCS game that Gary wants plus a mediocre BCS team like Virginia. You can sub Virginia for Minnesota, Kentucky, Arizona or Syracuse.

 

[Frog Brother]

I'd like to get Rice, Houston, & SMU all on the schedule at the same time at least for just one year.

I would like to see this too, at least once. I can't imagine that anyone would seriously criticize it. The nostalgic value is obvious to everyone and we will be playing almost a full SWC schedule. I would think the longtime fans would get a kick out of that and maybe we could see the M.O.B. back at ACS.

 

[MN Frog]

I would expect us to try and stay in the California market, thought I heard somewhere that California has the 2nd most applicants to TCU last year after TX....potentially due to the LT connection and San Diego St.

California Market:
San Diego St. - market presence, former conference mates
Fresno St. - respect for Pat Hill and program (good national draw with little loss risk)
Stanford - previous relationship

I expect Gary to want to continue the East Coast/ACC presence for TV exposure. Although this desire might be mitigated because of the AQ status.

East Coast:
Virgina - previous relationship, low risk
Clemson - national exposure, stretch game
West Virginia - if they don't come to Big XII

I think there are a few games that could be scheduled because of recruiting in-roads already made or others wanting to have a game in TX.

Recruiting:
La Tech/La Monroe - recruiting in Louisianna stays important to the staff (could also see LSU here, but only if ESPN pushes)
Nebrasksa - will be begging to continue to play in TX for recruits (likely won't be calling A&M or Texas) TCU's previous relationship helps
UCF/USF - Florida recruits

If Gary wants to vacate the East Coast exposure, I could see them signing up for some Big Ten teams. The BIg Ten is always regarded as a "top conference" although they never seem to live up to it. I could see Gary picking a few teams from this leauge to help bolster national recognition.

Big Ten - media hype:
Northwestern - recent history
Purdue - easy win
Penn St. - national hype
Minnesota - selfish reason (30 min drive to my house)

 

[Campus Commons]

I'd go with SMU plus two "name" chumps, teams along the lines of Tulane, Tulsa, Navy, Army, Air Force, Vanderbilt, Rice, Northwestern, Minnesota, Indiana, Duke, Syracuse, Colorado State, Wyoming, New Mexico, UNLV, etc. If we need to play home and home with some of the Big East schools to reduce our buyout, fine with me. UConn, South Florida, Cincinnati, West Virginia, Louisville, Rutgers.

My guiding non-conference strategy would be as follows:
1) Get three wins.
2) Don't play FCS teams to get the three wins. Play FBS teams that you can beat but they don't look laughable on your schedule.
3) In years in which you will only have four conference home games (which I guess will be even years), make sure to have two or three home non-conference games.

 

[halfwaytoheaven]

Didn't have time to read this entire thread, but here's what I'd like to see OOC:

SMU
Army/Navy/AFA
Pac-12/ACC/Big East for the exposure

Here's what I think will happen:
SMU
Academy/Pac-12/ACC/Big East
FCS team

Patterson wants to play the FCS teams for a tune-up, and he has more reason to do it now that we don't have to worry about SOS so much. I doubt we'll see many SEC teams on our schedule, now that they have a conference game against A&M. I'm still kind of surprised we got Arky and LSU, but they haven't shown up in Fort Worth yet, so we'll see. We rarely play Big Ten teams as it is, and they may go to a nine-game schedule now, which will make it less likely.

 

[frogbyproxy]

Since we have our own Bear we need to play Bama every three years and would love to play Notre Dame. With us already scheduling LSU and Hogs I'd say the next would have to be Bama then hit up Notre Dame at Cowgirl stadium. We need to schedule SEC teams every year. If we go west I'd say keep with the MWC in 2014 as a tune up game with Utah, San Diego St. or BYU. Other west would be USC. In order of a dream schedule would be:

1.Alabama
2.Notre Dame
3. USC
4.Utah
5. BYU

 

[NewFrogFan]

We should keep LSU and Arkansas on the schedule. We don't need to go undefeated anymore to go to a decent bowl and tough non-conference games help the team prepare for conference play.

THis, no need to take the track some teams did this year with 4 games against teams no one has heard of.

 

[pcf]

Don't get beat up OOC. You got your Big 12, the rest of the schedule should be to get ready for conference.

 

[RaiderHater]

Don't get beat up OOC. You got your Big 12, the rest of the schedule should be to get ready for conference.

You want some challenging games that can prepare you conference play, but no need to get destroyed.

Don't want to do what Oregon St. did last year Year. Started OOC with TCU, Louisville, and Boise. Also they played 5 top 10 teams. TCU, Boise, Arizona, Stanford, and Oregon. Might have been the best 5-7 team ever.

 

[An-Cap Frog]

Home & homes with the big 10 schools.

That will never happen. The Big 10 does not schedule real teams for their non-conference games...