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Non-Conference Schedules
- Thread starter wcbsas
- Start date
Hopefully, we are working our way back to being able to do that "on the regular".
Yes, I fully agree with this. Teams from the CFP conferences could still have a decent season that would look good on our résumé. Ohio has been a yearly contender for the MAC of late.
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I agree wholeheartedly. I think the problem comes down to $$$. These FCS schools will play for less because from their perspective games against big name teams are cash cows. SDSU might agree to play for $1M whereas a team the likes of West Virginia or Oregon State might not play for less than $1.5M. (Numbers are purely for illustration.) Schedule SDSU and pocket the $.5M for yourself--the incentive is to schedule FCS teams.
Maybe a victory against an FCS team should count the same as a tie used to. So, a team that finishes 6-6 with one of those victories against an FCS team has virtual 5-6-1 and is therefore inelibigle for a bowl game.
Understand your argument … the flip side is if the difference between NU and another P4 team, say Oregon, making the CFP is SOS then the $0.5M is pretty small potatoes.
Long way to go for that at this particular point. Have to somehow find a way to win some games. Need 4-5 gamers to step up and lead. Losing has been so accepted. NU needs dudes who HATE losing. Good enough players are there, better than most, and it’s high time they step up and play like it.
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I would like a Non-Conference schedule something like:
- New Mexico State
- Air Force
- Virginia (or Arkansas, North Carolina, etc.)
Good suggestion for me it would be:
- OU, CU, KSU, KU, ISU, OkSt, or Missouri
- A MAC team, Ohio, Miami OH, Bowling Green, Akron, Buffalo
- An AAC, CUSA, MW or PAC12 team such as Air Force, Wash St, San Diego St
I would love to start a tradition of playing one of the military academies every year.
However, it can be incredibly difficult to stop their run based offenses. Just look at all of the teams that have lost or struggled against teams like Army. Unfortunately, very high risk and little reward by playing/beating them.
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Yep. In my opinion, our goal with non-con scheduling should be to schedule teams that we can steamroll or ones that are going to earn us brownie points with the selection committee, regardless of our result. Middle of the road teams in non-con do us no good. Playing a team like Cincinnati last year was about as bad of a good team as we should be trying to schedule for our tough games. Play a power conference opponent that is good enough that if you upset them, it's going to carry a lot of weight, and if you lose to them people mostly shrug it off. Then play two cream puffs where we can comfortably win and play some of our younger people for experience.
Nebraska has way more to lose than gain by playing a good Service Academy or team from a group of 5 conference. If we beat Army or Memphis, no one is going to care, but if they beat us....
Agreed! Last year, I saw this graphic that had the Top 25 winningest programs (I think NU was 8th), and the only team in the Top 25 that NU has never played was Navy. I found that hard to believe, but they have never played each other (I was also surprised to see that Navy was in the Top 25 for most wins). I know that Notre Dame plays at least one of the Military Academies each year but I'd love to watch NU take on Army, Navy, Air Force, VMI, the Citadel, etc.
To avoid an upset loss is:
Recruit (and win) good players that want to be here
Develop the good players to become great players
Coach the great players to become team leaders
Have the team leaders inspire the rest of the team to do the work required to be champions
Require the champions to be confidently humble so you don't overlook any other team
With that formula, you will never have an upset. You may lose to a better team, but no one will upset you.
How about becoming good enough that a game against a Service Academy or Memphis type team won't result in a loss. win those kind of "tougher" games and enjoy the benefits of a boosted strength of schedule.
My point is even if you beat them and beat them easily, I don't think there are a lot of people looking at those as "quality wins". If we don't get credit much more credit for beating them than beating a cupcake, why take on the risk. I'd rather play really tough teams, if we are going to take on the risk. Schools like the Academys and Memphis can be frisky every now and then, but they don't the respect on name recognition because there is volatility there. By the time people recognize them as actually being good that season, they've already written us off for being bad for losing to them.
