Designing BC's Schedule if they were Independent

NonAlumniFan · Oct 14, 2022

In the spirit of bye week, I decided to undertake a theoretical project and scheme up what BC's perfect schedule would look like if they were an independent like they once were for so long. A few parameters to bear in mind:

1. I'm looking at this over the course of a 5 year span, because it order to schedule realistically, you need to take into account home-and-homes as well as 2 for 1s.

2. In this theoretical model, BC will be playing in Week 0 every week in order to schedule more P5 opponents. As CFB moves towards 9 game conference seasons, this allows us to theoretically schedule about 4-6 P5s (Including Notre Dame) per year over the course of 14 available weeks. I think this is a realistic goal for BC, especially if we're still counting the future PAC as P5.

Playing 5 12 game seasons, we have 60 total games to fill up. Without further ado, let's get to it.

5 games vs Northeast FCS (Non Holy Cross)

Rationale: Your 5 FCS games to sell some tickets and get some wins. Honestly, dodge HC as long as Chesney is there. TOTAL: 5 games vs FCS

5 games vs UMass (3 home, 2 away)
5 games vs UConn (3 home, 2 away)
5 games vs Army (3 home, 2 away)
3 games vs Notre Dame (1 home, 2 away)

Rationale: Filling your schedule with fellow independents seems inevitable. UMass, UConn, and Army may agree to a 3/2 split, which helps fill up home games and gets you some theoretical wins. Notre Dame won't schedule you every year, but a 2/1 against such a presitgious school would be a great opportunity. TOTAL: 18 games vs independents

4 games vs Syracuse (2 home, 2 away)
3 games vs Penn State (1 home, 2 away)
2 games vs Pitt (1 home, 1 away)
2 games vs West Virginia (1 home, 1 away)
2 games vs Cincinatti (1 home, 1 away)
2 games vs Rutgers (1 home, 1 away)
2 games vs Maryland (1 home, 1 away)

Rationale: These are all regional P5 opponents that, for the most part, are adjacent to BC in terms of success. Penn State gives you that elite opponent that excites the fan base and provides you the platform for national recognition, but you'll probably have to go 2/1. The ACC's 8 game conference structure gives BC 4 opportunities to play 'Cuse, but Pitt will be busy playing games against WVU in their noncon, who will be a nice addition themselves from the old Big East. Cincinatti could present an opportunity for some exciting, quality wins for BC. Rutgers and Maryland are road games BC fans can get to and teams BC can beat. The overall split here is realistic, with a healthy dosage of Big Ten, ACC, and Big 12 opponents. TOTAL: 17 games against regional P5s.

2 games vs Stanford (1 home, 1 away)
2 games vs Cal (1 home, 1 away)
2 games vs Oregon State (1 home, 1 away)
2 games vs Missouri (1 home, 1 away)
2 games vs Virginia (1 home, 1 away)

Rationale: With BC yet to play teams from the PAC and SEC, I wanted to get them an opponent from every conference. The PAC will likely be scrambling to fill schedule spots in the future, so here's an opportunity to get credit for P5 wins against 3 of the more beatable teams out there. Stanford and Cal in particular are opportunities to play in California in front of alumni and recruits against academic schools like BC is. Virginia is another academic school BC can beat, and one who needs to fill 4 noncon spots. As for Mizzou, they're one of few SEC teams who may actually do a home-and-home with you. TOTAL: 10 games against other P5s.

2 games against SMU (1 home, 1 away)
2 games against North Texas (1 home, 1 away)
2 games against FIU (1 home, 1 away)
2 games against USF (1 home, 1 away)
2 games against Temple (1 home, 1 away)

Rationale: BC rounds out the slate with some G5 schools. I'd imagine ost of these schools can match BC's payout, and these games give BC the opportunity to play in talent-rich states, and hopefully pick up some wins. Temple makes sense as a regional game. TOTAL: 10 games against other G5s

TOTALS:

8 games vs ACC
7 games vs Big 10
6 games vs PAC
4 games vs Big 12
3 games vs Notre Dame
2 games vs SEC
25 games vs G5/G5 Indy
5 games vs FCS
32 home games
28 road games

guru2 · Oct 14, 2022