Change to 2019 schedule
- Thread starter RBB89
- Start date
They see that when we play a top twenty team unless we're up by some magic number at halftime ( like more than 2 or less than 8)...
I get what you're saying. But UConn perennially isn't very good and aren't even recruiting to the level of most MAC teams. My major point is that IU should not be scheduling a major mismatch like Eastern Illinois. It reeks of trying avoid decent competition. Scheduling Kentucky or Mizzou is just a suggestion I made because it makes sense all around. It doesn't necessarily have to be either of those schools, but it would be nice to have either one back on the schedule one day. Preferably Kentucky.
IU plays nine conference games in one of the toughest (if not the toughest) conferences in college football. Frankly, I wouldn't mind if they scheduled three ooc games against the Little Sisters of the Poor. And I'll tell you one thing. If IU goes 5-1 over the first half of the upcoming season (a very real possibility), no one is going to be talking about the quality of the ooc schedule. There will be buzz around the program, meaningful games in October and November, and capacity or near-capacity crowds for Iowa, Penn State, Maryland and Purdue.
I don't get your logic. Purdue plays in the same conference as us and destroyed the same Missouri squad last year. Think of the SEC channel giving IU some exposure every other year leading to an uptick in recruiting. Either you don't trust Allen to get us to the next level or your prediction of 7 wins next year is off base. Playing inferior competition by any school in football is cowardly and shouldn't be allowed. And going 3-0 in nonconference games does not guarantee a bowl game either.
Psst. Don't tell Alabama and Georgia. They'll be playing The Citadel and Austin Peay, respectively, this season. Maybe the NCAA should declare AL and GA ineligible for the 2018 college football playoff. Damned cowards!
Right. They are cowards. But there won't be any problem to fill the seats. Not to mention they are more likely to play as many as 3 extra games in their mind, if you include playing in the conference championship and then qualifying for the 4 team playoffs.
Neither of those schools are doing it as a means of attaining bowl eligibility, as you're insisting is the necessity with IU.
Exactly. IU is only going to get past the 45,000 range in attendance by beating the Michigans and the Michigan States and the Ohio States. Not because we play one big nonconference game. We have plenty of big-name draws. If you’re really worried about attendance, we need to beat one of them.
Agreed. And as a couple of posters noted, it's also about wear and tear, and holding up for the long haul. When a schedule is front-loaded like ours was last year (two of the first four games against teams that were Top 5 nationally), it takes a toll.
Not if you only have four Big Ten home games. Then you are allowed to play an FCS. In my opinion, at this stage we need W's more than filling the stadium. Filling the stadium will follow.
I agree. I know it's a bit of a "chicken and egg" situation but I think you have to win first. Even if you play higher caliber competition, the home crowd is not going to show if people believe you are going to lose. There have been some years when we have had a nice start to the season and people got a bit excited and showed up in good numbers for our first "quality" opponent. When we lose that game the crowd disappears for the remainder of the season.
I know it's good for recruits to see a full stadium. But I think it's better for recruiting to show them highlights of your recent bowl games and activities. With the facilities improvements we continue to make, winning more games will do more than filling the stadium with fans rooting for the other team.
Hopefully in the near future we will be able to add those other P5 opponents to the schedule without fear of a devastating loss or having to play our #1s the entire game. I don't think we're there yet. When we get to the point that we are regularly beating a couple of the big four in our division and are dominating the bottom feeders in the conference then it's time to beef up the schedule.
I agree in general, and this is a good post, but I think the wider point is that even teams like Alabama and Florida are going to play an FCS level school pretty much every year. And they do this intentionally. If we only play three nonconference games and every other year have one more road conference game, we’re pretty much always going to have an FCS level team on there. I think what they’d like to do is gradually increase that one tougher nonconference game. Which is why we go from teams like Virginia and Cincinnati to Louisville in a few years.
Again, I pretty much agree with you entirely. We have plenty of chances to get bigger crowds with bigger names, but we aren’t going to sell out without some help right now because we actually need to beat some of those schools. The fans have certainly been showing up more (we had a great atmosphere for OSU), but it’s probably peaked for now until we get that big win or two. We will sell around 40,000 for those lower level schools like we always do. If we start winning, it won’t really be an issue.
I agree that we play a difficult schedule, but it would be nice if we were able to schedule some games against tier 1 schools (one home and home every 6-8 years) outside of the Big Ten games. For example, I would much rather play Texas, Florida, or Georgia than Louisville.
Good points. And whether it's Alabama or Indiana, the rationale is essentially the same - - weathering a twelve game season, and winning. Alabama's trying to get to 12 wins - - we're (for now) trying to get to 6 or 7. Once we start winning consistently, the attendance will take care of itself. And, given the skill CTA and staff have already shown in this regard, recruiting should really take off.
None of those schools will schedule a home and home with IU. First off, they will sell out their much larger stadiums whether they play the Super Bowl champions or a junior high team, so why go on the road to a stadium which seats around 50,000? Second, if they lose to IU (Indiana, fer cryin' out loud!) their public perception will take a hit. A big hit. With the inroads IU has made recruiting GA & FL you don't think those schools have taken notice?
The big names have little reason or desire to schedule IU. Especially in Bloomington. Schedule MAC, C-USA, AAC, FBS, Vanderbilt, Kansas, etc. I don't care. Just win, baby!
The only way it would work is if we went back to 8 conference games with a rule that stated you have to play at least 1 FBS opponent. I'm not a fan of 9 conference games. I'm a Buffs fan too and when they were in the Big 12 it was 8 conference games. The Buffs used to schedule some great ooc opponents. Then they went to the Pac which plays 9 conference games. The 8 game conference schedule is plenty and with the attendance drops around the country an 8 game conference schedule with an FBS ooc opponent each year would add more excitement. JMHO
I'll have to take your word for the situation of when playing an FCS school is applicable and acceptable. As far as the crowd aspect, let's take that out of equation for now, as that isn't my main point, rather it was a secondary benefit that is sadly needing fixed.
I still haven't received any feedback by anyone on here if there were any other choices besides Eastern Illinois. Perhaps it was/is too difficult to find a viable replacement in the short amount of time. And it wasn't made clear whether we dropped Western Kentucky or they decided not to play us to make the schedule change.
Everybody knows the name of the game in catching up to the big dogs is recruiting. Scheduling a cream puff does absolutely nothing to enhance our situation. It won't be on ESPN for sure, and sometimes the BTN won't even show a game such as that.
Maryland and Purdue are on our level. I look at their nonconference schedules (last season and next) and am fairly impressed. They are using it as an extra recruiting tool and can win at the same time. Maryland won at Texas (recruiting hotbed state) and played at UCF (another recruiting hotbed state). They get to play Texas again this year and replaced UCF with Temple (big city area).
Purdue last year played Louisville (on Fox) and at Missouri (SEC Network) gaining a broader audience and in the process smoked Missouri. They keep Missouri again next season, but drop Louisville for Boston College (ACC).
As you can see, both Maryland and Purdue are marketing themselves to a wider dimension that IU is sorely lacking. Seeing teams like Ball State, FCS schools, and the like, is not going to impress the top end players for recruiting. They want to be seen and recognized (on major TV networks and in person) every week.
The wear and tear excuse by others gets old. It's football. Players can get hurt in practice or any game no matter who they play. The bottom line comes down to recruiting. Our outside scheduling is not helping. It more or less looks like we are trying to feast on easy competition in order to get bowl eligible (and possibly save a few jobs) instead of trying to be a legitimate bowl team.
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Yep. That’s why we don’t play Notre Dame. I mean, we could probably play ND, but there’s not a chance in hell they would come to Bloomington. They’ve said this. We would be playing up there every time, just like throughout pretty much our entire series history with them. Frankly, I’m surprised Louisville has agreed to come to Bloomington, and we get a game in Indianapolis with them.
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The last time ND played in Bloomington was in 1950 and the Hoosiers won that year by a 20-7 score. The story is that ND would never play in Bloomington again. Of course, if they were ever in the same conference the Irish may not have a choice. They have to lower themselves now to play at small venues like Duke and Wake Forest.
They (Lou) are looking at those games as probable W's wherever they play us and based on the the way they travel to Indy for basketball (and the way we sell our tickets to the opposition) they're figuring that both the Bloomington game and the Indianapolis game will be either a true neutral site or something like a 2nd home game for them. Historically, Louisville fans like Indianapolis...
All that said, I like the ADs approach to scheduling these days and hope they keep up the good work. E IL was a smart move.
You have no idea if those schools will schedule a home and home with IU. Maryland who is a bottom dweller in the Big Ten is currently playing a home and home with Texas. I agree it would be difficult, but not impossible.
Let's assume you are correct and IU couldn't schedule a tier 1 school from one of the other major conferences. There are still plenty of really good match ups that would get IU much needed exposure in the south and west regions of the U.S. Examples: Texas Tech, Baylor, Arkansas, Mississippi, Mississippi State, South Carolina, Oklahoma State, Georgia Tech, North Carolina, Arizona, Arizona State, California, UCLA, TCU, and etc.
I'm not trying to be a smartass but your post begs a couple of questions.
1. What incentive do most or any of those schools have to schedule a home and home with IU? Those are all schools in positions similar to us trying to win and gain relevance in their own conferences. If we are a program on the rise why would those folks have any interest in coming to Bloomington and risking a loss? It isn't like they are going to be hungry to increase their recruiting presence in Indiana.
2. How do you know that playing those schools will improve our recruiting footprint in those areas of the country. I have my doubts that making an appearance there is really going to be a difference maker with top players in those areas. The only schools we have played in Florida or Georgia are bottom-feeders FIU and Georgia Southern and we seem to be doing pretty well recruiting in those places. We haven't played any of the mid-tier P5 teams in those states. Given that, what recruiting advantage would we gain for sure by playing Texas Tech instead of Texas State or playing UCLA instead of one of the lower-level public satellites in California?
1. I think we just differ on our premises. I don't agree with the argument that other Power 5 schools (outside of the bottom dwellers) don't want to play IU. I think we are a great university with national appeal. I don't view playing Indiana as a negative. Why wouldn't a school like Texas Tech want an opportunity to play against a Big Ten opponent on national t.v. that is most likely a win? In my opinion the same goes for TCU, Arkansas, and a lot of my other examples. Just to clarify, I would like to see one of these match ups scheduled every 6-8 years, which should make it much easier to accomplish. Lastly, I think it would be great (strictly as a fan and alum) to get to see IU play a lot of these schools in Bloomington. I might be in the minority with that opinion.
2. I don't have any data for you, if that was what you were asking. My thought process is playing better schools would lead to more exposure in the regions because of more people watching the games (nationally televised games and a bigger fan bases). I don't think it would drastically change IU's recruiting classes, but I think it would be a positive for them (maybe one or two recruits a year).
UCLA is not afraid to travel. In the past 5 season they have played in Texas 3 times A&M, Texas and Houston, also roadies to Virginia, BYU, and Nebraska. There is no reason to think they wouldn't do a home and home.
EDIT Ohhh and BTW they recruited Austin Roberts out of Carmel, IN
I appreciate your response. I did enjoy having teams like LSU, Washington, Colorado, NC or NC State on the schedule back in the day ( did not enjoy the Nebraska game and was living out of state when USC came to town). But back then if you won your conference or finished in the top 3 you went bowling and otherwise not. Today, for better or worse, having a winning record and making even the most minor bowl is paramount to building your program. The stakes of playing a toss-up game on the road against a P5 opponent are awfully high. I would like to see us schedule up 3 or 4 years down the road but making a bowl game the next 3 seasons is priority one as far as I'm concerned.
You do realize UCLA is playing at Cincinnati in 2019? I am pretty sure they would travel to Bloomington if they are willing to travel to Cincinnati.
Oregon still owes us a home game. We beat them at their place back in 2004 when they had a top 25 team. They practically giftwrapped us the game with several turnovers. I remember having to watch the game by ordering it on pay per view. Back in those days it was tough sledding to get to see many IU road games on TV.
That was a great weekend for me. My wife and I went to that game at Oregon and then traveled the next day to Seattle to see the Red Sox play there. It became a little hairy when the IU game was moved to late afternoon and it took forever to leave the parking lot. Then we had to drive several hours north to stay at a reasonable distance from Seattle. But we made it, so that was all worth it.
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