Scheduling Disadvantage

[UteThunder]

First of all, let me say that if I had my way we would drop BYU from all future schedules, or at the very least, limit games against them to a couple of times each decade.

Now, having gotten that disclaimer out of the way, I have to say – Utah and Colorado have a distinct scheduling disadvantage compared to the rest of the Pac-12. We are the only teams who don’t get an automatic “pseudo-home-game” every other year in conference play. When we play each other on the road, we have to travel 521 miles to another state. The next furthest conference rivalry is UW and WSU at 280 miles apart. So basically the rest of the conference gets a pseudo home game every other year while Utah and Colorado are the only Pac-12 rivals who play a true road game against each other every other year.

It’s because of this that I believe we should be playing Utah State every year, especially if we can ever get them on more favorable terms such as 2-for-1s. It is also why I can understand the argument for keeping BYU on the schedule; it gives us an additional game where we don’t have to travel too far.

[PlainsUte]

I don’t think the distance to a game makes a difference.  What makes UW at WSU a psuedo home game?  Its a rivalry game that even has a name, Apple Cup.  UW probably flies there and its a one-hour flight instead of two to SLC.  Yeah there might be quite a few UW alums in the eastern part of Washington compared to SLC, but unless the locals give up their seats the visitors are relegated to a far-off corner of the stadium.

USC and UCLA are in the same city, but again I don’t think UCLAns would call the Colesium home turf.

Yeah Utah has to fly further to play Colorado but its still in the same time zone and similar elevation (only other factors I could think of that would make a difference)

[utefansince79]

Of course a trade off is that in hoops, teams making the Utah-Colorado swing have the longest trip between games (especially compared to the LA and Bay Area swings)

 

[EagleMountainUte]

Injuries and recovery time. It absolutely makes a difference the miles you travel. 

[Utah]

As long as the legislature has a lot of Mormons, we will play BYU. It is what it is. They threatened to take funding from the hospital if we didn’t play them in basketball. 

They are insane. They threatened people’s lives over playing BYU. 

The best thing to do is accept it and be grateful BYU sucks and this game gets easier and easier every year. 

Having said that, we will always play a FCS team. If we add USU to our non-conference, our non-conf every year will be FCS, USU and BYU.

While I’m ok with that, it’s a guaranteed 3-0, there are a lot of folk that would be very upset over that. In other words, it ain’t gonna happen.

Unless the PAC-12 goes to 8 conference games.

[UteThunder]

I don’t want our non-conference schedule to be BYU, USU, and an FCS school every year, but I don’t think we should be playing Wyoming or NIU home-and-home over the Aggies. There is a strategic motivation to play schools like San Jose, Fresno, Houston, and San Diego. If we are going to play G5s in recruiting hotbeds, fine, don’t schedule the Aggies. But if we are going to play teams like Wyoming, we might as well just play the Aggies. Pseudo home game with very little travel and a high probability of winning. AND . . . it helps negate the scheduling disadvantage we have in the Pac-12, even if only by a little.  

[Utah]

I’d rather play old MWC foes, including Wyoming, over Utah State. What’s the point? Ask BYU what it’s like playing USU every year…especially BYU’s QB’s. 

No thanks. I’d rather play a fun, competitive game with an old conference mate than a game vs a team that will build its whole season around our game and try too hard, resulting in season changing injuries. 

Playing USU does nothing for us in any way. Neither does playing NIU or Wyoming, but at least those games don’t involve USU fan or QB injuries every year. 

[UteThunder]

Teams like Wyoming and NIU are going to build their whole season around us too. We’re P5 now, remember? We are now one of the 2 or 3 biggest games for any G5 team we play.

Utah State isn’t going to make a bigger deal out of the game than NIU or Wyoming will.

[Utah]

They won’t do it the same way. We aren’t their rivals. And NIU plays much better teams than us. We are an after thought to them. 

[chinngiskhaan]

it has nothing to do with the legislature being mormons… and everything to do with them being BYU fans. There are plenty of mormons that hate BYU.

[Anonymous]

Careful. Utah State is the only non-conference loss we have since joining the PAC.

[Matthew Thomas Castleton]

Yeah. I know. I was there. But in that particular loss, Utah lost their starting quarterback to injury (Jordan Wynn) and played the rest of the game with a back up (Jon Hays). Plus they beat us IN OVERTIME. And that Utah State team went on to finish 11-2 (6-0 WAC) while also finishing ranked #16 in the AP Poll and #17 in the Coaches’ Poll. Basically, that was the best Utah State football team in decades and they only beat us on their home field in OVERTIME after we lost our starting quarterback in the game. That my friend is called a perfect storm. We also finished 5-7 that year, and it’s one of the ONLY two years that Kyle Whittingham’s team wasn’t bowl eligible (the other being the next year in 2013).

[OldAsDirtUte]

But… But… But…  If we we to schedule the Aggies…

Would the Aggies survive the Audit?

[Duhwayne]

Alternate BYU and USU each year. Make them equal and pants them both. Done.

[utefansince79]

I still like the A B C model.

A – Team from another top conference, home-away.    BYU most emphatically no longer is close to being an A opponent.  

B – Team from middle ties conference (OK to be home-away),   Old MWC rivals, Utah State, and BYU fall into this category.

C – FCS team ALWAYS in Salt Lake

 

[Matthew Thomas Castleton]

Also, to those who are complaining about BYU being the last game of the year this year, know that this is NOT going to be anything else but a one-time thing. It’s ONLY that way on our schedule because of a scheduling anomaly (or “quirk,” as Whittingham called it at Pac-12 Media Day). The Pac-12 scheduled our 1st conference game (vs. Washington) as the THIRD game of the season this year. Our first conference game literally every season we’ve been in the Pac-12 hasn’t come until the FOURTH game of the season except for this year. Washington is ALSO dealing with that exact same scheduling anomaly/quirk, and, oddly enough, they are ALSO playing BYU AFTER already having started conference play. Had we chosen to play BYU in September, as has become the norm, we wouldn’t have had our bye week until THE VERY LAST WEEK OF THE SEASON (i.e. when we are playing them to the lay person). Translation: NO BUENO. No time to heal injured/hurt players.

Anyway, you can tell by looking at BYU’s schedule this year that they had to hurry to fill out their schedule after we likely declined to play them in September (due to said game causing us to not have a bye week until the last week of the season). Our bye week this season is the week of Saturday, September 22nd. That day BYU is playing FCS opponent McNeese State. That day clearly was the date they had planned to play us, and once we turned them down (again, because we wouldn’t have had a bye week until the last week of the season), they had to scramble to fill out their schedule with any available opponent they could find. Which likely is the reason why they scheduled FCS McNeese State, because no other viable opponent was available to be scheduled on such short notice. If they wanted to play us, it was going to be on OUR TERMS.

[FtheY]

Easy on the SEC schools now – do you realize how hard it is to play against community colleges at home 4 times a year, especially in November?! 

[Chidojuan]

Gotta watch out for them Jacksonville State Gamec**ks, not to be confused with the other ones.

[Chidojuan]

Ha! @admin, gamec**k was censored.  Now I want to try all of them.  C**katrice, c**k-a-doodle-doo, Wild Bill Hickock.  That made my day.

[RedLine]

You speaking c**kney there mate? 

[Tony (admin)]

That’s great.

[UteThunder]

What a bunch of poppy-c**k!

[Chidojuan]

Sorry Tony, the teenage boy in me took control.  I won’t tag you like that again.

[Tony (admin)]

No worries.

[Author]

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