Looking back-Aren't You Glad Now...

[EastStang]

Then we know we just have to get better. You get in the best conference you can, play a solid out of conference schedule although one cupcake is acceptable for a tune-up. And accept the bowl bid against the best competition you can. If you do that and win, you'll be a star. TCU played down to La. Tech's level and nearly lost. What are the Big XII folks saying about TCU joining their conference now? The Big East has to say we belong because we crushed one of their elite teams.

[SMUer]

I think Tulsa did an extremely smart thing this year. Once you get to a point where you are reasonably sure you can win 5-6 games in your conference, why not schedule 2-3 bruisers in your non-conference? Tulsa started 1-3 because they played OU, OSU and Boise and still nearly won the conference. Once you get consistently good in a conference like CUSA, you can hedge your bets. We are not there yet but will try our luck against ATM, BU and TCU in 2012. Take care of conference games and you can be creative non-conference. I don't think going 1-3 hurt Tulsa because they played worthy opponents, played them close and nearly came away division champs. Good year.

[skyscraper]

Our non-conf sched going forward is good
One cream puff plus some tougher Texas schools and TCU every year.
So glad we played Pitt rather than Lalalalala in NOLA.

[sbsmith]

I think Tulsa did an extremely smart thing this year. Once you get to a point where you are reasonably sure you can win 5-6 games in your conference, why not schedule 2-3 bruisers in your non-conference? Tulsa started 1-3 because they played OU, OSU and Boise and still nearly won the conference. Once you get consistently good in a conference like CUSA, you can hedge your bets. We are not there yet but will try our luck against ATM, BU and TCU in 2012. Take care of conference games and you can be creative non-conference. I don't think going 1-3 hurt Tulsa because they played worthy opponents, played them close and nearly came away division champs. Good year.

May not have hurt them but it didn't help them, at the end of the day they were 8-5 just like us (except we won our bowl game).

[SMUer]

you could make the argument that the reason they were 8-5 and 7-1 in conference was because they played such a difficult non-conference that it got them better ready to play in CUSA...I don't know enough about preparing for a season at the college-level but I think it's a reasonable case

[mustangxc]

I am with Stallion! You play the best opponent possible both in bowl games and non-conference. Otherwise, attendance and recruiting suffer.

Let's pretend you could schedule the top 12 teams -- all of them. You go 0-12 or 1-11 (by some miracle). How have you advanced your program? You think you've built a fan base? If you say yes then you're an idiot. On the flip side, say you schedule the bottom 12 teams, and you go 12-0 or 11-1 (again, by some miracle you lose one). Have you energized your fan base? Not likely. My point has always been that it's a balancing act between the two. I don't mind scheduling hard teams, but make sure it's a team worth taking a loss for. Observers like to stop by for a big game, fans like to know their team is more than a 3-hour Saturday time killer.

Now you are just being argumentative as no team in the country faces anything close to that level of competition. LSU which plays in the SEC West and was praised for its schedule faced 5 top 25 teams. We are in CUSA so scheduling 3 or 4 top teams in non-conference play and then facing a top team in a bowl game is nothing like your comparison.

[mrydel]

I always like playing good competition, but that argument aside, now that we are in an AQ, our biggest obstacle is not winning. That is secondary to building a fan base. We need to get people in the stands even if it means a loss or two. We are getting good enough that we should be able to get our 7 wins or more even if we have a tough nonconference. We need to show we can put at least 35,000 in the stadium. The shuffling has not stopped. When the next moves are made, or more importantly, when the last moves are made, we need to be in the right group to be chosen. Draw big crowds, hopefully to a point that expansion is warranted. That is the goal now. Winning our conference (2013 and after) will get us BCS bowl money at least as the system is set up now. But again, we need to be ready for the last configuration.

[SMU 86]

Higher ranking and going to bowl games are the most important factor in my opinion. Especially if they take away AQ status for all conferences. We should find out at the next BCS meeting as some are saying that big changes are coming to the BCS. I think they are meeting pretty soon. We'll see.