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Have never really felt Rice as a sports rival and they do not bring out people. If we are in the Big East, we do not need extreme national attention to make it to a BCS bowl, we just have to win the conference. Better to just find teams to put butts in seats than to travel all over the country wasting money and having a half empty stadium. Not to mention that the Big East is far and wide already.

We have Baylor scheduled for 2012-2019. That is a long time and hopefully it leads to a full stadium. We also have UNT from 2014-2018. UNT, UTEP, UTSA, or any regional school is fine for a warm up. UTEP always brings a good crowd. If we get a guaranteed crossover game with Navy and AFA is in our division, perhaps we can add Army so we play all three.

I would prefer Baylor, UNT, TCU, and Navy. They all bring good crowds, and there is much interest in each meeting.

TTech is fine too. While they have some [deleted] fans, there are some good ones too. We will eventually beat them again, I would hope.

NY Pony wrote:

SMU 46 wrote:
I'm not sure if it's contractual, but ND committed to play 2 to 3 teams from the Big East every year. With Navy possibly joining the conference, this could take away from one of those games. But if the Big East survives long enough, I wouldnt be suprised to see SMU play ND.

It is contractual. 2 a year one on the road and one in South Bend. We will face them once every 6 years and once every 12 in Dallas. I hope at Doak's House.

Good info...those would be fun games in the future. For sure in the house that Doak built....way too much tradition.

skyscraper wrote:I'm all for inking a deal with Tulane. Easy opponent and still get the occasional trip to NOLA.

Agree. Not always easy but a great trip every other year.

I like playing Rice every year. They always play us well too.

Would love to see us do one OOC game a year either at Jerryworld or Cotton Bowl against a marquee team. ND is probably out b/c of their new deal with Texas. I'm thinking LSU, Ohio State, USC, Alabama, Tennessee, Michigan, etc.- big fanbases that will travel well, and schools that want Texas exposure for recruiting purposes.

If we are going to be one of the big boys it is time to act like it. Schedule powderpuffs for 3 non conf ( this includes teams like tulane and rice and a d2) and one lesser AQ like wash St, Baylor. Kansas. Ucla. Etc.

Dutch wrote:If we are going to be one of the big boys it is time to act like it. Schedule powderpuffs for 3 non conf ( this includes teams like tulane and rice and a d2) and one lesser AQ like wash St, Baylor. Kansas. Ucla. Etc.

Why? We probably won't get a BCS bid without winning the BE anyways- why not play a big OOC opponent to increase our exposure?

Keep from getting beat up. Also bc we don't have to play paycheck games anymore if we are making money. Point is to get wins.

East Coast Mustang wrote:

Dutch wrote:If we are going to be one of the big boys it is time to act like it. Schedule powderpuffs for 3 non conf ( this includes teams like tulane and rice and a d2) and one lesser AQ like wash St, Baylor. Kansas. Ucla. Etc.

Why? We probably won't get a BCS bid without winning the BE anyways- why not play a big OOC opponent to increase our exposure?

TCU is our big OOC opponent.

Agree to disagree...I have a lot of respect for those teams who will play anyone, anywhere. Play big teams, get more exposure, get better recruits, win more games.

I would start the first few seasons with Rice, Tulane/Army, TCU, and UNT or Army. Then drop UNT for Baylor. Once we master that we can upgrade to Rice, TCU, Baylor and (Texas Tech, Texas A&M, Notre Dame, USC, Miami, etc.) Eventually I would keep Rice, TCU, Baylor, UTEP/Tulane/Army/UNT. Keep our traditional rivals in the fold, 2 easy wins, and 2 toss-ups.

Drop Rice and Tulane. They bring nothing. It's a lose, lose for us. If we beat them no one cares and they bring no fans. If we lose it's bad press and no fans. Use the TT model and schedule the really bad teams of Div. I and FCS schools, they won't bring any fans either (maybe SFA, SHS) but easy wins. We already play TCU OOC, schedule Baylor or Army and call it a day. At least they bring fans. We need to pad the wins OOC to make it that much easier to go to a bowl game. When we start seriously dominating the BE year after year than go schedule a tough OOC opponent to bolster the SOS otherwise, pretty pointless to load up on tough OOC and risk fighting it out to get to 6 wins.

Frankly as far as FCS is concerned, I was really impressed with how NW St. traveled. They brought a lot of fans.

OOC ought to be regional rivalries since we're headed way far away for a lot of games. Baylor, UNT, TCU, UTEP, etc.