Bates gets scheduling gift from Big XII

The Big XII announced a new schedule mandate: all teams must play a non-conference game against a Power 5 team or Notre Dame. It is being referred to as the "Baylor" rule, but plenty of the members have loaded up on cupcakes. The reason for the rule is to help the Conference's power rating with regards to the Playoff Selection Committee. Because current scheduled games are grandfathered into the clause, this doesn't create dozens of openings. But it does create an opportunity for Brad Bates. There are now ten more schools looking for future Power 5 opponents. While BC doesn't offer a big pay day, we do offer a an attractive and seemingly winnable game to the potential opponents.

While none of the Big XII schools would be my first choice for a future game, there is enough variety in their membership that Bates is sort of boxed in with his excuses.

If he wants a traditional power/and big pay day...there's Texas and Oklahoma. I think BC fans would turn out in big numbers for a game in Austin. And a return visit from either team would surely fill Alumni and create good buzz. Norman might not be an attractive road trip, but come on! Who wouldn't love to see BC play Oklahoma?

If Bates just wants to play private school Power 5 teams...there's TCU and Baylor. Scheduling either right now might seem daunting. Both are at their historic peak. But I would welcome either. By the time we get them on the field, it could be very likely both will have reverted to something closer to their historical position in college football.

If he wants a matchup with history...there's West Virginia. This matchup predates our Big East membership and goes back to when both teams were Eastern Independents. We've played them 33 times. It is also a relatively close game, so the charter flight costs are a little less.

If he wants a winnable game...there's Kansas and Iowa State. Both could get better by the time we play them, but both are traditionally bad. We shouldn't be scared to schedule either.

The only real teams that don't fit any of BC's potential profiles for a non-conference game are Kansas State, Oklahoma State and Texas Tech. But all would be much better than playing another cupcake.

I doubt BC will add a Big XII team. Bates and Addazio's scheduling moves have been transparent. We can only hope that the ACC starts mandating the type of scheduling the Big XII just embraced.

More info on future schedules

Per FBschedules.com, BC added Ohio to the 2020 schedule. By itself that is not a bad game or a big deal. However, in the context of all our future scheduling, it is terrible. Bates and Addazio keep shrugging and explaining that they are penned in by past commitments and conference switches and that is why our non-conference schedule disappoints. They will also say that it takes years to schedule another Power 5 team. There are elements of truth to all of that. But it also covers up their desire to keep the schedule soft. If they really wanted to add some challenges to the future, they would be doing it now. Instead they are locking in winnable games.

Bates is also misreading the college landscape and his own fanbase. I do agree that winning easy games is probably a better perception decision than losing hard ones. Recruits, the media and most fans look at W-L first and not who you played. However, by 2020 Addazio should be beyond padding the win total. If he still needs those Ws in his 8th year, then something is wrong. At that point he should be established enough that BC can take a risk. If he's not, then there will be pressure to fire him whether we are beating Ohio or losing to Alabama.

Should BC explore independence?

With another conference shuffle looming and BC's position totally up in the air, I started to wonder if BC should explore football independence. We spent the majority of our history as an independent and now -- with new media solutions and an influx of cash -- football independence is actually an option again. The issues as always are about money and perception. Could BC improve our football revenue as an independent and would independence make us more or less relevant? Keep those questions in mind as we look at all the considerations for independence.

Basketball and non-revenue sports
If BC were to go independent in football, we would still need a conference for all of our other sports. Fortunately we have a logical home -- the current basketball schools in the Big East. While not as lucrative as the ACC hoops schools, this would still be a relevant basketball conference. Plus we have a lot of history with all of them and they are all in our geographic footprint. This would be like playing in the original Big East.

Football scheduling
This might not be as bad as you might think. Assume the indies would all stick together, that means that Notre Dame, BYU, Army, Navy and Texas would be on the slate on an annual or near annual basis. Then assume we book long series with UMass and Syracuse. Then BC could lock in a mix of two elite BCS schools every year and a few middle of the pack BCS schools every year. It would obviously involve a lot more work and deal making than we currently need, but I think a home schedule of ND, UMass, Navy, Syracuse, Michigan, UNH and Wake Forest would sell as well as next year's schedule of Notre Dame, Rhode Island, Army, Clemson, Miami, Maryland, and Virginia Tech.

TV revenue
Huge unknown here. BC has produced consistently strong ratings and is in a major media market. On the flipside though, BC is not a national brand. Would ESPN or one of its competitors pay $15 million or more for BC's home games? I could see Comcast New England paying a big fee for the rights and sharing the distribution with Versus/NBC Cable for the bigger games. These conversations should be had, but BC should never make a serious move without some hard assurances on the value of the deal.

Postseason football
Losing access to the BCS or the ACC's bowl slots might be a big deal to other schools, but it shouldn't be for BC. We will never get prime bowls in any conference. If we were to go independent we could string together a series of invites to the San Franciscos and San Diegos of the world just like Army and Navy do now. Also, while in theory the ACC provides us a path to the BCS, being independent might be as viable. As an independent we could pad our schedule Boise State style and only win one or two games against top teams to earn respect and computer rankings.

Recruiting
This is where I think BC would take the biggest risk. BYU and Notre Dame have natural pipelines they can use to recruit. While BC has succeeded with the same type of kid for decades, I think not having a conference affiliation would hurt our sales pitch. Right now we sell top level football with a top level education. As in independent that pitch becomes a bit hollow unless we are really kicking ass.

Conclusion
If I knew BC was willing to employ an aggressive style of play and smart scheduling, I think independence could work. But the reality is that our current leadership wouldn't embrace this type of risk. There is a level of safety in a conference even if it means playing with a bunch of schools we left seven years ago. In the end our reputation and TV market will always keep us in the game. Let's hope we like how this iteration of musical chairs plays out.

Local commit and other news

BC picked up another verbal commitment. This time from Catholic Memorial defensive back Donovan Henry. Welcome aboard, Donovan.

While Henry's commitment is good news, there is a growing concern that BC is collecting a few too many under the radar recruits. I am not concerned about stars or ratings. My bigger concern is that we didn't seem to close on some top recruits or seemingly easy sells. Maybe we need to freshen the message. The silver lining is that on the field, BC continues to outperform our recruiting.

BC High's Preston Cooper is hoping for a BC offer.

Rivals has us 41st in their preseason rankings.

Donnie Fletcher is another player added to a preseason watch list.

BYU keeps mentioning potential games against BC. While its not the same as playing an SEC power, BYU does represent solid scheduling for BC. We are on a similar playing field and would get decent respect for winning.

Out of conference previews and other links

This writer previews our out of conference slate and thinks we took on too much. I agree that UCF will be a tough game, but this is the type of schedule we should be playing every year. Padding our win totals is not selling tickets or getting people excited about BC bowls. What is surprising is you haven't heard much talk from Gene or Spaz about the difficulty of our schedule in the lead up to the season.

BC is a finalist for New Jersey LB Michael Strizak.

BCI applauds Vanderbilt leveraging academics to land recruits. I think their success and Stanford's recent success selling academics is somewhat misleading. Duke, Stanford, BC, Vandy, Northwestern, etc have been selling their classroom experience and graduation rates for years. Vandy and Stanford's recent success recruiting is more about a fresh delivery and passion from new head coaches.

Five non-BCS schools we should schedule

Want to see a BC Athletic Department representative roll his or her eyes: suggest that BC should drop the FCS and MAC games and schedule non-conference games against Alabama, Ohio State and Texas every year. We all know it is not going to happen. The FCS game is a permanent slot on every FBS school's schedule. BC is also not going to ever play three BCS opponents out of conference in one season. That means with most of our BCS opponents spoken for over the next ten years (Notre Dame, Syracuse, USC, Northwestern) we should really start to get strategic and creative in which non-BCS opponents we should play. I have my ideas and would like to here yours. (Because BC doesn't have the money to buy games I am assuming that these agreements will always be home and home or on occasion a 2 for 1 in BC's favor.)


1. Northern Illinois The Chicagoland area is important for BC and BC football. We have a strong alumni base there. We continue to accept many students from the area and the football team is now recruiting the area competitively again. Given our history with the MAC, Northern Illinois would probably entertain a 2 for 1, since BCS programs rarely play at their stadiums. The only argument against playing there is that our Chicago fans already have Northwestern and Notre Dame games to attend. There are other pockets of alums that also deserve to see BC in person.

2. San Jose State My rationale for playing the Spartans is very similar to the idea behind playing Northern Illinois. I would much rather play Stanford or Cal in front of our Bay Area fans and alums, but we might have to wait seven or eight years before Stanford and Cal are open on the same year we only have one BCS opponent. We could probably get San Jose State on board in the near future.

3. Temple For years BC wanted Temple off the schedule and now I am suggesting adding them back! But my logic is a bit different now. When the Temple game was a Big East conference game, it represented a dead spot in the schedule. It was filler to pad the win total and generated zero excitement. At the time Temple was one of the worst programs in college football. Now things are a little different. They are much improved and might represent an interesting matchup on occasion. Plus with 12 games, you are going to play some lower level teams. So shouldn't BC play a team that it has a bit of history with? It doesn't hurt that eastern PA and New Jersey are still important recruiting grounds for us. And financially it is an inexpensive trip.

4. Navy Army is back on the schedule, so let's get the Naval Academy back on too. I assume BC has not been in a rush to play Navy because it would represent a very tough game. But assuming that Navy will maintain their current success another five to ten years is presumptuous. What BC should rely on is our history with the Service Academies and our inherent advantages over them on the football field. In most years BC would be a heavy favorite to beat Navy. Not scheduling them out of fear is lame.

5. Tulane Because our ACC schedule brings us south so often, I know Gene wants to visit other areas of the country. But that shouldn't prevent us from playing Tulane. Not only would it be a fun and unique trip for many BC fans, but we should also seek out like minded schools for our opponents. We take pride in doing things the right way and recruiting student athletes. Shouldn't we play other schools that do the same?