(12-26-2014 12:48 PM)Ricefootballnet Wrote: And a return road game in Chestnut Hill would give us a great New England fall weekend trip, as well...
+1
(12-26-2014 12:50 PM)WRCisforgotten79 Wrote: Through games of December 20, I have Boston College at #45, while South Alabama is at #101. In my opinion, three P5 opponents in the "preseason" would be too much.
Why? I understand you're comparing USA and BC, but the season isn't one game. What difference would it make playing #45 BC or #31 Marshall? I'd like to ASSUME that they wouldn't make our cross-over game be the best team in the east again.
Best I can tell, they have 15 grad students and 15 seniors whom I would presume are all graduating. I don't know if that means they are more likely to be #35 or #55 next year or not... and UT finished at 40. I don't know if they'll be more likely to be #30 or #50... and La Tech finished at 41... again, will they be #30 or 50 next year? Duke was 44, and I think we were generally pretty happy in the past to schedule them.
I think Marshall proved that you don't do yourself any favors scheduling a dozen wins... if you can't beat teams ranked in the 30's-50's... and obviously we should have no problem getting to 6 wins in conference alone so we should be bowling again...
Baylor is the only game I'm not happy about... I think all the others MIGHT create an opportunity for the ever-elusive 'signature win'... and losses to UT or BC wouldn't be a drag on our reputation (imo) if we otherwise take care of business.
I get what you're saying... but there is a difference between playing #45 BC AT HOME or Texas and playing top 10 A&M, Notre Dame and Baylor on the road. I realize that ND and A&M 'fell from grace', but that doesn't mean they weren't good when they played us. They both beat some darn good football teams in addition to beating us.... and we're talking about a Boston team AT HOME in Texas in September.
Frankly, I think that #45 area is the 'sweet spot' for us. I don't think those p5 teams are actually worthy of those rankings but they are living off of their SOS and playing rivals closer and an occasional upset than they might otherwise be capable of (like we did in the SWC in the 80's)... meanwhile I think g5 teams in the 40's are actually much better than that... losing the occasional rivalry upset and drug down by the far weaker SOS
We just don't often get many shots at arguably beatable 'name' p5 programs, especially in a year where we hope to be pretty good.. Far too often we are relegated to far less beatable ones. In 2008 we had a great team (by our standards) and got #1 UT.
Obviously I'd defer to the administration... I just think that if BC is expected to be in the same area where they finished this year, we should put them on the schedule. Beating USA does nothing for us and we don't want them to be next year's 'oops'.