New Hawaii scheduling exception rule

https://www.ncaa.org/sites/default/files/Feb2016DICouncil_Report_20160217.pdf

Proposal Number: 2015-79-FBS



Basically this proposal says if you play Hawaii starting in 2017, if you play a game @ Hawaii, you are allowed to play your first game one Saturday before the normal start of the 2017 season--and so is your opponent you choose to schedule for that week. That way you can have a bye after the long road trip to Hawaii--or optionally use it to get in a 13th game and still have a bye for an independent like BYU who doesn't have a late season conference championship game on their schedule.



BYU is one of the teams that is playing @ Hawaii in 2017. I wonder if this will shake things up on those future schedules.

I think BYU should move up the 2017 LSU game to the new first week and play an FCS opponent the following week to maximize exposure. I like the idea of a warm up game but there isn't another game that could compete with that one on an otherwise empty first weekend (the other FBS teams playing at Hawaii are CSU, FSU, SDSU, SJSU and the best opponents they play that year are @Alabamax2, OrSt, N-Col, @Wash, @Stan, ASU, @Utah, @BYU). I imagine ESPN would kick in a lot of money to move one of those Alabama games to the first week, but BYU-LSU could beat out CSU-Alabama or FSU-Alabama.



Even without this rule I'd like to see BYU schedule a long term agreement with UH for recruiting purposes. The initial 10 year contract with UH was the one I was most excited about with Independence. It's too bad we don't have it in place still.



In years BYU doesn't play at Hawaii like 2018 and beyond I imagine they will try to schedule vs a MWC team that plays at UH on the new first weekend (though Navy and Rice are available in 2018). The game would surely get picked up by ESPN even if it was SJSU, UNLV, or Nevada with so little competition. And although I'm sure TH wants to keep Boise and USU later in the season, it might be worth it to play that game the first weekend for both teams to get an extra bye week later in the season.

We need one more home game in 2017 to get to 6 home games. I'd like to see the SJSU game in Provo move to August; then put a payday opponent in Provo on October 28.



This gives BYU a winnable home game before LSU in Houston and an easier game in between the ECU and Fresno St. road trips, and a mini-break right in the middle of the 9 consecutive game stretch (6 of which are road games).



For 2018 and beyond, we absolutely should get Hawaii as an annual opponent. I'd love to get UNLV and SDSU on the schedule frequently.

UNLV plays at Hawaii in 2018 and SDSU plays at Hawaii in 2020. That could work well into the strategy if BYU is playing in Hawaii in odd years.

I would love to seen BYU-ND to start 2017 as an option.



I hope this rule change prompts UH to go the independent route. It should be easier to schedule for them with the new rule and they would make a great late season scheduling partner with BYU/ND. If BYU can make use of this rule to get 2-4 bye weeks strategically placed through the year I think it would help a ton.