BYU announces football games with San Diego State and McNeese State

http://byucougars.com/m-football/byu-announces-football-games-san-diego-state-and-mcneese-state



SDSU in 2019 and 2020

MS in 2018

McNeese State University is a public regional university located in Lake Charles, Louisiana, in the United States. Founded in 1939 as Lake Charles Junior College, it was renamed McNeese Junior College after John McNeese, an early local educator.[citation needed] The present name was adopted in 1970. McNeese is part of the University of Louisiana System and is classified by the Carnegie Foundation as a Master's University.[4] U.S. News and World Report designates McNeese as a Tier One South Regional University.[5] The selective admissions university consists of six colleges and the Doré School of Graduate Studies. McNeese is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, and all programs of study are accredited by their respective national boards.



McNeese's colors are blue and gold. The men's sports teams are known as the Cowboys, while the women's athletic teams are the Cowgirls. McNeese State sports teams participate in NCAA Division I (Football Championship Subdivision (I-AA) for football) in the Southland Conference.



Football

Main article: McNeese State Cowboys football

The football team plays at Louis Bonnette Field at Cowboy Stadium, which seats 17,000 fans. It is also known as "The Hole" and is located near campus. The team played in the inaugural Independence Bowl game in 1976, a 20–16 victory over Tulsa. They would go on to make two more appearances in 1979 and 1980. The Cowboys football team have more recently played in two Division I-AA Finals, in 1997 and 2002.

hawkwing wrote:
McNeese State University is a public regional university located in Lake Charles, Louisiana, in the United States. Founded in 1939 as Lake Charles Junior College, it was renamed McNeese Junior College after John McNeese, an early local educator.[citation needed] The present name was adopted in 1970. McNeese is part of the University of Louisiana System and is classified by the Carnegie Foundation as a Master's University.[4] U.S. News and World Report designates McNeese as a Tier One South Regional University.[5] The selective admissions university consists of six colleges and the Doré School of Graduate Studies. McNeese is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, and all programs of study are accredited by their respective national boards.



McNeese's colors are blue and gold. The men's sports teams are known as the Cowboys, while the women's athletic teams are the Cowgirls. McNeese State sports teams participate in NCAA Division I (Football Championship Subdivision (I-AA) for football) in the Southland Conference.



Football

Main article: McNeese State Cowboys football

The football team plays at Louis Bonnette Field at Cowboy Stadium, which seats 17,000 fans. It is also known as "The Hole" and is located near campus. The team played in the inaugural Independence Bowl game in 1976, a 20–16 victory over Tulsa. They would go on to make two more appearances in 1979 and 1980. The Cowboys football team have more recently played in two Division I-AA Finals, in 1997 and 2002.

...and SDSU simply is a hole.

I'm surprised by the SDSU games. They seemed pretty upset at our leaving the MWC.

SpiffCoug wrote:
I'm surprised by the SDSU games. They seemed pretty upset at our leaving the MWC.

Wait until we tell them who's manning our video booth ;)

This makes the entire west division now that has scheduled BYU since they left the conference to become independent. The only remaining holdouts are the front rangers: Air Force, Colorado State, New Mexico, and Wyoming. And I'm really not all that sure how many of those guys you really want on your schedule anyhow to be honest--considering the other teams BYU is playing.

Air Force is the only other one I would have any interest in playing.They are usually decent and the games were generally good.

screamineagle2 wrote:
Air Force is the only other one I would have any interest in playing.They are usually decent and the games were generally good.

I agree on Air Force. (cue the "protect our knees" comments). A match against a military academy gives the game a unique atmosphere, and we have some great history with the Falcons.



I'd also like to see a series with Colorado St., especially now that they will have a brand new 40K-seat on-campus stadium.



I don't mind that we played Wyoming, but I'm actually quite grateful it was in the San Diego bowl game and not in Laramie.



Because the USU game has moved to home-away, I would prefer BYU work Air Force and CSU into the rotation with USU. I just don't see the need to play the Aggies every year if it means a road trip to North Ogden every other year (I know it's Logan...). May be every other year, unless we can get USU back on a 2-for-1 (or the 3-for-1 that we used to get).



We should play Boise St. and Hawaii every year and either SDSU or Fresno every year. Boise St. has national cache and is a budding rival. Hawaii is an old rival and good for recruiting and the Week 0 and 13th game exemption. I think the Week 0 exemption might be more valuable than the 13th game.



Throw in UNLV or SJSU into the mix occasionally. But, games with Stanford will get BYU in the Bay Area and neutral-site games in Vegas (such as Arizona in 2021 and bowl game) are preferable to UNLV.



Boise St.

Hawaii

USU/AFA/CSU

SDSU/Fresno(UNLV/SJSU) (may be use the MWC West's Week 0 exemption in years when we don't play in Honolulu)

Having actually been to a McNeese home game before, I'm totally good with scheduling them for a one-and-done home game. They have a decent following even in the rain, from what I witnessed, and they're pretty good for an FCS team (playoff appearances, conference championships, overall record), and they've delivered some good FBS upsets (USF 2013, MTSU 2012) and near upsets (Nebraska 2014).

YNot wrote:

...

Because the USU game has moved to home-away, I would prefer BYU work Air Force and CSU into the rotation with USU. I just don't see the need to play the Aggies every year if it means a road trip to North Ogden every other year (I know it's Logan...). May be every other year, unless we can get USU back on a 2-for-1 (or the 3-for-1 that we used to get).

...

BYU getting 2:1s or 3:1s from Utah State on a regular basis until just recently is not the case. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BYU–Utah_State_football_rivalry



BYU and Utah State have played alternating locations from the early 1930s when a couple games took place in Ogden at the half-way point with the following exceptions:



1979-1980 - back to back games played in Logan



1983-1984 - back to back games played in Provo



1986-1988 - back to back to back games played in Provo



1990-1992 - back to back to back games played in Provo



2000-2001 - back to back games played in Provo



2011-2012 - back to back games played in Provo



So with the exception of the 80s when 6 of 10 were in Provo and the 90s when 6 of 9 were in Provo (during the program's glory days), the 2:1 games happened about once a decade when Utah State was really at their low point as a program.



Conclusions:

- BYU playing Utah State in Ogden hasn't happened in nearly 90 years--and with modern transportation there is no legitimate reason (like to play in an NFL stadium, or at some special event of a game with big media attention) to start that up again.

- Utah State (rightfully so) has no desire to give up home games and has said home/home or nothing. What motivation would they have to consent to being treated like that? And why would BYU want to earn the reputation as a school who treats other in-state schools like that when their schedule could fully accommodate a home/home series? If BYU goes that route then I think fans lose the ability to be upset with any other school giving BYU a 2-for-1 or 1-done without hypocrisy. A better move would be to play the home-home series every couple years rather than as an annual event if the games aren't "good enough".

Fido wrote:
BYU getting 2:1s or 3:1s from Utah State on a regular basis until just recently is not the case. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BYU–Utah_State_football_rivalry

1986-1988 in Provo, 1989 in Logan

1990-1992 in Provo, 1993 in Logan



That is two back-to-back 3-for-1 contracts.



That was apparently followed by a 2-for-2 contract from 1994 to 1999, but with a year off in between the games in Provo and Logan. (1995 and 1998)



That was followed by a 2-for-1 contract. 2000-2001 in Provo, 2002 in Logan.



That was followed by no game at all for the next 3 seasons.



That was then followed by a 3-for 2 series. 2006, 2009, and 2011 in Provo, 2008 and 2010 in Logan, with no game in 2007.



It wasn't until BYU's independence that BYU agreed to go back to the home-home with Utah State. I believe that Tom Holmoe over-valued the BYU-USU game and the desire to play it in November.



I think most BYU fans would be totally fine to play USU only occasionally. If we're going to play home-away series with MWC schools, I'd much rather see SDSU, Air Force, CSU, and Hawaii than an annual game with USU.

Fido wrote:
- BYU playing Utah State in Ogden hasn't happened in nearly 90 years--and with modern transportation there is no legitimate reason (like to play in an NFL stadium, or at some special event of a game with big media attention) to start that up again.

I'll take "Poor Troll Attempts" for 100, Alex. (referring to my own original post)



The common inside joke is to refer to Ogden as the site of USU, rather than Logan. Ie, the average BYU fan doesn't know the difference between Logan and Ogden or where USU is actually situated.

Fido wrote:
- Utah State (rightfully so) has no desire to give up home games and has said home/home or nothing. What motivation would they have to consent to being treated like that? And why would BYU want to earn the reputation as a school who treats other in-state schools like that when their schedule could fully accommodate a home/home series? If BYU goes that route then I think fans lose the ability to be upset with any other school giving BYU a 2-for-1 or 1-done without hypocrisy. A better move would be to play the home-home series every couple years rather than as an annual event if the games aren't "good enough".

BYU needs to revise its scheduling philosophy to align more with the Big-time programs. That means more G5's in Provo for one-and-done or 2-for-1.



USU is the perfect place to start, because we have prior history of imbalanced contracts over the last 25 years.



I agree that BYU can stop the 2-for-1 games at P5 schools. We now have sufficient games in most future seasons to add balanced series or neutral-site games against P5 opponents.



Most announced P5 series scheduled in the last couple of years match this philosophy:



Utah

Baylor

Minnesota

Virginia - This is actually one game in BYU's favor.

Mississippi St.

Michigan St.



I don't mind the WVU game in Maryland or LSU game in Houston, even if not truly "neutral" by geography.



I actually don't mind the imbalanced series with Stanford and USC - even though these were scheduled years ago - because it gets the team in California against true PAC Power opponents over Thanksgiving weekend.