Eliminating non-conference games in 2020?

https://www.ksl.com/article/46737050/patrick-kinahan-college-football-facing-uncertain-future-for-next-season



Mendenhall, the former BYU coach who is a trustee for the American Football Coaches Association, told reporters last week it’s time to think of playing a limited schedule if the current health situation doesn’t change. While return to normalcy has no definitive date, experts still remain adamant about practicing social distancing.



“The first step would be to eliminate nonconference games from the schedule and only play a conference schedule,” Mendenhall said. “Knowing that would still be challenging ... but in relation to the options we have, that certainly might be doable. Once you are under eight games, that probably becomes a non-legitimate season.”



Andersen suggested the Mountain West, which is Utah State’s conference, consider playing the usual eight conference games spread over 10 weeks if teams cannot resume regular activities on June 1. The Pac-12 decision this week to extend the ban on any form of formal practicing until May 31 would make it unlikely to resume regular routines on June 1.

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Let's suppose this really does happen. First problem is the Big 12, Big 10, and SEC conferences all have 9 conference games while the AAC, ACC, CUSA, MAC, MWC, SEC, and Sun Belt only have 8. I would think to level the playing field here you would have to say all FBS conference teams must play 9 games--either 9 conference games or 8 conference games + 1--and the one cannot be a FCS game. Essentially all FCS games would be cancelled. (to be continued....)

And BYU has no conference games..so that leaves us with just scheduling other independents? Yipee...

I don’t think this will happen. I think canceling entire weeks of the season and living with unbalanced conference schedules is more likely. But I’m not sure there will be any season at all.

So I went through a fun exercise since I was on vacation and my trip got cancelled so I was taking time off at home--I went through and crossed off OOC games with the PAC12, BIG10, and BIG12 since all have 9 conference games. Then all other teams could only keep 1 game from their OOC schedule to make a total of 9 games. Next I crossed off all FCS games as teams would not be able to keep them as their 9th game. Moving forward, I used the assumption that teams would want to keep the "best" game they could for strength of schedule against the 3 P5 conferences that only have P5 teams on their 9 game schedule. And I started the cascade of crossing out games that would be dropped (or rescheduled/bought out). The exercise was pretty fun--felt like a sudoku puzzle or something. In the end, the independents suffered the most as you might guess. Notre Dame lost some huge games (USC, Wisconsin, Stanford, Navy). But only ended up 1 game short. BYU lost Utah, Michigan State, Arizona State, Minnesota, and Stanford and ended up with 6 games (also lost North Alabama). UConn was the heaviest impacted dropping 8 games and a 9th in their FCS game--with only 3 games resulting on their schedule (UMass, Liberty, Army). UMass also suffered keeping only 5 games. Even if you allowed some of these independent teams to keep their FCS games and then played each other they would still struggle to get to 9 games and may have to add multiple FCS games to accomplish it.

Notre Dame would have a "whole" 9 game schedule by visiting BYU to close out that contract. BYU would just need to 2 "available" independent team to reach a 9 game schedule.



All this did not account for games that would need to be moved to account for holes in the schedule and eliminate the early September dates.



But like was said, this is very unlikely as it would be a massive amount of work to buy out or reschedule between 300 and 400 games. It would also quite possibly cause the FCS schools massive financial difficulty.

It's time BYU gets in a conference.

nuk13 wrote:

It's time BYU gets in a conference.

Even if it means sacrificing the TV deal and being a G5 conference member? Coaching salaries rolled back to their previous level and permanent b-level recruiting to Utah going forward?

Fido wrote:

So I went through a fun exercise since I was on vacation and my trip got cancelled so I was taking time off at home--I went through and crossed off OOC games with the PAC12, BIG10, and BIG12 since all have 9 conference games. Then all other teams could only keep 1 game from their OOC schedule to make a total of 9 games. Next I crossed off all FCS games as teams would not be able to keep them as their 9th game. Moving forward, I used the assumption that teams would want to keep the "best" game they could for strength of schedule against the 3 P5 conferences that only have P5 teams on their 9 game schedule. And I started the cascade of crossing out games that would be dropped (or rescheduled/bought out). The exercise was pretty fun--felt like a sudoku puzzle or something. In the end, the independents suffered the most as you might guess. Notre Dame lost some huge games (USC, Wisconsin, Stanford, Navy). But only ended up 1 game short. BYU lost Utah, Michigan State, Arizona State, Minnesota, and Stanford and ended up with 6 games (also lost North Alabama). UConn was the heaviest impacted dropping 8 games and a 9th in their FCS game--with only 3 games resulting on their schedule (UMass, Liberty, Army). UMass also suffered keeping only 5 games. Even if you allowed some of these independent teams to keep their FCS games and then played each other they would still struggle to get to 9 games and may have to add multiple FCS games to accomplish it.

Notre Dame would have a "whole" 9 game schedule by visiting BYU to close out that contract. BYU would just need to 2 "available" independent team to reach a 9 game schedule.



All this did not account for games that would need to be moved to account for holes in the schedule and eliminate the early September dates.



But like was said, this is very unlikely as it would be a massive amount of work to buy out or reschedule between 300 and 400 games. It would also quite possibly cause the FCS schools massive financial difficulty.

Man the Lord moves in mysterious ways to get ND to honor their contract. TIC. Interesting exercise.

Jarhead wrote:

I don’t think this will happen. I think canceling entire weeks of the season and living with unbalanced conference schedules is more likely. But I’m not sure there will be any season at all.

The conferences will come to agreement do that each one will play the same number of games, if it comes to that.



Two weeks ago, Larry Scott said that the P5 commissioners have a daily teleconference and that they teleconference twice weekly with the G5 commissioners.



The purpose is to explore the various models needed to deal with any eventuality. Whatever model that is implemented, it will be a collaborative effort.

https://www.deseret.com/sports/2020/4/16/21219635/byu-football-coronavirus-college-football-independents-tom-holmoe-army-umass-mormon-lds



More talk on this issue. The P5 are getting together to decide on what happens. they go with 9 conference game season. Can the G5 go with a 12 game season? Maybe BYU joins ND in the ACC for a year? Says the other independents might cancel their season due to lack of funds.

byufan4ever wrote:

And BYU has no conference games..so that leaves us with just scheduling other independents? Yipee...

Too easy. There are five other independent schools. Notre Dame, Liberty, UMass, New Mexico St, and Army.



We play a 2-for-1 with with UMass and Liberty. Notre Dame would insist on a 2-for-1 in their favor. That's nine games. Sign a home-and-home with Army. 11 games. Then New Mexico St gets to come to Provo. 12 games.