It's a puzzle: Scheduling requires moves, counter moves, cooperation
For athletic directors Chris Hill of Utah, Tom Holmoe of BYU and Scott Barnes of Utah State, their livelihoods depend on solving that puzzle. One flick of the wrist can cause either elation or irritation for a given fan base. It takes time, mental energy and a little bit of luck to make a cube of different colored squares turn into a six-sided, solid-colored masterpiece. Picking four teams to play on NCAA '09 and moving on, it is not.
What goes into making a nonconference football schedule? The majority of athletic directors around the nation use their name and prestige to set up appointments with other schools. Some contact conference headquarters for help, while others contact representatives of the schools themselves. Then, it's handed off to an assistant, who does most of the legwork before the ADs at both schools can sign on the dotted line.
"Scheduling is important, but I can't do everything," Barnes said. "I try to cast the net out there and create opportunities where we can get some good games. It's important to incorporate our philosophy in there."
"I get together with Coach (Bronco) Mendenhall," Holmoe said. "We have an agreement where we won't sign contracts without working it out together. I was a football coach and I understand how important that is to be involved in that."
Sometimes an idea from Mendenhall gets nixed because Holmoe has a better offer; other times Holmoe's scheduling idea does not fit Mendenhall's vision of what the football team is ready for.
Scheduling philosophies
How competitive the school's team is, as well as the clout a given school has nationally, usually determines how teams schedule. Two away games and two home games is the preferred model, but that's where the philosophical similarities end.
Barnes says Utah State's ideal nonconference schedule is to play one big-money game against a BCS school for nearly $1 million, play Utah or BYU (although not necessarily both in the same year), play a team that USU feels it has a chance at beating (such as a lower-tier MWC or MAC school), and play a I-AA team.
Hill feels scheduling is more about getting lucky and having teams come to Salt Lake.
"It's mostly about who has an opening when you have an opening," Hill said. "We want to have as representative a schedule as we can, but not so tough that we don't give our team some chance at success. We don't want to play Florida, Tennessee, Alabama and Michigan all in the same year, and we've got to get teams that are willing to come to our place.
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