Scooch
Living Legend
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- Aug 27, 2011
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...it is a cakewalk compared to how we used to schedule out of conference.
I was just looking up our 2001 season. This was our OOC slate: Georgia Tech (at the Meadowlands on 8/26), at Tennessee, vs UCF, vs Auburn, vs East Carolina. I mean, that is friggin' bonkers. Not only did we purposefully schedule 2 SEC teams, but we then added an ACC team in the Kickoff Classic!
And that wasn't an aberration, that lunacy was the norm. Consider...
1996: vs UNC, at Minnesota, at Tulane, vs Army
1997: Wisconsin (Meadowlands), vs NC State, at Oklahoma, vs Tulane, vs. East Carolina
1998: vs Tennessee, at Michigan, at NC State, vs Cincy
1999 and 2000 were sane
2002: at BYU, vs UNC, vs URI, at Auburn, at UCF
2003: at UNC, vs Louisville, vs UCF, vs Toledo, vs Notre Dame
2004: at Purdue, at Buffalo, vs Cincy, at Virginia, vs Florida State
Season after season of crazy town. And this was all done long after we were firmly in a Big East that featured Miami, VaTech and WVU.
This is why I'm not entirely sympathetic when people are kvetching about how this year's schedule cost us a bowl. Colgate, USF, UConn and ND is not in the same stratosphere as what we put ourselves through once upon a time. And Central Connecticut, Middle Tennessee State, Central Michigan, LSU next year is about as poised for 3 wins as we can get. At the very least, it could be much, much, much, much worse.
I was just looking up our 2001 season. This was our OOC slate: Georgia Tech (at the Meadowlands on 8/26), at Tennessee, vs UCF, vs Auburn, vs East Carolina. I mean, that is friggin' bonkers. Not only did we purposefully schedule 2 SEC teams, but we then added an ACC team in the Kickoff Classic!
And that wasn't an aberration, that lunacy was the norm. Consider...
1996: vs UNC, at Minnesota, at Tulane, vs Army
1997: Wisconsin (Meadowlands), vs NC State, at Oklahoma, vs Tulane, vs. East Carolina
1998: vs Tennessee, at Michigan, at NC State, vs Cincy
1999 and 2000 were sane
2002: at BYU, vs UNC, vs URI, at Auburn, at UCF
2003: at UNC, vs Louisville, vs UCF, vs Toledo, vs Notre Dame
2004: at Purdue, at Buffalo, vs Cincy, at Virginia, vs Florida State
Season after season of crazy town. And this was all done long after we were firmly in a Big East that featured Miami, VaTech and WVU.
This is why I'm not entirely sympathetic when people are kvetching about how this year's schedule cost us a bowl. Colgate, USF, UConn and ND is not in the same stratosphere as what we put ourselves through once upon a time. And Central Connecticut, Middle Tennessee State, Central Michigan, LSU next year is about as poised for 3 wins as we can get. At the very least, it could be much, much, much, much worse.