(05-05-2015, 03:52 PM)Spiny_Norman link Wrote:[quote author=CrazedZooChimp link=topic=12029.msg117716#msg117716 date=1430861080]
[quote author=Spiny_Norman link=topic=12029.msg117707#msg117707 date=1430858565]
Stanford currently scheduled to play at Rice in 2017. If Stanford plays at San Diego St as well, the schedule will only have 6 home games (5 conference games plus the University of Dead Fake Girlfriends).Â
Stanford still has a hole in the schedule in 2016 for an OOC opponent. Only Rice and the University of Dead Fake Girlfriends on the schedule right now.
6 home games is not uncommon, it has happened almost every recent even year. Perhaps they are just switching the 6 v 7 home game years from even to odd.
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The convention has been 7 home games in odd years and 6 in even years. This has been predicated on playing 2 OOC home games each year. It is rare for Stanford to play 2 away OOC games in a season. Looking back to 2000, it has happened only twice. In 2002 Stanford went to BC and ND. In 2008 Stanford went to TCU and ND. In both seasons, Stanford only played 5 home games. I expect the AD to do everything to avoid that situation. Stanford must be looking for a home game for 2016.
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Good points, Spiny. One of the things I've noticed with a lot of the recent announcements (BYU, Northwestern, TCU, Vanderbilt, UCF, UVA/SDSt, Rice, etc.) is that there seems to be a fundamental shift in how the AD is scheduling football.
Traditionally we have had an Easy/Medium/Hard out-of-conference schedule; Easy would be a permanent home game against lower tier opponents (usually San Jose St. -> sometimes UCDavis or Sac St. etc.), Medium would be a home-and-home against a mid-tier opponent, usually a below-average Power5 team that should be a win, but scheduled as a home-and-home; and Hard was usually Notre Dame, also a home-and-home against a nationally-recognized football power.
Most of the recent announcements have forgone the Easy and we are scheduling ourselves purely with home-and-home games against mid-tier opponents or better. Even if not a Power 5 school (BYU, Rice, SDSt.), we are willing to do a home-and-home to get more attractive higher-tier matchups.
The corollary to this is that it seems to me that we are aiming for a future in which instead of the traditional even/odd year split of 6/7 home games, we will instead aim to have 6 home games yearly, of a slightly higher quality than before.
This seems to be a deliberate choice by the AD, and makes some sense. The early-season September home date before students are here against a lower tier opponent (SJSt, UCDavis, Sac St) doesn't bring a whole lot of revenue/TV/gate anyways, and the Bay Area and Stanford fanbase seems willing to be more interested in playing better opponents as opposed to the factory school model of paying to see your team crush a Little Sisters of the Poor and walk out happy to have paid to have seen it.
There are side benefits as well - perhaps higher TV ratings with the higher-order SOS, and better positioning in a world where the CFB Playoff actually gives weight to strong SOS, as well.
But it is a marked change, and it's interesting.
- MC
P.S. I use
http://www.fbschedules.com/ncaa/pac-10/s...rdinal.php to keep track of changes. Looking at schedules like 2015, 2017, and 2019 and I see the marked differences. Not many (any?) schools in the country are willing to play 9 conference games and then schedule on top of that at Northwester/UCF/Notre Dame or at Rice/at SDSt/Notre Dame or Northwestern/at UCF/Notre Dame as your 3 out-of-conference opponents. The SOS is eyebrow-raising.
