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The Miami Hurricanes recently announced that they will open their 2017 season against FCS team Bethune-Cookman (B-C). This marks the third season in a row Miami will begin their season against a FCS team.
As part of the Atlantic Coast Conference, Miami will play eight conference games in 2017 and four non-conference games. The ACC and the SEC are the only Power Five Conferences to play eight conference games. The Big Ten, Big XII and Pac-12 all play nine games against conference opponents.
The Big Ten instituted a policy that began this past season that they will no longer schedule games against FCS opponents and that one of their non-conference games must be against a team from one of the other Power Five Conferences.
ESPN writer David Hale reported in October that “After some serious debate about moving to a nine-game conference football schedule, ACC athletic directors voted Wednesday to maintain the status quo.”
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As part of a new television deal with ESPN, ACC teams must play at least one non-conference game against a team from a Power Five Conference (including Notre Dame). The Hurricanes one game against a Power Five team in their non-conference schedule in 2017 is against Notre Dame. That feels like an easy way out in the schedule. The Fighting Irish are members of the ACC in every sport but football.
Per Hale the conference will expand the basketball schedule but will stay at eight conference games for football.
With a new TV deal in place with ESPN and the launch of a new ACC Network in the works for 2019, the league expanded its conference schedule for basketball (from 18 to 20 games, starting in 2019), but a move toward more intraconference football games was hotly contested by several schools with annual rivalry games outside the league.
The new ESPN deal gave the schools three options: increase the league schedule to nine games with one nonconference Power 5 opponent; play eight league games with two conference Power 5 opponents; or stay at eight league games with one nonconference Power 5 opponent. ACC schools would have received the full amount of the deal between ESPN and the ACC by choosing either of the first two options. But the schools instead chose to remain status quo despite the reduced revenue.
Per Hale by choosing the third option, the schools cost themselves each $500,000 per year.
Some of the schools wanted to stay at eight because of annual rivalry games. Some of those rivalries would include Florida State’s annual meeting with Florida and Georgia Tech matching up with Mark Richt’s former employer Georgia.
Miami has lost some rivalries over the years as well, with the Hurricanes trip to Notre Dame in 2016 the schools first on campus since 1990.
The game against Bethune-Cookman will be the tenth year in a row that the Hurricanes are playing an FCS team. It doesn’t serve much purpose other than filling out the schedule and giving a team another guaranteed home game. Miami would be better off with a home and home even if it’s against a team in the lower tier of FBS.
Miami could use these games to create new rivalries. They played South Florida when both were members of the Big East. Semi-annual games against the Bulls and Central Florida would create great newer rivalries and drum up instate interest. With Charlie Strong at USF and Scott Frost early in his tenure at UCF those programs will both be on the rise over the next few seasons.
Even games against nearby Florida Atlantic and Florida International are preferable to playing Bethune-Cookman and Florida A&M. The Owls and Golden Panthers will also draw interest over the next few seasons with their recent hirings of Lane Kiffin and Butch Davis as their new Head Coaches.
FIU and Miami are scheduled to play at Hard Rock Stadium in 2018 and a yet to be determined site that will be an FIU home game in 2019. It is believed it will be Marlins stadium or the Rock.
#FIU AD Pete Garcia on the 2019 FIU home game, says game can be at Marlins Park possibly… endless other possibilities too
— Susan Miller Degnan (@smillerdegnan) September 5, 2014
Mark Richt hopes to return Miami to the glory days of the Schnellenberger-Johnson-Erickson era and the Davis-Coker era. Alabama has set the gold standard in college football since Nick Saban’s second season in 2008. That was also the last year the Crimson Tide played an entire schedule against all FBS opponents.
All of Alabama’s FCS opponents have come in week 11. Only twice have those opponents reached double figures. Alabama has scored at least 40 in all but one of those games and their smallest margin of victory was 24 points.
The backlash against FBS teams dropping FCS teams from their schedule is that those in favor of the games say the FCS teams need the money. So do the lower tier FBS teams.
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All of the 128 teams in FBS are eligible to give out full scholarships to 85 players. The 124 FCS schools can award up to the equivalent of 63 full scholarships, divided among no more than 85 individuals.
That gives the FBS teams a huge advantage. While some of the FBS teams like North Dakota State can compete with some of the teams in Power Five conferences, the majority of the games are not much more than a scrimmage.
The Bison have a five game winning streak against FBS schools that dates to 2010. Four of their five wins were against teams from a Power Five Conference. They defeated Iowa, Iowa State, Kansas State, Colorado State, Minnesota and Kansas. They are the extreme exception though not the norm. They also won five straight FCS Championships from 2011-15.
Iowa in 2016 and Kansas State in 2013 were the only teams that the Bison defeated that played in a Bowl game. Neither Alabama nor the Hurricanes lost to FCS teams. Miami won their games against FCS opponents by an average score of 51-7. The season opening games against FCS teams were even more dominant with an average score of 53-2.5
Miami will play at Arkansas State and host Toledo in 2017. Both the Rockets and Red Wolves played in bowl games in 2016. Arkansas State plays in the Sun Belt Conference. The Champion of the Sun Belt in 2016 was Appalachian State. The Hurricanes defeated the Mountaineers 45-10 on the road this season.
The Hurricanes 2017 non-conference schedule features two games against teams from non Power Five FBS conferences (Ark State and Toledo) one against an FCS team (B-C) and Notre Dame
It’s somewhat understandable to face teams from the non Power Five conferences and certainly preferable to playing FCS Schools. The Sun Belt is a lower tier FBS conference. The Mountain West, American Athletic (which is made up of many schools formerly in the Big East) and the Mid-American of which Toledo is a member are as close to Mid-Major conferences as football gets.
Western Michigan is a member of the MAC and the Broncos finished 13-1 in 2016 with wins over the Northwestern and Illinois plus a close Cotton Bowl loss to Wisconsin.
A reshuffling of the schedules and who the Power Five and even the lowered tiered FBS Schools play will only increase the competitiveness on the field and possibly create even more interest than is already there. It’s good to see the Big Ten take the step of eliminating what is almost always an obvious mismatch.
