in Pitt Football 407 Words

Out of Conference Scheduling: A By-Conference Look

by Richard Hefner

Here are the charts that were left out in my earlier article – a ten year look by team at their schedule. I am providing all 5 conferences & not just the ACC & Big 10.

Just remember in the Big 10, Big 12 & Pac 12 an average individual team would need to schedule 10 P5, 10 G5 & 10 FCS teams over ten years. The ACC & SEC are the same but must make a choice between the remaining 10 games. Do they schedule hard & add all P5 or soft & Schedule an additional 10 G5 games? Or some combination?

It is hard from a summary to know who is scheduling hard. But IMO, if a team has 14 or more P5 games currently scheduled, they are scheduling “hard”. Here are the summaries:

P5 Sched 1

p5 Sched 5p5 Sched 4p5 Sched 3P5 Sched 2

The problem with summaries is you don’t see the whole story of an individual team.

For example, West Virginia has this summary line:

West Virginia Sched

It looks like they are scheduling one P5 game a year. But here is their year by year posted schedule:

West Virginia Full Sched

I know from prior years & 21 – 24, WVCC has scheduled 2 P5 games a year. Now I am assuming they are going to schedule 2 P5 games into the future. But they have a new HC. Do they have a new AD? Is their going to be a change sea change in scheduling to only 1?

BTW, the @East Carolina is the away game of a H/A. The home game was played in 2017.

The above is why I don’t copy & paste individual teams.  Once I have a template, I use it over & over. There are teams that have scheduled 3 P5 games or three G5 teams.  To make it fit on a page, especially for those who use a phone as their primary way to access the POV, I must individually manipulate every team to delete empty spaces & still make it pretty.

Editor’s Note:  Fortunately there are lots of websites out there that have future FBS schedules.  Not in the same handy format as Richard’s data, but good enough.  Here is a link to one:  Link to FBSSchedules.com

Here is Pitt’s non-con through 2025 for reference.  Looks like The ‘Duzz for the most part favors one or two P5 opponents per year.   Although you’ll note the renewal of the “River City Rivalry” in 2023 and 2024.  This is not a P5 game, but if Cincinnati stays at their current level, it is by no means a cupcake.  

Pitt Noncon by year

10 thoughts on “Out of Conference Scheduling: A By-Conference Look”

  1. more good stuff. But I immediately learned that Long Island is a school, and it plays football

    While one can guarantee that established programs will likely be good now, 3 years from now, and 6 years from now, the rest are a crapshoot. Consider …

    Ucla which hired Chip Kelly 2 years ago, have gone 4-8, 3-9 and 6-7 the past 3 years

    Pitt broke UCF’s 27 game win streak last year, but just back in 2015, they went winless

    Then there is the established Fighting Irish. Pitt played them in 2015 and 2018 when they finished in the 10 (they even made the CFP in ’18). But in 2016, they were 4-8

    Rich is right, Cincy has been playing very well …. but they have been pretty good since Dantonio took lover about 16 years ago, Boy, can they hire coaches ….. Dantonio, Kelly, Jones, Tuberville, Fickel

    Lastly, I noticed Pitt plays at Marshall this coming year, at Western Mich in 2022 and at Cincy a few years later. Pitt may be dogs vs Cincy, but remember, the other 2 games will be much bigger for the home teams hosting a P5 team … which doesn’t happen very often

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  2. Good stuff, Richard!

    How ‘bout those Hokies! Only team fully scheduled for the next 10 years!

    They can show recruits in 7th grade who they will be playing for their whole Hokie career… 😊

    Go Pitt.

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    1. Not as good a show as “2001” for team entry & Sandstorm before kickoff(s) at South Carolina. Hate to say it but I like Va. Tech home unis over the all Garnet home unis at UofSC.

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  4. Fran – I watched some of “Big Break II” on the Golf Channel yesterday.

    I’d like to see an episode with you, BigB, Richman, Missingwlat, Jay, gc, and ErieExpress on there. The elimination rounds would be must-see TV… 👍

    Go Pitt.

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  6. I don’t like watering down the non-conference schedule but doing so will help the final win/loss total.
    Pitt still doesn’t get how to do it, though, with only 2020 and 2021 limited to one Power 5 team. 2023 is absurd playing Notre Dame, Cincinnati and West Virginia.

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  7. So the Long Island Blackbirds – we have played them in our non-con hoops schedule – once had a nefarious reputation for a hoops scandal back in the day

    Sherman White (December 16, 1928 – August 4, 2011) was an American college basketball player at Long Island University (LIU) who is best remembered for being indicted in a point shaving scandal that resulted in him being stripped of numerous honors and awards, having to serve an 8-month jail sentence, and being …
    (wikipedia)

    The Long Island campus is basically a rec building and some assorted others across the street from Junior’s deli. They called themselves the Blackbirds. Now the Long Island and Bryant campuses are one, the teams are called the Sharks, and they’re scheduling the big boys once a season. Wow.

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