Guys, I see that the Wash. St rumors were unfounded. I decided to take it upon myself to review some of the 2004 schedules http://www.nationalchamps.net/NCAA/college_football_2004_schedules/ ...and, following the thinking that our opponent will be either a Big East or ACC school (due to the teams shifting from the former to the latter in 2004 causing scheduling changes), I believe I know who we'll play---if they're interested, of course---on Sept. 4, 2004: Virginia Cavaliers They do have a fairly difficult schedule already with Miami and Fla. St. but they do fit the bill in a number of important areas: --Need 2 more non-conference opponents --Already have 5 home games and can surely find some patsy to fill the 6th --Al Groh is a good coach and they supposedly have recruited well recently, so if they're looking to make a jump, here's a chance to make one helluva statement to open the season. This, admittedly, is oversimplistic insofar that Virginny has yet to set any dates for their schedule, so a currently-scheduled opponent may only have Sept 4 available for the Cavs. Feel free to look around yourself via the link above for other "good fits" schedule-wise and post them here.
if Matt Mauck doesn't come back, I would rather play a cupcake. Give the freshman QBs or Randall an easy game to adjust to a new season. We played 3 of the WORST teams in the nation this year and still won the national championship.
I just want to make sure that LSU is facing a Div. I-A school. Playing a Division I-AA team kills your SOS for the BCS.
No it doesn't, it just doesn't count as a win. If we lost it would count though. It doesn't get factored into the SOS at all.
Actually that's not right. The way Div I-AA teams count is as follows: The Div I-AA team's wins over I-A teams count. Their wins over I-AA teams do not. Their losses against I-A and I-AA teams both count. Also SOS has nothing to do with what you yourself do against an opponent. A team's SOS doesn't change if you go 0-12 or if you go 12-0 against your opponents. Plus there are a few computers who don't even count the Division I-AA team as a game on your schedule. So, for instance, in the Colley Matrix computer, LSU didn't even get credit for beating Western Illinois. Playing a Div I-AA team is in no way a good thing. Back me up here if you would islstl
LSU should never play a I-AA school. It's just fuel for the media in times of sucess. BTW some of the computer polls factor in the losses of a I-AA school and not the wins into it's SOS formula.
With ticket price increases going into effect next season, the last thing the AD wants to do is schedule a Div 1-AA and/or another LA team. Given our current home schedule, our first decent game won't be until Nov 13th against Bama ... I think they are under the gun to bring in a quality team!
Thats exactly right, DH. Western Illinois went 0-4 against 1A teams this year, so they added 0 wins and 4 losses to our SOS. Not playing them at all would have made our schedule much "tougher". Stupid, huh?
Actually, Western Illinois did beat one I-A team (Eastern Michigan). So we got one win for that, and we got wins in our opponents-opponents portion for all games that E. Michigan won against I-A teams. But that doesn't counter the losses that W I had agains I-A and I-AA teams. Playing teams like Houston is better than playing the best I-AA team because at least that way you get a few Div I-A wins.
