Texas schedules more Rice games...

[misterTeasyEmalcomXf'inAkicksome]

Well, hmmmm.... I have mixed feelings about this. Looks like we're scheduling a new 3-game series with Rice (@ NRG Stadium in 2019, and in Austin in 2021 and 2023).

Now, I'm a fan of Rice as a non-conference game as long as we have other power-5 opponents... and we DO have power-5 opponents all 3 of those seasons (we host LSU in 2019, play at Arkansas in 2021, and play at Ohio State in 2023... all good match-ups). But... after a run of playing both...

• @ UCLA and BYU in 2011
• @ BYU and Ole Miss in 2013
• BYU and vs UCLA (Arlington) in 2014
• @ Notre Dame and Cal in 2015
• Notre Dame and @ Cal in 2016
• Maryland and @ USC in 2017
• @ Maryland and USC in 2018

... we'll end the run of multiple power-5-level competition in 2019 when our full OOC slate appears to be...

• Louisiana Tech
• LSU
• @ Rice (NRG Stadium

It could always turn out to be a fluke. Scheduling has those a lot, just like the fact that we still have the second part of the Arkansas series from years ago that won't be played until 2021 (unless they push it back again). And of course LSU is a really nice series to have on the slate!

Buuuut... with one empty slot in every schedule from 2020 through 2024, and match ups with LSU, Ohio State, Arkansas, and Michigan already on the slate those years... each paired with games either against Rice or USF... I really hope we're not letting our down seasons change our scheduling policies and going for weaker opponents. I'd much prefer a nice middle-ground power-5 team to pair with the marquee opponents. I get the argument that if Cal had been Louisiana Tech this year we'd probably have gone bowling... but, by the time these games are played, if we're not beating the mid-level OOC power-5 teams 80% of the time then we've got a bigger problems than whether we're bowl eligible.

http://www.fbschedules.com/2016/02/texas-rice-schedule-three-game-football-series/

 

[oldhorn2]

well....thats what we get for fooling around . I guess by the time we tried to schedule them, Baylor and aggy already had Hardin Simmons, Pepperdine, and SW Rhode Island wrapped up!

 

[CoachEmUp64]

well....thats what we get for fooling around . I guess by the time we tried to schedule them, Baylor and aggy already had Hardin Simmons, Pepperdine, and SW Rhode Island wrapped up!

Cowboy Up!

 

[misterTeasyEmalcomXf'inAkicksome]

I know maybe I'm being a little picky about it.

Rice isn't a bad opponent as far as scheduling a non-power-5 opponent goes. There's history with them. They're nearby. They allow us to play a game in Houston. They've been pretty decent under Coach Bailiff. Their halftime shows are... amusing...?

And like I said, of course LSU is a big game. Glad we scheduled that series when the Notre Dame series was reduced.

But I'd still rather have either Louisiana Tech OR Rice. Hopefully the other years where we have either USF or Rice (we play one or the other from 2020 through 2024) we'll get in a couple of other interesting series in there, not just Sunbelt and C-USA teams.

Either way, we're still doing more OOC than a lot of teams do when we have @ LSU (2020), @ Arkansas (2021), Ohio State (2022), @ Ohio State (2023), @ Michigan (2024), and eventually Michigan (2027) paired with our USF and Rice series. I'd just like to see us playing more of these more robust (2 power-5 team) schedules when we're back at full power... and I expect us to be that in one of the next year or two... three at most.