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Football: Football scheduling – New UL AD weighs fan, coach needs

Tim Buckley, The Advertiser, Feb. 12, 2017
For part of his 21-year tenure as an associate athletic director at the University of Missouri, newly named UL athletic director Bryan Maggard had football scheduling on his long to-do list of work responsibilities.
And he actually loved the challenge of tackling a matter that is something of a sore subject for many ardent Ragin’ Cajun supporters.
“I’m one of the few people, I think, in the industry that really enjoyed that aspect,” Maggard said the same day he recently was introduced as UL’s successor to Scott Farmer.
“It was kind of like putting a giant puzzle together, and interacting with the different people and the different schools, and negotiating, and looking ahead.
“But,” Maggard added, “there’s strategy I think you have to incorporate in that.”
Maggard shared some of that strategy during an exclusive interview with The Daily Advertiser that was conducted before his hiring was announced Feb. 1.
One consideration: “You want to aspire to bring home games that can excite your fan base into your own stadium,” he said.
Another: “We know that we position our coaches for the best opportunity to win by playing at home,” Maggard added.
Satisfying both needs along with others, however, means traversing a tricky tightrope.
“So I think if we can identify some home-and-home opportunities with Power 5 schools, that would fantastic,” said Maggard, who plans to formally begin work at UL sometime in early March.
“But you balance all of that with scheduling some non-conference games that are going to give your coaches an opportunity to win, and balance that with opponents that keep your fan base excited.”
Much scheduling is done seasons in advanced, “But,” Maggard added, “there’s strategy I think you have to incorporate in that.”
Maggard shared some of that strategy during an exclusive interview with The Daily Advertiser that was conducted before his hiring was announced Feb. 1
One consideration: “You want to aspire to bring home games that can excite your fan base into your own stadium,” he said.
Another: “We know that we position our coaches for the best opportunity to win by playing at home,” Maggard added.
Satisfying both needs along with others, however, means traversing a tricky tightrope.
“So I think if we can identify some home-and-home opportunities with Power 5 schools, that would fantastic,” said Maggard, who plans to formally begin work at UL sometime in early March.
“But you balance all of that with scheduling some non-conference games that are going to give your coaches an opportunity to win, and balance that with opponents that keep your fan base excited.”
Much scheduling is done seasons  in advance.
But Farmer caught flak from some Cajun fans for not bringing Power 5 opponents to Cajun Field during his reign as athletic director, which began in 2011 and ended last November when he resigned under pressure and was reassigned to a faculty position.
No team from a Power 5 conference — the SEC, ACC, Big Ten, Big 12 or Pac-12 — played at Cajun Field from 2011-16.
The last to do so was Oklahoma State in 2010.
But UL played on the road against Power 5 opponents nine times from 2011-16, and each time, the Cajuns lost — including five losses to SEC teams.
Looking forward, UL has 13 announced non-conference games scheduled through 2021 — and up to seven slots still to be filled through then.
Five of UL’s announced upcoming non-conference games are against SEC opponents, including two next season (at Texas A&M and at Ole Miss) and two in 2018 (at Alabama and Mississippi State).
Four of UL’s 13 announced scheduled non-conference games, meanwhile, are at Cajun Field — and none are against a Power 5 team.
Coach Mark Hudspeth’s Cajuns do have a so-called home-and-home series booked with Mississippi State.
But UL’s home end of that arrangement calls for a 2019 game at the Superdome in New Orleans, not Cajun Field.
In seasons to come UL also has home-and-home series with Group of Five members Tulsa and Ohio, along with future independent New Mexico State, in addition to a 2017 home game against FCS-member Southeastern Louisiana and a 2021 road game at Power 5-program Arizona State.
“I look forward to sitting down with Coach Hudspeth and getting his take on that,” Maggard said of UL’s currently booked non-conference contests.
“But if those games stay on the schedule,” he added with reference to those on the road against SEC schools, “I think it can serve as a great recruiting opportunity for Coach Hud and his staff.”
Recruits, in other words, sometimes are lured by the chance to play big-game opponents in big venues.
Shortly before Maggard was introduced as UL’s athletic director, Hudspeth — when asked what he planned to tell his new boss about his ideal vision for non-conference play — offered a glimpse of how that conversation might go.
“I can tell you my ideal vision,” he said, “is not playing five home games and seven on the road, like we’re doing this upcoming year.”
In addition to playing at Texas A&M and Ole Miss, UL also plays at Tulsa of the American Athletic Conference in 2017.
The Ole Miss game was a late add by Farmer.
UL’s only non-conference home game this year is its Sept. 2 season-opener against FCS Southeastern Louisiana, which combined with an eight-game slate of Sun Belt Conference games means the Cajuns indeed will play more road games than home games this season.
“That’s a tough sled,” Hudspeth said. “I hope you understand that.
“When you’re playing five home, seven on the road, two Power 5 teams in Ole Miss and Texas A&M, both on the road — that’s a tough order. And a very talented Tulsa team on the road. So we’ve got a challenging schedule this year.”
Playing a Power 5 team on the road without a return visit — a one-game contract — typically means a high six- or even seven-figure paycheck.
For a school like UL, that can help to subsidize an athletic department budget in need of income from wherever it can get it.
And unlike Power 5 schools that essentially trade paychecks for visits back and forth, UL can bring in a peer or level-level opponent for much less money than it can make by playing, for instance, an SEC team on the road.
UL, for example, was paid $975,000 for its 2013 loss at Arkansas, $925,000 for its 2014 loss at Ole Miss, $950,000 for its 2015 loss at Kentucky and $1.2 million for its loss last year at Georgia.
It will make $1.25 million for its trip this year to Texas A&M, $1.25 million for its visit to Alabama in 2018 and $1.3 million for playing at Arizona State in 2021.
Hudspeth, however, wonders if there isn’t a better way to go about things than the route UL will travel this year.
“My vision is six-and-six every year, every other year and every couple of years at seven (at home) and five (on the road),” he said.
“You know, our program is to the point where we need to get a few more home games here — whether it’s games we can afford to buy — because of the crowds we’re able to bring to Cajun Field.”
Generously counting their New Orleans Bowl loss to Southern Mississippi, which the Sun Belt does, the Cajuns finished just fourth in SBC announced average home attendance at 22,344 in 2016, trailing Troy (22,534), Arkansas State (22,700) and leader Appalachian State (26,153).
One of UL’s 2016 home games, a win over Arkansas State, was played in front of an announced crowd of only 14,259.
But UL has led the Sun Belt in average home attendance during three of Hudspeth’s six seasons as coach of the Cajuns
, including a high of 29,171 in his first year, 2011.
And 10 of the Top 20 all-time biggest crowds at Cajun Field have come since 2011, including the 18th-highest — 26,891 — against McNeese State in 2016.
“When we’re packing Cajun Field like some of the crowds we’ve had in the past,” Hudspeth said, “we don’t have to go out and play that many (road) games and try to bring in that (money).
“We can do it right here by playing a home game — filling the stadium, concessions, parking, all of those things — to make it come out just about the same. So, that’s what we’ve got to get to.
, including a high of 29,171 in his first year, 2011.
And 10 of the Top 20 all-time biggest crowds at Cajun Field have come since 2011, including the 18th-highest — 26,891 — against McNeese State in 2016.
“When we’re packing Cajun Field like some of the crowds we’ve had in the past,” Hudspeth said, “we don’t have to go out and play that many (road) games and try to bring in that (money).
“We can do it right here by playing a home game — filling the stadium, concessions, parking, all of those things — to make it come out just about the same. So, that’s what we’ve got to get to.
“But five home games?” he added. “I don’t know if there’s another team in Division I this year that will be doing five home games. That’s tough.”
Based on announced schedules as listed on fbschedules.com, there actually are at least three others in the Sun Belt alone playing just five home games this season.
In any event, Maggard suggested he’ll start off all ears when it comes to filling in the pieces still missing in UL’s scheduling puzzle.
Unless changes to existing contracts are made, he can’t make a major imprint on Cajun scheduling until 2020 at the earliest.
No UL non-conference games for that season have been announced yet; until then, there is only one apparent opening in 2018.
Both last season and next season, incidentally, Missouri scheduled three non-conference games at home and one on the road.
Both of those seasons, the Tigers scheduled one lower-level FCS opponent, two opponents from the lower-level Group of Five and one opponent from a peer Power 5 conference — in addition to its SEC schedule.
Missouri (4-8 overall) went 2-2 in non-conference play last season, losing its season-opener 26-11 at West Virginia of the Big 12, winning 61-21 at home against Eastern Michigan of the MAC, beating FCS Delaware State 79-0 at home and losing 51-45 at home to Middle Tennessee of Conference USA.
In 2017, Missouri has non-conference games scheduled at home against FCS Missouri State, Purdue of the Big Ten and Sun Belt-member Idaho and a non-conference road game at Connecticut of the AAC.
According to a subjective compilation from ESPN.com, that’s the fifth-easiest out-of-conference schedule in the country — harder than only those of Baylor, Kansas, Colorado and easiest-overall Washington.
“What I’ve learned through my experience in football scheduling,” Maggard said, “is it’s imperative that you get input from the head coach.
“I don’t believe in just dictating,” he added. “I’ve got to have his input and I want to know his thought process as well.”
PUZZLE PIECES IN PLACE
A look at UL’s currently scheduled non-conference games in the next five seasons to come (all based on what has been publicly announced; it is possible other contracts are in place but have not yet been announced):
2017
Sept. 2: Southeastern Louisiana (FCS, Southland)
Sept. 9: at Tulsa (Group of Five, American Athletic Conference)
Sept. 16: at Texas A&M (Power 5, SEC)
Nov. 11: at Ole Miss (Power 5, SEC)
2018
2018
Sept. 8 or Oct. 6: New Mexico State (FBS, independent)
Sept. 29: at Alabama (Power 5, SEC)
Nov. 3: at Mississippi State (Power 5, SEC)
Need one more game
2019
Aug. 31: vs. Mississippi State in New Orleans (Power 5, SEC)
Sept. 21: at Ohio (Group of Five, MAC)
Sept. 28: Tulsa (Group of Five, American Athletic Conference)
Nov. 16: at New Mexico State (FBS, independent)
2020
Need four games
2021
Sept. 4: at Arizona State (Power 5, Pac-12)
Sept. 18: Ohio (Group of Five, MAC)
Need two more games