(07-09-2019 10:01 PM)stever20 Wrote:  

(07-09-2019 08:23 PM)Bogg Wrote:  

(07-09-2019 01:11 PM)stever20 Wrote:  Fox really can't help much. They can't force Big Ten teams to schedule UConn, especially with 3 OOC games, and teams needing 7 home games.

I would argue that simply being left on the list of approved OOC opponents for conference-wide scheduling guidelines would be a huge help, and that is the sort of thing Fox could help with in the form of some back-channel politics with the conference office(s). For the lower-level P5 programs the name of the game is getting 3 or 4 likely winnable OOC games so that they only need 2 or 3 wins in the conference slate to achieve bowl eligibility (and for a school like Rutgers or Indiana or Kansas 6-6 and a bowl game is a highly successful season). UConn's the kind of winnable game that would appeal to those schools, so just being a viable option goes a long way to getting those schools to schedule the Huskies all on their own.

But all the Big Ten/Big 12 teams only have 3 OOC games. For those that have 4 home games, they pretty much all play 3 home OOC games.

UConn's biggest problem is going to be getting the home games. So for instance Big Ten/Big 12- only 12 of those 24 teams play 5 conference home games- and thus are willing to play a road OOC game generally.... And a lot of those 24 teams aren't going to waste a road game playing at UConn.

...and yet UConn currently has three sets of home-and-homes with B1G teams agreed to, before the increased need/flexibility of Independent scheduling even came up.