With three schools shifting from independence to conference membership, I was wondering how many games they needed to cancel to be able to play a conference schedule. Liberty and BYU have already unloaded some of their inventory. I am basing this on the assumption they will be playing an eight game conference schedule, starting in 2023. Schedule information comes from this site:
https://fbschedules.com/future-college-f...schedules/
Liberty
2023: They currently have nine games listed. One is against future CUSA rival NMSU, which gets them down to eight. They have both UCONN and UMASS on the schedule. They aren’t currently scheduled to play each other, so perhaps they would agree to help out. Both games are at Liberty, so a buyout might be needed.
Current overage: 4
2024: They have a 11 games listed. Two of them are NMSU and FIU, so that’s a start.
Current overage: 5
2025: They have ten games this season. Two are WKU and MTSU.
Current overage: 4
2026: They have nine scheduled. One is NMSU. They have Army and UMASS, but they already play each other.
Current overage: 4
2027: Five scheduled, but one is NMSU
2028: Six games scheduled, one against NMSU.
Current overage: 1
Beyond 2028, they don’t have any seasons with an overage.
Total overage is 18 games.
NMSU
2023: They have ten games listed. But that includes Liberty and UTEP as well as a game at Hawaii, which doesn’t count against the 12 game limit.
Current overage: 3
2024: They have eleven for this year. It includes Liberty and UTEP. They also host Hawaii. Hawaii currently only has four OOC games in 2025, so maybe they’d be willing to move the return visit back a year.
Current overage: 5
2025: They have five listed. Two are Liberty and UTEP. That puts them one under, so it would be a perfect place to slide in the 2024 Hawaii game.
Current overage: 0
Beyond 2025, they don’t have any seasons with an overage.
Total overage is 8 games.
BYU
2024: Six games listed
Total overage: 3
2025: Two games scheduled.
Current overage: 0
2026: Six scheduled.
Current overage: 3
2027: Two scheduled
2028: Three scheduled
Beyond 2026, they don’t have any seasons with an overage.
Total overage is 6 games.
NMSU Is in good shape with only eight games they need to unload with one simple fix in moving the 2024 Hawaii game. Liberty and BYU have a lot of work to do. Liberty has four quick fixes if UCONN and UMASS agree.
Obviously, they have time to work this out but 2023 will be here before you know it. The future conference mates on their schedules now have holes to fill so maybe they could help them out if they can line up dates.
Of course, we don’t know what is going on behind the scenes or what the buyouts are or if they had a clause that canceled the game if they joined a conference.