Wolfpack’s football scheduling philosophy and future games

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NC State released yesterday a closer look at their scheduling process and philosophy. In it they talk about the three key ingredients of the process, why the soft 2014 & 2015 OOC schedules, as well as releasing new OOC opponents in the future.

How does a college football schedule come together?

While not an exact science, the key ingredients of the process are A) existing conference rotations and requirements, B) opportunities for player development and competitive success, and C) seizing special occasions for marquee or regional match-ups when available.

[snip]

“The reality is that not all ACC schedules are created equally,” said NC State Director of Athletics, Debbie Yow. “We need to balance a very challenging conference slate with the right philosophy for our program’s growth.”

[snip]

What about the non-conference schedule?

“Non-conference scheduling provides additional opportunities, but is a more complicated process than people might suspect,” said Yow. “You want to strike a balance between overall schedule strength, opportunities for competitive growth, an attractive home slate, marquee matchups for exposure and more. We’ve added really attractive games in the future, while mixing in a number of opponents that will help our young team continue to develop.”

The process of scheduling includes three individuals: head coach Dave Doeren, Yow and Senior Associate Athletics Director Michael Lipitz.

I’m glad to see there is an actual philosophy and game plan behind who NC State is scheduling. In the past the OOC scheduling has usually struck that balance by having one marquee game, 2 non-BCS schools from the FBS, and one FCS cupcake. It appears Doeren, Yow, and Lipitz also believe in that combination and have proven it by adding home-and-home series with West Virginia and Mississippi State between the match-ups with Notre Dame in 2016,2017, and 2022 (that were assigned by the ACC). That gives the Pack a marquee game for 7 straight years starting in 2016.

The non-conference scheduling philosophy moving forward will generally be one Power 5 conference team, two FBS opponents from among the American, C-USA, MAC, Sunbelt and WAC, and one FCS opponent. This ideally translates into a seven-game home schedule, which NC State seeks to attain in most years for competitive advantage, to achieve annual revenue goals, and for the accessibility and enjoyment of Wolfpack fans.

NC State also hasn’t ruled out the possibility of future, marquee neutral site match-ups, provided they make sense.

“We continue to consider opportunities in Charlotte, Atlanta, Washington D.C. and other markets for the right combination of opponent, date, television exposure and revenue,” said Yow.

In the article they announced previously unreleased scheduling with Marshall in Raleigh (2017) and Huntington, WV (2018). So Marshall, recently added Troy (2015/2017), Ball State (2019), and ECU (2016, 2019, 2022) help fill the FBS slate from non BCS schools.

So what happened with 2014 and 2015 schedules? Why so weak?

With a roster featuring 74 freshmen and sophomores (including redshirts), the near term schedule is designed to support the building process for Doeren, his staff and players, giving a young squad the opportunity to grow, develop and reach its potential.

In the 2014 schedule, the current administration inherited one home game with Presbyterian, and a pair of road games with South Florida and Central Michigan – the latter of which the Wolfpack opted to buyout to secure a seventh home date. NC State added Old Dominion in Raleigh in 2014 and 2016, and plays in Norfolk in 2015, an important recruiting area for the program.

Okay, I understand it and I get it but it doesn’t mean I have to like it as a paying customer, especially if I’m trying to unload tickets to crappy games. Here’s the thing, I don’t like it but I can live with it for 2 years, especially seeing they have adopted a proven scheduling philosophy that works at NC State and have the teams booked.

Here is the Pack’s schedule for the forseeable future with OOC holes still yet to be filled:

2015
Conference
Home – Clemson, Louisville, Syracuse, UNC-CH
Away – Florida State, Boston College, Wake Forest, Virginia Tech (cross-over)
Non-Conference – Troy, at Old Dominion, at South Alabama, Eastern Kentucky

2016
Conference
Home – Florida State, Boston College, Wake Forest, Miami (cross-over)
Away – Clemson, Louisville, Syracuse, UNC-CH
Non-Conference – Notre Dame, at ECU, Old Dominion, William & Mary

2017
Conference
Home – Clemson, Louisville, Syracuse, UNC-CH
Away – Florida State, Boston College, Wake Forest, Pittsburgh (cross-over)
Non-Conference – at Notre Dame, Marshall, at Troy, Furman

2018
Conference
Home – Florida State, Boston College, Wake Forest, Virginia (cross-over)
Away- Clemson, Louisville, Syracuse, UNC-CH
Non-Conference – West Virginia, at Marshall, Georgia State, James Madison

2019
Conference
Home – Clemson, Louisville, Syracuse, UNC-CH
Away – Florida State, Boston College, Wake Forest, Georgia Tech (cross-over)
Non-Conference – at West Virginia, Ball State, East Carolina, Western Carolina

2020
Conference
Home – Florida State, Boston College, Wake Forest, Duke (cross-over)
Away – Clemson, Louisville, Syracuse, UNC-CH
Non-Conference – Mississippi State, Delaware

2021
Conference
Home – Clemson, Louisville, Syracuse, UNC-CH
Away – Florida State, Boston College, Wake Forest, Miami (cross-over)
Non-Conference – at Mississippi State, Furman

2022
Conference
Home -Florida State, Boston College, Wake Forest, Virginia Tech (cross-over)
Away – Clemson, Louisville, Syracuse, UNC-CH
Non-Conference – Notre Dame, at East Carolina, Charleston Southern

2023
Conference
Home – Clemson, Louisville, Syracuse, UNC-CH
Away – Florida State, Boston College, Wake Forest, Virginia (cross-over)
Non-Conference – TBD

2024
Conference
Home -Florida State, Boston College, Wake Forest, Pittsburgh (cross-over)
Away – Clemson, Louisville, Syracuse, UNC-CH
Non-Conference – Western Carolina

About 1.21 Jigawatts

Class of '98, Mechanical Engineer, State fan since arriving on campus and it's been a painful ride ever since. I live by the Law of NC State Fandom, "For every Elation there is an equal and opposite Frustration."

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Home › Forums › Wolfpack’s football scheduling philosophy and future games

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Viewing 20 posts - 1 through 20 (of 20 total)
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  • 08/08/2014 at 7:18 AM #54090
    1.21 Jigawatts
    Keymaster

    NC State released yesterday a closer look at their scheduling process and philosophy. In it they talk about the three key ingredients of the process,
    [See the full post at: Wolfpack’s football scheduling philosophy and future games]

    08/08/2014 at 7:41 AM #54092
    JohnGalt78
    Participant

    Louisville being put in our division instead of the Coastal where it should have been placed, basically necessitates a counter balance in the OOC. Year in, year out, we must face 3 powerhouse teams…usually highly rated. ND is occasionally thrown into the OOC already. We’ve added solid programs in WV and Miss State. And we’re forced to play ECU which can be a distraction sometimes in that only bad things come out of playing them. I think Yow is spot on. We need some wins if for nothing else confidence building for when we go up against the big dogs.

    08/08/2014 at 9:25 AM #54093
    Prowling Woofie
    Participant

    We play Duke – a conference rival just 30 miles away – once in the next DECADE.

    We play ECU – a non-conference, no benefit trap game – 3 times during that span.

    08/08/2014 at 12:26 PM #54095
    Wufpacker
    Participant

    Though it might be a bit premature to anoint the ‘Ville to annual powerhouse status, I like the addition of strength and am happy that they are in our division and look forward to what will hopefully become a good rivalry. Now if we could just trade ‘Cuse for VT.

    I don’t mind not having an annual Duke match up in football, but I do hope something can be worked out to bring it around a bit more often.

    I’d like to see ECU dropped completely, but am not holding my breath.

    08/08/2014 at 1:12 PM #54096
    TheCOWDOG
    Moderator

    Something tells me that once the ACC figures out its new autonomy rules,realignment will be part of the package.

    08/08/2014 at 1:14 PM #54097
    Defenestrate
    Participant

    Anyone know if we’re going to buy out the two OOC away games in 2015? Seems like a given, since it increases our odds of an embarrassing loss. On the plus side I wouldn’t have to attend similar cupcake games in Raleigh those weekends…

    2015
    Non-Conference – Troy, at Old Dominion, at South Alabama, Eastern Kentucky

    08/08/2014 at 1:40 PM #54099
    kornegaylw
    Spectator

    Outside of ECU all the non-conference games will not be sell outs, will be like watching paint dry and you couldn’t give away the tickets if you tapped $20s to them. Y’all can call it a “trap” game all you want but App State should be on the schedule the same as ECU. 4 & 5 star recruits are great but solid FBS teams that win are built with the players that App & ECU make their #1 priority. If you beat them you can steal some recruits & begin to make moves. Plus you sell out the game, their is a re-sale market and the games are fun to watch. ***Drops mic, walks off stage***

    08/08/2014 at 3:20 PM #54101
    tag42481
    Participant

    “You want to strike a balance between overall schedule strength, opportunities for competitive growth, an attractive home slate, marquee matchups for exposure and more.

    If our OOC scheduling plan is to play one Power 5 game, 2 mid-major games, and 1 FCS team, then that tells me there’s one attractive home game every other year (assuming the Power 5 will go back and forth between home/away). I don’t care about seeing the mid-major games at Carter-Finley. Heck, we’re going TO Troy? We’re going TO South Alabama? Are you kidding me?

    And this Duke thing really makes me mad. While playing at Duke doesn’t give us any gate revenue, the actual cost of traveling there is essentially zero. Talk about a money saver! Fans started asking for an annual State-Duke game 10 years ago, and the ADs still haven’t done anything to make that happen.

    08/08/2014 at 3:31 PM #54102
    PackFamily
    Participant

    Anyone know if we’re going to buy out the two OOC away games in 2015?

    I can see us buying out S Alabama, but at ODU is being pitched as good for recruiting.

    08/08/2014 at 3:36 PM #54103
    PackFamily
    Participant

    n May the ACC reached an agreement to remain with an eight-game league schedule while requiring all teams to schedule at least one non-conference opponent from a Power 5 conference (ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, PAC 12, SEC) beginning in 2017.

    The Wolfpack fulfills that requirement a year early with Notre Dame set to visit Carter-Finley Stadium on Oct. 8, 2016.

    I don’t understand this. We were already set to play ND as part of the agreement with the ACC. ND is not part of any conference in football, so how does this satisfy the need to play a team OOC and from the P5 conference?

    Play ND as a P5 team = fail (not part of a P5 conference)
    Play ND as OOC = partial fail (ACC in all but Football (and hockey)).

    08/08/2014 at 4:34 PM #54106
    ruffles31
    Keymaster

    P5 includes Notre Dame automatically.

    It isn’t any different if we were to schedule Duke as an OOC in 2023.

    08/08/2014 at 6:26 PM #54109
    PackFamily
    Participant

    P5 includes Notre Dame automatically.

    how so?

    08/08/2014 at 9:47 PM #54113
    packalum44
    Participant

    If calling up schools and begging them to play a series with us is a philosophy then yes we have a great one.

    NC State will ALWAYS be in a rebuilding phase with a few good years just from normally distributed chance. To try to time our good years is futile. Therefore logic dictates you schedule marquee games whenever as often as possible (helps to have a Lee Fowler at another big time school). If school wises up and buyouts the game then fine we get paid if not then we get lucky and we get really lucky if we have an NFL QB who gives us a fighting chance for an outlying 2+ distribution season and actually beat the storied program.

    Yow is a huge upgrade but to think she can turn a poor resourced program into gold is insanity. You need $$$ to be good. No Phil Knight? T Boone? Dreaming loses it’s luster after a decade or two no???

    08/10/2014 at 12:19 AM #54134
    tjfoose1
    Participant

    I doubt we buy out the ODU game. Lots of NC State ties with the ODU athletic admin folks.

    08/10/2014 at 12:22 AM #54135
    tjfoose1
    Participant

    Y’all can call it a “trap” game all you want but App State should be on the schedule the same as ECU. 4 & 5 star recruits are great but solid FBS teams that win are built with the players that App & ECU make their #1 priority. If you beat them you can steal some recruits & begin to make moves. Plus you sell out the game, their is a re-sale market and the games are fun to watch. ***Drops mic, walks off stage***

    That’s either a bad joke or the dumbest thing I’ve read in quite a while.

    08/10/2014 at 11:44 AM #54141
    Cardiac95
    Participant

    NC State will ALWAYS be in a rebuilding phase with a few good years just from normally distributed chance. To try to time our good years is futile.

    Dreaming loses it’s luster after a decade or two no???

    Sad, but true…

    08/10/2014 at 12:18 PM #54143
    LRM
    Keymaster

    Notre Dame is considered a P5.

    08/10/2014 at 12:50 PM #54144
    bTHEredterror
    Participant

    To try to time our good years is futile.

    This is why you try to schedule challenging competition regardless, to find out what you are ASAP before conference games. The weak scheduling isn’t about building confidence, it’s about getting to bowl games. That still helps a young team, but players don’t feel better when they beat somebody they’re supposed to beat, and they don’t get better without being challenged individually or collectively. How’d that go last year? Better to get trounced by solid OOC comp then by your first solid conference opponent in my book. Plus, since it doesn’t help recruiting, you feel the need to build confidence in under talented players, and the vicious cycle continues.

    08/11/2014 at 11:56 PM #54168
    13OT
    Participant

    Until the ACC is re-aligned or until Coastal Division teams are no longer able to dodge the best teams almost every season, we will NEVER win in the Atlantic Division. We had better talent in the past and never finished above 3rd in this division, and now Louisville is dumped into the mix. Florida State and Clemson are as far ahead of the rest of the football conference as Duke and UNC are ahead of the rest of the basketball conference (outside of Syracuse and Louisville). FSU and Clemson will ALWAYS be good in football because they’re FOOTBALL schools, the same way that Duke and UNC are basketball schools.

    Duke played in Charlotte last December ONLY because Virginia Tech was historically bad and because the Blue Devils (again) did not have to face either Clemson or Florida State. Charlotte proved what we all knew all along- that Duke was there only because of being in the Atlantic Division.

    Until we get some real talent here, we’ll continue to be beaten like a drum, even in our lowly conference. With a lousy OOC schedule that apparently will never go away, we will never be able to prove that we belong in the upper half of the Big 5 Conferences. And the talent we need won’t come here as long as we are buried in the Atlantic Division and relegated to the ACC Network vs the likes of ODU and ECU.

    What is so hard to figure out here? Our administration needs to either get us out of this stupid alignment, or just get us out of this GD conference, period. Honestly, we’d be better off as an independent.

    08/15/2014 at 2:04 PM #54230
    NormsJacket
    Participant

    Here’s Yow and Doerren’s strategy: go 4 and 0 against the sorriest schedule in the NCAA and pray you can beat BC and Wake to sneak into the Whatever Bowl to be played two days after Christmas. Make your Shreveport travel plans now, Pack fans!

    Rumor: Yow’s trying to get out of next year’s Troy State and South Alabama games so she can schedule Broughton and Athens Drive.

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