Sitting down with Luck: Scheduling

As scheduling continues to evolve due to the impending college football playoff, West Virginia is in the process of finalizing neutral site contests with both Virginia Tech and Tennessee according to Athletic Director Oliver Luck.

While the dates and locations of the games have yet to be released, Luck confirmed that the two match ups are in the works and should be finalized before the college football season begins.

Speculation on the two games have tabbed the location for the Virginia Tech match up at FedEx Field in Washington, D.C., while the Tennessee game could take place in Charlotte but Luck elected not to discuss location for the two contests.

Those games would only continue to bolster West Virginia's efforts to secure more regional opponents on the schedule whether it is neutral site or home-and-home match ups.

In recent months West Virginia has announced home-and-home match ups with Virginia Tech in 2021-22 and Penn State in 2023-24, to go along with a neutral site game with BYU in 2016 at Fed-Ex and the conclusion of the Maryland series after the 2015 season with games set for 2020-21.

As part of the scheduling philosophy for Luck will attempt to secure quality power five opponents to create an appealing slate not only for fans but for better positioning in regards to the college football playoff, which will likely consider strength of schedule in the decision making process of the committee.

"We're willing to do something that historically speaking is a lot tougher than the past," Luck said. "Regional rivals are important and we need to try to stay as regional as we can."

Among the teams considered in that regional umbrella include Virginia Tech, Penn State, Maryland, N.C. State, North Carolina, Ohio State, Louisville, Kentucky and Virginia, among others.

However the big match up that is at the forefront of interest for West Virginia fans is the Backyard Brawl with Pittsburgh and Luck confirmed that there has been talk between the two sides in hopes of restarting the match up.

"They do have Penn State on their schedule and they're waiting to sort that out. They've told us that they don't want to play West Virginia and Penn State in the same year and my response to that is that we used to," Luck said.

Neutral site games will fall into that category especially for those teams that necessarily wouldn't agree to a home-and-home meeting such as Alabama this upcoming season in the Chick-Fil-A Kickoff Classic.

"They're like bowl games at the beginning of the year and they're also pretty lucrative financially," Luck said.

Luck also confirmed that he has had discussions with power-five teams outside of the region in regards to future scheduling but that would be on a limited basis in the future.

"We have discussed some opportunities and we'll see how it plays out," he said.

And while some conferences have went against the idea of playing FCS programs, Luck said that he would not rule that out in the future and also will continue to look at the smaller FBS programs to fill out the slate. But the athletic director did say that the autonomy of the five power conferences could change that outlook down the road.

"I do think there is a role for smaller schools," he said.

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