WVU works for challenging schedule, wants to see uniformity
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West Virginia head coach Dana Holgorsen would like to see some uniformity across the scheduling models of the power five conferences.
There’s some good reasoning for that, too.
The Mountaineers will play a total of 11 power five schools on a 12 game schedule in 2018. That’s correct, all but one game against Youngstown State will be at the highest level of college football.
That total includes the nine-game Big 12 Conference slate as well as out of conference dates with a neutral site game in Charlotte against Tennessee to open the season and a road game at N.C. State.
It’s a challenge slate, no question. But that’s not by accident either.
“We’re going to play power five schools,” Holgorsen said.
Given the fact that West Virginia is a geographic outlier in the Big 12 Conference as well as the introduction of the College Football Playoff, the focus has been to beef up the schedule with appealing out of conference matchups from a competitive and geographic standpoint. That means more games against teams in driving distance that fans want to see from the power five level.
It's why you’ll see the Mountaineers introduce more games in the future against teams such as Pittsburgh, Penn State, Virginia Tech, Maryland and so on. There also are additional match ups with N.C. State next season, the return trip to Missouri in 2019 and Florida State in Atlanta to kick off 2020.
“It’s good for the fan base, it’s good for TV, it’s good for everything,” Holgorsen said.
The match up against Tennessee will be the first meeting between the two programs but the location of the game is centered in one of the largest alumni bases in the country for West Virginia in Charlotte. That gives the fan base an easy five-hour trek as well to watch the Mountaineers open the season.
“It’s fair to our fan base to play local schools. They remember great games in the past,” Holgorsen said.
But herein is where the problem lies. While West Virginia has taken care of itself in regards to scheduling these games it’s far from uniform across the board. Some leagues play only eight conference games and maybe one power five team in the non-conference slate.
Holgorsen would like to see everybody follow the same path.
“It’s not quite far that we have to play that schedule and you’ve got some schools in some other respective conferences that play nine power five schools,” he said.
Still even with the uneven scheduling don’t expect the Mountaineers to alter their model heading into the future when it comes to putting together an exciting package of games.
“We’re going to keep doing it,” Holgorsen said.
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