Breakdown of Hawaii Football Schedule as an Independent

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WarriorsAllDay
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Breakdown of Hawaii Football Schedule as an Independent

Post by WarriorsAllDay »

Thoughts?



Game 1 (1 Week Prior to Other Games to Start Season)

Every year, or at least every other year schedule a game in Australia or possibly New Zealand one week before the rest of the CFB games kickoff. Scheduling a game a week before everyone else would also allow Hawaii to play 13 games but still have 2 BYE weeks. It shouldn't be too difficult to find a P5 opponent to fill this slot for a number of reasons, including being the only game on that weekend and the exposure to an international market. Would also think Pac 12 schools would be especially interested in expanding their brand into Oceania. Heck, knowing how much everyone loves money, could even see ESPN making College Gameday an annual event for this game. An extra week of CFB means more revenue and more revenue makes everyone happy.

Example would be this year with Hawaii playing Cal on August 26.

Games 2-5

The P5 conferences play 8 or 9 game conference schedules. For the most part, the first 3 or 4 weeks of the season are reserved for OOC games. Assuming Hawaii wouldn't want to have to play a P5 opponent 5 weeks in a row, one of these weeks could be a FCS or school or a low G5 school (played at home in Hawaii). So we will assume 3 P5 opponents during this stretch.

Games 6-12

As pointed out above, this is when most P5 schools get into their conference schedules, and are highly unlikely to want to travel out to Hawaii. Thus, Hawaii's two bye weeks would be scheduled during this time frame as opposed to during games 1-5, so as to maximize the opportunity to schedule P5 schools. During this stretch, Hawaii would shoot for 2 Power 5 opponents. And as stated above, due to the unliklihood of a P5 traveling out to Hawaii during the middle of conference season, at least one if not both of these games would have to be a road game for Hawaii. If Hawaii was able to split these games, and get at least one home game against a Power 5 opponent during this stretch, it would likely have to be a mid to lower echelon P5 team (Wake Forest, Iowa State, Kansas, etc).

During this stretch, Hawaii could also possibly try to strike a deal with the MWC like ND has with the ACC, in which Hawaii would play a set number of MWC schools every year (anywhere from 2 to 4). Would also have to think G5 schools like Boise or Fresno hoping to make a NY6 bowl or possibly even break into the playoff, would want an extra game to strengthen their SOS and resume. There are also some rivalries such a deal would help maintain.

Game 13

There would be several options for this game. The 13th game could either be played weekend before the Conference Championship games (November 26 in the case of this season), or the could take place the weekend of the Conference Championship games (in this case December 3rd). That said, while their are more OOC games the final weekend (November 26) before Conference Championships, these games are mostly reserved for rivalry games. Thus, for either weekend your only options would likely be independents (UMass, Army, BYU, and ND). Thus, with the same likely opponents regardless of date, it makes sense to play the 13th game on Conference Champion weekend as it would garner more national exposure with less games to compete with. More attention and higher TV ratings, means easier to attract teams. And who knows, maybe ND would be interested in scheduling an Annual Game against Hawaii on that Conference Championship weekend. Would be extra game for ND and help strengthen their SOS, especially with all P5s having a Championship game moving forward. Not to mention the additional national exposure and revenue. Also would not interfere with any of ND's future schedules as they do not currently have any game scheduled on this weekend.



In conclusion, a sample Hawaii Independent Schedule would look as follows:



Week 0 (1 Week before any other FBS games)

Hawaii vs Cal (Neutral Site in Australia)

Week 1

Hawaii vs Oregon State (Aloha Stadium)

Week 2

Hawaii @ Wisconsin

Week 3

Hawaii vs UC Davis (Aloha Stadium)

Week 4

Hawaii vs Washington State (Aloha Stadium)

Week 5

Hawaii @ Vanderbilt

Week 6

BYE

Week 7

Hawaii vs. Wyoming (Aloha Stadium)

Week 8

Hawaii @ Iowa State*

Week 9

Hawaii vs. UMass (Aloha Stadium)

Week 10

Hawaii @ Boise State

Week 11

Hawaii vs Wake Forest (Aloha Stadium)*

Week 12

BYE

Week 13

Hawaii vs Army (Aloha Stadium)

Week 14 (Traditional Conference Championship Weekend)

Hawaii @ Notre Dame**



Complete Schedule

0.) Cal (Neutral)

1.) Oregon State

2.) @ Wisconsin

3.) UC Davis

4.) Washington State

5.) @ Vanderbilt

6.) BYE

7.) Wyoming

8.) @ Iowa State*

9.) UMass

10.) @ Boise State

11.) Wake Forest*

12.) BYE

13.) Army

14.) @ Notre Dame**



*If too difficult to get a 2nd P5 opponent during this stretch, one of the two (Iowa State or Wake Forest) could be replaced by a 3rd MWC opponent. Would still leave Hawaii with FIVE P5 Opponents + ND/BYU.

**Could also be BYU, but that would only be if they don't get into the Big 12 which currently appears likely.

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Re: Breakdown of Hawaii Football Schedule as an Independent

Post by unpaid »

Notre Dame is really the only football independent that has stood the test of time. Even they have joined conferences for basketball,which you can make a case for being the second biggest revenue sport in college athletics. BYU has gone independent after being affiliated with conferences ,and now apparently would like to join the Big12 for football only.

I just do not see the money,alumni,national reputation base for Hawaii to go independent.

Beyond that,I assume you would like to see Hawaii as a national player someday. There are four playoff spots that get filled among five power conferences. Notre Dame is still independent and hasn't made the first two playoffs.

So, where do you want Hawaii to go,and is football independent status the best way to get there?

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Re: Breakdown of Hawaii Football Schedule as an Independent

Post by 415hawaiiboy »

I was talking story about hawaii business and a bunch of hawaii restaurants are opening one in Hawaii and then opening several in Japan. Hawaii has some kind of crazy appeal in Japan. We need to somehow cultivate the Japan market.

Could we have some Japanese speaking UH students broadcast games?

Helps if players like Genta Ito do well.

We have a niche.

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Re: Breakdown of Hawaii Football Schedule as an Independent

Post by poidog »

I've always been intrigued by the thought of UH going independent for Football. Independence was kind of a death sentence under the old college football landscape. But today? it may or may not be so. here are some points to consider:

1. A lot of the viability of independence depends on the status of BYU. If they do join the Big 12, independence becomes a little less attractive.
2. Speaking of the Big 12 - if they end up poaching a bunch of schools from the AAC, will the AAC poach schools from the other "group of five" conferences? will another conference end up like the WAC and whither away as a football conference? having a scheduling alliance with other teams left without a conference makes mid-season scheduling a little less challenging.
3. UH has its own bowl game, a unique TV time slot, and is positioned well for the Asian/Pacific Rim markets. If UH could monetize those things and not have to share them, that could be a nice payoff for going independent.

with that said, I think our position in the MWC is decent. If UH can get back to its winning ways, it can maybe make more on its TV deal and help offset some of those travel subsidies and everything will be fine, barring another major conference shake-up.

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Re: Breakdown of Hawaii Football Schedule as an Independent

Post by dopaco24 »

415hawaiiboy wrote:I was talking story about hawaii business and a bunch of hawaii restaurants are opening one in Hawaii and then opening several in Japan. Hawaii has some kind of crazy appeal in Japan. We need to somehow cultivate the Japan market.

Could we have some Japanese speaking UH students broadcast games?

Helps if players like Genta Ito do well.

We have a niche.
MWC controls national and international media deals. Hawaii needs to be an independent or in the PAC-12 to efficiently market Japan and Australia. The MWC can barely cater to the Albuquerque market, let alone anything international.

There are plenty of teams that can schedule UH in October and November. UNLV and SJSU need both home games and a game with good attendance. A H:H with UH helps them with that every other year. Then UH has relationships with both BYU and Army. In addition, UH can schedule the desperate indies.(UMass and NMSU) Fresno State and SDSU could each play UH twice over 4 years. That is 7 games. Add a FCS school(from the SWAC maybe?) and a late season road game against a P5 or a school like Navy and you have 9 games before even looking at weeks 0-5.

Weeks 0-5 are where UH can make extra money with a Tier 1 TV deal. With the new exemption, UH would have a better chance scheduling multiple home games with P5 institutions annually. UH lost $600k in total TV revenue by moving from the WAC(Tier 1,2,&3)to the MWC(Tier 3 only).

Where the move to the MWC really hurts UH is the travel subs. I'll use UNLV as an example. In the WAC, UH paid UNLV a guarantee of around $200k to come to Honolulu for the OOC series. In return, UNLV paid UH $200k to come to Vegas. Over 2 years, there was a net zero expense for UH. In the MWC, UH pays UNLV $150k to come to Honolulu and then pays their own way to Vegas. Over 2 years, UH is now spending over $300k on the UNLV series. If UH went independent all of their guarantees would be more like UH-UNLV frome 2010-2011 than UH-UNLV in the MWC.

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Re: Breakdown of Hawaii Football Schedule as an Independent

Post by Optimus »

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Re: Breakdown of Hawaii Football Schedule as an Independent

Post by 415hawaiiboy »

Let's win in the MWC first. Most of the "mountain" schools are a shitty affiliation with us. Need more Seattle, SF Bay Area, and LA exposure.

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