🏈 Alabama having trouble filling schedule for 2015

[BAMANEWSBOT]

Bill Battle has tried everything.

He's called dozens of teams.

He's deployed help from ESPN and SEC. He's inquired about teams switching dates to come to Tuscaloosa.

After all that, he still has one vacancy on Alabama's 2015 schedule.

“Right now we'd take anybody,” Battle said.

Can somebody help Battle out and play Alabama? Sounds like the Tide would even take a home-and-home at this point, but Battle said he's not sure that's feasible because “everybody's scheduled for '15.”

Alabama has Wisconsin and Louisiana-Monroe on the non-conference schedule, and though Battle doesn't remember the third game offhand, Alabama is expected to play an FCS opponent in mid-November, according to a source.

That means Battle probably can't schedule another FCS for strength-of-schedule purposes, though he sounds desperate enough to do just that.

Or what about BYU, whose independence creates scheduling issues in the College Football Playoff era?

“We've called everybody we know,” Battle responded.

Battle wants to get this done quickly because the longer Alabama waits, “the more expensive it gets,” he said.

Continue reading...

 

[bamaraider]

South Alabama

 

[SEC_Si]

Bill Battle has tried everything.

He's called dozens of teams.

He's deployed help from ESPN and SEC. He's inquired about teams switching dates to come to Tuscaloosa.

After all that, he still has one vacancy on Alabama's 2015 schedule.

“Right now we'd take anybody,” Battle said.

Can somebody help Battle out and play Alabama? Sounds like the Tide would even take a home-and-home at this point, but Battle said he's not sure that's feasible because “everybody's scheduled for '15.”

Alabama has Wisconsin and Louisiana-Monroe on the non-conference schedule, and though Battle doesn't remember the third game offhand, Alabama is expected to play an FCS opponent in mid-November, according to a source.

That means Battle probably can't schedule another FCS for strength-of-schedule purposes, though he sounds desperate enough to do just that.

Or what about BYU, whose independence creates scheduling issues in the College Football Playoff era?

“We've called everybody we know,” Battle responded.

Battle wants to get this done quickly because the longer Alabama waits, “the more expensive it gets,” he said.

Continue reading...

Who would be the best choice to schedule, in your opinion?

 

[PhillyGirl]

South Alabama

I like that idea.

 

[rocknthefreeworld]

No reason to play South Alabama. They do nothing for our schedule with an FCS and ULM already there. We need a good team but it is probably way too late for that so we probably get stuck with South Alabama.

 

[PhillyGirl]

No reason to play South Alabama. They do nothing for our schedule with an FCS and ULM already there. We need a good team but it is probably way too late for that so we probably get stuck with South Alabama.

Womp. Totally forgot about those.

For reference, here's what our 2015 opponents look like at the moment.

Wisconsin
ULM
Colorado State
Arkansas
LSU
Ole Miss
Tennessee
Auburn
Georgia
Mississippi State
TAMU

What about one of the independents? BYU, Utah State, New Mexico State, Old Dominion?

Or maybe a power from a lower division like North Dakota State (Alabama and NDSU are two recent "dynasties"), or Wisconsin-Whitewater.

 

[PhillyGirl]

Isn't the Colorado State 2015 game an either/ or for '15 and '17? As in, they only play in one of those years? What if they bumped CSU to '17, wouldn't that open up more potential available slots for '15?

 

[BamaFan334]

I'd go after USC. Let's just go ahead and drill Sarkesian and the Trojans. I'm sure there are plenty of roadblocks with that one and their nine game conference schedule, but I just like to say it and belittle the Trojans in the process.

 

[TerryP]

I'd go after USC. Let's just go ahead and drill Sarkesian and the Trojans. I'm sure there are plenty of roadblocks with that one and their nine game conference schedule, but I just like to say it and belittle the Trojans in the process.

They already have three OOC games scheduled.

We're looking at the weekend of the 12th or 19th of September I believe.

 

[MissingRing]

I'm going to go ahead and ask a naïve-sounding question. Nick Saban, Bill Battle, and the fans all seem to be in agreement that playing high-quality, non-conference opponents is much better for Alabama, and for college football generally, than padding the schedule with cupcakes. So, why is it so difficult for Alabama to coax the likes of Michigan, Stanford, Ohio State, Penn State, Notre Dame, So. Cal., etc. onto the schedule?

 

[rick4bama]

What about Georgia Tech? Once upon a time these two team(coaches) had some great games between them.

 

[alabama mike]

@MissingRing because if Bama schedules one of the teams you mentioned, it would have to be a home and home series. Personally, I am in favor of one of these series. Worst case scenario, I'd like to see Bama play one of our state schools if we can't get a quality team to come to BDS for one game. Looking now to see who has open dates on 9/12 & 9/19.

 

[TerryP]

I'm going to go ahead and ask a naïve-sounding question. Nick Saban, Bill Battle, and the fans all seem to be in agreement that playing high-quality, non-conference opponents is much better for Alabama, and for college football generally, than padding the schedule with cupcakes. So, why is it so difficult for Alabama to coax the likes of Michigan, Stanford, Ohio State, Penn State, Notre Dame, So. Cal., etc. onto the schedule?

I understand scheduling conflicts—it makes perfect sense when you get past the second week of the season.

I wonder why as well when I look at schedules, like USC, and see Fresno State, New Mexico, and Boston College. These teams beat a FCS opponent, no doubt. But, does anyone think either of those three teams will come out with a win?

Stanford has a four year deal coming up with Notre Dame. What kind of game that ends up being is anyones guess. While the Domers did make it to the NC game we weren't left with any doubts they didn't belong. Other than that, they've scheduled UVA.

We see home and home series being schedule 7-10 years in advance and by my count we see more than 2/3rds of those canceled or moved back only to be canceled at a later date.

When we see a team start maintaining a streak of success, year in and year out, we'll occasionally see some big names scheduled, but those name schools usually aren't having a great run of success. USC, in the first part of the last decade, played Nebraska twice. That Cornhuskers program was struggling to get past .500 in conference play back then.

While I don't know all the ends and outs of scheduling I do know one thing. There's a lot of fans who have a naive view.

 

[TerryP]

What about Georgia Tech? Once upon a time these two team(coaches) had some great games between them.

No room on a schedule for a team that's struggling to make bowl games.

 

[BamaFan334]

Hell, get Georgia Southern back to Tuscaloosa. I started my college career there playing baseball. History of Success, just bumped up to Division 1-A, and offers a challenger that will make our players and coaches respect them. The triple option is hell to defend one game a year with limited time to practice, but it sure beats playing some patsy that'll get the PAC-12 crying again.

 

[252BAMA]

Georgia Southern already has 4 OOC games scheduled.

 

[252BAMA]

I would sure like to know what the response was when UCF was contacted. They have but one OOC game scheduled in 2015. And but two in 2016. If they wanted a H/H, then do it. Hell, their first game in their new stadium in 2007 was Texas.

 

[TerryP]

According to reports yesterday, it looks like we're talking the most with Southern Miss.

 

[rick4bama]

Bama did have some great games with S.Miss. One I don't want to remember that was the first game of Coach Stallings. The one that the water sprinkling came on during the game. I can name a few more.

 

[PhillyGirl]

I hope that if we do play them, that they are a better team than the 1-11 2013 group. It would be nice to have a decent game.