2020 Schedule Proposal

Football
1

Houston’s two teams every season - SMU and Tulane.

2

I would rather see a 9 game conference schedule. Play the same 8 teams every year and rotate the other 2 every other year.

Teams I would want to play every year.
Memphis
SMU
Temple
UCF
USF
Cincinnati
Tulane
Tulsa

Rotate Navy and ECU.

3

My request for the 2 permanent teams for us:

Anyone. But. Navy.

6 Likes
4

That’s the two I would choose, not so much because of great rivalries (I guess we have some rivalry with SMOO) but rather because we would play every other year in our two most important recruiting areas outside Houston. Already two of our five commits are from LA, and we’re looking to add a few more.

8 Likes
5

They are good road trips too. Nawlins and Dallas (a lot of Coogs there). Tulane’s stadium actually has really good food.

It is sad that in a city of quality restaurants like Houston, we get the lack of quality and selection at TDECU. TRAGIC!

3 Likes
6

Either SMU or Tulane is fine, but Memphis needs to be the other permanent opponent.

2 Likes
7

I understand the sentiment behind Memphis, but don’t see it happening. If the Big10 model is the way we go, I think they will want to keep Memphis and Houston out of the same pod. SMU is in-state rival, so I think that is a lock. Tulane is geographically the next logical choice.

3 Likes
8

I think it is better for the conference to have at least two teams that are usually in the upper tier play each other each year. I also think it is better to have the closer teams play every year to build rivalries and to make it easier for fans to make the trip. I have a chart that attempts to do that for each team as much as possible.

Team Pod Oppt 1 Pod Oppt 2 Pod Oppt 3 Pod Oppt 4
Cincy Memphis Temple Navy ECU
ECU Navy Temple Cincy UCF
Houston SMU Tulane Memphis Tulsa
Memphis Tulsa SMU Houston Cincy
Navy UCF USF Temple Cincy
SMU Houston Memphis Tulsa Tulane
Temple Navy Cincy ECU UCF
Tulane SMU Houston Memphis USF
Tulsa Memphis SMU Houston Tulane
UCF USF Tulane ECU Navy
USF UCF Tulane ECU Navy

Because of the geographical locations of some teams, the distances are relatively the same for more teams than they are for others. Because a couple of teams have uncommon opponents they will actually end up with 5 yearly opponents instead of the 4 everyone else has.

9

Here’s a mileage chart for driving distances between the AAC Cities:

Annap Cincy Dallas Gville Houston Memphis Nawlins Orlando Philly Tampa Tulsa
Annapolis 529.3 1367 309 1460 914 1125 882 129 936 1235
Cincinnati 529.3 933 600 1057 487 805 898 572 918 997
Dallas 1367 933 1310 240 452 505 1087 1467 1105 258
Greenville 309 600 1310 1350 832 944 635 418 693 1233
Houston 1460 1057 240 1350 555 365 975 1572 987 495
Memphis 914 487 452 832 555 395 820 819 838 402
New Orleans 1125 805 505 944 365 395 639 1224 656 655
Orlando 882 898 1087 635 975 820 639 991 84 1220
Philadelphia 129 572 1467 418 1572 819 1224 991 1046 1278
Tampa 936 918 1105 693 987 838 656 84 1046 1238
Tulsa 1251 752 257 1234 495 405 655 1220 1278 1238
10

New Orleans and Dallas are our natural rivals.

Memphis is our natural basketball rival.

11

Natural rivals is a relative term. Yes SMU is the closest geographically, but we have a longer chronilogical history with Tulsa and Memphis.

We first played Tulsa in 1950 and have played them 43 times holding a 24-19 record against them. (55% wins)
We first played Memphis in 1963 and have played them 26 times holding a 15-11 record against them. (57% wins)
We first played Tulane in 1968 and have played them 23 times holding a 17-6 record against them. (73% wins)
We first played SMU in 1975 and have played them 33 times holding a 21-12 record against them. (63% wins)

So, our oldest and closest rivalry, record wise, is against Tulsa, then Memphis. The only reason we played SMU more than Memphis is that we were in the SWC for 20 years. Before then, they wouldn’t play us until 1975 when we were already set to go into the SWC in '76.

25 of the 26 years we have played SMU were conference games of whichever conference we were in at the time. They didn’t have any use for us otherwise, so I don’t see why we should for them now. Remember, after the SWC breakup, SMU, TCU, and Rice went off to the west and didn’t want to be with us then either.

12

Yeah, great road trips too. Of course we’d probably still play Memphis maybe four out of five years. But without divisions playing UCF or Cincinnati would probably be just as meaningful in getting to the championship game. Of course most years any of those teams would help our SOS, but it’s unlikely we’d miss two of them in one season.

1 Like
13

But I want to beat their heads in every year

14

Of Course, that’s a given. They’re the team I want to put a 100 on, 95 wasn’t enough.

1 Like
15

Good thing we didn’t call ourselves The American XII :grin:

4 Likes