Breaking Down How To Compile A College Football Schedule (Clemson)

CLEMSON — Kyle Young nervously watched days melt from the calendar in February 2009.

The Clemson associate athletic director was charged with filling a vacant home date after Central Michigan had canceled an agreement to play Clemson in football that September. While seven months might seem like plenty of time to find a replacement, college football games are typically scheduled years in advance. Few teams were available.

’I called every school in the book,’ Young said. ’It was a little scary — most programs were all booked up. … It didn’t matter if it was a Division I-AA team.’

Only one win against a Football Championship Subdivision program, formerly known as Division I-AA, counts toward bowl eligibility and Clemson had already scheduled Coastal Carolina. Luckily, Texas Christian was also seeking a game.

Welcome to the science of constructing a college football schedule, a process that is anything but exact. Scheduling philosophies differ from school to school with priorities different at power-programs than at smaller schools. Games are scheduled years in advance and at any moment plans can change.

Philosophy

Young typically schedules three non-conference games per year at Clemson. Eight conference games are decided by the ACC and Clemson also has its annual rivalry game with South Carolina.

To fill those three games each year, Clemson’s philosophy is to schedule one FCS opponent, one Football Bowl Subdivision mid-major and one power-conference team.

Young says he prefers to schedule FCS games against in-state programs, and non-conference FBS games against programs with similar cultures: nearby programs or land-grant schools. The Tigers begin a home-and-home with Georgia (2013-14), follow with Ole Miss (2015-16) and then Oklahoma State (2019-20).

The philosophy is similar at South Carolina, though there is less emphasis placed on finding a top non-conference opponent, said USC associate athletic director Charles Waddell.

’Our conference schedule, it’s tough enough,’ Waddell said.

Juggling

Programs prefer scheduling weaker opponents either early in the season as de facto preseason games or later in the season to serve as quasi bye weeks. Power programs also must schedule quality non-conference opponents to sell tickets and strengthen schedules for BCS computers.

At Clemson and South Carolina, the football staffs submit scheduling preferences, but Young said it is not always possible to accommodate requests.

For instance, Young doubts any Clemson coach wants to face noted BCS-buster Troy on Sept. 3 or Wofford, which runs an option offense, on Sept. 10. Clemson preferred to schedule Wofford just before the other option team on the schedule, Georgia Tech, but it was not possible.

South Carolina could have kept an open date before playing Clemson, but Waddell said USC coach Steve Spurrier prefers to keep his team playing games. So South Carolina will play The Citadel on Nov. 19.

Paydays

Smaller schools rely on scheduling for funding athletic departments.

FCS and mid-major FBS schools schedule one or two ’guarantee’ games each season, which means a power-conference team pays the smaller program to come play at their stadium. The FCS teams typically earn around $400,000 for an appearance. Texas Christian, which competes at the FBS level, earned $1 million for playing at Clemson in 2009.

While paydays have increased, so have exit clauses so programs can avoid scrambling like Clemson did in 2009.

’Scheduling is probably one of the most time-consuming challenges I have,’ Charleston Southern athletic director Hank Small said. ’Trying to have two FBS games each year, you need to build that in…. the least ideal is to have our first two games against power-conference teams. We’ve done that before with Florida and South Florida. Our best years are when we had a couple home games at the start.’

Charleston Southern will travel to play at Central Florida on Sept. 3 and at Florida State on Sept. 10. It’s a grueling opening schedule but one that pays out hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Small knows it is financially necessary to play big-time opponents each year, even if the Buccaneers are 73-point underdogs like they were at Florida in 2009. Still, Small cannot put a price on those experiences for his players.

’It’s our playoff,’ Small said. ’It’s our bowl game.’