On Sunday December 8th I sent an e-mail to the Mountain West, as well as every Head Coach, Asst. Head Coach, and Athletic Director with in the Mountain West I could find contact information on. I got no reply from anyone. I resent that e-mail last Monday, January 20th, Below I have copied that e-mail:
Gentlemen and Madam,
I am sending this to as many Athletic Directors, and Coaches with in the Mountain West as I was able to find. First let me say that I am a fan of college football. I am also a fan of the Mountain West, and as such find myself trying to defend the conference when compared to the PAC-12, Big Ten, ect.
How can we as fans defend the conference as a whole when many of our teams keep playing schools from the FCS. As a fan I would like to see all of the schools in the Mountain West conference in general to step up and only schedule teams from the Pac-12, Big Ten, Big-12, ACC, Notre Dame, Navy, or the SEC. If our schools just can not get those schools to commit to scheduling with us then, and only then do we go after non-conference games with AAC, Conf-USA, MAC, or the Sun Belt Conf. I feel this will help us in becoming sixth of the top conferences. Our top schools need to keep pushing the envelope, and our bottom schools really need to step up.
Thank You for your time. I look forward to your responses, if any.
This time, I only got just one reply. That reply was from Fresno State AD Thomas Boeh. He replied:
Mr. Kessinger,
Thank you for your observation. Fresno State has been noted by several media outlets as having one of the best (most prestigious) non-conference schedules among all non BCS Division I FBS schools over the past several years. We will continue to work to bring the very best games possible to Bulldog Stadium; however, the economic and competitive considerations are changing rapidly. Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely,
Thomas Boeh
I live in the Ceteral Valley of California, in the Modesto area. We have a lot of Cal, and Stanford fans here. I do have those conversations. I have pointed out that most of the P5 schools also play FCS schools they then turn to the rest of our non-conference games as weak. We not only need, but we must have the strongest non-conference schedule we can possibly have
I took a look at the three upcoming seasons. Every one of our schools has at least one FCS team in the next three years, two schools have locked in two FCS teams over the next three years, and three of our schools, my Fresno State included, have one FCS team scheduled every year. It’s like were committed to playing these FCS schools. I really do appreciate Mr. Boeh taking the time to get back to me. But, his reply was pretty much a non-answer in my book. Is it so much more of a burden to play a P5 team.
I believe that with the exception of Air Force, all of the Mountain West teams should start working diligently to play one team each year from the PAC12, B1G, and the BigXII. That takes up three of the four non-conference games. Schools that still wish to book BYU, or Notre Dame, they could do it for their fourth game. Schools that want to have a cushy game could book one of the teams from the Sunbelt of MAC. Maybe the Mountain West could enter in to a scheduling agreement with the PAC12, B1G, and Big XII conferences to play us once a year, maybe on a rotation, and make them all a home and away series between each school.
I tell you, as a fan, the last thing I want to see on any schools 2017 schedule is an FCS Team. I know there will be those guys here that give the "all the P5 schools take those games also". To me that’s a non-argument. The P5 conferences and schools aren’t on the outside looking in, we are. If we are to gain a spot at the table we must do more than the other schools, and conferences. Not just in sports either. The academic side of the schools must do something to get scores up, dropout rates down, and in general do everything possible to bring up the overall prestige of the member universities.