With the timeline now finalized for Fresno State and Nevada waiting an extra year in the WAC, questions about scheduling have now arrived for a number of schools with the MWC and WAC schools now requiring 5 non-conference games. I went to fbschedules.com and dug up tons of little nuggets as far as future non-conference games go... I'll list those here so that the people (myself included) who did not know about these games can find out. I'll simply go through the important non-conference games for the future years for MWC teams (Including Utah and BYU). There will be a post for each team on every Tuesday and Thursday and the posts will be in no specific order. If you want to find out which school's post is for that day, then follow us on Twitter for the information on when the post will be. Also note that these posts were written on Friday-Tuesday of the last week of October, so if the posts seem about a week or two old, that’s because they are.
So far in the series
Wyoming
2011 Schedule - Weber State, @Bowling Green, Nebraska, @Utah State
Do note that Wyoming already had 5 conference games scheduled for this season, but with Boise State now joining in 2011, that game goes out the window. The interesting thing about this schedule is whether or not the MWC will move the BSU game from its current place in the second week of the season or if they will just simply keep it there. If the MWC moves it and Wyoming schedules a winnable game for week 2, then we could possibly see a 3-0 Wyoming next season. It will be interesting to see who the Cowboys schedule to round out their 2011 schedule.
2012 Schedule - @Texas, Toledo, Cal Poly, Idaho
The most akward thing now about scheduling is the fact that schools will now not now if they need to schedule 3 or 4 non-conference games for the remaining seasons. The Mountain West has viable candidates that would jump at an invitation if called that would make us a 12 team league with an 8 game conference schedule. Or they could just sit there and do nothing, like they have in the past, and stick with the 9 game conference schedule. Either way, Wyoming doesn't have to schedule anyone else and they might have to get rid of an opponent. One question, how in the world is Wyoming going to Austin... AGAIN.
2013 Schedule - @Nebraska, Idaho
Wyoming seems to love scheduling a tough game each season - so far its either been Nebraska or Texas. Once again they will get destroyed to start the season and that might hurt their confidence going into the Idaho game. I am not sure whether or not Idaho is actually good or if they just had a fluke year last year. My money is fluke year so I am going to say Idaho is a win and Nebraska is a loss. If you look at the Cowboys scheduling patterns, they will probably add another bowl team from a Non-AQ conference and an FCS team.
Other Non-Conference games -
2014 - Utah State, @Oregon, Florida Atlantic
2015 - Oregon, @Utah State
2016 - Utah State, @Nebraska
2017 - @Missouri
2018 - Missouri
Bits on the 2014+ Games -
Well... Wyoming has locked up a tough schedule through 2018. Not sure whether to congratulate them or feel sorry for them as those games will probably hurt their bowl game chances badly...
Follow Mountain West Connection via Twitter and Facebook for News Quick Hits and Random Nonsense.
Follow rebelfan1_ via Twitter for News on UNLV.