Herd’s schedule will improve as C-USA improves

COMMENTARY

HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — With Conference USA games representing two-thirds of the opponents, there is only so much Athletics Director Mike Hamrick can do to improve Marshall’s strength of schedule.

This year the Herd will host Purdue and next season N.C. State and Pitt appear on the schedule. However, there are eight league games each year Hamrick has no control over. And those are the ones that go a long way to determining Marshall’s strength of schedule.

“The perception out there is that Conference USA is not very good. The ‘Group of 5’ conferences are ranked each year and we were the second ranked conference this year. We were the second best behind the Mountain West,” asserted Hamrick during a recent appearance on The Stampede.

Marshall must play the teams in the C-USA East along with two crossover games from the West Division. The best way for Marshall’s strength of schedule to improve is for C-USA to improve from top to bottom.

“Your conference is only as a good as your last-place team. If our conference continues to get better and we win our conference then we will have put ourself in position to play in one of the major bowls and that is our goal.”

The goals for the Thundering Herd heading into the the 2015 are simple. Win Conference USA and be in a position to receive a bid to the New Year’s Bowl spot reserved for the so-called “Group of 5.” That’s one of those goals Marshall can control while the other depends on the opinions of 13 College Football Playoff panelists with criteria as clear as the Guyandotte River.

That has left Hamrick in the unenviable position to of trying to balance scheduling quality non-conference opponents while also considering travel, revenue and the fan experience.

“It’s a science but it is not an exact science,” Hamrick said. “Schools are scheduling six and seven years out. We’re going to play Kent State this year and they’ve struggled the last couple of years but when we signed the contract they were coming off a 10-win season.

“When you schedule so far out, you’re taking a chance on how good that team will be. You’ve got to be careful how you schedule.”

There is also no guarantee that in five or six years Marshall will still be the elite of C-USA. The Herd found itself playing one of the toughest nonconference schedules in the country in 2011 that included West Virginia, Virginia Tech and Louisville. The schedule mostly resulted from contracts signed during the championships of the 1990s.

“I have no idea how good N.C. State is going to be in two or three years or how good East Carolina is going to be. I just know some of them are pretty good now but you just never know. No matter who you play you just win and you let the chips fall where they fall.”

If the chips fall just right, Marshall can find itself playing in a major bowl game at the end of the season.





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