2026 would be perfect to get Army to visit Oxford as a makeup for the canceled 2020 game, though they’re already booked through that season. I know I’m kicking the hornet’s nest, but Marshall is free on 9/26.
2028 will almost certainly be a power conference buy game since we’re missing one right now. Some midwestern power teams with an opening on 9/2 are Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Northwestern, and Notre Dame.
I counted 13 G5 teams that probably need a G5 game in ‘26. The closest is Marshall.
I’m assuming we’re trying to maintain our reputation for having the most Midwest-centric schedule in the MAC. Indiana is the closest P4 with a vacancy.
Army had to cancel some games when they decided to join the American.
I would love IU since it’d be against my wife’s alma mater, would be more winnable most seasons than the other schools on my list, and give me a great excuse to visit Bloomington. Only problem is that they might not pay as much for MAC teams as the likes of Michigan might pay, and Sayler doesn’t usually leave money on the table for our buy games.
Indiana seems perfectly inline with the type of teams that we’ve scheduled recently and in the near future: a variety of the mid tier B1G teams, Kentucky and Pitt. Notre Dame and OSU feel like the only exceptions from that.
I agree, and they’ve practically got the 2023 JMU Dukes roster behind them thanks to the portal. Though by 2028 he (and Martin) could be long gone for other jobs.
Kent just added a game at Texas Tech, continuing their pattern of playing three P4 buy games annually to fund their athletics programs. Not ideal.
I would like to see us widen our regional footprint a bit and schedule some of these types of teams occasionally. But I never want us to have to schedule like Kent.
Kent is just stupid. Yeah, you’re getting funding for your other programs. But you’re also emotionally and physically sacrificing the football players to do it.
I read about a year ago that Sean Lewis and their AD wanted to dial it back. Financially, it’s apparent they haven’t been able to do that. I think scheduling is one reason Lewis left for Colorado. He should like things much better in San Diego.
I wonder what happens…they write us a check and say hawk tuah to all of us hawk talk fans?
Ps, my text autocorrected to that and I guess that’s a sign I should keep the mistake. The AI bots think hawk talk is hawk tuah on my phone. I win! And lose.
If Missouri has indeed bought out of the game they wrote a very big check. Cancelling it after January 1st of this year requires them to pay us a cool $1,000,000 dollars.