by Daniel Olsen | BYU is one of 130 FBS teams and has played a lot of different schools for over a century. However, there are 42 teams that BYU has never played.
Today, we look at five new teams the Cougars should look at scheduling for the first time. As an independent, they already have several games scheduled over the next decade. There is plenty of room to add more games to upcoming schedules so it will be interesting to see who the Cougars get on the schedule those years.
Army: This is the only military school that the Cougars haven’t played in football yet. They hold a 24-7 advantage in the series with Air Force and are knotted up at 1-1 with Navy. Army would be an awesome home and home series to have. BYU fans would have fun welcoming the Knights to Provo and fans in the East coast could enjoy the game at West Point, New York.
As has been with many games in the past, this would be a great opportunity for a neutral site on an NFL field. Perhaps they could play on the Jets or Giants Stadium. They could go for a more neutral site like Soldier Field in Chicago (pun intended).
Either way, this would be a great opportunity for the Cougars to play a solid team that has won 2 of the last three Commander-In-Chief’s trophies. This trophy is awarded to the military school with the best head-to-head record over the other military schools that season.
Auburn: This is perhaps one of the most talented teams BYU has yet to play. They are always competitive in the deep West Division of the SEC. They recently beat Alabama in the Iron Bowl and won the BCS Championship with Cam Newton in 2011. They are have made a lot of New Year’s Six Bowls and would give BYU all they can handle.
While this game would be tough to win, anything is possible in sports and BYU has beaten a couple big name schools recently. The Cougars have been able to schedule plenty of home-and-home series with SEC teams and this would be a good one to put on there. Plenty of fans would show up to this game in Provo and in Auburn.
Clemson: While the Auburn Tigers are one of the toughest teams BYU could call up for a series, Clemson is THE best team as of recent that BYU could schedule. As long as Dabo Swinney is coaching and his NFL caliber players keep making College Football Playoff appearances, this would be a tough game for BYU to compete in. It would be tough to get a home and home with a team like this but maybe Tom Holmoe can work some magic.
North Carolina: BYU doesn’t make very many trips out East but they do go a couple times per year out there. One state they rarely visit is the Tar Heel State. There are six teams in the state of North Carolina that BYU has never matched up with. Outside of Clemson, the Cougars could do some damage in ACC country. While North Carolina is usually elite on the basketball court, they are a solid but not elite football team. It would be a tough game as it is with any Power 5 matchup but this would be a good game for BYU to put on the schedule soon.
Wake Forest: Perhaps the only “Deacons” that have been in Provo are the ones that pass the sacrament in church on Sunday. The Demon Deacons haven’t been a traditionally good team but they have had a solid offense as of late and have made it to a couple bowl games. This is a team BYU could definitely beat if they are on their A game.
Featured image courtesy fansided.com.
“the only “Deacons” that have been in Provo are the ones that pass the sacrament in church on Sunday.”. Ummm, I guess you are not counting the 2009 Demon Deacon Basketball team (ranked 6th in the country) that came into Provo on January 3, 2009 at (13-0) and beat a feisty BYU Basketball team (11-2) with a 53 game home winning streak (the longest in the nation at the time) by the score of 94-87. Wake Forest had to score the last 8 points of the game to claim the victory.
That is true! This was a football post. It would be fun to do a similar one about basketball.
Yeah that is true! To clarify, this article was about football.