SOCON FUTURE PRO GAMES

[Affirm]

I doubt Charlotte would be a Big Money game.

They are paying both Elon and CSU $315,000 so with it being only a short bus ride for FU it would be ok.

CSU is 202 miles from Charlotte whereas Elon is 99 miles.
Furman is 115 miles from Charlotte 49ers football stadium, by the way.
[…Random other Comparisons: Furman to Tennessee (Neyland Stadium) is 163, to Appalachian State 136, to Georgia State 152, to Georgia Southern 205, to Coastal Carolina 247, to Jacksonville State 244, to Kennesaw State 164, to Chapel Hill 244, to Duke 246, to Wake Forest 183; and to Athens, Columbia, Clemson, Georgia Tech, you know those distances. We have 15 FBS within 250 miles, and NCSU, Auburn, and Virginia Tech are not much farther than 250.]

[apaladin]

FU and Elon could both play there without any overnight expense but doubt either would.

[Affirm]

Here is what each team has scheduled against pro teams(formerly FBS) after this year.
UTC 6 scheduled. Last one-2031
Citadel 6 scheduled. Last one-2033
ETSU 2 scheduled Last one-2026
Furman 2 scheduled. Last one-2026
Mercer 1 scheduled. Last one-2025
Samford 1 scheduled. Last one-2027
VMI 7 scheduled. Last one-2032
WCU 2 scheduled. Last one-2031
Wofford 3 scheduled. Last one-2028

This SOCON FUTURE PRO GAMES thread continued (with 62 posts) from 5/24/2024-7/28/2024. i would like to now bring it back up in hopes of seeing additional discussion about it. What are the reasons that we have zero future FBS opponents contracted beyond Clemson in 2025 and Tennessee in 2026? (I am very glad that we have FCS/CAA Richmond as an OOC opponent in 2027 [and 2026 also], AND AT THE SAME TIME, I note that Richmond has Louisville, Pitt, and Virginia [twice] on their schedules beyond 2026. I am glad that we have Clemson in 2025 and Tennessee in 2026.)

It seems Furman is lagging in scheduling future FBS teams beyond 2026, and it seems that this is a concern that needs attention.

Among 7 of the 9 SoCon schools, only Furman and Mercer apparently have no FBS opponents scheduled beyond 2026.

The 7 SoCon schools that do have games scheduled against FBS beyond 2026 have a combined total of 19 such games occurring in 2027-2033. (None in 2024.) The FBS opponents for those 19 games include Georgia, South Carolina, Mississippi State, Clemson, Virginia, Louisville, West Virginia, Army, Navy, San Jose State, ECU, MTSU, Liberty, and Georgia Southern.

Altogether, a total of 73 FCS schools have FBS opponents scheduled in at least 1 of those years from 2027-2034. For all FCS schools schedules combined, the following appear on schedules 2027-2033.

A total of 34 different FBS Power Four conference schools are involved, from SEC, Big Ten, Big 12, and ACC. (See below at "*ADDENDUM - List 1" for which specific 34 FBS Power Four schools are involved.)

And in addition to those 34 different Power Four conference opponents, a total of 22 different FBS Group of Five conference schools are involved, from AAC, CUSA, MAC, Mountain West, and Sun Belt. (See below at "**ADDENDUM - List 2" for which specific 22 Group of Five schools are involved.)

So a total of 56 FBS schools have scheduled FCS opponents in 2027-2034, in a total of 73 FCS versus FBS games.

Among all the other (besides SoCon) FCS schools and conferences:

Ivy League has zero future FBS opponents (although they do have numerous non-Ivy FCS opponents scheduled);

Pioneer League has zero future FBS opponents;

Every other conference FCS conference (SoCon, Big Sky, Big South-OVC; CAA, MEAC, MVC, NEC, Patriot, Southland, SWAC, UAC) has 1 or more games against FBS opponents through 2034.

Examples of SOME of the FCS schools with FBS opponents in the years 2027-2034 are Tennessee Tech, Campbell, Charleston Southern, West Georgia, Richmond, W&M, Elon, Saint Francis, Colgate, Lindenwood, Lafayette, North Alabama, NCA&T, and Eastern Kentucky; and there are 59 others (including Chattanooga, ETSU, Samford, Citadel, VMI, WCU, and Wofford) making up the total of 73.

It IS realized that possibly a number of FCS programs may have their contracted FBS games BOUGHT OUT IF some of the anticipated changes occur in college football. Still, it seems that Furman and Mercer should be as capable as many of the FCS schools to benefit from such buyouts or else to benefit from actually playing the games.

(On a different topic, but similar, I would like it very much if Furman could get an OOC game or games in the near future against an Ivy League opponent, such as Mercer is doing with Princeton and such as Mercer did in 2018 with Yale; and such as Stetson did with Harvard this year.)

*ADDENDUM - List 1: Georgia, South Carolina, Mississippi State, Clemson, Virginia, West Virginia, Arizona, Arizona State, BYU, Colorado, Cincinnati, Houston, Illinois, Iowa State, Iowa, Indiana, Kansas, Kansas State, Minnesota, Maryland, Nebraska, Oklahoma State, Ohio State, Oregon, Washington, Purdue, TCU, Texas Tech, UCLA, UCF, Utah, Wisconsin, and West Virginia.
**ADDENDUM - List 2: Army, Navy, ECU, MTSU, Georgia Southern, San Jose State, Liberty, Air Force, Fresno State, Wyoming, Washington State, Oregon State, Wyoming, New Mexico, ECU, Charlotte, Akron, Buffalo, Old Dominion, Colorado State, Rice Air Force.